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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=3>I and a couple of flying buddies have flown around
2500+ E flights the last couple of years and have learned some things relevant
to battery life. Like with IC, it's important to understand that any brand's
life can be shortened by the way it's used. There are "good practices"
with both glow and E - ignoring them can (will) be costly. There are brand
choices with each also, and most find that cheapest isn't often the best
value. Over the last couple of years we've flown several brands with low C
(10-12), medium C (15-18), & high C (20+) ratings. A useful analogy might be
to compare these to a powerful car engine with 2, 4, & 2x4 barrel
carburetors. In the first case it's hard to hurt the engine and life is long,
but power is limited. With the 4 barrel good power is available and the engine
is relatively "safe" and long lived. With the dual quads power is awesome but
the chance of blowing the engine is high and life is short. For pattern we
probably want the 4 barrel (medium C) to realize the best value.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=3></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=3>My position on "good practice" with pattern
batteries is posted @ <A
href="http://www.flightpowerusa.com/index.asp?page=News/open(article.asp^articleNo=441_parent=technical">http://www.flightpowerusa.com/index.asp?page=News/open(article.asp^articleNo=441_parent=technical</A>
so I won't repeat it here. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=3></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=3>My experience with the FlightPower Evo F3A packs
last season was one of consistent performance, with good power from beginning to
end of flight. Cycle life was quite good with packs exceeding 160 flight cycles
and being suitable for competition at 140+ flights. (That gets the retail cost
below $4/flight.)</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=3></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=3>I've a couple of flights on the new FlightPower Eon
F3A packs which are rated 5400 mAh & 20C (They're very nearly the same same
size as the Evo & 1183 grams wired for flight.) Overall performance is
similar to new Evo packs with noticeably better end of flight performance.
FlightPower expects the Eon packs to deliver significantly more cycles, we'll
know for sure after the season.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=3></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=3>Earl</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=3></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=3>Team Flightpower</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
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<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=pamrich47@hotmail.com href="mailto:pamrich47@hotmail.com">Richard
Strickland</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A
title=nsrca-discussion@lists.nsrca.org
href="mailto:nsrca-discussion@lists.nsrca.org">NSRCA</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Tuesday, February 10, 2009 11:29
AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> [NSRCA-discussion] Power
batteries</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>OK, new subject: All my sets of batteries were close to the end
of their useful lives this last season. All are showing fairly high
resistance values and most were noticeably down on power. Shot.
Kaput. <BR>Soo.. I've got to go invest in four sets. Tru's lighter
sets enable me to make weight--but I'm not crazy about the durability with
some of Orland's experience--although they have replaced bad(slightly
squishy--puffed would be too strong a term) packs under warranty. I
don't know how their larger and higher rated packs hold up and they 'only' put
me over a couple oz. Price is pretty good.<BR>The older Tanics I had
actually held up the best over time--but the newer ones have not--and fairly
expensive--but I drive by 'em twice a day and wave. I had a set of Kokam
4800s and they didn't hold up well either and I think they have abandoned the
larger battery market-- were/are expensive. I'm hearing
Flightpower mentioned often and wonder if they have a battery guru that
gives pattern guys a break. I never really got serious about TP as at
one time they had--as far as I was concerned--too many cells in their
packs--but perhaps it's time to re-visit.<BR>We also had some of the original
FMA 5000s and they weren't all that great either--but may have improved with a
new cell vendor.<BR> <BR>So I'm in a bit of a quandary. Any
thoughts? This should be interesting.<BR>RS<BR><BR>
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