Karearea - KEA

By xxbuildnz on Dec 10, 2017

3  996  3

**** UPDATE 19/12/17
On it's 3rd flight an ESC gave out on take off causing a violent spiraling decent of less than 5m into a field resulting in the Kea sustaining significant damage to the:

  • Side ALU plate
  • Front ALU plate
  • RH Torque bar!

NZ$54 in parts have been ordered and once they arrive I will likely sell the Kea as I expected A LOT more in durability than this.

Time to get an Alien or Armattan Chameleon LOL

A build on the highly anticipated Karearea KEA frame...

Basically did a parts uplift from my trusty GEPRC Leopard frame to this...which wasn't the original plan but any how that's how it's gone and I'll be sticking to this for at least a week lol

Very tight tolerances on this frame especially the ALU motor mounts, these were very difficult to get on without using a mallet . I also had to file out the arm cutout that attaches to the frame. Other than that it was pretty straight forward.

The VTX mount hole is very close to the frame standoff and on an upward angle therefore you cannot fit an Axii stubby as I was hoping to do. Also, you will need to make sure that the VTX hole is insulated otherwise you will get static in your FPV feed. I printed this to get around this issue: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2461088

Sock / Motor protectors from here: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2583813

Likely upcoming UPGRADES when $ allows:

  • Motors - T40 II Pros / Armattan Titans
  • Spedix 30a HV ESCs
  • Bardwell F4

Photos

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Discussion

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rdycar   Feb 15, 2018  

I'm sorry to see the broken KEA, same frame but totally different review, I guess you just got really bad luck.

Hawki   Jan 14, 2018  

xxbuildnz,
I'm so sorry to hear about your issues with this build, I was pretty excited to see how the KEA would perform in real ... After seeing this frame on it's website, I had such grand expectations of it's potential. Obviously, it's a victim of the ESC failure, but it probably should of survived the crash better than it did.
All the best luck in moving on from this, I know what it's like to have expectations of a build and not have it work out.
I personally have a Rooster on the way and hope for much better durability from it.
Cheers my friend, dave (Hawki-FPV)

xxbuildnz   Jan 14, 2018 

Thanks Dave, appreciate the comment!

I've long since moved on from this and sold the Kea for $100 less than I paid for it as in the long run I can't trust this frame to stand up to the abuse of normal day to day crashes.
I have since bought a cheap and cheerful iFlight R1 220 frame and it's so far survived a 150m fall from the sky into a field and didn't get a scratch on it...!

I too will get a Rooster but for the moment the R1 is more than enough of a freestyle frame for my needs :)

Case in point, here's a recent video of it in action:

Cheers, Kerry.

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