Probably the best purchase I've made in my FPV time was an analog Chimera 7 on sale from RDQ for just under $300. Threw a spare Air Unit and diversity Crossfire module in it with some custom TPU and it's a dual diversity pro model. I've had that bad boy up mountains 3 miles away bombing at 100mph with full DJI bars and 99LQ.
Awsome review. These type of videos from Joshua remind me of that first winter I learned to fly and all the info I needed and he supplied. It’s comforting now to watch these lol.
I only fly 8" long-range mtn surfing & I love the idea of using this quad' without an action cam' for efficiency. The sidewalls are really good for snow also.
I use the Chimera 7 for chasing yachts alongside my Mavic 3! If you are used to the long flight times and distance then this is definitely a great drone to have in the arsenal. You know what 7 inches are good for Joshua...
10:10 The best way to avoid air unit overheat in this case is to connect an external 5V (USB) and let the GPS find enough sats. only then disconnect USB and connect battery for fast sat lock, happy flying! (I usually use my speedybee so I can see the sats in the app). Thank you JB!
I recently build a 7" Apex (not DC), and I'm having a tonne of fun flying it. I find it's a very smooth cruisy flowy type of style (which you mentioned in your video), which suits my 43 year old reaction time! I'm getting 5-8min flight time on a 1850mAh 6s pack and I find that's about the right length of time, longer and it gets a bit much. I haven't built it to be a speed demon, but it's definitely a lot faster in a straight line than my 5" quads, so that's been a fun side effect too. Not something for bando bashing though.
My 7 inch is my go to for chasing. Heavy and super stable. The right motors, props, and battery can get you more flight time then your eyeballs can handle. And not as loud as a 5 inch either.
I was wondering if a larger prop had to do less work and might actually be more quiet. I only have DJI drones, and have built my first 5" fpv which I have yet to finish.
As a predominantly wing guy this fills the space between a quad and a wing and it can take some serious wind with no worries. Been flying mine with a 2600mAh lipo - short but fun smooth flights
Yes sir, you are right! This quad is just the best bird to start at one point of interest at the bottom of a hill and climb up to the one on the top. It's not the one and only quad to have but it's a rode. Yes! The rode is the best word! Fly low 3" at one location then fly high, show the beauty and link one location to another by air with a smoooooth big bird :) I fly 8" (thanks again for the 2,5W vtx review) and I'm loving it so much!
Others used the best descriptive adjectives - Awesome, Fantastic, Great, etc. As a designer/builder, I understand JB's critique/observations regarding the "consumer product aspects" of the quad. However, as a non-builder/hobbyist/pilot (and consumer of FPV products), those same "consumer product aspects" make me want it all the more. So, although I already have my "Quadmas" presents (and I already have a Chimera7 and a Chimera7Pro from 2021/22), I can see sometime in 2023 I'' be adding a Chimera7Pro O3 air unit quad to my squadron (and using the affiliate links!)
7in are fast af too I use a 5200 mAh and get 17 mins exactly last time I tested. Lions are the way to go. I chose the 7in over the DJI stuff because I don't trust DJI wanted to knowvhow my stuff works. To the comment if you want fpv to grow we need to do more than racing stuff it's awesome to watch but have you seen mountain surfing it's alot of fun for longer time usually. Racing around is fun cruising is fun too want to see more fpv wings too 🤷🏼♂️
A good preview of the Chimera 7 pro. 👏👏👏🤩 I love this copter and even upgraded the analogue version with the Vista. However, I disagree on one point. In my opinion, the Chimera 7 is a thoroughbred long-range copter which can easily carry a 6s 2p LiIon battery and a full size GoPro and thus easily achieve flight times of 20 minutes and more. The stability of the frame is also impressive. I once fell in a flat spin into a treetop from about 300m while because the battery died and didn't have to replace any part of the frame. 😵💫
I built a Mark4 frame with 2306 Xings and a Mamba stack. I was amazed at how smooth it flew. Now I'm building out a 7" Mark4 frame for the long stuff. Emax ECOII 2807 1500KV, Mamba F405FC and a JHEMCU 45A ESC. I'm still analog so probably around a $350/$400 CDN build as of May 2023.
27:00 What I find my 7" most useful for is chasing. They are sneaky fast (you can tell during the floppy floppy parts of this video), smooth/stable, they can carry a GoPro without noticing, and have flight times that are long enough that you're not constantly landing for a new pack. Yes, you could use a bigger quad, like a 10", and still get good results, but once you get over 7", the cost and pucker factor go up dramatically and the motor/prop/frame options go down dramatically.
@@dangerous8333 yes. Compared to a 5 inch, they are big, and heavy, and because the props are bigger and the motors are lower kv, they don’t scream like a 5 inch. But because they have so much thrust with those big props, they pick up speed very quickly without a ton of forward tilt, and their weight gives them a lot of momentum, especially in a dive. So you wouldn’t think they’d be really fast, but you’ll find yourself moving a lot faster than you expected to be and it can catch you out. Sneaky fast. You can see it in JB’s flying, there’s a couple times where he was in a shallow dive into his trees and you could tell he was approaching a lot quicker than he expected, and he made a noise like “uh oh”. But once you get used to it, their speed makes them great for chasing.
