Got mine Walkera Runner 250 from Banggood when they were on sale. Overall it has a beautiful form factor, it was nicely responsive and I enjoyed flying it very much (until a forward loop took out a prop after I had flown 4 batteries). I will obviously be flying this beautiful machine again, longer and with more acro. I will then make a video to encourage the spread of The runner!
![[Image: yflG4vcl.jpg]](http://i.imgur.com/yflG4vcl.jpg)
Here are my findings so far:
POSITIVE
- The Runner has a very beautiful form factor and is easy to spot in the sky while flying in Line Of Sight mode, with its excellent and strong lights.
- The Runner has a fantastic modular design. Being able to easily plug in and out components makes it a fantastic racer to have at an event. You will be able to quickly change a component and then keep racing.
- The props are amazingly robust. I only managed to break one after a nigh speed forward roll that ended up on the ground, but it easily blasted through small branches, leafs etc. and handled bumpy landings without a problem.
- The design of the frame leaves plenty of room for upgrades or for the insertion of different or upgraded components. Space is generally a problem on racing quads and changing the configuration while maintaining balance is normally a big job.
- The Runner is fast! I blasted through our flying field on acro mode and it was fantastic.
- The Runner is very responsive. I love the way The Runner responds to small touches at high speed.
- The battery compartment is big enough for an even larger lipo, if you want to add extra flying time by accepting bigger weight, as long as you take care with the 5816 video cable.
- The landing gear is strong and robust. It is easy to make good landings on such good landing gear and it feels very secure to do so.
- The range with the Devo 7 is excellent as always with Walkera products.
- The FPV system worked with my Skyzone goggles right out-of-the-box with only one problem (next section)
- The Runner has a tilting camera! I would love to try this with the Walkera goggles and head-tracking. It would be fantastic for racing!
- Although I did not have it to try, a big plus is that The Runner boasts an optional OSD system. This is becoming a must-have item for 250 quad racers.
- The vibration damping plate on the top layer worked well and absorbed a great deal of vibration for my Mobius.
- Helipal added GPS to their 250 quad to attract beginners by offering GPS stability – they called it a co-pilot. Walkera could do the same but better as they have so much GPS experience.
![[Image: V3zwwQJl.jpg]](http://i.imgur.com/V3zwwQJl.jpg)
IMPROVEMENTS
- The flashing lights to indicate low battery are only useful in L.O.S. mode and most people will fly using goggles. A beeper and/or OSD would be much better.
- The props need to be available at a low consumer price, as all racers eat up props at a high race when an experienced pilot is performing rolls, flips and blasting through gates at high speed. I would suggest that perhaps Walkera could make two types available: a cheap plastic kind and the more expensive and robust kind.
- The Runner, with its out-of-the-box configuration is probably too sensitive for a beginner. I have put a document up on the Facebook runner page to inform users how they can make the Devo sticks less sensitive, as a few people messaged me to say that they were finding it difficult to control (and many people don't seem to read the Devo 7 manual).
- The Runner needs to be tuned. I have not had time to look at tuning yet, but I think that it would benefit from tuning in the usual 3 modes. It is definitely not as balanced as I would like it out-of-the-box. I read that the vortex is offering a bunch of standard PID settings to choose from which have been developed by top RC pilots. This may be an option for Walkera via your fabulous Heli pilots or quad pilots? I assume that I would use mission planner or open pilot to tune it, but have no information on that yet.
- Because the battery compartment is very long it is difficult to get the righ- The props are great, but not in the consumable price range and I have totalled two already with no replacements, when my last act was a forward roll into the dirt! Lol!t balance when you insert the lipo. As you know a racing quad needs to be well balanced with even weight distribution to get the right speed and response from it - distributing The Runner battery weight accurately is hard. This is mainly because the battery slips on the shiny compartment lower plate. I had to wrap a length of velcro around the base plate to stop the battery slipping forward in flight (It took out my camera cable once). I also added and extra velcro strap around the battery as it tended to slip out of the side during a roll manoeuvre.
- The positioning of the aerial for the 5816 is very low on the top of the quad. I lost signal a few times with my skyzone diversity goggles. The signal strength can get very weak at height. I would need to have a much better aerial if racing through a forest to ensure no signal degradation. I would love to try The Runner with Walkera goggles as Walkera integration is always first class.
