After maidening the Kittilyt 8 and reviewing the footage (finally got myself a proper GoPro), I was absolutely blown away by the video quality the camera puts out. Obviously the 7" rig is a bit of a speciality quad, with the huge antennas it's not ideal for chucking around, so I spontaneously decided to build myself a 5" version for freestyle flying. Don't see many deadcat frames these days, especially in miniquad size, so it appealed to my taste for weird layouts :)

Frame is exactly the same as the 8" version, just the arms are shortened for 5" props. Turns out it can still take 6" props provided smallish batteries are used, or bottom mount and go huge for long range. 5.5" could be a sweet spot, I'll have to get some in to try.

For the build, I gutted the first Mahou Shoujo prototype - finally killed the baseplate on it at a race after hitting a tower so hard it collapsed. Usually I'd pick lower kv motors and individual ESCs for a freestyle build, but I used what I had.

Build was uneventful except for needing some custom length nylon standoffs for the stack (cut down with a scalpel) to fit with room for the battery strap and antenna coax to run above - certainly a lot easier than cramming UHF gear and a huge 1.3G VTX in like the 8" build!

Setup was easy since the electronics came out of another build - changed layout from plus to X, checked motor directions, then put in a custom deadcat motor mix after.

Maiden was the next day - honestly, I was blown away. On stock PIDs and my normal rates it flew beautifully, rolls and flips were crisp and rapid. I've always gone for 2300kv motors for freestyle builds in the past, but I think this has converted me fully to high kv for everything.

One slight weakness that I found in a hard crash was that the screws I'd used for the front standoffs were too short, and they stripped the standoff threads, with the whole camera cage separating from the rest of the quad. I've since replaced them with longer screws, and added more length to the camera plates that should reduce the force applied to the screws in crashes.

All in all, I'm delighted with how this one turned out. I'm switching focus a little from racing to freestyle at the moment, so I might have to build myself a second one just in case!