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If you haven't yet seen the first part of my review of the new T-motor FT5 5 inch freestyle quad, I looked at the specification of the components used, the build quality and betaflight setup here: T-MOTOR FT5 PNP REVIEW PART 1: FIRST LOOK AND BETAFLIGHT SETUP This means that for this second part of the review I can focus in on flight performance and any recommendations. For the purpose of flight performance I'll break this down into FPV performance, performance on 6s and performance on 4s  FPV Performance The Caddx Ratel has been around a little while and has been hugely popular. This is the second commercial FPV camera made with the massive 1 1/8" CMOS sensor that makes for an image that is pushing the quality limits of the NTSC/PAL protocols for analogue FPV. This is my first chance to use one and I've been impressed. It is comparable to the Runcam Micro Eagle but more compact, lighter and at a much more reasonable price. Caddx camera QA has been benefiting from their partnership with DJI as well, presumably from an upgrade to their manufacturing facility. My guess is they have a better, cleaner manufacturing error that keeps the dust off their sensors. The unit included with the FT5 has a 2.1mm lens which offers a fairly mid-range field of view. It's a really nice camera from the goggles especially since I have been flying micro quads a lot recently but of course the DVR (below) never really does it justice. Because this frame is made for analogue and digital I don't love how the camera is mounted here, the location feels like a bit of an afterthought. Sure there is no frame in view but it does sit proud of the frame and is more prone to damage depending of course on how you fly.
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The new T-motor FT5 PNP is a new 5 inch freestyle drone from T-motor. It is available in the following options: Analogue video with 4s 2306 2400kv motors Analogue video with 5s/6s 2207.5 1950kv motors Digital video with 2306 motors in 4s 1750kv and 2550kv options I've chosen to review the most powerful of these options - the Analogue 6s with the largest 2207.5 motors in 1950kv. In this part of the review I'll look at the components in the build, the quality of the build and will comment on the default betaflight settings. I'm currently test flying and once I have at least a dozen packs under my belt will start the main review. 
The best way I have of summarising the specs is that it does the basics really well and this is not to damn it by faint praise. Other than the removable top deck for easy electronic access there is no F7 processor, no bluetooth access, no 4k HD recording on board. What you get instead is:
  Eachine Lal 5 FPV quad Introduction and spec The Eachine Lal5 is a new 5" freestyle quadcopter from Eachine. It's most notable features are the new Caddx Tarsier V2 camera system that offers a high quality analogue feed and up to 4k HD recording. Also worth pointing out is the impressively specced powertrain - high quality 2507 1850kV motors that look like they are made by the same OEM as flywoo. These are the biggest motors I've seen on a 5 inch quad before. Further details on specs:
Update: See the unofficial part 2 of the review here with low cost and effective upgrades Build quality and component choice discussion Electronics: Looking more closely at the electronics build it seems to be fairly well thought out. The primary stack contains the 50A BLHeli_32 esc, f4 flight controller and the TX805 VTX (my favourite budget vtx as reviewed here). Looking a little closer at the flight controller it actually has a barometer (for accurate altitude readings and bluetooth for connection via speedybee app. It also has a 10v rail for super clean video much life the Airbot Omibus F4 V6 which I love. Behind this there is a separate 20mm stack that holds the 2 boards that run the Caddx Tarsier v2. Aluminium standoffs are 30mm high so definitely not a low rider but the advantage is plenty of room to fit the stack with good spacing. The ESC has a 35v 470microfarad capacitor that should help manage voltage spikes and keep video clean and up front is the dual lens tarsier camera unit. Included is their ND8 filter which is a nice touch. The TPU 3d printed camera mount does a good job of bringing the camera forward to minimise props in view but still protects that camera well. Print quality is the best I have ever seen. Antenna is well integrated with the TPU mount but I fear signal will be blocked by the battery when flying towards myself - something I must test for sure. There is no receiver included but there is a loom pre-wired to 5v, ground and sbus for a frsky receiver. All pictures below can be embiggened
 Recently I've built a 5" Freestyle quadcopter based on the best value components - not the cheapest but the best price/performance ratio (i.e. bang for buck). The components I've chosen plus comparison to alternatives can be found in the component selection article here. As it stands the build cost of this one is around $150-$170 depending on which specials you can take advantage of. I see the RC Addict (His YT channel here) has done a similar thing for a race build and he refers to it as the "The cheapest quad worth building" This quad has since been built, setup, flown, adjusted and then flown a lot more. I'm now in a position to pass judgement over all of the components and will then cover as the quad in total. For each I'll look at the positives and negatives and then go into a little more discussion with my recommendations
