[jimco]

Hey Raven: Something else I have made a rule to do. After flying, I always check my battery with a volt meter. I usually recharge after each flight, with a quick charger. I had a 30 v1 raptor, back in 03. Was just getting into hovering when I had a damned bad experience. Was still totally dumb about heli's .
Went to the fly field, actually did my first good hover, in front of a crowd. Held it for about 1 minute, set it down, said whew, actually did it. Cut it off, put it on the table and felt really good. The crowd was my daughter, 3 grand kids, and ex wife. Well everyone had to leave, so I'm by myself, right. Well another buddy shows up, then another, and they want to see the heli fly. Here we go. Started up, tried to lift off, and it wants to go left, huh? Just had perfect hover, I trim right. Lift off again, and damnit, 1 foot off the ground, heli goes full throttle, rises to about 6 feet, turns hard left, and flies straight thru the clubhouse. Had anyone been in there, I would probably be owned by the surviving spouse. Picked up parts for a damned hour. Well, I'm feeling really stupid, trying to figure out what happened. Got to the battery, and guess what?? Under 4.3 volts. And another thing, I had put a 600 MAH in the heli, not knowing that 600 on a nitro is about 4 minutes max time, if your lucky. Shipped that puppy to Wisconsin, for 2 planks.
I now fly minimum 2000 MAH NIMH, and am replacing all batteries with 3000 MAH , NIMH, subc's. As soon as I land, it goes on quick charger till it hits 7.5 or better.
The heli accident in Houston, that killed Ron Kyle, was caused by shorted battery. Heli had just been flown by Ron, he signed off on it as perfect, and thirty minutes later, he was gone. So always check your stuff twice, and don't assumn anything.