This video taunted me for 2 days now and I expected a lot from the comment section but I think this is somehow a safe place in the internet for people to say "What are seven inches good for?" without getting ridiculous sexist comments.. Well anyways I think seven inches really is huge and you probably still get long ways with 3-4 inches and it will satisfy most pilots for sure. 10-12 minutes is also really much in drone minutes so you dont have to feel embarrassed! Anyways, happy holidays :D
I usually get 25 to 29 sats with the BN-220 and BN-880 with no shielding or any protection and it usually locks in less than 1 minute even on new locations. Surprised you’ve never seen more than 18. I live in New Mexico btw, don’t know if it has anything to do.
Out of all my quads and planes, my favorite is my 8in quad. I'm running bi-blades on the FPVCycle 30mm motors at 1420KV along with the DJI air unit on the iFlight XL8 V5 frame. I usually run 1,500 to 2,000mAh lipos and get great flight time. Sometimes 6 or 7 minutes. I can even do some decent freestyle on my 5in packs while still getting decent flight time. If I had to pick one quad that I would be allowed to fly going forward it would 100% be that one. It's definitely not as agile and responsive as a 5in, and the tuning is definitely more difficult, but it's perfect for the way that I fly! I bought the O3 air unit and just the other day ordered the Nazgul Evoque F5 V2 frame to put it in. I'm kind of kicking myself in the ass because I didn't realize they had a 6-in version of the same frame that I really feel I should have gone with lol. Also in regards to the 55A ESC, I'm also running a T-Motor 55A ESC on the 8in. I've never really done full throttle with that thing because even at 75% throttle it's more than I need for what I do. I haven't yet blown a FET!
I see very long antennas, but no vibration. Iflight did a good job. Chris Rosser says that long antennas introduce a lot of vibration, but as you can see it can be prevented. I like this Chimera. JB please more materials about 7 inches :)
Vibrations are bad and dangling things will vibrate more. Filtering can reduce the impact of vibrations - the point is that it also changes the potential responsiveness and flight characteristics. That said - I did try his method of taping it to the arm and I hated it. But, I do make sure to reduce as much vibration noise as possible because his point is valid.
The 7 to 10 inch quads I’ve flown all felt like they had a decent amount of glide built in. Like you said, they didn’t sink like a rock off-throttle like my 5” quads. This gave them a very relaxing feel but it also kinda dulled the agility that I like to have when chasing fast cars. This past weekend I was at a race track event where the hired camera crew was using both DJI Avatas and the DJI FPVs to chase the Drift cars. I chatted with them and they absolutely love the DJIs for that purpose. The footage looks crystal clear and they were getting pretty fancy with their flying (maybe like 60% as sassy as what you get from a pilot like Mr Steele when he’s chasing cars), but the DJI’s battery life in “kill mode” is like 15-20 minutes. Of course those setups cost 4x my mid-tier 5” quad, but they’re not that much more expensive as a 7-10” quad so I’d probably go the DJI route if I wanted to chase cars professionally. I forgot to ask but I wonder if the DJIs can just lock on with their tracking feature and follow the cars around the track with little input from the pilot. If so, that sounds like easy money!
just got the newest BOB57 from iflight and its really good. not much difference except new O3 air unit and some minor tweaks. i just uploaded direct comparison for the build in camera. much better than i thought. i would love to try the 7"
Just ordered mine through your link, thanks for all your help, i appreciate what you do, im not the sharpest tool in the shed so couldn't have gotten into fpv with out ya lol, cheers man
Regarding air unit overheating while waiting for GPS lock - not sure about the flight controller Chimera ships with, but the Zeus F722 for example, has the 9V regulator controlled by a user mode, you could simply shut down the Air unit from the transmitter, and power it back on when the quad is all set and ready for arming. Works especially well with properly configured telemetry (OpenTX) where you can get GPS lock indication directly on the transmitter screen.
While I was watching this I was thinking “huh that place looks familiar”. Then I saw the front porch and the tree layout and was like “no effing way this dudes yard is on liftoff”
Had the same problem with a GoPro recently. Keep shutting down indicating 'Low Battery'...when the battery was clearly at 85%! Finally had to swap out batteries and everything went fine. I fly my 5" cruising like I would a 7".
Fantastic flying and review, Joshua! 😃 Quads like these are great for exploratory flights! And long range, of course! Anyway, stay safe there with your family! 🖖😊 And merry Christmas!
I had Troy at QSL build me a Project 399 SuperG+ 7". Without a doubt the best GoPro lifter you could wish for. Smooth, Stable, can still handle like a 5" should you want it to and the flight time is superb. I use mine for offshore costal work and its perfect.
You should fly more cinematic proximity midrange, Joshua. You gotta get more comfortable flirting with the treetops out at range. Those long lines and hypnotic flow are what it's all about. I know you don't have much interesting terrain where you live, but there are probably rivers and lakes
Thank you so much for this!!! local knox fpv member here and i literally just posted about my 7 in build i started a few weeks back and have been struggling w it on what motors. i wish id seen this frame when i was looking but im pretty happy w the 7'' hyperbola frame and looking forward to getting some motors to finish it off. ill def use that affiliate link for you when i make my next order. as always you enlightened me on a few thing ive been scrathing my head on. keep it up man hope i can sub to patrion sometime soon to compensate for all the great shared info over the last few years. couldnt do this hobby without it.
I've been flying a Chimera7 for I don't know a a year and a half or so maybe more and it's a wonderful quadcopter I've crashed them a few times, in conditions were even my 5-in would would have probably been in pieces and it's fared quite well,. my props seem to be pretty solid I chopped trees and stuff like that all the time flying long range and they've held up great for me.
