Bardwell review of DJI FPV - Smashed it up immediately

[RandallEdick]

DJI FPV is a a great drone until you crash, and then you're done. I call it a flying wine-glass. I love it, but there's a reason I'm building a drone for more risky flights.

Crashes at the 12:50 when he hits a tree, at fairly low speed. He's not flying with the arm braces, which should just be standard. Nobody should fly without them. The arms are attached to a thin box, and just tear out. The features it provides, hover, return to home, braking etc, are great and it, has been a huge help for me to make the leap from Mavics to FPV drones. If I does stop working, I can just send it in, and not have to worry about fixing it. Still love it.

 

[Fast and Curious]

The arm braces don't look like they make a huge difference, it didn't come with arm braces and reviewers tend to review what comes in the box and the DJI fpv is pretty heavy even without them. I think the point Joshua Bardwell was getting at is it is not durable enough to be a good fpv drone for some people especially if you are trying to do freestyle like most traditional fpv drones can do. It is targeted at beginners and pros alike but durability is extra important when learning and if you have only just gotten into the hobby you might not want to sink too much money into it.

 

[RandallEdick]

The arm braces don't look like they make a huge difference, it didn't come with arm braces and reviewers tend to review what comes in the box and the DJI fpv is pretty heavy even without them. I think the point Joshua Bardwell was getting at is it is not durable enough to be a good fpv drone for some people especially if you are trying to do freestyle like most traditional fpv drones can do. It is targeted at beginners and pros alike but durability is extra important when learning and if you have only just gotten into the hobby you might not want to sink too much money into it.

The braces can't hurt. It doesn't take much to snap off an arm. Tried propeller guards, but broke an arm off with them, after they got hung in a tree on take off, fell, and the drone just shattered. Soul crushing. Anyway, I'm building a drone for more risky flights.

 

[Kilrah]

The braces can't hurt.

They do hurt flight time, would not want them built in.

 

[AndreasT]

Would be interesting to see what impact they have on flight time, i thing they add 38gr of weight on a 900gr thing.
The aerodynamic wont be affekted much i think. But there are probably been tests performed if people states that the flight time will suffer.

 

[RandallEdick]

Would be interesting to see what impact they have on flight time, i thing they add 38gr of weight on a 900gr thing.
The aerodynamic wont be affekted much i think. But there are probably been tests performed if people states that the flight time will suffer.

Bardwell is a pretty good pilot, and you saw what happened.

 

[Kilrah]

The aerodynamic wont be affekted much i think. But there are probably been tests performed if people states that the flight time will suffer.

It is the aerodynamics when flying fast. Probably won't notice in N mode but in manual at 100+km/h you lose about 1min-1min30 with them on from my experience.

 

[AndreasT]

Bardwell is a pretty good pilot, and you saw what happened.

Was his flight time reduced due to arm braces, or the lack of them?

 

[AndreasT]

It is the aerodynamics when flying fast. Probably won't notice in N mode but in manual at 100+km/h you lose about 1min-1min30 with them on from my experience.

So, instead of 8 minutes we can expect 6:30 to 7 minutes?

That is a significante difference.
Can't say that i noticed any difference att all.
Hovever I have not made any compairing measurements.

 

[BrickJockey]

I'm thinking it's not quite accurate to say (12:49 ) I was flying "it" and "it" crashed." Wouldn't it be better to say "I was flying it and crashed into a tree"....which would say to other FPV drivers flying on full manual mode not to get "hot doggie" with it until well versed in it's handling, and even then it's likely to happen when flying in such an obstacle laden environment. But I did enjoy your explanation of the FPV's handling and operation, and your otherwise fine flying. I've flown Mavic 2 Pro's for years, and have just bought the FPV on FleaBay and it's on the way, so I'm getting some book learning. DJI making it so difficult to put in full manual mode looks to me like a big pain in the arse, yet maybe necessary. Hope you were able to get your FPV repaired, I'm not new to repairing drones, after crashing my Mavic 2 Pro into the side of a house after forgetting the stopping distance is much further when flying in sport mode, so I let off the throttle and instead of slowing like normal...it coasted a mile and smacked the crap outta that wall. I had to buy a pro level soldering kit and an arm from DJI and took it apart and repaired it. It was nerve wracking as hell but worth the time and effort.

 

[bluesgeek]

I have two DJI FPV drones. When I damage one they “repair” it for a nominal fee (usually about $100). And rather than repair it, they send me a new one.

I don’t have time to repair my own quads (or even to learn how) so this works out great for me. I’m not a freestyler and find this to be an ideal cine drone (with mounted GoPro) for my commercial work.

I have flown indoors for clients in normal mode with prop guards but would like to see DJI come up with a whoop style drone with the same safety feature set.

A couple of examples of clips from finished client videos here: