Just won a GWS Pico Stick F at club raffle last night for my first electric indoor plane. The instructions say to not exceed 270 mah battery for the 280 geared motor supplied with kit. How likely is it that the motor will be damaged if I install an existing 950 or 850 mah li-poly?? I thought the battery output just increased duration. Does it also increase power? Thanks in advance!! Tom

The main issue is weight. A 6-cell, 270mAh NiCd is about the heaviest battery you'd want to haul around with this plane, and still have it flyable. 950/1050 NiMH, even if only 6 cells, are about twice as heavy as the 270mAh NiCd. The plane won't fly well at all with this much weight, and you'll probably fold the wing.

You're correct in your understanding that mAh really only affects duration. Cell count, which is what determines voltage, is what controls the power. If you use more than 6 cells, you will be pushing too much power through the motor on this plane with the stock propeller.

Thanks for the input Matt. The Li-Poly battery I was thinking of using is only a two cell and, I assume, weighs no where near what a 6 cell ni-cad weighs. So if it is only a weight issue I should be OK with the light weight Li-poly?????????? You can tell I am new to electric flight! Thanks again.

Just for your interest, the weight of a 6-cell 270 2/3AA Nicd pack is ~84g. A 2s 700 E-tec Lipoly pack weighs 34g. A 2s 1200 E-tec Lipoly pack weighs 54g. "You can't lose with Lipo" [except a lot of weight!]

Cheers, Phil

A 500-600 mah nimh pack should be about the same weight as the 270 nicad.