What is the best battery for the E-flite Turbo Timber Evolution 1.5m BNF Basic? 

Glad I can help! I have pretty much settled on a 2200 3S or 2700 4S pack for my Turbo Timber Evolution. I didn't have the 2700 4S when I did the video, but use them now for a lot of my planes so they have made their way into the Timber as well. It surely doesn't need 4S power, but that pack does work well with the Timber as it a little extra weight to make it a bit less floaty while offering more than enough power if I want it on tap. Most of my flights are on the 2200 3S packs.

I think a 4S 2600 would be a great option for a battery. I don't have any of those to fly with, but based upon my flights and batteries, I think a 2600 4S would give you nice flight times and great performance. Don't be afraid to move the CG around a bit to adjust to your flying styles. I tend to balance mine towards the middle to front half of the CG tolerance range. I find that fits my flying style the best. You gain more aerobatic capability and pitch sensitivity with a rearward CG.

Thanks! You will really love the improvements on the Evolution compared to the original. I rarely fly my original one anymore. Hopefully the snow will melt soon and you can start flying again. I think the snow has pretty much ended for West Michigan, although a few inches could show up. The hard part now is waiting for the temps to warm up and the winds to die down. We have had really windy springs lately and that wind is cold coming off of Lake Michigan.

yeah, in hindsight, that would have been good to add. I have found that the more and more I fly the Timber, the more time I am adding to the timer. I have also settled on a 2700 4S pack as my new favorite. I didn't have that battery available for the flight reviews. The 2700 4S works in most of my planes, has extra flight time over the 2200, but isn't as heavy as a 3000. There is a point in which too much battery hurts performance due to the weight.

Thanks!!

Thanks John, but no 4S on the Carbon Cub S2. That is a 3S plane only. The Turbo Timber Evolution is the next step aircraft after the Carbon Cub. The Carbon Cub is considered a Level 1 trainer aircraft and the Turbo Timber Evolution is Level 2 intermediate and the ideal next step after a trainer.

yeah, it is really an awesome plane

If you can fly the UMX Turbo Timber, you should be totally fine with the larger one. I too wish I could have been able to get some longer flights on the batteries in order to measure the flight times. Our club operates at an airport and we only get about 5 minutes to fly before we have to land for full scale air traffic. I could fly with a large battery and still end up with a 5 minute flight due to full scale traffic. There are some rare occasions that we don't have any full scale traffic to deal with, but those are super rare. I do know that both the Evolution and my original Timber fly for 6.5 minutes on a 2200 3S and land with 40-50% capacity. From that, you can estimate the flight times for different batteries. Of course, how you fly will greatly change that. Lengthy taxi times, thick grass, lots of aerobatics, high speed passes, and battery health will all play a factor to reduce flight times. Always best to set your flight times for your batteries and your flying style.

@@BRGT350 Thanks for the additional info. Maybe fly a few times paying attention to telemetry and then set the timer accordingly?

This what I suggest and is what I do on my planes. Charge up the battery you want to use for the Timber. Set your timer at 5 minutes. Fly like you normally would fly. If you cruise around at half throttle, then do that. If you fly fast, then do that. At the 30 second countdown time, setup for a landing and try to be on the ground and done taxiing when the timer runs out. Check the battery capacity for the remaining value. Let's assume it is 50% remaining on a 2200 battery. So you consumed 1100 at 5 minutes or 220 mAh per minute of flying. You want to land with no less than 30% battery remaining. That means you want to consume 1540mAh of battery with your flight. 1540/220 is 7 minutes of flight time. I typically give myself a 30 second safety window in case I need to go around or wait for an opening to land. I would set my timer for 6:30 knowing I have an extra 30 seconds of reserve. The method works for any battery, you just need to know how long your flight time was, what the starting capacity was, and what the end capacity was. Since all my planes don't have telemetry, I use this method as a simple way to get my timer set.

yeah, it isn't night as in after sunset but rather night as in evening. This was probably filmed around 8:00 or so. The camera adds more light to it. Our club flies in the evening.

Does the ESC get hot on the 4s batteries? Did you move the ESC?

Thank you! I never had any issues with the ESC getting hot. I think the last time I checked, I was max at 150'F. I fly on 3S and the ambient temp here in Michigan is rarely above 80'F. With flying in the evenings, the heat of the day has already started to go away.

