Battery match - Airfield F6F Hellcat

by Joe
(Ohio)

I have an Airfield 1100mm F6F Hellcat. I am trying to match a battery for the plane and don't unnderstand how it all works.
The battery that they recommend is a stock 3s 25c 1100mm. The ESC is 30A. I don't know what the motor is for sure.
I want to give it more power without hurting the motor and esc. What battery size can I use to increase power without bad results? Is there a free place where I can use to figure out these things in the future? Thanks Novice Flyer

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Battery match - Airfield F6F Hellcat

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Jan 03, 2012

Airfield F6F Hellcat battery
by: Pete

Hi Joe - it's difficult to know what you could get away with, without knowing the voltage range of the motor. The recommended pack is a '3S' which means there are three cells connected in series. Each separate Li-Po cell has a nominal voltage of 3.7 volts and a charged voltage of 4.2v, hence a 3S pack has a total nominal voltage of 11.1v or 12.6v fully charged.
A 4S pack will give you 16.8v fully charged and it's possible that your motor will be ok on this voltage but I would check with the seller to be sure. Of course, you might not be able to fit a larger (4S) pack in to the plane, and even if you can it will probably upset the plane's balance so you'd have to recheck the3 CG.

The ESC rating is very important, you shouldn't exceed about 75% of the max rating. Fitting a larger prop to the plane is a common way of pushing the current flow beyond the 30A rating and burning the ESC out. The only real way to test current draw is with an inline Watt meter connected between battery pack and ESC, this will tell you exactly how many amps are going through the ESC at any given time.

If you stay with a 3S pack (I suggest you do) you can safely increase the capacity. The recommended pack is 1800mAh but you could increase that to, say, 2200mAh. This won't give you any more power but it will give you longer flight times because you can view the capacity as "how much gas is in the tank". Hope that helps a bit.

Apr 28, 2012

Airfield F6F Hellcat battery recommendation
by: Hawkeye70

I use a 3S 2200mAh 30 or 40c, flys great, decent power.

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