Morning All

I've recently got into the electric flight thing.. great fun!

I have a GWS tigermoth and an e-starter. Both great planes.

However I have a question.

It's about batteries. Everyone seems to use nicad's of one description or another. They have a short duration and large mass compared with that of the liPo batteries. So why oh why don't people use them.

Example. In the tiger moth a 7.2v 300mah cell will last around 10mins and cost about £15, compare that to the LiPo 7.2v 1200mah that weighs the same and you'll get about 40mins flight time and it cost about the same £19.

Is the world crazy? or have I missed a very important fact.

Bob

it's a simple matter of cost. However, many of us are using lipos. The last several flying sessions, I haven't taken any nicad/nimh, stricly lipos. I don't fly parkflyer stuff though, so they're large (and expensive) packs,.. 3S4P , 4S4P, 6S4P, 8S4P, 9S4P,...7800 or 8200 mah are the sizes (replace 10,20,and 30cell nicad/nimh packs I was using in planes from 3 to 12 lbs ). I rarely take packs out of planes anymore either, i'll fly 10 or 15 minutes, and plug into a charger while flying something else, or BS'ing in the pits (half the fun of the hobby is the comraderie anyway). With most of my setups, I get 25 to 30 minutes from the 7800 and 8200mah packs, so with this procedure, I've always got a good 10 to 15 minute flight worth of "fuel" on-board,..i.e. don't wait for charger to completely finish most of the time,.. and could go right back in the air for another 10~15 minute flight immediately if I wanted to. the big issue is cost,..for example, a 3S4P pack is $240 (to fly my 10-cell planes,..i.e. E3D, sport-s-stick,etc.), and it takes 2 of them for the 88" span E3D (almost $500 worth of battery in there). If you do the math, the cost per flight minute per charge is about the same (would take 3 $80 packs to equal one $240 lipoly), but most people son't want the large single expense.

In your example of parkflyers with the little 1000 to 2000 mah packs, they actually are very common these days.

Pehaps it's the UK then!

There are very very few people selling them, I know of 2 websites that sell LiPo's based in the UK.

I've spoken to many local shops about them and they all seem to shake their heads and look at me strange when I mention them.

Is there anyone reading who is based in the UK?

Your right though. I'd have to think twice about putting them in large planes, but they are perfect for the park fliers.

Bob

I have a 38" span scaled up version of the Prairie Bird (a Peck rubber powered kit) using the same motor/gear box as in the TM, the IPS. With a 7 cell 550 mAh NiMH battery pack I get 35 minutes of full out flying time.

I then switched to a EPS 300C, as found in the GWS Zero and with a 7 cell 600AE mAH NiCad I get 20 minutes of aerobatics.

All this fun and I did not have to buy new batteries and charger. After all, the amount of fun you have is directly related to how much money you DON'T spend!!!!

fly SMALL, have a BALL

Bob - good question. I just put a pair of LiPoly cells in a Rare Bear, and it really screams now. I have yet to run the battery down - I always run out of time before I have to stop flying.

Frankly, I don't think the battery and charger were that much more than their NiMH equivalents.

I do still use NiMH in another plane that will already fly 40 minutes on a single battery. I think LiPoly's would be a waste in that one.

Dan.

I was at a large "E only" event recently and the one common word of advice was, if it works and you are having fun with it don't spend any more money on all the new latest and greatest. Just wait for 6 months to a year, as the market in electrics being consumer driven, the products will improve and the prices will come down.

Just consider NiMH batteries, in a short period of time we have a whole new generation of these cells in the HECALL and KAN"s.

Also, if you consider the charge time of the different batteries we use, Nicads at a C3 charge rate certainly have the advantage in the amount of flying time you get from them during a flying session. I use mine to fill in while I'm waiting for my NiMH's to charge up at C1. But, I understand that all Nicads will be phased out of production because of the problem of disposal.

Hello Commy Bob!,

I am based on the Surrey Hampshire borders and fly an Firebird XL. I have a few tips and tricks but I have not heard about these batteries....

PLEASE ENLIGHTEN ME!!!! [email protected]

If you want information on the latest batteries, checkout the British magazine 'Quiet & Electric Flight International'. It's published by Traplet Publications and their web site is www.traplet.com. I buy it here in Canada and it's an excellent mag on "E" stuff.

Bob,

Let me know if I can help you. I ship cells overseas quite often.

KsFlyer
av8hobbies.com

Bob,

It's basically because the UK lags the rest of the world by about 12-18 months. Everyone else in the world enjoys the benefits of LiPo while we still fly our models using coal and steam. You may have noticed that not only don't any (but the most educated) UK suppliers stock LiPo but there's very little mention made in the magazines ever. Same goes for the use of brushless.

Thank God for people like Ian Ankers at www.e-flight.co.uk and John at Puffin. Walter at Hillcott and Gordon Tarling (though he's now ceased) also deserve a mention. However they represent the exception to the rule.

I end up buying most of my stuff in the US or from Dave at www.aircraft-world.com in Japan. I got Kokam 1020s, HE1100's and HRSC2600's and a Triton (LiPo capable) charger from the US long before there was any sight of them in the UK. I also have got Etec 1200''s from Dave at A-W.

One day, perhaps, the UK will catch up!

Cliff

PS A mildly amusing anecdote is when I was after HRSC2600's I emailed Overlander about availability and was told that they were inferior, under perfoming cells and they had no imminent plans to stock them!?! Go figure! (maybe they don't want to sell us the good batteries as we can fly longer and therefore need fewer - or is that a little too cynical?!?)