I would suggest a 2200-3000 3S battery. The 2200's are fairly inexpensive and give you nice performance and flight times. The 3000 3S will give you more flight time, but cost more and add some more weight. The extra weight will help handle the wind a bit better than the lighter 2200. The Turbo Timber Evolution will be a wonderful next step airplane for you. It is well mannered, stable, and can get you used to using flaps and floats.

@@BRGT350 OK...thanks much!!!...I do have many of the 3S 2200's and will perhaps pick up some 3S 3000's ......also both models' that I mentioned do have flaps, so I have been already been using them .....thanks again for your reply.....

I thought they both had flaps, but wasn't 100% sure. I mostly fly mine on 2200 3S and very happy with the plane.

I fee the same way

sounds like a perfect battery! Horizon recommends pushing the ESC towards the front of the cowl to help with cooling. You can reach it with the battery hatch removed and just move it forward with your finger. Also allow 5-10 minutes of cool down between batteries, longer in hot temps or flying aggressive. I flew mine back to back to back in the summer without any overheating, but the summer temps along Lake Michigan aren't very warm. Probably upper 70's mid 80's F. We fly in the evenings as well, so the temps drop as we fly.

@@BRGT350 we currently have 50-60 here (10-15 degrees) so really fall and not too warm.

Yeah, fall is here as well and while it has been very unseasonably warm for the past month, the forecast is starting to change back to more normal. I was still wearing shorts and a t-shirt the other day! Typically it is jacket weather by now. A few years ago, we had snow on the ground at this time in October. There is a car rally race in the northern part of my state this weekend and I have been there while it has been snowing and freezing during the night.

depends on the mAh of the battery and not the cell count. Although a 2200 4S should provide more flight time than a 2200 3S because your cruise power setting is a bit lower. Going with too big of a battery hurts your flight time as you need more power to haul around the extra weight of the battery. A 2200-3000 pack is probably ideal. Expect flight times to vary from 5-8 minutes depending upon the battery size and how you fly the plane. It is possible to get over 10 minutes of flight time out of a single pack. I caution against large batteries as they can overstress the landing gear if you aren't one who can land gently.

depends on the plane, but yes on the Timber. I also reduce the flap travel to less than what the factory has in the book. I change the flap deployment speed to 4 seconds instead of 2. I find that with a slower flap deployment speed and less flap deflection, the plane doesn't want to pitch up if my airspeed is a bit too high.

No problems with my batteries or ESC. The batteries, either 3S or 4S never get warm with the Timber. They get warm on my EDF's, but never on my Timber. I have checked my ESC temps and they hover around 150-175'F max with 175'F after doing some very hard back to back flying in order to see how hot I could get it. I have been flying my Timber a lot since it was released and never had any issues with a hot ESC or hot batteries.

Sorry, I have the floats already assembled and I don't want to take them back apart for a video. Too easy to accidently strip a screw doing that. The good news is that the floats are easy to assemble. There are only a few screws and parts to put them together.

I didn't mention C rating as it isn't terribly important on most models. The easiest way to understand the battery nomenclature is to think of the battery like a gas tank. The mAh is the size of the tank. A higher mAh number means you have more energy in the battery to consume. Longer flight times, but more weight that you need to carry around, just like a full tank of gas in your car. More weight means a less responsive aircraft and the need for more throttle to provide enough thrust to carry the extra weight. Cell count is a number and S, like 3S or 4S. Think of that like the octane rating. The higher the cell count, the higher the octane. Just be aware that you can't exceed the cell count without damaging your aircraft. The Turbo Timber Evolution can run on 3S or 4S battery. A 4S battery is about 25% more powerful than a 3S. The C rating is the discharge rate, which is like the diameter of the fuel line going from the tank to the engine. If your engine needs 1/2" line and you are using 1/4", the fuel can't be supplied fast enough and the engine will suffer. If the engine needs 1/2" line and you are running 3/4", then there is no problem. The majority of prop planes, like the Turbo Timber Evolution will fly great on a 30C pack. A 50C battery is ok, but you are paying for more discharge rate than you need. EDF's can require a 50C pack due to the high demand on the battery. Now, a cheap battery at 50C may perform about the same as a good one at 30C. I have some Turnigy batteries that are 50C and perform about the same as a Spektrum Smart 30C. I have started to switch over to just using Spektrum Smart batteries as they deliver more consistent performance, have a self-discharge feature, and can be charged easily with a Smart charger. One last thing about batteries, never store them at full charge and never let them go below 30% capacity. If a Lipo goes dead, it will be dead forever, and is now unstable. Get rid of it quickly. Hope all of that helps and let me know if you need anything else.

