Pilot 67 in Laser ....BEWARE of aging LIPOS they can DESTROY ESC's and the AIRFRAME.

Okay you may think you have a reliable ELECTRIC plane...
READ on...
I had been flying with no issues with fires or dead stick ESC failures for about a year...
Then BOOM dead stick after dead stick ESC failures...but WHY

RIPPLE VOLTAGE!!!! caused through aging saggy lipo voltage drop while accelerating

Found this information out on a castle creations forum from about 2011 they were having lots of ESC fires and eventually concluded after lots of complaints and rigorous testing that it was the dreaded RIPPLE VOLTAGE..

solution add a capacitor pack as near to the ESC as possible...

which I did I made my own from there specs which was easy enough and haven't had an issue since...

Don't get caught out it's not worth destroying you airframe believe me it can.

It was definitely a hard lesson to learn and thankfully CASTLE HAD gone through it over 10 years ago...hence the CASTLE CREMATIONS tagname...

Castle handled it brilliantly in the end after a lot of grieve and got a bad name to boot ...but paved the way in this matter... unfortunately not all companies have caught on to this issue...

Personally I think all ESC's should come with a warning about this issue of RIPPLE VOLTAGE and how to prevent it ...But they don't.

I very nearly packed in the hobby...it was that frustrating!!

But thankfully I've managed to benefit from this fiasco in the way of how to prevent massive airframe damage through 4MM NYLON Landing gear bolts instead of the CRAZY STEEL BOLTS which are only any GOOD to PILOT SALES NUMBERS TBH.

Also I used an old carbon fibre landing gear cut in half to transition the impact from any hard dead stick ESC failure pancake from the ALUMINIUM ANGLE pieces up to the extremely STRONG WINGTUBE this and the NYLON BOLTS has DEFINITELY stopped the inside from being wrecked ...

I personally WOULD NEVER TAKE OFF WITH ONE OF THESE AIRFRAMES WITHOUT AT LEAST NYLON BOLTS Holding the landing gear on...

However the carbon struts to the wingtube make for a formidable combination to protect your investment....😉

please please for your future sanity fit a Cappack (capacitor pack) especially if your run LOW C rated lipos ...

things to prevent RIPPLE voltage
1. install a Cappack as near to ESC as possible.
2. Keep your ESC to lipo wire as short as possible.
3. Use high C rated lipos prevents voltage drops.
4.Use the rated prop for the specific motor/ESC combo. lighter the better
5. Have a low voltage lipo pack call out/vibrating alarm on your TX I used 19.8 volts on a 6S 22.2 nominal voltage lipo. This will inform you in flight if your stressing your ESC !

Plenty of airflow over ESC but this won't prevent fires believe me...it's nothing to do with cooling if you get Ripple voltage.

Once you've experienced an ESC fire 🔥 you don't want to ever see that again inside a wooden Airframe! horrible phenomenon

setup....as follows....



Pilot Laser Green/Black/White 67 inch WingSpan.


Dualsky GA2000R 480kv motor.

On a custom motor mount and aluminium motor posts.

"Toothpaste box" acting as ducting for airflow to the ESC.


Dualsky Summit 100A lite ESC inside a Hobbywing aluminium case with Signal/BEC/Power leads to the Schottky diode.


Cappack 4@ 560uf 35V in parallel soldered close as possible to the ESC.


Spektrum mAh used telemetry sensor with XBUS lead to RX 


Castle creation BEC Pro set to 8.0V slightly less than full servo HV volts of 8.4V with two output leads one to the Schottky diode the other to the Bindport on the RX.


Schottky diode for if the castle BEC pro fails the ESC's internal BEC kicks in instantly.


Spektrum AR637T RX 6 Channel Telemetry receiver, Gyro disabled. Remote RX fastened to bottom of the fusalage, both Antennas from RX Taped onto the side of the fusalage...


MKS HV 737 all round with KUZA aluminium 1.25 inch servo arms.


Chrome IRVINE 63mm spinner.


XOAR beechwood 18 X 8 prop.


Single positive wire from ESC/Lipo Red wire to Voltage Telemetry on RX. No need for Back negative wire to RX.


XBUS lead from mAh used sensor to RX XBUS on RX.


LIPO 4000 mAh Nanotech 70-150C.


Aileron/Rudder/Elevator MIX TURNED ON. 


EXPO's settings…

Ailerons : 60%

Elevator : 55%

Rudder : 50%


Idle up on throttle.

Transmitter Spektrum DX9
ALARMS : low voltage telemetry alarm/vibrate 19.9 volts

mAh used Alarm/vibrate set at 3000mAh for 4000 mAh lipos....

and 4000mAh Alarm/vibrate for 5000mAh lipos
(the vibrate is great you don't have to hear it call out if your listening to music with headphones you can feel it😉).

Voltage call out on a three position switch.

mAh used call out on a three position switch.

Spektrums 😉 brilliant signal quality Telemetry log file call out or on screen display showing you your signal quality Fades and Holds.

Fades are the the amount of frame losses

...a truly brilliant way to see if you actually have a great signal ....I check religiously ever flight....it's so good it's saved me flying when I had a internal antenna come off inside the TX !!! 😉