I had rebuilt and smoked my tiny whoop, built a bigger one and pushed it as far as the neighbors could take it. I watch youtube and I’m a member of some fpv groups. I read reviews. It was time learn to fly acro with brushless motors and a 3S battery. I wanted something proven and reliable. I wanted to get started straight away and the Torrent 110 was right there in the shop, all built and ready to fly!

The best thing about it was that I could spend a reasonable amount and put the rest aside for bigger things, like when I’m ready to build a full size racer. It’s tough and the local shop has lots of parts. Seems like a no-brainer.

So I walked right out of there with a torrent 110, a 2S and a 3S battery, a charger and some spare props. Simple.

Of course I am used to flying with my Taranis QX7, like all good whoopers I had started off with a good piece of kit which is versatile and programmable. i wasnt about to buy a whole Spektrum transmitter for one drone, so I ordered up a FRSKY XM+ receiver to complement my QX7. Already had the required soldering iron and supplies, double sided tapes and hex keys to install that one. The XM+ is lighter and smaller so it leaves some room, which got me thinking. Could I fit a DVR in the same space? Back to that later. Anyway, one part swap and we are up in the air.

I took off the canopy and noticed the Video transmitter is mounted in the top which is neat. Its set at 150mW which is sometimes a bit more than I need. Ordered up an Eachine VTX03 which is adjustable between 25mW, 50mW and 200mW and again shaves a gram or two.

So I thought hey, while I wait for the radio gear to arrive, lets do some testing. Off with the props and I spun up each motor. Not much vibration there, no idea why people are saying this thing has a drift problem in angle mode. Then I spun up all four motors at once. Whoa! The vibrations at mid range frequencies went way up and this could be around the rpm where the Torrent will hover. There’s some debate going on about whether soft mounting ‘works’ but in the case of proven mechanical resonance its either that or replace the frame with something that has a different resonant frequency. Definitely the readings in the Betaflight configurator looked enough to make havoc for any decent gyro. I did look at the Rakon frame but it looked weak. All right, soft mounting here we come… I ordered a Lynx FPV soft mount set for the flight controller and ESC. Throw in some Rakon motor soft mounts. And some nylon washers to take up the remaining millimetre after those flimsy prop guards have been tossed away.

During all the online conversations while I waited on the postman, someone sold me on nylon bolts and medium loc-tite as well (but never at the same time). Thank you Mr Bezos for making those purchases so convenient.

One thing about the Lynx soft mount set, its designed to carry a Runcam Micro Swift 2. I have since confirmed that it does have a superior image quality to the stock camera on the Torrent. Ordered. While we are getting better image and a non vibrating platform sorted, why not get a tiny HMDVR-S module to wire in there somehow when the rest comes together.

I normally try to avoid cutting or gluing plastic, I like my things to look the way they were the day they came out of the factory. However the Runcam just wont fit under that canopy and the Lynx FPV soft mounting set doesnt hold it out far enough to avoid contact. Just about everyone who has done this ended up cutting out the front of the canopy. I used some micro files to get a smooth edge so I dont have to look at ragged edges from my own work.

So here we are with a fully ready to fly, to-my-satisfaction off the shelf ‘BTF’ product. Original remaining parts are the motors, ESC and Flight controller. The ESC and flight controller are non standard dimensions so they are not interchangeable with more popular 20mm configurations. If they go, they wont be replaced. Did I mention new props are ten bucks a bag at the shop and I’ve already tossed the prop guards? Gemfan 2035’s on the way. the flimsy velcro battery strap is history by now, not even sure at which stage it was filed in the tall round open top ‘cabinet; under the work-bench.

So yeah, the motors are really good, they’ll stay. After a Betaflight flash and tune, the Torrent 110 is pleasing me more every time we go out. For almost the total time and financial cost of a five inch quad, it’s great to know I’ve already got the spending and building experience to graduate any time I like!