Duration of a flight - battery or fuel

Many new beginners have the notion that by using nitro or petrol engine, filling a bigger tank of fuel could fly the RC plane for HOURS,  and this is not true! Most of the fliers actually fly their planes in the air for half an hour accumulatively and that would be good enough for the fun. Seldom any plane could last more than 10 minutes up the sky per sortie whether it is a nitro fuel or electric powered plane.

I remember those days I bought some Nikko RC cars or trucks for my son and the batteries could only last a few minutes and one had to charge the whole day in order to play again. The technology of batteries nowadays is good enough to send the planes up there for 5 - 10 minutes without much problem.  It all depends on how aggressive you fly those planes and also whether it is a glider that could soar with the wind or thermal column at half or even one quarter of the throttle. And the fast charging time with a balanced charger on a LIPO battery will take only 30-45 minutes. Some of the fliers just plug in the charger to the battery of their cars parked near the flying field. In this way, the electric powered planes become a fast and easy toy of great fun without the hassle of  the need to charge the batteries for long hours and also to clean the oil from the fuselage of a nitro plane.

Just a word of precaution though, all LIPO batteries are highly inflammable. Never ever leave a charging battery unattended or put LIPO batteries in your car and park under hot sun for a long time. They could simply explode and burn your house or vehicle away!

Most of the batteries are rated by MAH, the bigger the value it is, the longer the battery could last, and it also means the batteries are bigger and heavier in weight. One has to consider the space of the plane and also how such heavier batteries could affect the CG and also the lift of the planes. The number of cells of each battery is  denoted by 2S, 3S, 4S etc. Each cell is 3.7 V and when connected in series, 2S means 7.4V and 3S is 11.1V, so on and so forth. Small and light planes are normally using 2S, while mid size planes are usually using 3S and above. 4S, 6S or even higher S are commonly used for those ducted fans fighter plane models.

I have the tendency to fly electric powered planes more nowadays because it is clean and neat, just charge a few batteries at home, and you are ready for the flight!