My first custom frame design! This one is a 2.5 inch freestyle frame supporting a top-mounted battery. It works quite good though I had to file down the camera mount tpu because the props were touching. Guess I'll have to increase the wheelbase slightly for the next version. The only m2 tpu camera mount I could find was at rotorgeeks. I might use carbon side mounts next time.

I took a chance on the JMT SIf4 flight stack. It's super cheap and performs fine, but there aren't any tx or rx pads! So no long range receivers. Connecting the tiny ribbon cables is a hassle and the connectors are fragile. I'd rather deal with the vertical pins that are common on other 16x16 boards so I'll be staying away from this stack from now on.

I also took a chance on some new motors, the 1103 lil floaters. Probably the lightest 1103s out there right now. They're quite smooth but not as responsive as I'd like.

I wanted to use the HQ T65mm props but I think I got a bad batch because I get crazy wobbles with them at high throttle and especially when throttling into a turn. I tried them on two other quads and had the same issue. The snap-on bi-blades I have fly off all the time so it's Emax Avan Rush for now.

All that aside, it flies great. I was pleasantly surpised by the Lumenier 300mah lipos. I didn't even know Lumenier made lipos until I went looking for a sub-450mah 3s battery.

It's heavier than the canopy frames but that's the tradeoff for being able to top-mount batteries. Arguably not worth it unless you're going for the smoothest freestyle experience. This frame has a wheelbase of 120 and just barely fits 65mm props. By comparison my 3in canopy frame has a wheelbase of 113mm.

UPDATE: I tried a couple more props. The Lumenier 2.2x3 props would cause the quad to flip out sometimes so those were a no-go. But the Gemfan RX2535 perform great. I'm using them in quad blade config. They offer excellent control and are so quiet you can sneak up on someone. This quad is a real joy to fly around the yard.