Does anyone carry a "standby" battery booster in their fly away kit and if you do what brand, make or model of device is it ?

The prop I have is so light there isn't enough mass to generate the necessary inertia for hand prop start in a pinch.

I use a noco one to boost about everything and I keep one in the plane. I had an earthx booster that cost 3 times as much but it only lasted a couple boosts and then it wouldn't boost a lawn mower.

Not sure what engine you have, but I can still prop my 0320 with a CF prop as well as my brothers 170B. Just gotta put a little more into it.

I had a couple of the original tiny EarthX ones. They were awesome when they worked, super light and small. Unfortunately they didn't last very long, and they weren't exactly 'giving them away' so I opted for the Noco rather than newer EarthX's as well. Only thing I don't like about the model I have, is that it needs to 'see' a battery to put out a charge. With the old EarthX I could hook the jumpers to my Fill-Rite pump and fuel, but the NOCO 'knows' it's not hooked up to a battery and won't put out....

Take care, Rob

Rob wrote:I had a couple of the original tiny EarthX ones. They were awesome when they worked, super light and small. Unfortunately they didn't last very long, and they weren't exactly 'giving them away' so I opted for the Noco rather than newer EarthX's as well. Only thing I don't like about the model I have, is that it needs to 'see' a battery to put out a charge. With the old EarthX I could hook the jumpers to my Fill-Rite pump and fuel, but the NOCO 'knows' it's not hooked up to a battery and won't put out....

Take care, Rob

Thank you for your insight. I’ve been looking at a Noco model, it’s only purpose in my case will by as a standby power supply in the event of a battery issue.

Rob wrote:I had a couple of the original tiny EarthX ones. They were awesome when they worked, super light and small. Unfortunately they didn't last very long, and they weren't exactly 'giving them away' so I opted for the Noco rather than newer EarthX's as well. Only thing I don't like about the model I have, is that it needs to 'see' a battery to put out a charge. With the old EarthX I could hook the jumpers to my Fill-Rite pump and fuel, but the NOCO 'knows' it's not hooked up to a battery and won't put out....

Take care, Rob

If you push and hold either the power button or the red "!" button it should bypass and kick into charging the battery. Both of my NOCOs will bypass if you push and hold the right button for 5 or 10 seconds.

I carry either my 1000 or 2000 NOCO in both of my little planes. Won't leave home without one of them.

autowit supercap 2 Battery-less Jump Starter

https://www.autowit.com/autowit-supercap2-jump-starter/

I have one of these, its pretty cool tech. will jump start from a dead battery. it uses a series of capacitors, and can charge them independently at as low as 3v then combine them to 12v for jump. I've had mine a little over a year, and used it probably 5 times to start cars mostly. its a little heavier than i thought it would be for not having batteries, but is worth it for not having to worry about keeping it charged, or worrying about storage temperature

That's pretty neat. How many attempts would you estimate you get when pulling from the "dead" battery?

I've not picked one up yet, but It'd be a bummer to need one and not have one.
Kicker is I fly both 12 and 24V aircraft and ideally would only buy one. EarthX jump pack will do both, anyone else? 2x12v in series with a series of button presses for cheaper than EarthX?

I'm going with A1Skinner's recommendation, picked up a NOCO GB40 spec'd @ 12V/1000A.

I'm hoping that I never need to use it.

The “smart” features are great for preventing reversed polarity issues and checking voltage, but like Rob was saying—sometimes you need to unleash the juice unrestrained.

I have a few of the Noco Genius battery chargers, and while they have the normal smart charging modes, they also have a DC supply mode that doesn’t require a reference voltage. So if you have a super discharged battery that isn’t registering with the charger, just hit it with 2A of 12V for a bit then try again.

The booster units often don’t have anything like that, best I can tell.

Zzz wrote:The “smart” features are great for preventing reversed polarity issues and checking voltage, but like Rob was saying—sometimes you need to unleash the juice unrestrained.

I have a few of the Noco Genius battery chargers, and while they have the normal smart charging modes, they also have a DC supply mode that doesn’t require a reference voltage. So if you have a super discharged battery that isn’t registering with the charger, just hit it with 2A of 12V for a bit then try again.

The booster units often don’t have anything like that, best I can tell.

Damn Noco 'Genius' has often made me feel.... well not so much 'genius'

More than once I have pulled a pretty much dead quad battery out of the shed to put inline with the 'Genius' to get gas in the plane...


I'm almost certain next year's model will have seat belts

On the brighter side, they have outlasted the EarthX's, and din't cost 'airplane' money

Take care,
Rob

One more vote for NoCo, I went through about six of the DeWalt jump packs before giving up on them. The NoCo kis much smaller, much lighter, much more power and yes, if you push and hold the override button it will put out power. It also has a light and USB.