Hi,

I fly both Foamy and Acrobatic planes. I always have the motor spin freely when I cut the throttle, but sometime I break the blades that way on hard landings. I found there's a soft break on the ESC. It will stop the motor about 1/2 second after I cut off the throttle, Should I use the soft break? My concern is, will the soft break shorten the life of the motor?

I think that soft brake is the default setting of Castle Creation's esc's. It shouldn't hurt brushless motors. Brushed motors that have a high amount of brush advance will have a lot of brush sparking during braking.