How can you determine your flight time on a LiPo battery?
Well, it's not a reliable science but if you go by the numbers for a brand new battery this is how to tell what you should get in a perfect world.
You have a 3S battery rated at 2200mAh and 20C.
Strictly speaking you should be able to discharge the battery as follows:
| Discharge Rate (C) | Amps |
Time (minutes) |
Amps Calc |
Minutes Calc |
| 1C | 2.2 |
60 |
1 x 2200/1000 |
60/1 |
| 2C | 4.4 | 30 | 2 x 2200/1000 |
60/2 |
| 10C | 22 | 6 | 10 x 2200/1000 |
60/10 |
| 20C | 44 | 3 | 20 x 2200/1000 |
60/20 |
| 30C |
66 |
2 | 30 x 2200/1000 | 60/30 |
Now, I've made some wild assumptions here. Mainly that you're discharging constantly at the listed discharge rate. Since that is totally impossible to do here's an example of what I get from my batteries.
Flying a stock T-Rex 450SE with no 3-D flying:
| Rating mAh | C | Amp Draw | Minutes |
| 2500 | 5.00 | 12.50 | 12 |
| 2100 | 6.00 | 12.60 | 10 |
| 2100 | 6.00 | 12.60 | 10 |
| 8000 | 5.00 | 40.00 | 12 |
(keep in mind these numbers are based on actual run times- my actual batteries are rated from 15C to 30C, but if I'm not using the full power of the battery my run times are longer)
Hopefully that'll give you an idea of what to expect and how to figure it out on your own.