RTF Quads - REVIEW

by FliteTest | February 3, 2014 | (22) Posted in Reviews

 

Paul Baxter from Ready To Fly Quads sent us a literal table-full of goodies. 

We gave one of their Flip 1.5 boards to our friend Chris who slapped it onto an Anycopter Quad Kit. We were amazed at how well it flew without having to dial in any settings. 

We also got the pleasure to play around with their models The Flip and The Flip FPV

The Flip is designed to give you more air time and less build/repair time, and they got it right on the nose. It's super durable, already dialed, small, fast...everything that you could ask for. 

The only set up you need to do is right on the packaging. 

Here at Flite Test we take our quads like we take our baked potatos. LOADED! The Flip FPV doesn't disappoint.

If you want even more than what it comes with, there are 22 options to beef it up how ever you like. 

FAST TIP: Flying in 0 degree weather is terrible. Fly from your truck if you can! 

The screencaps don't do the footage justice, but here are a few. 

We were extremely happy with the performance of this quad as well as The Flip

Please check out Ready To Fly Quads if you want to learn more. 

Thanks again to Paul Baxter for the wonderful quads and boards, and thanks to you for watching!

 

If you've had experience with RTF Quads let us know what you think! Chat it up in the forums!

COMMENTS

zodrik on February 3, 2014
Hi there! David are you fliyinf through the gopro on gimbal?
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diamondback68 on April 17, 2014
It would not be a good idea to fly through the Gimbal. When flying in RATE (manual) there would be no visual feedback to the pilot of current aircraft pitch and roll. The gimbal cancels out the motion of the aircraft. If you look at the video you will see a small CCD camera mounted on the front of the quad to the side of the gimbal. That camera would allow the pilot to fly the quad somewhere other than into the ground. If you are going to fly, you are going to cry. :-}

I have the smaller Flip-360 and it is designed to be flown with the AV out from the GoPro as the primary flight camera view. I personally prefer a second camera to fly as they are better thqn the GoPro but I am still practicing with the GoPro AV/out for FPV to save weight and keep simple.
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Lubis on February 3, 2014
A question about flying from the car. Isn't that kind of like flying inside a Faraday cage?
Did you experince any bad signal?
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jerimiah85 on February 3, 2014
Wow so to build that tbs style fpv quad your looking well over 500+ just for the frame naza with GPS low end motors etc.. Dji phanton 479.00 with new naza with gps.. How about a review for that quad? Best money I've ever spent on a quad.
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timmerflyer on February 3, 2014
I own the flip fpv with the gimbal, no tuning is required even with the gimbal. All of Paul's stuff is very nice and a great price.
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liveyourdreamsRC on February 3, 2014
Can you do some more with the multiwii? I am interested! I also have a guess at next weeks episode! David's new edf jet with possibly an afterburner? Maybe like the one on your vine?! Love your show, thanks.
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Crashpilot1000 on February 3, 2014
Yes mwii is a solid multicopter platform, not very fancy but damn reliable and forgiving. http://witespyquad.gostorego.com has been bashed a lot in some forums & irc (germany etc) but it boils down IMHO to the fact that *some* feel endangered by his low prices and cry out loud. Nice to see his products and the actual quality he delivers.
Cheers Rob
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CJGFX on February 4, 2014
Yes please guys lets have good review on the Wii boards..... I'm getting ready to build one of the knuckle quads and would like to try one of these boards. But I'd love to know how they compare to the KK2 for setting up etc.
Yet again another great little episode.... Braving the harsh winters weather just to bring another show... Well Dave on camera was.....
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lracnolip on February 6, 2014
yes a wii build would be great with GPS and FPV

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Eddy Current on February 4, 2014
Do not hesitate to buy from Paul / ReadyToFlyQuads! His customer service is excellent! I lost a part in a crash, so I emailed Paul about buying a replacement and he sent me the part for free!!!! No charge for the part, no charge for shipping!! Who does that???!!! Awesome customer service!

And his prices are incredible! Check out his prices for ESCs! And his price included "Free reflashing if new firmware comes out", what other vendor does that? Paul is Awesome!!!
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SR-71 on February 4, 2014
Paul is one of the good guys, his stuff flys great....
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danallen82 on February 4, 2014
I'm glad you guys are trying out new flight controllers. I tend to think the KK board as being a bareback control. ;)
Maybe you can look into using his MultiWii boards to fly some of your fixed wings.
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nasaguy86 on February 4, 2014
Paul is a gem, I fly a homebuilt H-quad with his esc's and motors, quality stuff!

