R/C Airplane Crash - LiPo Fire JustGoFly Safety Message

Flew a nice Pitts that was very brittle. I strengthened fuselage and flew the CRAP out of that plane. Pushed it on 4S beyond it's limit and on a fly by doing well over 85 the bottom wing broke on a 100 foot off the ground flyby. She dove immediately for the turf and pounded ground in an instant. The 4S LiPo popped out of the fuselage and this video shows the rest of what happened.

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[hacker8675309]

crazy what is in the battery that makes it burn like that??? does acid burn or is there no acid in a lipo.. sorry I dont fly electric

[JustGoFly]

@hacker8675309 Lithium Polymer batteries require them to be extremely excited which causes them to vent gas, which when so overheated a spark or hot element ignites. This means over charging with significantly higher than spec'd volts/amps or as I did - over using the batteries causing them to puff, then breaking the covering which start the venting and overheated they ignite the gasses. It's rare - but possible as shown. Most other videos will show fires from over charging - a direct short.

[TAKTEZ]

Dad put one of his gliders into the ground, we picked it up.. grabbed the lipo.. and it went up in his hand, he just threw it in any direction and there was quite a lot of smoke... didnt really see any flames though. :)

[JustGoFly]

@TAKTEZ If you crash - isolate the LiPo - preferably in a LiPo - Fire safe bag. Monitor the voltage of each cell over 24 hours to see if it is dropping in voltage - which means you have a short and a potential fire. The voltage should NOT drop at all. I use cinderblocks to charge my LiPos. There could be a blazing fire and I wouldn't lose my house. They are very safe - but ignore the warnings or use a cheap charger and you could have trouble.

[Skydive4ever]

Wow, crazy :-0

Lipo batteries are quite safe. Just like anything else, use them properly and they will be good to you. Not much you can do about lipo fires due to crashes though, maybe have a small extinguisher handy..

Thanks for sharing.

[JustGoFly]

There was no need to extinguish due to it being safe to burn. I agree LiPo fires are rare and only occur when misused. I have hundreds of them in storage, have charged thousands of times and never have I seen a fire like this. The fire was due to a serious crash - as shown - and breaking of a LiPo that was very hot due to pulling alot of power out of it quickly. I have read that you need SAND to put out a lipo fire - fire extinguishers will not do it.

CHARGE and USE SAFELY !

Vinnie

[hacker8675309]

@JustGoFly ok kool thanks for the reply

[Skydive4ever]

I stand corrected, sand it is ;-)