Berthos

Thanks for the clarification! The maintenance guys on our aircraft always cycle cells individually and although I sort of understood what they were doing, now I completely understand why they do the cells individually.

I had an electric sailplane years ago and I guess the new technologies have certainly changed things.

Years ago in Canada the Department of Transport mandated "Emergency Locater Transmitters" in all aircraft. The mandated batteries were lithium. After some aircraft blew up, they rescinded the law. So whenever I hear Lithium I cringe. This reaction is based on really old thoughts.

At one time there was a serious problem with NiCads also in aircraft. Due to the enormous power drain that engine starts impose in a turbine aircraft, the nicads would get very hot and the plates inside would sometimes warp. When the plates warped enough they sometimes would touch the adjacent plates, which of course would short the battery and so when you turned off the battery, the battery was still generating power... unto itself. So it would get hotter and hotter and eventually ignite, and burn a hole in the aircraft. If a magnesium spar happened to be nearby... catastrophy.

Interesting thread!

I am getting completely off topic... Sorry Mary!