So I bought my first brush-less quad-copter mid-year 2016, it was an "XK X251". Early reviews said it had Acro mode, but sadly once I received it, my particular model only had angle and horizon mode. At first I was excited because it was so much faster than anything I had previously flown and only weighed about 200 grams. It was,'t long though before I found myself wanting something faster and more agile. So I began my journey to build my first FPV Racing Drone. I wanted it to be as light as my toy quad but faster and with full acro mode. I selected the "Realacc RFX185" frame as it was light and cheap but had carbon fiber arms 8mm wide, 4mm thick and could take 5 inch props. Most everyone selecting this particular frame were putting 2206 motors and finding it to be so fast as to be almost un-flyable. I wanted to balance the power, weight and efficiency so that I could use a smaller battery and have something quick and light. In the event of a crash it would be more likely to bounce than break. Here my "All Up Weight" is 242 grams and with the battery it weighs in at 308 grams. I setup my Turnigy I6S radio so that it when I flip the arm switch, it also activates a count up timer, disarming causes the timer to stop and hold. Using a 450mAh 4s Pulse 45c battery I was able to get 6 minutes of flight out of this setup. While it may not be the fastest drone on the track, it is still much faster than my X251 was, and is certainly fast enough for a newb like me. Since this is my first build, I kind of expected problems with it, but to my amazement the flight was uneventful and it flew like a dream. I have to say building something that flies, is a much bigger kick than buying something off the shelf. What a nice sense of satisfaction!
AirbladeUAV has done it again and this time they've brought long range to the 5" class! Based on the popular Transformer Mini, the new Transformer 5" Ultralight adopts a lot of the same design philosophies with larger props and more payload capacity. It can fly upwards of 20 minutes on a 4 cell Li-Ion battery pack and in ideal conditions it's got a range of over 4 to 5 miles. In this guide I'll walk..
Read moreWith the release of the DJI FPV Drone cinematic FPV has become a lot more accessible, but you certainly don't want to crash a $750 drone! The QAV-CINE Freybott is a compact, lightweight cinematic FPV drone that can take a hit and keep going. It's a lot safer to fly indoors and around people. With a naked GoPro or the SMO 4k you can capture some great stabilized footage. In this guide I'll show you..
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My Youtube video includes some LOS flight footage.