As a consumer product, this thing better be reliable, that way there’s little need to open it up. Plus, I’m not sure inav waypoint mission type of stuff would make it more consumer friendly, though RTH definitely does! Still run mine on a different video system though, with better light handling, and much lighter and cheaper than the one on this considering you still put a GoPro on top. Also completely agree on every BNF should have a repo. Preferably also a freshly tuned one for a new BF release!
btw iflight actually used side panels on a previous frame they used to sell call the "dragon" that was sold maybe a year before they started selling the evoque.... i only know because i used have a couple of the dragon frames back in those days and i bought them specifically because i liked the idea of having some protection for the electronics in case i hit a tree or ghost branches...
Hey, I just bought that same drone a month ago. Absolutely love it and took it mountain surfing. I do wish I could get a bit longer flight time. I think I need a defferent battery configuration.
I fly Gemfan bi-blades exclusively. I fly freestyle with this quad, and chase drift cars at the track. It's VERY nimble. If you'd fly it daily, you would experience this. Our brains adapt to the differences in hardware response between 5" and 7".
Thanks so much Joshua! Finally you are facing the exact frame that I keep thinking about to be my first 7 inch LR setup! 🙂Jackpot babyyy! ..."the inherent hilarity of that statement..." 🤣👍
That's pretty much my experience too. How light are yours? My 7" Apex is coming in at 995g with a Hero 9 on it. Which is much lighter than the 2kg of my friend's 7" FR7 long range.
@@JazzXP 2kg?? 😂😂. I don't fly with go pro etc. My mark 4 7 inch with 2807 motors weighs 425g so with 2000 6s around 740g. I only build light fast quads as I can't live with slow ones.
7" drones (especially in dark colors) are great for those of us that are visually impaired. My son has a 5" drone that is white. If I glance away, I have trouble finding it again across a football field when it's only 50 feet up.
The Chimera 7 I have, I built myself. It's set up similarly to how iFlight sets up the reviewed drone and I love flying it. However, as you say, it can get expensive if you crash and break something and.... Well, if you freestyle it, it's GOING to crash. :) These bigger props do like to explode and any imbalance just gets amplified at this scale. The very first crash I had with mine on its MAIDEN FLIGHT was actually a meltdown. One motor burned up entirely and the FC/ESC stack caught on fire. Still not sure what happened with that, but since rebuilding it, she flies nice... I just need to tune it a bit once it warms up and dries out again this spring! :)
I got the mateksys 3100 wing gps I get around 27 sats also sir for dji guys. I use a PowerBank and power up the fc just with the plug for computer tell it finds gps then connect my battery then disconnect the powerbank. Keeps ur dji from turning on tell ur ready to go.
I got a rekon7 then put 8in props to,get better disc load values the props overlap slightly so I 3d printed a spacer to raise the rear motors. Haven't been able to do real long range test to see if the 8s make for longer flight time.
I agree. It's like the Dji drone. I don't put in manual because I don't want to fix. I would fly this the same way. Very carefully. But I want my freestyle drone to be simple and easy. This would be so annoying
i have a 45A mamba esc on my 7" geprc, and i barely touch it. Max i've pulled is 30A, total, not per channel... and the li-ion batts can really only put out 30-40A if you hammer them, anyway... unless you run 2p setups. It doesn't rip like a 5", but man is it smooth and fast... feels like pod racing... which I fricken love.
Yep really easy fliers. My gerpc helped me learn to fly my 5" better. Gave me confidence to fly through gaps better I kept sketching out on approach to even big gaps. Paranoid about how much is this going to cost. Lol
➡️ If ⬅️ I had the time, I would build my own. But, my schedule doesn't allow for much tinker time. Therefore, this "Hob-Sumer" quad would interest me for certain. I would prefer this style to a DJI Consumer drone.
INHO it's dji's fault that iflight got a bad vista BUT its Iflights fault the consumer got a copter with a bad component, QC is on iflight once they install it and resell it.
Again the could put locks the go up and down have two buttons you push retracts the locks the side plates pop out or have a twist lock half turn and its unlocked
Brother as a gentleman who has his own kit for people to build, it is interesting whether you decide to keep the hobby side or go consumer? there is a potential to make more money on the consumer side. But please tell me you're going to build an 03 air unit kit🙏🤣🤣👍 I am waiting
6:21 "...pieced together in a meaningful way" and not meant to be tinkered with or modified. That's how I would have ended this sentence. [I wouldn't go as far as to add 'and not meant to be repaired' because this quad certainly is repairable, and that without requiring any more knowledge and skills than the FPV hobby already requires. Only additional _hassle_ ]
Good video.... Id love to see what you think of Five33 Spec 7 frame... Mine is nearly fully built and soon will be ready to go. The only problem with race specific frames is lack of space... as long as ypu understand that, its an amazing frame!
Interesting video thanks man. You should make a video about how you go on about cleaning your drone after a bad crash into dirt and gras, curious to see how you do it and maybe if there are tools and accessories that might make that job faster / easier.
HQ props of any size tend to explode around the hubs(in my experience) I suspect that they b add overcook the polycarbonate or something… Gemfen doesn’t do that
JB getting a 7 inch long range drone for test and rips it freestyle 75% of the video as if he is Mr. Steele 🤣 My first and only BNF I bought when I started the hobby was the Nazgul from iFlight and I can confirm their quality is just awesome in any way! And yes it confused me as well that the props spin opposite direction. 😂
I've been wanting to jump into this hobby for 5 years now but what holds me back is the battery duration. I am hoping more advancements in the battery dept but that's like a mankind milestone thing. If time comes 1 battery gives 1 hour flight time.. I'm double down.
