Back in early 2017 I purchased a STORM Bumper 3 from HeliPal for general flying purposes. Little did I expect that nearly 4 years later, ductless Cinewhoops have come back into fashion, and today I will share with you how I repurposed this archaic frame into a fantastic camera platform.

Some discussion on parts used

Motors: Flashhobby (DYS) 2004 3150kv
It's 2021, and hopefully no one is on the ancient, noisy and inefficient 1408 motors for their cinewhoops anymore. 20xx-22xx sized "pancake" motors are similar in weight and stator volume yet offer dramatically increased efficiency and low-end control for swinging heavy 3 inch props due to their larger diameter and hence larger torque. The only aspect compromised is top-end speed (at the tip of the throttle range) which is not really an issue for a cruising cinewhoop, as we don't usually use full power anyway.

Frame: STORM Bumper 3
Removing the bulky foam ducts and simply having carbon fiber guards to protect the propellers greatly decreases drag and renders this craft more like an overweight micro quad than a cinewhoop in terms of handling characteristics. Furthermore, I love how this frame was designed in 2017 yet has many features that are still considered useful today - dual 20x20 stack mounting, ample interior space, battery strap holder, antenna holder, special space for capacitor, etc.