Charging life batteries
 

I recently bought a plane that was ready to go other than I needed to put in a receiver . I asked what it had in it for batteries and was told that they were Nicd's so I charged them over night with my wall charger . When I checked them in the morning I found that they were showing a little over 8 volts . I pulled them out and found out they were life batteries not nicd .. I am wondering if I have ruined them or if they are going to be safe to use once they have been discharged and maybe cycled a time or two . They are holding the charge but when I put the load tester on them they drop to under 5 volts . I do have the proper charger and know how to use it , I just did't realize that they were life batteries and they were hard to access ..

It sounds like you ruined the battery. An LiFe should be 7.2v with no load when it's fully charge, and drop very little when you apply a load. If a fully charged LiFe is only giving you 5v, it's a goner.

That pack is probably a goner but you can try cycling it a few times with the correct charge and discharge to confirm and use the balance tap if there is one.

Check to see if it's puffed a little, if so, probably not a good idea to use it at all.

Discharge it to 6 volts, then recharge in life charge mode. You have nothing to lose. It may just be OK. But, before using it in a plane I would bench load it to verify its health.