For more information, check these related FAQs:
- Battery life of AIR³ — how long the battery lasts on a given flight
- Best brightness setting for AIR³
How long should the battery last?
AIR³’s lithium-ion batteries are expected to provide 300 to 500 full charge cycles.
The battery’s total lifespan works a bit like the tires on a car: how long it lasts depends heavily on how it’s used, and it can also be affected by external factors.
At any point in the battery’s lifespan, what determines how well it performs “on a given day” comes down to four factors:
- how well the battery has been maintained (calibration cycles, storage during long periods of non-use, etc.);
- how many times it has already been used (capacity naturally decreases with the number of charge/discharge cycles);
- how the battery was charged before that day’s use;
- external factors that may have affected the battery, such as a power surge or exposure to excess heat.
For how these factors play out on a specific flight, see Battery life of AIR³.
Understanding the displayed battery percentage
The percentage you see on screen isn’t a direct measurement — it’s an estimate calculated by a chip (a “fuel gauge”) based on voltage, charge/discharge current, temperature, and the battery’s usage history.
Because of this:
- Charging to 100% doesn’t always mean the battery is at its original full capacity. For an aged battery, a “100%” reading may only represent a fraction of its original capacity — for example, around 80%.
- The discharge curve isn’t perfectly linear. Voltage tends to drop faster in the final stretch (typically below 20%), so the displayed percentage can appear to fall more quickly toward the end of a charge.
- Using a power bank, or regularly giving the battery small partial charges instead of full ones, can also throw off the gauge’s estimate over time.
Performing 3 full charge/discharge cycles resets and recalibrates this gauge, giving you the most accurate reading — see below.
Setting up a new battery: the 3-cycle calibration
Once you receive your brand-new AIR³ — or after replacing the battery — you must perform 3 full discharge/recharge cycles to set the battery’s capacity gauge to its maximum.
- Launch XCTrack, set brightness to 80% (with adaptive brightness turned off so it stays fixed), and let it run until the battery reaches 5% or lower.
- Recharge for 6 hours or more using a charger rated at least 2.0 A.
- Repeat this full cycle two more times, for 3 complete cycles in total.
Download the 3-cycle instructions, fill in the table as you go, and keep it for future reference.
Unlike older NiCad batteries, lithium batteries don’t suffer from “charge memory,” so you don’t need to fully discharge the battery before every charge in daily use. That said, running a full charge/discharge cycle occasionally helps keep the percentage gauge properly calibrated — see below.
Daily use and long-term storage
Daily use
- No need to charge to 100% every time — keeping the battery roughly between 20% and 80% is perfectly fine for everyday flying.
- Whether you fly often or rarely, running one full charge/discharge cycle every month or so helps keep the percentage gauge accurate. If the device is not used at all for a while, do this at least once a month to keep the battery healthy.
- Avoid charging in very hot or very cold conditions.
- If the battery has often been run all the way down to 0%, don’t jump straight to a full charge — charge it to about 15% first, then continue normally.
- Avoid completely discharging the battery. Below roughly 2.5 volts per cell, a safety circuit inside the battery opens and the device will appear dead. If this happens, the unit won’t power back on until it has been sufficiently recharged — not necessarily to 100%, but enough to clear the safety threshold.
- Prioritize your original charger and cable, or ones matching the same voltage/current specifications.
Long-term storage
Never store the device discharged. Make sure it’s charged above 50%, ideally around 80%, before putting it away for a while.
Using a power bank
A power bank is best used only once your battery reaches a low level, so it can recharge during the flight rather than staying topped up the whole time. Keeping a power bank connected continuously isn’t ideal:
- A lower-quality or underpowered power bank can cause unstable charging current, or make the device repeatedly switch between charging and stopping.
- If the device draws more power than the power bank can supply, the battery can keep slowly discharging even while the screen shows “charging” — which throws off the percentage reading.
If you do use a power bank, choose a reliable, adequately-rated one (ideally supporting fast charging).
Signs your battery may need replacing
As a battery ages, you may start to notice some of the following:
- Noticeably shorter flight time after a full charge compared to before.
- Irregular jumps in the displayed percentage — for example, a sudden drop from 70% to 5%.
- The device shutting down on its own while the screen still shows a meaningful charge (e.g., 20–30%).
- Charging taking noticeably longer than it used to.
Sudden, large drops like these are usually caused by one of two things: the percentage gauge’s estimate was slightly off and corrects itself abruptly under load, or — more common as a battery ages — increased internal resistance causes the voltage (and so the displayed percentage) to fall quickly as soon as the device draws more power. Either way, this is normally a sign of an aging battery rather than a device fault.
Battery swelling or visible deformation is a safety issue. If your battery looks swollen or deformed, stop using the device immediately and replace the battery.
Before concluding you need a replacement
If you’re not satisfied with your battery’s capacity, before ordering a replacement we recommend:
- Re-running the 3 full charge/discharge cycles described above, to recalibrate the percentage gauge.
- Checking whether flight duration improves across the 3 cycles.
If, after completing 3 full cycles, the battery life is still insufficient, it’s time to replace the battery.
Why isn’t battery wear covered by the warranty?
Like the tires on a car, a battery is a component that naturally wears with use — this is expected behavior, not a manufacturing defect. Reduced capacity and shorter flight times over time are a normal part of a lithium-ion battery’s lifespan, and how soon they show up depends a lot on how the battery has been used, charged, and stored.
Degraded battery capacity can also result from external factors — such as exposure to excessive heat or a power surge — rather than from a fault in the device itself. This is a second reason batteries are treated separately from the manufacturing defects that warranty coverage is designed for.
For this reason, as with most consumer electronics, batteries fall outside our standard warranty coverage for manufacturing defects. You can read our full warranty terms here.
The good news: a replacement battery is simple and affordable to order, and restores your AIR³’s full flight time.
Ordering a replacement battery
You can order a replacement battery from our online store or from an AIR³ partner.