If I use NiMH packs, will I need a battery back up system?
Not unless you ‘needed’ one with your Nicad setup. Normally, using “battery back-ups” means using parallel packs. You’ll need to keep the packs separated for charging and there’s always the additional weight to consider, but you get a significant gain in runtime and a whole lot more system security. To keep weight down, you can use a single 5 cell pack with two connector leads fed to two switches to ‘back up’ the radio systems higher risk components.. Intermittent switches and momentary connector issues kill far more airplanes than cell failures in flight. The best back-up system going, even with today’s hi-tech gizmo oriented on-board power hungry ‘save me from myself’ gadgetry, is a pilot that plugs his trusty ESV into the plane load tests his pack before each and every flight.