It's a pity that you didn't show exactly how the antennas are connected in it, compared to a standard unit that has one antenna. How is it done here? After all, two antennas are visible
Awesome review, beautiful drone. I was wondering though, say i built this myself, would the preset only work if i used the exact same ESC/FC stack? is that how this works?
Too funny, I remember when bigger was better. I Have a 350, but I really want a 450. In 2010 I put over 3K into one of those.. and buried into a creek night before 3 FEET of snow said "welcome to FPV" 😉
Hi! What type of battery's you are using (lipo or liion)? And what is the capacity of the batteries? How long is the flight lasting with this capacity?
please tell me, will the quality of communication increase if instead of one RHCP antenna, with two plugs connected to Dji 03, I put two different ones? Both from Dji
Hey Joshua. I've seen several reviews of the Chimera 7, but not very many come out for the Evoque v2 F5. I'm wondering if you'll give it a review? I presume it's pretty similar to the Evoque v1, aside from how the new camera is mounted. But just haven't seen any reviews of it and am considering it for my next drone. I got an Avata recently and am liking it pretty well except it tumbles if you strafe sideways too fast. So I'm thinking I need to upgrade to a 5 inch freestyle drone but would like to reuse my Goggles 2 and controller.
yes Meester snarkwell; much love; but can we see your annual roundup of your best freestyle seshes? I'm running low on skatepark vids from 2002 and what prefer your stylings; buh bye; skeletor runs away
As an auto mechanic I find it hilarious how you talk about the few extra little screws being really hard to deal with 😂 I WISH cars were this simple. These things are all cake…
with all that thought through design, they couldnt add something like the vfly beeper with build in battery and gps passthrough that will allow gps to power up without a battery so you can get gps lock without cooking your vtx, so well thought through lol
I really like the 7" rig, I fly the AOS w/2603.5 Xing. Floats like feathers compared to my 5" which drops like a cannon ball. I'm a new flier, the 7" is very nice for video. I think I will build a chimera and see how it compares.. Thanks for your great reviews Josh.
You'll have too much fun building one. I built Chimera7 and Chimera7 Pro. I haven't tried Chimera7 Pro V2 - I don't think they're selling the frame kit.. just yet?
Hi Josh, Great video and review of the Iflight Chimera 7in. I just built a 7in for long-range flying. I would have liked to been able to use the Chimera. But I couldn't get it at the time, so I used the Darwin 129 7in frame, but if Iflight would like to send me a frame, I would love to use it. 2809 1250kv. Is close to the 2808 1100kv TOKA motors that I used. I would like to try the new 7in folding props. There's just something about a 7in that is fun to fly. Thanks again for the video and information about this quad
Probably the best purchase I've made in my FPV time was an analog Chimera 7 on sale from RDQ for just under $300. Threw a spare Air Unit and diversity Crossfire module in it with some custom TPU and it's a dual diversity pro model. I've had that bad boy up mountains 3 miles away bombing at 100mph with full DJI bars and 99LQ.
Don't know what that means but it sounds exciting 🎉
What are 7 inches good for? Ask my wife 😢
What wife
Hahaha 🤣
Yeah, I’ve been lying to my wife for years.. she THINKS she know what seven inches is..😂
Yep she'll tell you the neighbor is good for 7"🫨
She said she is still waiting to find out.
Awsome review. These type of videos from Joshua remind me of that first winter I learned to fly and all the info I needed and he supplied. It’s comforting now to watch these lol.
I only fly 8" long-range mtn surfing & I love the idea of using this quad' without an action cam' for efficiency. The sidewalls are really good for snow also.
I use the Chimera 7 for chasing yachts alongside my Mavic 3! If you are used to the long flight times and distance then this is definitely a great drone to have in the arsenal. You know what 7 inches are good for Joshua...
10:10 The best way to avoid air unit overheat in this case is to connect an external 5V (USB) and let the GPS find enough sats. only then disconnect USB and connect battery for fast sat lock, happy flying! (I usually use my speedybee so I can see the sats in the app). Thank you JB!
I recently build a 7" Apex (not DC), and I'm having a tonne of fun flying it. I find it's a very smooth cruisy flowy type of style (which you mentioned in your video), which suits my 43 year old reaction time! I'm getting 5-8min flight time on a 1850mAh 6s pack and I find that's about the right length of time, longer and it gets a bit much. I haven't built it to be a speed demon, but it's definitely a lot faster in a straight line than my 5" quads, so that's been a fun side effect too. Not something for bando bashing though.
0:06 I hear that all the time 😎
My 7 inch is my go to for chasing. Heavy and super stable. The right motors, props, and battery can get you more flight time then your eyeballs can handle. And not as loud as a 5 inch either.
I was wondering if a larger prop had to do less work and might actually be more quiet. I only have DJI drones, and have built my first 5" fpv which I have yet to finish.
@@SchubertTech A 7 inch bi blade had a very distinct sound. I personally love it.
As a predominantly wing guy this fills the space between a quad and a wing and it can take some serious wind with no worries. Been flying mine with a 2600mAh lipo - short but fun smooth flights
Aren't quads generally more wind resistant than wings? Just curious, don't fly wings (yet) :D
@@dronesndstuff626 in my experience yeah 💯
@@threebadmicefpv strangley enough: I wrote this, went Out with my tinyhawk and got thrown around in the Wind 😅
Yes sir, you are right! This quad is just the best bird to start at one point of interest at the bottom of a hill and climb up to the one on the top. It's not the one and only quad to have but it's a rode. Yes! The rode is the best word! Fly low 3" at one location then fly high, show the beauty and link one location to another by air with a smoooooth big bird :) I fly 8" (thanks again for the 2,5W vtx review) and I'm loving it so much!
