Hiway said:
While certainly no expert on lipo batteries, it is my understanding that the higher "C" rating is for continuous draw- and since lipos do not truly take into consideration burst draw, personally I want a solid and over rated- over engineered capability in my "engine" in case of emergency or the desire to "twist the throttle" and make it dart at it's best possible rate of maneuver if I have to avoid an obstacle suddenly. I would assume that some hard pulls on the stick and some heavy handed flying styles may find those lower c ratings lacking- but I could be understanding the demands of the Phantom wrong. I do know more weight is going to demand more draw, and pull more faster when climbing or banking... it may not matter if you fly at Geritol rated speeds (which I do mostly)
Hi Hiway. Your intuition is good, but let's see if the numbers bear it out for a Phantom. If you normally get 10 minutes of easy flight/hover, can get you still get 5 minutes of continuous high-energy sport flight on the same config? Let's stipulate that you can. Now, consider that a 2200mah 20C battery is designed to discharge 100% of its power in as little as three minutes. So its constant discharge ceiling exceeds even the average of our burst requirements. And in normal flight, that 10 minutes is drawing at a mere 6C rate from the battery.
Of course, not all batteries are the same, the max discharge rate isn't as efficient as a lower rate nor is it as good for the long-term health of the battery, and you can easily see the difference in voltage sag at WOT between different and even same rated packs (DJI 20C? Fantastic. Zippy Compact 25C? The worst I've ever seen. Maddog 25C? Amazing). But I'm not worried about a 20C 2200 or a 10C 4400 with respect to needing power for emergency maneuvers.
Just some food for thought when considering that $30 65C 200g battery over an equivalent $15 20C 170g battery.