Discussion and recommendation
At the time these Emax Eco were chosen as they were the standout budget motor. They have been available for $10-$12 and based on how they perform represent outstanding value - the top equal standout recommendation for this parts list. Emax had the original breakthrouhg brushless motor in the quad scene - the RS2205s which changed the industry. While others have caught up since they still make well-researched high quality motors. The Eco series draws off the learnings from the LS and RS2 series - they remain VERY light but have increased the bearing size from 8mm to 9mm to improve durability significantly. Retained from the RS2 and LS series however are the thin magnets. Although these mean the motor doesn't make the same peak thrust as heavier motors with larger magnets, it does gain in improvements through being lighter, more efficient and smoother at throttle transition. This makes it a great match to freestyle where these positive attributes tend to be preferred over peak thrust @ 100% throttle. In use these are very nice motors to fly. They are quiet, smooth and cause less battery sag and longer flight time than more expensive motors I use such as the brother hobby returner R6 2306. Interesting that based on the success of the Emax Eco, iflight and brotherhobby have followed suit. 3bhobby also have the training motor although this may have just been out when the emax eco was launched.  I have decided to piece together a bang for your buck freestyle build to coincide with the summer in the Northern Hemisphere. My objective for this build was not to build the cheapest quad but the best value. This means parts will be from recognised brands with a good track record of performance and reliability with a good degree of future proofing. To be clear, this is not a $99 build, it is more like $150-$170 but will be more reliable AND outperform any pre-built quad and will easily hold it's own against something double or triple the price - I like to think of it as the Sweet Spot. This Sweet Spot Quad will be split into 3 parts:
For each key component I'll show you what I chose, a cheaper option and a more premium option with price indication and justification. Let's get straight into it!!  All the things! Motors
Flight Controller/ESC
I'll cover this quad over 3 blogs. This first part will cover the build walkthrough, the second the software (betaflight/blheli32) setup here and the last part the flight review.  The $180 Hobbymate Comet kit is full of premium and dependable 6s components The Hobbymate Comet Kit is a premium 5" quadcopter that is currently available as a kit for $180 but will soon be available as a bind and fly version. Update: it is now available as a pre-build pnp or bnf with xm+ or r-xsr receivers. In the days since the Holybro Kopis 1 was released there have been some excellent ready to fly models (along with some not-so-great models) available including the Emax Hawk 5 (review here) and the HGLRC Batman (build here) which have been standouts because they have been well balanced, well built and good value for money overall. Since this is a kit, this particular blog is to walk you through the build and then software setup including a betaflight 3.5.1 cli diff. The Hobbymate Comet from HobbyCool.com (or Amazon) is a kit the consists of higher quality parts than even the HGLRC Batman at only a fraction of the cost. Infact when bought on their own the parts come to $257 which is clearly much more than the $180 the kit costs (or even the $200 PNP kit). The Electronics are rated 6s from the factory (unlike the Hawk 5) and come with motors suited for either 4s/5s operation (2500kV) or 6s operation (1800kV). I'm especially excited that this include a genuine airbot ESC and flight controller. More details on the parts below:
Extra parts and recommended for the build Firstly you will need extra parts for this build. I've used the following with links to Hobbycool as they tend to have the sharpest price: And tools/sundry items: On with the build Captioned images below should walk you through the build process and I've noted anything tricky as I've gone through. Click on images to zoom.
So that is it for the physical build. Not a difficult build at all in the scheme of things - components fit easily with plent of room to work. Part 2 (software setup) is here and part 3 (flight review) here.
 Emax Hawk 5 pictured here with a turnigy graphene 4s 1500mah 65c lipo So the Emax Hawk 5 has been out for a couple of months now and it has really captured the imagination of community. This is because it was an EMax-USA driven initiative that started as a way to sell more parts (Magnum stack, LS motors, Avan props) but ended up so much more. Where the Hawk 5 separates itself from all other bind and flys that have come before (except perhaps the holybro kopis) is that is more than the sum of it's parts - the development that has gone into matching the components, developing a strong, stiff yet lightweight frame and then tuning the whole package means it is a bind and fly that is genuinely competitive for racing out of the box. Listening to HyphPV and Sean Taylor in various channels they both believe this is a bonafide racer which is high praise coming from them. I'll try keep this review brief because there has already been a lot said about this quad but I'll try to address the aspects that struck me as peculiar or aspects I don't thik have been well covered. Component choice I think the component choice looks solid but unspectacular however the way that this comes together in for flight is super impressive.