I have the XL7 with 2806.5 and it's the only quad I fly now I love it.
Others used the best descriptive adjectives - Awesome, Fantastic, Great, etc. As a designer/builder, I understand JB's critique/observations regarding the "consumer product aspects" of the quad. However, as a non-builder/hobbyist/pilot (and consumer of FPV products), those same "consumer product aspects" make me want it all the more. So, although I already have my "Quadmas" presents (and I already have a Chimera7 and a Chimera7Pro from 2021/22), I can see sometime in 2023 I'' be adding a Chimera7Pro O3 air unit quad to my squadron (and using the affiliate links!)
7in are fast af too I use a 5200 mAh and get 17 mins exactly last time I tested. Lions are the way to go. I chose the 7in over the DJI stuff because I don't trust DJI wanted to knowvhow my stuff works. To the comment if you want fpv to grow we need to do more than racing stuff it's awesome to watch but have you seen mountain surfing it's alot of fun for longer time usually. Racing around is fun cruising is fun too want to see more fpv wings too 🤷🏼♂️
That 17 min flight was lipo my lions get 25 mins plus
A good preview of the Chimera 7 pro. 👏👏👏🤩
I love this copter and even upgraded the analogue version with the Vista. However, I disagree on one point. In my opinion, the Chimera 7 is a thoroughbred long-range copter which can easily carry a 6s 2p LiIon battery and a full size GoPro and thus easily achieve flight times of 20 minutes and more. The stability of the frame is also impressive. I once fell in a flat spin into a treetop from about 300m while because the battery died and didn't have to replace any part of the frame. 😵💫
Great information. Thanks for sharing your 1st person experience.
I built a Mark4 frame with 2306 Xings and a Mamba stack. I was amazed at how smooth it flew. Now I'm building out a 7" Mark4 frame for the long stuff. Emax ECOII 2807 1500KV, Mamba F405FC and a JHEMCU 45A ESC. I'm still analog so probably around a $350/$400 CDN build as of May 2023.
27:00 What I find my 7" most useful for is chasing. They are sneaky fast (you can tell during the floppy floppy parts of this video), smooth/stable, they can carry a GoPro without noticing, and have flight times that are long enough that you're not constantly landing for a new pack. Yes, you could use a bigger quad, like a 10", and still get good results, but once you get over 7", the cost and pucker factor go up dramatically and the motor/prop/frame options go down dramatically.
Sneaky fast?
🤷
@@dangerous8333 yes. Compared to a 5 inch, they are big, and heavy, and because the props are bigger and the motors are lower kv, they don’t scream like a 5 inch. But because they have so much thrust with those big props, they pick up speed very quickly without a ton of forward tilt, and their weight gives them a lot of momentum, especially in a dive. So you wouldn’t think they’d be really fast, but you’ll find yourself moving a lot faster than you expected to be and it can catch you out. Sneaky fast.
You can see it in JB’s flying, there’s a couple times where he was in a shallow dive into his trees and you could tell he was approaching a lot quicker than he expected, and he made a noise like “uh oh”.
But once you get used to it, their speed makes them great for chasing.
@@swissfreek brilliant description mate 🤝
Sneaky fast is a good way of putting it. Just LOVE the way they shrug off the GoPro weight too.
I use them to chase cars as well. I went 3110 1600kv on 6S. It hauls the mail for sure.
This video taunted me for 2 days now and I expected a lot from the comment section but I think this is somehow a safe place in the internet for people to say "What are seven inches good for?" without getting ridiculous sexist comments..
Well anyways I think seven inches really is huge and you probably still get long ways with 3-4 inches and it will satisfy most pilots for sure. 10-12 minutes is also really much in drone minutes so you dont have to feel embarrassed!
Anyways, happy holidays :D
I usually get 25 to 29 sats with the BN-220 and BN-880 with no shielding or any protection and it usually locks in less than 1 minute even on new locations. Surprised you’ve never seen more than 18. I live in New Mexico btw, don’t know if it has anything to do.
Out of all my quads and planes, my favorite is my 8in quad. I'm running bi-blades on the FPVCycle 30mm motors at 1420KV along with the DJI air unit on the iFlight XL8 V5 frame. I usually run 1,500 to 2,000mAh lipos and get great flight time. Sometimes 6 or 7 minutes. I can even do some decent freestyle on my 5in packs while still getting decent flight time. If I had to pick one quad that I would be allowed to fly going forward it would 100% be that one. It's definitely not as agile and responsive as a 5in, and the tuning is definitely more difficult, but it's perfect for the way that I fly!
I bought the O3 air unit and just the other day ordered the Nazgul Evoque F5 V2 frame to put it in. I'm kind of kicking myself in the ass because I didn't realize they had a 6-in version of the same frame that I really feel I should have gone with lol.
Also in regards to the 55A ESC, I'm also running a T-Motor 55A ESC on the 8in. I've never really done full throttle with that thing because even at 75% throttle it's more than I need for what I do. I haven't yet blown a FET!
My C7 . I fly 12-13 minutes on a 35C 3500 lipo !
I see very long antennas, but no vibration. Iflight did a good job. Chris Rosser says that long antennas introduce a lot of vibration, but as you can see it can be prevented. I like this Chimera. JB please more materials about 7 inches :)
👍🏾
Vibrations are bad and dangling things will vibrate more. Filtering can reduce the impact of vibrations - the point is that it also changes the potential responsiveness and flight characteristics. That said - I did try his method of taping it to the arm and I hated it. But, I do make sure to reduce as much vibration noise as possible because his point is valid.
