greenbridge

How much fly time can a ECO-8 with 8 cell 2400mAH Ni-Cd pack? Can it be improved? If yes, what should I do? Replace motor, gear, battery or others? Which good brand will you recommend?

Wnskyhawk

I get a solid 6min hover on my eco with a 10cell 1700mAH Ni-cad, and only 7min 20 sec with a 10cell 2400mAH Ni-cad. The reason for this is the extra weight of the larger cell, More plates in a hight mAH battery!. You might try Ni-MH batterys, they hold voltage longer (they have a flatter voltage drop curve), but remember, they too are heavier, and you can not be as hard on MH batts as you can cads. You can charge and zap cads all day, and they will take it, MHs won't!

Wnskyhawk

Oh also, depending on the motor wind, a small pinion, means less load on the motor, which will decrease amp draw, (more run time). A 22-23 wind motor does well with a 11-12 pinion, a lower wind motor up the teeth on the pinion. A smaller pinion should work well for hover training, but for 3d, you will want power and more rotor RPM ( bigger pinion).

SeismicCWave

The hover time depends on your motor/gear/rotor blade combination.

To improve your flight/hover time use the flat bottom fiberglass 1060mm rotor blades and a good brushless motor/speed controller combination.

I have the Hacker B50-18S and a Phoenix 35 controller and the carbon fiber rotor blades. I just flew a mild flight for over 9 minutes with the 2400 mah NiCad.