New addition to the fleet

With weather is the way it was since November, much that has been done has been building kwad. Atrocious weather isn't exactly conducive to outdoor flying anyways. Of course about the only reliable components of the building phase is a reliable postal service.

Recently received several sets of motors and escs. So I got to quickly complete a couple of builds which have been waiting for parts.

KERMIT-1 and BIGBOY-1 are part of the self cut carbon fleet utilising completed stock arms. These builds are of simplest contructions with addition of stand-offs, top and bottom plates and additional reinforcement plates where necessary. GARIL-260, BUILDONE, AMAX-260 are three of the previous builds of this genre.

KERMIT-1 is a midsize flyer using X220 arms with assymmetric front and back arm configuration. It's a top loading battery bay. BIGBOY-1 is larger with 8in stock arms in the standard extended H configuration. It also has a top loading battery bay with a Runcam camera seat in front of the battery.

BIGBOY-1 : EMAX MT2206II 1500KV motors, Foxeer 35A ESCs, Idealfly 6048 prop, Foxeer F3 flight controller, Flysky IA-6B receiver.

KERMIT-1 : Furribee 2600KV motors, Hglrc 28A ESCs, Dalprop Cyclone 5045 prop, SPRacing F3 flight controller, Flysky X6B receiver.

Both have been tested and they fly really well. The 1500KV having more torque seems more smooth and gentle while the KERMIT's 2600KV seems really eager to be let loose for some massive punchouts.

As soon as I receive more receivers, there are 4 more builds left to complete : KERMIT-2, BIGBOY-2, PUDA-243 and REAL3-250.  2x on Betaflights F3 and 2x on SPRacing F3.

Common Birdies

After a long while, I got a chance to go out to take some pictures of birds  at a small in the city and nearby. The last time I went out specifically to photograph birds was last winter.

None of these birds are rare or highly sought after ticks, they are all common birds easily accessible birds at the lake in the middle of the city and a harbour nearby ... common they maybe,  they are also as beautiful as any other.

Build no 5 aka AMAX-260 is flying ...

Completed another build, a 260mm arm set with home cut carbon fibre. Running on Amax Inno 2305 2550KV motors run by Foxeer 35A Escs, SPRacing F3 flight controller powered by Geprc LCSF max 300A  PDB. Two bladed 6in Gemfan 6042 propellers should complement well the 1.5kg+ thrust the motors are capable of.

Sunday is flight testing day ...

Completed 3 builds this week ... two home made 5in builds and one I-flight 7in frame kit. All three flew well indoors, the I-Flight took off smoothly outdoors in 3 deg C temps, though it didn't fly too far or to great heights ... but it's smooth and very quiet.

I-Flight 7 in on 6in 6048 Idealfly props running on Betaflight 3.2.2 with Emax RS2205 2300KV motors.

5BuildOne, homebuild frame with 260 kit arms running on Foxxeer F303 flight controller and Emax MT2206 II 1500KV motors. Props are two bladed 5in Azure, not enough clearance for 6in props.

Build no 2, Garil260, homebuild frame with 260 kit arms running on SPRacing F3 flight controller and Garila X2406 1900KV motors. Props are three 6in Idealfly, lots of punch in this one.

There are 3 more builds to complete: 2x based on 8in kit arms (360 size), able to carry a Runcam 2 and one more 5in build. After that hopefully weather gets better and there'll plenty of time for pushing these quads to do what they do best ... fly outdoors.

Home made kwads

One thing led to another and I have some carbon sheets lying around, so I fashioned a couple of home designed LOS quads (no enough space for FPV gear!).

Garilla X2406 1900KV motors.

Emax MT2206 II 1500KV motors.

Then I remembered that there isnt anymore space on the transmitter to add more models, so these quads have to wait a few weeks for the new controller to come in before they fly.

Currently 5 homebuild quads are progressing, the components are described in the following paragraphs.

6 in Build No 1 ( image no. 3 and 4 above aka "BUILDONE") :
-  260 arms,  home cut bottom and top plates
- 2 bladed 5040 Azure props
- Emax MT2206 II 1500 KV - maybe too torque-y for this 260 build - option to swap out later if necessary, maybe 2000KV motors.
- Chaos 35A Esc from Unmantech
- Foxeer F303 flight controller from Dronehandelen - I only bought 4 of these, should've bought more when they were on sale.
- Generic PDB.
- Flysky IA6B receiver

6 in Build No 2 ( image no. 1 and 2 above aka "GARIL260") :
-  260 arms,  home cut bottom and top plates
- 3 bladed 6048 from Idealfly
- Garilla1900 KV - light and floaty on trials - massive punchouts expected. May swap out motors if necessary, maybe 2300KV are more suited.
- DYS 30A Esc from Banggood
- SPRacing F3 from Banggood.
- Generic PDB
- Flysky X6B receiver

5 in Build No 3 :
- 8in Stamina arms, homecut top and bottom plates
- Foxeer 35A ESC
- Garila 1900KV/Emax MT2206 II 1500KV/Cobra 2207 1900KV
- Foxeer F3
- X360 props or maybe even the X380 props
- MJX C5820 720p cam

8 in Build No 4 :
-8in Stamina arms, homecut top and bottom plates
- Foxeer 35A ESC
- Garila 1900KV/Emax MT2206 II 1500KV/Cobra 2207 1900KV
- Foxeer F3
- X360 props or maybe even the X380 props
- Runcam 2

6in Build No 5 aka AMAX-260:
- 260 arms, homecut top and bottom plates
- Foxeer 35A ESC
- AMAXInno 2305 2550KV
- SPRacing F3
- 6in props

The new Flysky I6X (10 channels and can fit in 20 models) transmitter just arrived and hopefully the new receivers will also get here in the next few days.

I think I will lay off cutting carbon for a while until I have got some good runs on some of these current builds, 3 more months till Spring!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2018