[NSRCA-discussion] Scary night of flying

[adriancwong at earthlink.net]

Paul,

A few question:-

1) How old is the battery?

2) Did you cycle it at least twice before using it?

3) Did you use a Jaccio type regulator to regulate voltage? If you leave it plug in for a period of time, it will eventually drain the battery. Even though, it may charge it back up, but one cell could have been so drained and pulling voltage from the other cells

4) Did you use a load voltage meter to check voltage before each flight?

5) I'm using one 4 cell 2,000 mAh NiMh to power both my cdi & the avionics. However, I cycle the pack religiously, & load test it before each flight. In addition, I replace them either after two seasons or when it gets down to only 75% discharge rate, whichever comes first.

Anyway, someone was looking after you.

Adrian




-----Original Message-----
>From: Dave Burton <burtona at atmc.net>
>Sent: Aug 21, 2010 11:35 PM
>To: 'General pattern discussion' <nsrca-discussion at lists.nsrca.org>
>Subject: Re: [NSRCA-discussion] Scary night of flying
>
>I learned a similar lesson a few years ago. Only my plane didn't survive.
>I throw away any NiCd or NiMh RX pack over 2 years old! New packs are really
>cheap compared to an airplane. I write the purchase date on them and keep up
>with when they are due for replacement
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: nsrca-discussion-bounces at lists.nsrca.org
>[mailto:nsrca-discussion-bounces at lists.nsrca.org] On Behalf Of Paul LaChance
>Sent: Saturday, August 21, 2010 10:57 PM
>To: General pattern discussion
>Subject: [NSRCA-discussion] Scary night of flying
>
>Hi all,
>
>I finally flew my Prestige tonight after not flying it since the NATS 2008. 
>I have not flown it or ANY planes for 2 full years.  I charged everything up
>
>and all seemed well.  Flew my first flight and landed without incident.  I 
>checked the plane over and checked all my batteries and all looked well.
>
>Flew flight 2,  all was going well.  Flew the Advanced pattern twice and 
>landed.  Checked my batteries again and they still read over 6 volts. 
>Engine was running great and all was well.
>
>Flew flight 3 and that is where things got scary.  I flew the sequence once 
>and everything was going well.  When I started my second sequence the plane 
>got sluggish and was not feeling right.  I landed ASAP and as soon as the 
>wheels tounched down, I went to add rudder to stear towards the pits and had
>
>no rudder, no elevator, and only one aileron was working but it barely moved
>
>and was very sluggish.  I shut the plane off and checked the batteries and 
>they were barely reading 4.5 volts.  This was a 5 cell nicad pack.  I guess 
>I had a cell short and kill the pack.  I was just amazed and am very lucky 
>to have been able to get the plane back on the ground before the battery 
>completely failed.
>
>Has anyone had this happen before?  What would cause this?  I am going to 
>get a new pack in the morning and try to fly again tomorrow evening.
>
>Thanks in advance for the help,
>
>Paul 
>
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