@@BRGT350 yep very comprehensive thank you, was going to buy 2 cheap 4s 3200 mah 75c think I'll keep looking for same between 30c-50c. Cheers mate.

For a good long term battery, look at the Spektrum Smart Gen 1 or Gen 2 batteries. Gen 2 need a compatible charger while Gen 1 will work on any LiPo charger as they have the balance leads. I was buying cheap batteries from Amazon or other spots online, but they would only last a season or two before going bad. The Spektrum Smart batteries that I started with in early 2019 are still performing great! They also self-discharge after a period of time (I think it is between 24 hours and 7 days depending on the settings that you can adjust) down to storage voltage. That is what is keeping the batteries working well long term since they don't sit for extended periods being fully charged. So many times I think I am going to fly, charge up the batteries, and then the weather decides that I am not going flying for a week. The Smart batteries will self-discharge where the non Smart batteries will stay at full charge. Once you make the switch over to the Smart ones, you won't want to use anything ever again. They have significantly changed my enjoyment of the hobby as the batteries work better and last longer.

BRG.. very good explanation of battery specs! Your analogy of fuel tank size, octane level, and fuel line size is dead-on. C rating is based upon discharge rate/internal battery resistance/"fuel line size". S rating is the voltage/octane, mAh rating is "fuel tank size". # of cells and capacity ("S" number and mAh rating) are what affect battery weight, the C rating is mostly determined by chemistry/wiring. I'm going to maiden my TT Evo with a 4S 4000 mAh 60C batt this weekend. It'll be a bit on the heavy side but will have far more than just 5 minutes of flight time to tool around and get a feel for how the model handles.

Thanks, I find the gas tank analogy about the best and easiest way to explain the battery. It isn't an exact 1-1 analogy, but works out close enough. Something to note on the Turbo Timber Evolution and large battery packs, the large packs tend to block some of the air flow that cools the ESC. Air comes in through the cowl, passes over the ESC to cool it, then up around the battery, and exits out the rear lower fuselage. A large pack can block some of that airflow. If you are flying with a 4S pack in hot temps, I would go with a smaller pack to make sure there is plenty of air flowing past the ESC to cool it. I have great luck with a 2200 3S, 2200 4S, and 2700 4S in mine. I tend to stay away from the larger packs. The less weight on the nose is also better for the landing gear. I tend to fly shorter flight times, land, let it cool, then go up with a new battery. That way I can get more take-offs and landings as well, which is an area I always need extra practice.

30-40C depending on the battery. My 3S 2200's are 40C, larger batteries and 4S are 30C.

@@BRGT350 thank you!!! i just ordered my TTE tonight, happy to have 5 3s batts from my aeroscout to get me going! thank you for the video!

Great! Happy to help out and enjoy the Turbo Timber Evolution. It is a great flying aircraft. One thing I did to mine is to turn down the aileron and elevator rates. Since I don't fly at super low speed (near stall) or want something aerobatic, I reduced the rates down to where the plane fits my flying style. I think I am around 60-70% throw on the elevator and ailerons with 30% expo. I also reduced the flap travel by 30% of the manual suggests along with a 4 second flap deployment speed. That has the plane flying just how I like it.

I'm still a newer pilot so I spent the first week with my turbo timber evolution flying the 3s 2200 mah 50c batteries I have from my aeroscout. Today was my first flight with my new 4s 3300mah 100c batteries and oh man what a difference! I happy I flew 3s for as long as I did but could tell from day one the timber needed more. Thank you for your awesome video on this topic and all the additional information!

The 3S and 4S batteries I fly on are 30C. I have a few old 2200 3S 40C, but those aren't used much anymore. I mostly use 2200 3S 30C for my flights.

for what?