The Micro Apex. I was really excited about this build, and I still am, but it has not been smooth. I have done surgery on a few micro BNFs but this is my first build, or my third depending on how you want to look at it.

The frame is cool. Everyone knows the Apex is a cool frame. It is such a wobbly mess when you are trying to put it together and then it cinches up and feels...it is such a weird feeling, holding the thing. It has this chunky balance to it and just feels nice. Assembled, it is honestly hard not to regard as kind of perfect. Like not in reality perfect, but in essence.

I chose 1805 motors for this build because I felt that they would fly similarly to the recommended 2004s, but with a little bit less raw force when propelling me into a rafter or tree.

The first iteration of the build used a Diatone Mamba F722 stack. I think this stack would have been fine for maybe even my second build, but the particular grommets they sent...that was one of the hardest things I have ever done. The ESCs come with this metal plate I guess just glued on to the board as an EMI shield. Well, trying to get the grommets in, I think I loosened mine because on the first flight, it came loose and started flapping up and down at like 200Hz. The stack did not survive that for long at all. Given the way that I fly (into things), that wasn't going to work out regardless so at least I'm glad I know to take a good solid look at anything foreign attached to these two boards and deeply consider removing it.

Next, I tried the Foxeer F7 Mini Pro. I liked this FC. It was not at all set up or documented, which sucked, and they sent the absolute minimum amount of stuff with the FC that they could (the FC and four grommets), but despite this I was able to get everything wired up easily and suss out the UARTs. I went ahead and more or less copied the PID sliders and rates from my 3.5". This was using an iFlight SucceX-E 35A ESC. I think it flew better than the Diatone on the same settings but I really didn't get enough flight time on either to say, and weirdly despite Diatone providing ample hardware and documentation, something about the Foxeer board just kind of worked for me. It could have just been the practice I got on the Diatone board, though.

Unfortunately, I have soldered things badly for my entire life until finally watching a video on how to actually do it (there was no YouTube when I first needed to forge ahead with this), so while all of the flight stuff was working, SmartAudio and VTX audio were not, due to what I found to be tiny shorts. While fixing the shorts, I accidentally ripped off my 2.4ghz antennae, so I put new ones on, reworking the receiver placement. At this point, I notice that I'd missed several strands of my positive battery lead at the ESC solder joint and put some more solder there to fix that up.

This would bring me to my big tip. If you've read all of this there can only be two reasons. One: you've bought some kind of frame you're excited to build and you want to know what's going to happen to you or Two: you've been through this and are having a bit of a laugh, which I approve of. I have been a dumbass.

My tip is don't rush. Just do it right. You know how. You know when you're rushing and you ought to do it the slow way. Don't not listen to that voice. Don't.

I don't know exactly what I did wrong, but in the end my solder joint shorted to the frame, melted, and then sprayed all over the underside of the ESC when it hit the fence from the battery suddenly getting drained. From a forensic standpoint, it was really interesting in there, like a scene from Dexter or something. I wouldn't have predicted that outcome (clearly, right?) - the whole melting solder thing.

Whatever shorted on the ESCs caused the ARM chip on the FC to literally burn a hole through itself. Never seen that before, on anything. Kinda impressed with myself. I absolutely destroyed that stack and marred the frame a little too.