Setup Rather than going through the setup step by step in boring text, I've screen-grabbed all the relevant tabs from betaflight below. In short this quad includes custom filters setup, PIDs and rates so that you have an excellent tune right out of the box. This perfectly matches the specfic frame geometry, weight, motors and props that are used. Confident tuners will no doubt be able to adjust to their specific feel but I can say that I've come across no better custom tune in any quad yet, it is comparable to the babyhawk R (my review here) which makes sense - it was tuned by the same team.
Early flight performance Wow. I had preconceptions that the 2206 low kV motors would be underpowered but was completely wrong. This is a fast, highly manouverable quad that is well tuned. To date it is the quickest quad I've flown and objectively has been found to hit over 100mph consistently. More than that though it corners well thanks to the 'grippy' props and light weight. I won't carry on here about flight but it felt well and truly locked in, the best quad I have flown. In terms of FPV the signal was excellent on 25mW which is what I'm limited to on racing. There was absolutlely no sign of electrical interference or noise on my go-to channel (F2 - 5760MHz) at any throttle level. Just as importantly the image from the foxeer arrow micro pro is surprisingly good. This camera is a surprisingly good improvement over the micro arrow 1 or 2 and the micro swift 1 or 2 - I believe the presets were greatly approved on. I've actually ordered 3 more of these cameras to replace my others with because so far have not been a fan of the newer CMOS cameras. One thing that felt unfamiliar to me were the way the props delivered power and the noise or the lack thereof. Additionally they pull a lot of current -I peaked at 110A on a 1500mah 4s pack. My guess is that in order to take advantage of the relatively low kV motor they went with a VERY agressive propeller with a distinct geometry. After swapping over to a HQ 5x4.8x3 which is stilla fairly agressive prop the Hawk 5 felt much more familiar and predicable to me with a power delivery and audible feedback I'm much more familiar with. I didn't feel I lost anything in speed or grip but peak current draw dropped off to 97A, i.e. 10% improved efficiency at high throttle. I need to note that props are a personal thing and this is my preference. You may find you like the stock Avan Flow props much more, I'm more of a HQ/Dal guy. Lastly I'll say the efficiency on this is very impressive, again probably down to their choice of motor.. Everyone flies differently so will get different flight times depending on what they are doing but this I founf that even with my most tired 4s 1000mah pack I was able to get 3 minutes of flight which outperformed my lighter Floss 2 build which hand 'only' 2205 motors. On a good 1300mah I got 4 minute sof hard flying and from 1500mah about 4.5 - 5 minutes.
Conclusion If you are looking for a 5" bind and fly quad quite simply this is the one to get. $250 sounds like a lot compared to other cheaper ones but as I've said before this is so much greater than the sum of it's parts. The clever choice of components, lightweight frame and wonderful tune make this a great quad and it shows - at the time of writing it is always in and out of stock depending on where you shop. Since so many have sold there is also a very big community - more people to solve problems and enhance. For example customs canopies, go pro mounts and recommendations for budget meaningful modifications and customisation is much more readliy available than for less common quads that tend to come and go. I'll bet this quad will be around and supported well for a long time. Support is great - as you can see above all parts are available from many retailers so replacements are not just available but commonly available. I can't speak to reliability yet since I haven't flown enough but since they haven't gone with the very latest and leading edge technology and hardware, that means there have been time to iron out the bugs. I'm expecting few problems but will certainly report back if there are. Lastly I'll make a note again on the efficiency. In the race for power with bigger motors and steeper props this often gets forgotten but EMax seems to be going down the path of optimised efficiency and it shows here. The rhetoric from them is the the LS and newer RSII series are motor were not developed for all out power but more for efficiency which is what racers have really been demanding - making sure that on fast tracks that they still have battery left at the end. This is a benefit to the racer of course but for the casual pilot more efficiency = longer flight time = more stick time for learning and more of the the fun part of FPV... actual flying! In summary this is a great model and comes highly recommended from me. Of course I'll be looking to improve where I can do so effectively and cheaply and will write about this where it's meaningful. Gearbest kindly supplied me this model and I'd encourage you to purchase from them as per the link below. Using this affiliate link comes at no cost to you but will help me to continue making and publishing reviews like this and recommendations for improvement. Updates! I've new written a blog on bang for buck upgrades and also a comprehensive walkthrough on a VTX upgrade to allow DVR, smart audio, great power options.
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