The 7 to 10 inch quads I’ve flown all felt like they had a decent amount of glide built in. Like you said, they didn’t sink like a rock off-throttle like my 5” quads. This gave them a very relaxing feel but it also kinda dulled the agility that I like to have when chasing fast cars.
This past weekend I was at a race track event where the hired camera crew was using both DJI Avatas and the DJI FPVs to chase the Drift cars. I chatted with them and they absolutely love the DJIs for that purpose. The footage looks crystal clear and they were getting pretty fancy with their flying (maybe like 60% as sassy as what you get from a pilot like Mr Steele when he’s chasing cars), but the DJI’s battery life in “kill mode” is like 15-20 minutes. Of course those setups cost 4x my mid-tier 5” quad, but they’re not that much more expensive as a 7-10” quad so I’d probably go the DJI route if I wanted to chase cars professionally. I forgot to ask but I wonder if the DJIs can just lock on with their tracking feature and follow the cars around the track with little input from the pilot. If so, that sounds like easy money!
Not the fpv ones, they can't auto track. Only the Mavics, but not at those speeds.
@@dwalosie Might want to google that again. The FPV ones absolutely can target lock.
@@crisnmaryfam7344 if you work for the Pentagon perhaps
I'm stoked to get mine. Supposed to arrive in the next couple days 😁
Did you enjoy it?
just got the newest BOB57 from iflight and its really good. not much difference except new O3 air unit and some minor tweaks. i just uploaded direct comparison for the build in camera. much better than i thought. i would love to try the 7"
Just ordered mine through your link, thanks for all your help, i appreciate what you do, im not the sharpest tool in the shed so couldn't have gotten into fpv with out ya lol, cheers man
Regarding air unit overheating while waiting for GPS lock - not sure about the flight controller Chimera ships with, but the Zeus F722 for example, has the 9V regulator controlled by a user mode, you could simply shut down the Air unit from the transmitter, and power it back on when the quad is all set and ready for arming. Works especially well with properly configured telemetry (OpenTX) where you can get GPS lock indication directly on the transmitter screen.
I have heard the iflight flight controller supports VTX power on and off with a switch.
Hi, JB! I like that you are changing it up with this 7" quad
Mountain Surfing and Chases with the AOS Falcon 7!! 🔥🙌🔥
While I was watching this I was thinking “huh that place looks familiar”. Then I saw the front porch and the tree layout and was like “no effing way this dudes yard is on liftoff”
Had the same problem with a GoPro recently. Keep shutting down indicating 'Low Battery'...when the battery was clearly at 85%! Finally had to swap out batteries and everything went fine. I fly my 5" cruising like I would a 7".
Fantastic flying and review, Joshua! 😃
Quads like these are great for exploratory flights! And long range, of course!
Anyway, stay safe there with your family! 🖖😊
And merry Christmas!
I had Troy at QSL build me a Project 399 SuperG+ 7". Without a doubt the best GoPro lifter you could wish for. Smooth, Stable, can still handle like a 5" should you want it to and the flight time is superb. I use mine for offshore costal work and its perfect.
You should fly more cinematic proximity midrange, Joshua. You gotta get more comfortable flirting with the treetops out at range. Those long lines and hypnotic flow are what it's all about. I know you don't have much interesting terrain where you live, but there are probably rivers and lakes
Thank you so much for this!!! local knox fpv member here and i literally just posted about my 7 in build i started a few weeks back and have been struggling w it on what motors. i wish id seen this frame when i was looking but im pretty happy w the 7'' hyperbola frame and looking forward to getting some motors to finish it off. ill def use that affiliate link for you when i make my next order. as always you enlightened me on a few thing ive been scrathing my head on. keep it up man hope i can sub to patrion sometime soon to compensate for all the great shared info over the last few years. couldnt do this hobby without it.
I've been flying a Chimera7 for I don't know a a year and a half or so maybe more and it's a wonderful quadcopter I've crashed them a few times, in conditions were even my 5-in would would have probably been in pieces and it's fared quite well,. my props seem to be pretty solid I chopped trees and stuff like that all the time flying long range and they've held up great for me.
As a consumer product, this thing better be reliable, that way there’s little need to open it up.
Plus, I’m not sure inav waypoint mission type of stuff would make it more consumer friendly, though RTH definitely does!
Still run mine on a different video system though, with better light handling, and much lighter and cheaper than the one on this considering you still put a GoPro on top.
Also completely agree on every BNF should have a repo. Preferably also a freshly tuned one for a new BF release!
The Chimera 7 ist the best!!!!!! Right know my new chimera with o3 is on the way
Chimera 7 is ideal for long range kind of flying. I reached 3000m AGL with mine, using a 8000 mAh li-ion, carrying a Hero 8.
How big is your batt.? I am asking cuz I have a 6s 6000mah and I was wondering if that one fits
As always brilliant video with thorough information for us, fpv fans.
btw iflight actually used side panels on a previous frame they used to sell call the "dragon" that was sold maybe a year before they started selling the evoque.... i only know because i used have a couple of the dragon frames back in those days and i bought them specifically because i liked the idea of having some protection for the electronics in case i hit a tree or ghost branches...
Hey, I just bought that same drone a month ago. Absolutely love it and took it mountain surfing. I do wish I could get a bit longer flight time. I think I need a defferent battery configuration.
What are you currently using??
