Winter is coming.

In the winter I don't like to go far to fly. So sub 250g let's me fly in front of my house, without feeling like an asshole.

I've had a 3 inch quad before, but it was really heavy. I had to try really hard to get the weight under 250g. This was six months ago when micro cameras weren't that common and FC/PDB combos were hit or miss. I also wanted to run 4s so I had to use 20a ESC's, because they didn't make smaller 4s capable ESC's back then. This build will be different and use some small components and some combo components.

All of the parts have arrived, except the 10a ESC's. Also the stand-offs were to long for the frame. Because of this, the carbon side plates (camera mount) didn't fit right and moved a lot. I couldn't have that, so I need different stand-offs. I couldn't find quite the right size so I made due with some spacers and used extra long screws.

Because I wanted to fly this thing, I crammed and mismatched, three Cicada 30a's and one Cicada 20a ESC's. Heavier and tighter than I'd like, but it's temporary. When the right ESC's show up I'll put them on and it should drop 10g or more. I also added a ton of electrical tape and shrink tube that, in hindsight, I could have done without. I suspect that I could drop another 10g in excess weight. I'll trim it down a bit when I do the ESC's. I also added an LED, which isn't ideal for a build this small, but I thought it would look cool. Plus help me find it after a crash. I put it inside the frame. So it's all lit up inside.

With the unnecessarily heavy build, it still comes in at 225g AUW. I'm thinking in the v2 (when I get the ESC's and trim some fat) I can get it close to 200g.

Flys great! It really does fly a lot like a 5 inch, just a lot slower. It also murders the batteries. It hits 15.5v almost as soon as I take off. I found my batteries were dieing very fast. Then I realised, I was flying the drone at no less than 70% throttle. Not because it needs it to fly, but because it's not that fast, so I can fly it closer to it's limit than I would a full size quad. When I started to consider my throttle position instead of my speed, I started getting three minutes of flight and coming down at 14.8v-15v on my 460mah 4s Bonkas. Its not quite as fun flying with efficiency in mind instead of speed, but you make due. Consider that a 3 inch is basically half the size of a 5 inch, you can't expect it to cover ground at the same rate. But because I can't cover as much ground, I try to make up for it by being small. I can hit gaps that that are a lot more sketchy with a big quad. It's also less risky than a 5 inch. It's less expensive and less likely to break something.

This is going to be my warm up quad when I go to New spots.