Hoverfly Right Choice

[themartaman]

I am new to forum. 71 and have been teaching young people to fly for 35 years. Have a quadcopter I assembled. Not happy with the KK board. Not very stable for photos. One of the boys has a compact digital camera we are using for video. After all my reading I think the Hoverfly Sport may be what we need. Would like the Pro but would take me longer to allocate funds. Fixed income does not go far. Any advice is appreciated. Or tips. Thanks in advance.

 

[kloner]

if it was me and was in your position, i'd look for a pro board used. They go for around $250-----

It will grown with you

has self level and altitude hold

can add a gps that supposedly will have waypoints and stuff sooner or later.

excelent gimbal support if you ever went that route

These things are stupid smooth and make for some good footage

 

[Bartman]

Hi Martaman,

There's a lot to be said for knowing your software utility, as in the interface software used to adjust and tune the flight control. Getting started with a board that can actually be used beyond learning the basics has the extra advantage in that you will become very fluent in the ways of the board's software and as you develop skills, you will also continue to become a better tuner making everything work (you included) great together.

It's a challenge to learn one system only to find out it's necessary to switch to a different system. You've been teaching for a while so you know what negative learning is. That's what that first system does to your brain as it's trying to understand the new one.

Good luck and welcome to the site.

Bart

 

[themartaman]

if it was me and was in your position, i'd look for a pro board used. They go for around $250-----

It will grown with you

has self level and altitude hold

can add a gps that supposedly will have waypoints and stuff sooner or later.

excelent gimbal support if you ever went that route

These things are stupid smooth and make for some good footage

Have not seen one for $250.

 

[DucktileMedia]

Unless you are flying very close LOS or FPV and KNOW what you're doing, I would not get the sport board. It has nothing but manual mode. it does fly really smooth but you can get in trouble quickly. Even the KK2 has auto level, not that I am promoting cheap Chinese crap. The naza is going to be your best controller for what you're talking about. the hoverflypro is great but you dont really need that for a small quad and it wont have gps without another $450 board, and it takes up a lot of room. I fly the hoverfly pro and love it but I am also flying an octo and fly LOS without GPS only.

 

[Bartman]

a used green Hoverfly PRO board can usually be had for a reasonable amount of money.....it's basically the same as the current black version but it needs a power conditioner in the main power supply line which is usually included with the board. it should fly the same as the black board and use the same software interface.

 

[kloner]

i have three green boards and the most i spent was $250, cheapest was $230.......... and leme tell ya, so nice

there not everywhere, but i see them every month or two here,,,, The rcgroups classifieds usually has a bunch under multirotor classified

 

[Photronix]

I sent you a Private Message. Please email me directly.

 

[Stacky]

I am new to forum. 71 and have been teaching young people to fly for 35 years. Have a quadcopter I assembled. Not happy with the KK board. Not very stable for photos. One of the boys has a compact digital camera we are using for video. After all my reading I think the Hoverfly Sport may be what we need. Would like the Pro but would take me longer to allocate funds. Fixed income does not go far. Any advice is appreciated. Or tips. Thanks in advance.

Others have already made some good comments.
if you can hang out longer for more funds then you will save money in the long run by having a board that is super reliable, has the best customer support of anything in RC and has a bunch of built in features you wont have to buy later, including a very handy built in OSD for when you start fpv. The pro will be better for photography in the long run than the sport board.

 

[3dheliguy]

Damn that x8 looks amazingly smooth. Ugh I want one for faster forward flight. But I want a lot of things that I will never have lol.

 

[themartaman]

Damn that x8 looks amazingly smooth. Ugh I want one for faster forward flight. But I want a lot of things that I will never have lol.

My wife says that is a mans worse trait. The Wants. Where was all these nice things when I was still working and could afford them. I think electric has really made rc available to people who might not have entered the hobby.

 

[3dheliguy]

O yeah lol... Just raising the devorce rate one Multirotor at a time.

 

[kloner]

love that thing..... gonna brushless gimbal it too... right now it's a single axis

 

[themartaman]

Bad night. Not much sleep. Did a lot of reading and watching videos on you tube. Amazing what you can learn on you tube. Flying was so simple 35 years ago when Mac Hodges taught me. Where are the simple radio's? Does anybody build trainers anymore? My first was a Sig Kadet. Wonder how long before we can just think and the plane will take off. It sure is great this way.

 

[Bartman]

Bad night. Not much sleep. Did a lot of reading and watching videos on you tube. Amazing what you can learn on you tube. Flying was so simple 35 years ago when Mac Hodges taught me. Where are the simple radio's? Does anybody build trainers anymore? My first was a Sig Kadet. Wonder how long before we can just think and the plane will take off. It sure is great this way.

first here was a Sterling Fledgling Jr. that never flew followed by a Sig Kadet that taught me to fly. It's 30 yrs old and in my basement waiting for a brushless motor to get it flying again so I can teach my buddies to work the sticks. they don't realize soldering is next, then test flights, etc.

 

[Bartman]

love that thing..... gonna brushless gimbal it too... right now it's a single axis

Nice pics Kloner. US Drones is undergoing a rebranding effort in preparation for roll-out. It won't be US Drones much longer! I should send you a dome for that thing!

 

[themartaman]

first here was a Sterling Fledgling Jr. that never flew followed by a Sig Kadet that taught me to fly. It's 30 yrs old and in my basement waiting for a brushless motor to get it flying again so I can teach my buddies to work the sticks. they don't realize soldering is next, then test flights, etc.

For fun flys I put an OS50 in the kadet. Would take off in a foot of runway. I finally gave the plane to a young boy without radio of course. Radio was EK Logictrol.

 

[mbsteed]

My Spekrum 10t supports trainer mode (I think most mid-high end transmitters support this feature - Futaba does as well) - daisy chain transmitters (one for the trainer one for the learner). The other good option is a good simulator - preferably with a multirotor model but helis will be much the same, that is how I learned (crashed plenty of simulated ships).

 

[themartaman]

My Spekrum 10t supports trainer mode (I think most mid-high end transmitters support this feature - Futaba does as well) - daisy chain transmitters (one for the trainer one for the learner). The other good option is a good simulator - preferably with a multirotor model but helis will be much the same, that is how I learned (crashed plenty of simulated ships).

When I started in this hobby radios were a lot different. It is like comparing the first IBM Personal Computer with 640K of memory to the ones we use today. There are some old Kraft radios on ebay. Look new.

 

[themartaman]

Thanks for all the emails. Because of the baseball size hail that came through recently I will not have any extra $$$ to help boys with Quad. Deductible and what insurance did not cover has wiped me out for a few months. Just had a new roof 18 months ago. I will return soon. Thanks again. Larry