Looking for build ideas online, I ran across some pictures of the latest Wizard Killer build, and that’s what led me to RotorBuilds.com. After reading more about it, I just had to build something like it. I’ve been flying airplanes and helicopters for over 20 years, but this was my first FPV drone build. I only became interested in drones after buying some for my children for Christmas. It took about a week before I was hooked and had to have my own! My original idea, because the frame is an Alien copy Martian II, was to use green, white and red parts in the build and call it the “Illegal Alien.” Again, this is my first build and I didn’t want the PC police coming after me, so I went with the America theme. I’m glad I went this route as I really like how it turned out. So far, I have about half a dozen LOS flights on it and it flies great. Camera and VTX should be here in a few weeks and then I’ll get into some FPV flying. ‘Murica……F@*K YEAH!

3/31/2018 - 'Murica 2.0 - Now that I've finally started flying FPV, I had to change up the original setup. The lights on the arms were great for flying LOS, but I ditched them so I could use a set of 3D printed arm guards. If I was just cruising this quad around I probably would have left them on, but the new guards give me a little more confidence to go out and practice my freestyle flying. I also soft mounted the motors while I had it apart. Under the hood the camera and VTX are now installed, and I also dropped the height of the stack and soft mounted the flight controller. Finally, I added the GoPro Session mount, an Alien battery pad, and I repositioned all the antennas. Now I'm venturing into PID tuning and hope to have some better flight footage posted soon. I really love this frame. So much so that I have another on the way, and an even better build planned!

6/17/2018 - 'Murica 3.0 - Even though this was my first build, I still fly it all the time. It has become my "Send It" quad, and for that reason, I always try to keep it in good working shape. Believe it or not, I'm still on all of the original arms and frame parts with only a few bumps and bruises. Looking back at what I originally built this quad with, all that remains is the flight controller and receiver. It was recently overhauled with a new ESC, a new set of motors, a new VTX and antenna, and some new arm guards, wire cover, and props really freshened it up. I also made the switch to ButterFlight on this quad and it's more solid and locked in while flying than ever before. While I feel I've graduated to better frames and components, I still recommend a Martian to anyone who asks me what they should build first.