hey guys was talking to my lhs owner and he was telling me how he was using lipos inside his airplanes.... is there alot of people out there doing it now... and if so can yo charge it threw the charge switch on the outside of the plane and do you have to balance charge it everytime... i currently us 6v 2000mah nihm batts i am in the process of building two new planes and was thinking about goin a different route on the batts this time.... and I just bought a lipo transmitter pack from hobby king and love it will it need balanced charged everytime... . the LHS owner claims that the cheap hK batts are junk but i know plenty of peeps using them that have no problem just looking for some info on this matter let here some feedback

I wouldn't charge them in a plane but many of us are using Lithium reciever batteries through a regulator.

Edit: Added picture of charging in a plane

LiPo's for an rx pack is a bad idea without a voltage regulator.

even then , if the regulator goes you have a problem. I would not use that battery type.

Go for Lithium Iron Phosphate (LiFePO4) and the A123 variant of these.

Yeah, charging them in the plane isn't the smartest option.

I've been using lipo rx packs in a couple planes, with regulator, and am pretty happy with them. If I was to switch to say the A123 packs, I'd have to buy another charger so I stick with the lipo for now. None of the three charges I have already will do the new technology batteries like A123. Set the plane up so you can easily remove the battery to charge.

A123 batteries are the way to go if you are buying new batteries. Look at the Hobbyking Turnigy 6 or 8 battery charger for an inexpensive charger.

The transmitter pack will need to be removed from the case before you charge it. It is safer, hell I even remove my NiMh transmitter battery when I charge it. The good thing is that you will get 10X more use out of it before you have to charge. Just don't run it down too low and never leave your transmitter on over night [:@]


"the LHS owner claims that the cheap hK batts are junk" Wow I am really suprised he would say that about his competition

I use lipo batteries with regulators in both of my pattern planes... so do most of the pilots I fly with. I haven't even bothered going with a dual regulator setup yet and trust the single with $2k plus airplanes through hundreds of flights.

As far as the cheep HK batteries go... I use zippy batteries as my main flight batteries on my electric pattern setups, currently have over 50 flights on one of my packs with no sign of any degradation, they seem to be holding up at least as well as the more expensive packs.

I am very happy with the regulator and lipo reciever setup on my pattern ships, on an electric I pull around 40mah per flight from the receiver battery so based on the battery capacity I should be good for ~50 flights... I normally still charge after 15 or so and always put in around 600 mah leaving plenty of reserve in the battery.

Heh... is that a "FAST" charge?

Dang plane was charging for its maiden too. Two transmitters and a charger got taken out by hot dripping covering or fire extinguisher powder too.