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CJGFX on February 4, 2014
Yes I've looked over the website again today and seen the price of his ESC, good price especially when you know they are SimonK flashed too. I may send him a mail tomorrow and ask for Noobie Wii help.....
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WALRUS160 on February 4, 2014
Great Video. What kind of gimbal are you using on the flip fpv? Thanks.
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spidal3 on February 18, 2014
looks like my Beholder Lite, from team rebel design. probably with there controller.
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PaladinDG on February 4, 2014
I have been building a ver 2.5 tricopter using a MWC Flip 1.5 board from Readytoflyquads... today I did the maiden flight and I was very impressed. Using Arduino looks intimidating, but it is not as bad you think. MultiWii2.3 has some nice features over previous versions. Here was my maiden if any are interested - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TubpWWAsBWI
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lracnolip on February 6, 2014
Would like to see some more multicopter shows, like a Y six has not been done yet.
Also a challenge between all three of you for endurance flying, who's quad can stay in the air the longest?

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Neilyboy on February 10, 2014
I can not say enough good things about Paul at ready to fly. Had multiple orders now and every one of them was perfect. Pre configured/flashed boards at his crazy low prices are just unheard of.One of the best assets to the rc community I have found (along with the ft crew of course).
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spencer on February 19, 2014
Just got their RTF gimbal to put on my witespy quad, a flip controller to test airplane mode, and some other goodies. Paul rocks. Hope here is a good relationship coming between you guys.
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As soon as I saw this review posted I know that the normal amazing flite test guys did not do there normal amazing job vetting there suppliers. I have had many dealings with Paul and so have many others, that unless you have a web show you will spend days and weeks trying to get feed back to where your order is to no avail and if you ever have an issue with a product you would have better luck tracking down the 13 year old asian boy that made your board then getting some costumer from Paul.
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diamondback68 on April 17, 2014
I am on my 7th Hoverthings frame now. I have 5 left because 2 are victims of unrecoverable water landings, one of them in a 25 foot wave in Kauai. I bought my first HT-450 (RIP) from Paul and I have built all the rest with parts from Paul at RTF quads. My experience with his service and delivery is very good. The new Hoverthings FLIP frames are immensely strong.

I have two flips I use for photography. One a simple Flip-FPV I use for vertical work and dangerous missions. Stripped down with a Flip 1.5 board it has proved remarkably durable. My other Flip is a dupe of the gimbal quad in this review except I use a Naza because I want the Return To Home GPS function. Even Better!, I just finished building a Flip-360 which is a smaller version of the standard Flip that has folding arms and fits in my camera bag when folded. It has the same power and capability of a larger Flip-FPV in a smaller, folding package. These quads are revolutionizing photography.

I maintain my sanity by having a Blade Nano QX on my desk and I fly it once or twice a day in my office and outside in the parking lot for a fix when needed. If you can't build one of these yourself, buy a Blade Nano QX and learn to fly it. Then have Paul at RTF Quads build you a quad that will do what you need done! It will take some time. They are very busy,, but it will be worth it.
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Flying Fox on September 4, 2014
NICE WORK Guys
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tjmartin on November 24, 2014
I have to agree with BackWoodsFlyer. Building the Spider X quad was my first multirotor build. I ordered the electrohub kit from Flite Test and the electrohub kit from Ready to Fly Quads. The order did ship out in a reasonable time frame and everything came in one package as ordered. I assembled the quad as per Flite Test build video along with setting up the Multiwii as per RTFQ's video. The quad did fly right from the start. It seemed very wobbly and made some pretty awful sounds. My first thought was bearings :( I did some more reading via Google and came across an article regarding Motor Balancing which can also make the quad wobble and even produce awful sounds. I have gone through and balanced every motor to the best of my ability, props balanced and then props dynamically balanced to the motor and still left with the same result.

As per Pauls FAQ's on defective items, I have not opened any of the motors and contacted him right away. Twice through the contact form and once just sending an email directly. I even found a number for him that is a Google Voice number and no voice mail setup. To this date I still have not heard from him and I ended up contacting my credit card company and they are now handling this issue for me. I have determined that 3 of the 4 motors sent had bad bearings. The are a Suppo motor and I ended up ordering bearings for it from Altitude Hobbies. I suspect this will solve my issue. Paul does have some great prices without a doubt. I personally will not be ordering from him any time in the future due to my current issue and all the past issues I have read about. I realize he may be a 1 man band but if business is that good than hire some help to put orders together. It has to be cheaper than un-happy clients that no longer will buy. I am very new to Multirotors and I only went to RTFQ because of Flite Test. I do not blame Flite Test at all but as BackWoodsFlyer said, Flite Test should have done a better job on vetting this company.
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jdfelosi on April 13, 2015
Don't buy anything from Paul Baxter or readytoflyquads.com I placed an order on Jan 31 2015, got an email on March 12 saying some of it was out of stock and he would refund part of it, and as of April 13, I still haven't received anything or gotten any of my money back, I guess that was a 350$ mistake.
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RTF Quads - REVIEW