@@willsintheair I have a 3300mah 6s from HRB. It gets me around 8 minutes with casual cruising.
I fly Gemfan bi-blades exclusively. I fly freestyle with this quad, and chase drift cars at the track. It's VERY nimble. If you'd fly it daily, you would experience this. Our brains adapt to the differences in hardware response between 5" and 7".
I just picked one up for chasing but can't decide on a battery. What do you suggest for flippy floppy stuff. Lol.
Nice rip around the yard too. That thing is bad ass. Looks like a blast to rip around.
Thanks so much Joshua!
Finally you are facing the exact frame that I keep thinking about to be my first 7 inch LR setup! 🙂Jackpot babyyy!
..."the inherent hilarity of that statement..." 🤣👍
I've built 2 lightweight 7 inch quads. Both do over 90mph and power loop for fun. Just more relaxing than 5 inch.
That's pretty much my experience too. How light are yours? My 7" Apex is coming in at 995g with a Hero 9 on it. Which is much lighter than the 2kg of my friend's 7" FR7 long range.
@@JazzXP 2kg?? 😂😂. I don't fly with go pro etc. My mark 4 7 inch with 2807 motors weighs 425g so with 2000 6s around 740g.
I only build light fast quads as I can't live with slow ones.
@@richardheedfpv9626 Mine is 530g dry, but yeah, I love the GoPro too much!
@@JazzXP That's the beauty of flying. Each to his own. My diatone gtm7 with same motors is about 415g.
@@JazzXP I've just built a atto sniper 6 inch. 290g dry with 2306.5 1850kv. Weather is shocking but if that's not a rocket I'll be gutted😂😂
7 inch drone is pretty good stuff for racing on full throttle with 1.5 kilo of amount into ruzzian soldiers\armored vehicles. Really works well.
You should try the Recon 7 pro. It handles more like a 5-inch The best quad I have flown so far Great review one love have a good Christmas
7" drones (especially in dark colors) are great for those of us that are visually impaired. My son has a 5" drone that is white. If I glance away, I have trouble finding it again across a football field when it's only 50 feet up.
7'' is perfect for small gift deliveries for muscovites )))
The thing at 9:16 is the spark filter, IFlight sells it by itself. The chip on the front is a big ol 80V 300A mosfet
A bit of optical cable can route the light from LED to the outside world.
I prefer this style of long range flying but now I flying planes and delta wings because I get 30 mins flight on a 6s 1300 mah lipo
Amazing tune that iflight put on this quad. Looks really locked in. 👌
I got a 5 inch and 7 inch and I have to say the 7 is way more relaxing I just love the floaty smooth feel
2507 1500kv has plenty of torque and is my go to I tried the bigger 28xx motors and all that did was kill my lipos
The Chimera 7 I have, I built myself. It's set up similarly to how iFlight sets up the reviewed drone and I love flying it. However, as you say, it can get expensive if you crash and break something and.... Well, if you freestyle it, it's GOING to crash. :) These bigger props do like to explode and any imbalance just gets amplified at this scale. The very first crash I had with mine on its MAIDEN FLIGHT was actually a meltdown. One motor burned up entirely and the FC/ESC stack caught on fire. Still not sure what happened with that, but since rebuilding it, she flies nice... I just need to tune it a bit once it warms up and dries out again this spring! :)
Is there a preset for the chimera 7 I can download? Can you share your presets? I have currently being build but having a hard time finding presets
I got the mateksys 3100 wing gps I get around 27 sats also sir for dji guys. I use a PowerBank and power up the fc just with the plug for computer tell it finds gps then connect my battery then disconnect the powerbank. Keeps ur dji from turning on tell ur ready to go.
I have probably said this before in the comments but you live in a very beautiful piece of land
I got a rekon7 then put 8in props to,get better disc load values the props overlap slightly so I 3d printed a spacer to raise the rear motors. Haven't been able to do real long range test to see if the 8s make for longer flight time.
what kind of batteries would you recommend for a chimera, with a load of 1 kilogram? Are the Li Ion 21700 suitable for a leisurely flight?
I agree. It's like the Dji drone. I don't put in manual because I don't want to fix. I would fly this the same way. Very carefully. But I want my freestyle drone to be simple and easy. This would be so annoying
Is there a Chimera 7 forum? Would be nice to get tips and input from everyone in one place.. loving this quad btw
i have a 45A mamba esc on my 7" geprc, and i barely touch it. Max i've pulled is 30A, total, not per channel... and the li-ion batts can really only put out 30-40A if you hammer them, anyway... unless you run 2p setups.
It doesn't rip like a 5", but man is it smooth and fast... feels like pod racing... which I fricken love.
Yep really easy fliers. My gerpc helped me learn to fly my 5" better. Gave me confidence to fly through gaps better I kept sketching out on approach to even big gaps. Paranoid about how much is this going to cost. Lol
That’s bait (wags finger) 🤨 Great review JB. 😊
➡️ If ⬅️ I had the time, I would build my own. But, my schedule doesn't allow for much tinker time. Therefore, this "Hob-Sumer" quad would interest me for certain. I would prefer this style to a DJI Consumer drone.
There is a big difference in the shape of the front of the poisonous bee 7 inch frame.
We built 10" 12s that russians aren't gonna be happy about :D and i can tell you - it's a beast!!
Even pros put props on wrong. This makes me feel better ☺️
Thanks for the quad review! Could you also make one on APEXLR 7" please?
INHO it's dji's fault that iflight got a bad vista BUT its Iflights fault the consumer got a copter with a bad component, QC is on iflight once they install it and resell it.
