The 2019 season is rapidly approaching in the UK, and during our winter, practice is pretty much impossible. So with a few months down time it was time to evaluate and try different gear options for the upcoming season. As of right now, I feel like I've got what I will be using for the rest of the season. However thats not to say things could change at some point down the line. I want to run through a couple of changes especially with the CherryCraft Stamina, as well as electronics. So lets jump into it.

With the CherryCraft Stamina coming up to a year old, it was time to adjust some parts of the frame for this year and make it once again the best frame choice for racing. One of the first things I tested was using 3 screws per motor (loctite is essential), this was to just save a bit of weight, as well as allow for a slight modification of how the arm transitions into the motor mounting area. It was made a little wider, to reduce stress fracture points (there were some with the V1 arms, where in certain crashes you could experience a crack across two motor mounting holes joined by the middle hole for the motor. Another thing I wanted to change, was to remove the complete cut out in the centre of the motor mounting point, this is to allow space for a protruding screw or a bearing piece that sticks out the bottom of the motor. However having this hole completely cut through does add weakness. So one thing which was tested, was a 2mm centre recess into the arm, instead of a hole. This means the motor bearing / screw has clearance. But also meaning the arm was far stronger (with less dirt and grit going into the bearings). There is the trade off of having to remove the entire motor to take the bell off, however during my entire racing career this has never caused me an issue. Then I wanted to test out the Hybrid arm layout, if you've never heard about this, it means at the front of the quad the arms represent a stretch 5" (the classic Stamina style) arm, then at the rear, the arm is a True X, often extended to 5.5" or 6". This means the rear props have a much cleaner airflow and allows for better handling and performance. This is something I have been testing for a few weeks and I am loving its characteristics. Finally, to clean up the Stamina frame overall, CherryCraft decided to give the arms a slight chamfer, to round off the hard corners and give the frame a nice high quality finish. This I am a big fan of, as it reduces the delamination of carbon at the ends of the arms.

With the frame parts out of the way, lets get onto electronics! I'm blessed to have some extremely supportive sponsors and they all have had new and exciting products released during the end of 2018 and the start of 2019. So I wanted to upgrade everything in general, however I wanted to make sure it was just new iterations of my 2018 equiptment.

T-Motor released their new F60PRO III series, for me flying on 6S, I've been using the 1750kv's. These motors are absolute monsters, theyre a little different to the popular ProII's - therefore they have a different feel, and need a bit of tuning to get 100%. I can comfortably say these are the most powerful and responsive motors I've flown in this KV - obviously higher KV motors will be faster - I'm hoping T-Motor can make a 1900kv series for race formats which require more speed. The ProIII's will comfortably last 2 minutes + finish on UK style tracks. On more open tracks you may need to fly more conservatively or change your battery size.

I moved onto the FlightOne Spark32 and MillivoltOSD combination, a smaller footprint than the 30x30 stack I used in 2018 - However with tonnes more features and better performance. Theres not much more I can say other than I really love this combination of ESC and FC, with the wiring plugs it makes building effortless, and replacing gear is quick and painless. I'm eagerly waiting on FlightOnes new ESC to be released and I'll be throwing it onto my setups :)

Runcam released their new Racer 2 camera, which is a CMOS based camera. Previously I was flying the Swift 2 Micro, which was a CCD camera. The Racer 2 blew me away with its picture quality, low latency and features. I've been flying it with the 1.8mm lens which makes the FOV nearly identical to the 2.1 lens in the Swift 2. I'm also using NTSC instead of PAL, which gives a much smoother image. Trust me, flying PAL after NTSC for a while is like trying to fly from a PowerPoint.

TBS of course being the go to for my control link, video transmission and antenna. I'm using the tried and trusted Unify Race HV, as well as the newer Pro32, which is performing perfectly. Paired with the brand new Triumph Pro UFL antenna - I was lucky enough to test this pre release and its a fantastic antenna! Then finally the good old Crossfire control protocol - I'm using the Nano RX SE (SE - Special Edition - comes with an immortal T as standard instead of the classic whip antenna).

Once new gear is released and installed I will update this RotorBuilds more, however right now I am so happy with these setups. Comment if there is anymore information you'd like to know about!

Thanks for reading!