- The tilting camera mount loosened during flight and I had to land and tape it to keep it pointing up as my tool kit was at home.
It would be useful to be able to tilt the camera plate as a built-in feature, as all racing pilots will eventually want to do this.
Here are my findings so far:
POSITIVE
- The Runner has a very beautiful form factor and is easy to spot in the sky while flying in Line Of Sight mode, with its excellent and strong lights.
- The Runner has a fantastic modular design. Being able to easily plug in and out components makes it a fantastic racer to have at an event. You will be able to quickly change a component and then keep racing.
- The props are amazingly robust. I only managed to break one after a nigh speed forward roll that ended up on the ground, but it easily blasted through small branches, leafs etc. and handled bumpy landings without a problem.
- The design of the frame leaves plenty of room for upgrades or for the insertion of different or upgraded components. Space is generally a problem on racing quads and changing the configuration while maintaining balance is normally a big job.
- The Runner is fast! I blasted through our flying field on acro mode and it was fantastic.
- The Runner is very responsive. I love the way The Runner responds to small touches at high speed.
- The battery compartment is big enough for an even larger lipo, if you want to add extra flying time by accepting bigger weight, as long as you take care with the 5816 video cable.
- The landing gear is strong and robust. It is easy to make good landings on such good landing gear and it feels very secure to do so.
- The range with the Devo 7 is excellent as always with Walkera products.
- The FPV system worked with my Skyzone goggles right out-of-the-box with only one problem (next section)
- The Runner has a tilting camera! I would love to try this with the Walkera goggles and head-tracking. It would be fantastic for racing!
- Although I did not have it to try, a big plus is that The Runner boasts an optional OSD system. This is becoming a must-have item for 250 quad racers.
- The vibration damping plate on the top layer worked well and absorbed a great deal of vibration for my Mobius.
- Helipal added GPS to their 250 quad to attract beginners by offering GPS stability – they called it a co-pilot. Walkera could do the same but better as they have so much GPS experience.
IMPROVEMENTS
- The flashing lights to indicate low battery are only useful in L.O.S. mode and most people will fly using goggles. A beeper and/or OSD would be much better.
- The props need to be available at a low consumer price, as all racers eat up props at a high race when an experienced pilot is performing rolls, flips and blasting through gates at high speed. I would suggest that perhaps Walkera could make two types available: a cheap plastic kind and the more expensive and robust kind.
- The Runner, with its out-of-the-box configuration is probably too sensitive for a beginner. I have put a document up on the Facebook runner page to inform users how they can make the Devo sticks less sensitive, as a few people messaged me to say that they were finding it difficult to control (and many people don't seem to read the Devo 7 manual).
- The Runner needs to be tuned. I have not had time to look at tuning yet, but I think that it would benefit from tuning in the usual 3 modes. It is definitely not as balanced as I would like it out-of-the-box. I read that the vortex is offering a bunch of standard PID settings to choose from which have been developed by top RC pilots. This may be an option for Walkera via your fabulous Heli pilots or quad pilots? I assume that I would use mission planner or open pilot to tune it, but have no information on that yet.
- Because the battery compartment is very long it is difficult to get the righ- The props are great, but not in the consumable price range and I have totalled two already with no replacements, when my last act was a forward roll into the dirt! Lol!t balance when you insert the lipo. As you know a racing quad needs to be well balanced with even weight distribution to get the right speed and response from it - distributing The Runner battery weight accurately is hard. This is mainly because the battery slips on the shiny compartment lower plate. I had to wrap a length of velcro around the base plate to stop the battery slipping forward in flight (It took out my camera cable once). I also added and extra velcro strap around the battery as it tended to slip out of the side during a roll manoeuvre.
- The positioning of the aerial for the 5816 is very low on the top of the quad. I lost signal a few times with my skyzone diversity goggles. The signal strength can get very weak at height. I would need to have a much better aerial if racing through a forest to ensure no signal degradation. I would love to try The Runner with Walkera goggles as Walkera integration is always first class.
- The tilting camera mount loosened during flight and I had to land and tape it to keep it pointing up as my tool kit was at home.
It would be useful to be able to tilt the camera plate as a built-in feature, as all racing pilots will eventually want to do this.
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