Again the could put locks the go up and down have two buttons you push retracts the locks the side plates pop out or have a twist lock half turn and its unlocked
Brother as a gentleman who has his own kit for people to build, it is interesting whether you decide to keep the hobby side or go consumer? there is a potential to make more money on the consumer side. But please tell me you're going to build an 03 air unit kit🙏🤣🤣👍 I am waiting
6:21 "...pieced together in a meaningful way" and not meant to be tinkered with or modified.
That's how I would have ended this sentence.
[I wouldn't go as far as to add 'and not meant to be repaired' because this quad certainly is repairable, and that without requiring any more knowledge and skills than the FPV hobby already requires. Only additional _hassle_ ]
Good video.... Id love to see what you think of Five33 Spec 7 frame... Mine is nearly fully built and soon will be ready to go. The only problem with race specific frames is lack of space... as long as ypu understand that, its an amazing frame!
I’ve got the pervious version of this drone. It’s badass. It hauls ass and it is a dream to fly.
Interesting video thanks man.
You should make a video about how you go on about cleaning your drone after a bad crash into dirt and gras, curious to see how you do it and maybe if there are tools and accessories that might make that job faster / easier.
HQ props of any size tend to explode around the hubs(in my experience) I suspect that they b add overcook the polycarbonate or something… Gemfen doesn’t do that
JB getting a 7 inch long range drone for test and rips it freestyle 75% of the video as if he is Mr. Steele 🤣
My first and only BNF I bought when I started the hobby was the Nazgul from iFlight and I can confirm their quality is just awesome in any way! And yes it confused me as well that the props spin opposite direction. 😂
I've been wanting to jump into this hobby for 5 years now but what holds me back is the battery duration. I am hoping more advancements in the battery dept but that's like a mankind milestone thing. If time comes 1 battery gives 1 hour flight time.. I'm double down.
Li-ion is your friend then.. less power but you can achive 30 min flight times with right builds
It's a pity that you didn't show exactly how the antennas are connected in it, compared to a standard unit that has one antenna. How is it done here? After all, two antennas are visible
13:48 resonates with me
Joshua Bardwell for president!!
Awesome review, beautiful drone. I was wondering though, say i built this myself, would the preset only work if i used the exact same ESC/FC stack? is that how this works?
Too funny, I remember when bigger was better. I Have a 350, but I really want a 450. In 2010 I put over 3K into one of those.. and buried into a creek night before 3 FEET of snow said "welcome to FPV" 😉
I fly a couple 7" Source Ones with 3110 1300kv on 6S. I use them as chase rigs.
Hi! What type of battery's you are using (lipo or liion)? And what is the capacity of the batteries? How long is the flight lasting with this capacity?
please tell me, will the quality of communication increase if instead of one RHCP antenna, with two plugs connected to Dji 03, I put two different ones? Both from Dji
25:28 - Chimera 7 Pro: *Chuckles* I'm in danger.
Great vid JB, appreciate you posting it... miss the sarong:)
Hey Joshua. I've seen several reviews of the Chimera 7, but not very many come out for the Evoque v2 F5. I'm wondering if you'll give it a review? I presume it's pretty similar to the Evoque v1, aside from how the new camera is mounted. But just haven't seen any reviews of it and am considering it for my next drone. I got an Avata recently and am liking it pretty well except it tumbles if you strafe sideways too fast. So I'm thinking I need to upgrade to a 5 inch freestyle drone but would like to reuse my Goggles 2 and controller.
yes Meester snarkwell; much love; but can we see your annual roundup of your best freestyle seshes? I'm running low on skatepark vids from 2002 and what prefer your stylings; buh bye; skeletor runs away
As an auto mechanic I find it hilarious how you talk about the few extra little screws being really hard to deal with 😂
I WISH cars were this simple. These things are all cake…
suggestive tital and intro master Bardwell
I had 22 satellites with the Evoqe F6D in Germany
Aww I miss 30 Days of Sbang. That was a fun little experiment.
It's still happening. Another one is in editing now.
with all that thought through design, they couldnt add something like the vfly beeper with build in battery and gps passthrough that will allow gps to power up without a battery so you can get gps lock without cooking your vtx, so well thought through lol
I really like the 7" rig, I fly the AOS w/2603.5 Xing. Floats like feathers compared to my 5" which drops like a cannon ball. I'm a new flier, the 7" is very nice for video. I think I will build a chimera and see how it compares.. Thanks for your great reviews Josh.
You'll have too much fun building one. I built Chimera7 and Chimera7 Pro. I haven't tried Chimera7 Pro V2 - I don't think they're selling the frame kit.. just yet?
@@kibbycabbit i think i saw the frame somewhere. Might have been a preorder. Either RDQ or GetFPV
@@2_damn_fly whoa it’s listed in iFlight store. Finally!!! I’ve been checking their store daily till not recent. Thanks for the bump. 😆👍
What crossfire version are you running? I just got my Chimera and on 6.19 my RSSI drops to the 30s very quickly.
The silence between disarm and crash landing
Hi Josh, Great video and review of the Iflight Chimera 7in. I just built a 7in for long-range flying. I would have liked to been able to use the Chimera. But I couldn't get it at the time, so I used the Darwin 129 7in frame, but if Iflight would like to send me a frame, I would love to use it. 2809 1250kv. Is close to the 2808 1100kv TOKA motors that I used. I would like to try the new 7in folding props. There's just something about a 7in that is fun to fly. Thanks again for the video and information about this quad