I've posted just one other video of a super early flight. I've come a long way in my freestyling since then, but the extra aggressiveness got the best of me when a stray branch not only snapped the bottom plate of my frame, but also knocked out the VTX. Here's how it happened:

 

Neat flight area and great flying.  Broken stuff...can be fixed!

(18-Dec-2018, 06:13 AM)kaitylynn Wrote: Neat flight area and great flying.  Broken stuff...can be fixed!

I've grown to embrace the repair side of this hobby, there's no getting around it unless you wanna keep throwing money at prebuilt quads. I've never dismantled a frame, and just got done doing so last night. Luckily freestyle frames tend to be the cheaper form factor, and getting a quad flying again after a repair has proven itself really satisfying. Although its worth noting that this probably wouldn't have happened had i been using a better frame in the first place. From what I'm hearing, Eachine's Wizard x220/x220s quads use a pretty weak version of carbon fiber for the frame. Although that's something they might have fixed on their latest x220HV release since the fpv and frame look noticeably better.

(18-Dec-2018, 03:51 PM)nintendude7cubed Wrote: From what I'm hearing, Eachine's Wizard x220/x220s quads use a pretty weak version of carbon fiber for the frame. Although that's something they might have fixed on their latest x220HV release since the fpv and frame look noticeably better.

Sadly the quality of the CF on the X220HV also appears to be poorly manufactured and can de-laminate in a crash. Fast forward to 30:43 in AndyRC's review below to see an example of that having happened.

(18-Dec-2018, 04:38 PM)SnowLeopardFPV Wrote: Sadly the quality of the CF on the X220HV also appears to be poorly manufactured and can de-laminate in a crash. Fast forward to 30:43 in AndyRC's review below to see an example of that having happened.

I can't tell if it was from the treebranch itself, or the fall that had killed the VTX that ended up breaking the frame, but between wood and grass, i'm surprised the frame couldn't even hold up to that. Prior to this, i had already struggled with the antenna getting snagged and snapping the SMA port off of the little ring of carbon fiber holding it in place (poor design choice IMO), i had to reattach it with epoxy multiple times to the point where i just gave up and haphazardly would loop the battery cable around the antenna to secure it that way. I have an iflight XL5 frame on the way from amazon, which looks super promising for a cheap frame and it was on prime so i might already be up in the air 2 days from now, as long as there are no hangups with transferring over the Wizard's stack / motors.

I like the iFlight XL5 frame. They do look quite decent.

If I do another 5' build I might well be tempted to go for an Armattan frame. Whilst they are quite expensive, they come with a lifetime warranty. If you manage to break anything on one of their frames, they will send you the replacement repair parts free of charge.

Best "cheap" frame on the market right now IMO is the Xilo Phreak. Durable and economical
https://www.getfpv.com/xilo-phreak-fpv-r...opter.html

(18-Dec-2018, 07:15 PM)SnowLeopardFPV Wrote: I like the iFlight XL5 frame. They do look quite decent.

If I do another 5' build I might well be tempted to go for an Armattan frame. Whilst they are quite expensive, they come with a lifetime warranty. If you manage to break anything on one of their frames, they will send you the replacement repair parts free of charge.

Good to know about the Armattan, I didnt want such a good frame for my Franken-quad setup, but i love the newer designs with the cages to protect the fpv camera.