Hey guys,
I have a Megatech Horsefly Heli that comes with a 7.4V 1250mAh LiPo. I am looking to get more flight time and less time spent waiting for the 1-2 hour charge. Should I get additional batteries, a different charger, different types of batteries or what? I normally fly 60-1.20 size glow planes and a 50 glow heli in case that helps. I already have a Prophet Plus charger I use for my 6v receiver packs.

I'd go for more lipo packs. You might be able to find NiCd or NiMH packs that will charge faster, but the weight penalty will be severe, and the heli's performance will suffer. Even with 3 or 4 battery packs, you'll still be waiting for them to charge.

For increasing flight times, you'll need either higher capacity packs or possibly lighter packs. However, a higher capacity pack will often weigh more, so you may not gain as much as you expect. Packs of the same capacity do not all weigh the same, so it may be worth your time to check several battery vendors, looking for lightweight packs that have the capacity you want.

- Jeff

Dean:
What make of batt. do you have and what is the flight time ? I'n using Thunder Power which seem to have decent flight time.

Flypaper 2- just the stock battery and have gotten 10-15 minutes. How long do you get with the Thunder Power? Will the supplied charger charge that battery? If so, how long does it take?

Dean,

I know that FMADirect.com has a charger and Li-Poly cells which can be balanced and charged in ~30 minutes. The batteries are probably a bit bigger than you need on their BalancePro line but I they have KOKAM cells in a Cellpro line that work great. My 910mAh 11.1V pack flys longer than the TP1320s I have. They are going to have a balancing charger for the CellPro line too. You might take a look. IMHO they have the best in overall balancing charger and packs.

Dean:
I have the Hirobo which uses a much smaller batt. but get 10 to 15 mins, depending on how hard I push it. These are 720 ma. But I have TP 1320 batts that I use in planes. That would be about the right size and would work on your charger. After getting a long run in the foamies I put back in 1226 ma. on the charger and they weren't run all the way down.