Ordered mine about a week ago with the 915mhz elrs receiver and also ordered the 915mhz true dual diversity elrs receiver with 500mw of telemetry and the secondary antenna mount that would be used with the crossfire diversity receiver for the second antenna. I also found out that the large radiomaster 915mhz Bandit module will indeed go up to a full two watts of output power just like their full size 2.4ghz Ranger module will and did a video of it on my channel. I’ll be flying mine with the 10,000mah and 16,000mah upgrade energy packs.
Hard to keep this one off one’s bucket list, I don’t even intend to try. When I earned my full size licence decades ago, I quickly invested in instrument and multi engine ratings to be able to fly wherever I liked whenever I liked. And that’s exactly why I hereby decide to go for this quad. I’m tired of waiting for calm evenings. Thanks for the tip!
As an owner of a Helion 10: - Camera jello has been encountered by several owners (myself included) and iFlight hasn't been able to resolve. - This rig is definitely capable of doing true long range, but the default setup hinders it's ability. (I've modded mine with diversity and moving antennas) - This is a 1st gen frame with issues. For now I would recommend getting another tried and true 10" BNF for a lot less money. With all that being said, it's an awesome rig to fly and sounds freaking awesome in the air. Even with it's faults (again I've heavy modded mine) it's my go to rig for long range.
@@squirrelynutz1 I've changed the ESC to 48hhz, balanced the props, moved the battery back, etc. The jello is less, yet still present. iFlight is now providing a replacement bottom plate that is thicker.
Hi Lee, WOW ! That quad is insane. I want one. I have Betaflight in my 7in and so far I'm happy. GPS doesn't RTH doesn't land, but it works fine to return back to me.I guess they prefer to you setting it up your way. EAK ! That OSD is a mess, I have my ELRS antenna on the arm, Beautiful quad in the air, I think I would replace the LED'S, I would use RGB LED'S,and setup the led functions. I just built a 6s 4500ma lion pack, but with the size of the 10in top plate, I can fit two pack on it. Thanks again for the video and information about this quad.
One thing: it's called the Helion, not Helios. Good to see you review this. Diversity ELRS 2.4 is well suited to this quad and the range it is designed for, even with horizontal antennas. But I agree that non-diversity on a quad like this is a mistake by iflight. A low end ELRS receiver without a PA+LNA will limit the range of this quad. In a similar vein, GPS rescue should absolutely be enabled out of the box. You mentioned betaflight rescue being unreliable in high winds, which is somewhat true, however a high authority build such as this one should perform well during rescue even in high winds, unless poorly configured. I have done literally hundreds of test flights in order to feel confident saying this. There are also more GPS features coming to betaflight in the near future, and the excellent flight performance of betaflight is an important part of the equation here.
that battery at the bottom is a nice recipe for cell puncturing and disaster waiting to happening. The antenna position is really weird. My only explanation is to show that it is not possible to attach a payload, but it doesn't consider the almighty duct tape
You can always add a 3d printed or carbon fiber plate if you needed to, but in all my years, I've never had a battery damaged in that position. Simply don't land on sharp stuff... Happy flying
good review, theres 900 ghz for ELRS and Crossfire for really long range they use that, you dont mention it. Plus you can turn up the power in the RC for ELRS. But for really long range a good wing better for me with 1 motor and much longer battery life. Ive got a Parrot Disco with 4G apparently no limit as long as youve got 4g... over an hour flight time with 2500mw. How was the reception long range? did you fly it manual and do some rolls etc? Whats the noise of it? Thyere much harder to travel with, you could ask why not just use a DJI air or Mavic 3 with better GPS or even my ol;d Phantom 4 has all that... On my speedybee V5 the little GPS with skinny wires broke easily in a crash regards from Spain lot of space here for those. Yes Crossfire is nice but you cant get the parts or RC last time I looked.
A good review but I don't really see who this is aimed at. For a big heavy drone, there isn't an option to carry a big cinema type camera. Its not really designed to freestyle and the lack of GPS flight mode and line of sight rules in most countries restricts long range flights. its basically a medium/long range cinematic action camera drone. You could similar flight times and characteristics/performance from a 7 or even 5 inch quad with a gopro lite and slightly large battery than normal.
It is odd that they missed so many seemingly obvious enhancements. Diversity reciever, compass, inav and Arducopter support... I could understand if this was a drone built for use in areas of conflict, but why add the clamshell and HD FPV system? Why not optimise it for the market you're selling to? A slightly confused one this... Happy flying
I might be gettin a raise in the new year.. maybe I'll take out a small payday loan and get one.(its about 1400$ with dji o3, without battery or anything else. Add 2 batts, charger, case, mem cards etc, looking at around 2000$) i already have V2 goggles n controllers etc.) I've wanted one for over a year now, so here I am drooling over it again... 😅
It’s only $1066 if you get one lithium ion, 1 lipo, Dji o3, and elrs receiver. Don’t know why yours is so expensive unless you use something besides USD
not for me, I love big quads 10" and up but this is badly thought out and heavy. The main draw back is no inav or ardupilot. cheap receiver and no compass is the nail in its coffin especially with the price tag for me. I built a 10" with normal two blade props and on 4s 5500mah with a frame very similar to the one on this quad and I get 25-28 mins of spirited flying and about 35-38 mins+ ( probably hover for a fair bit longer I got bored when testing the hover) hover but mine is nowhere near 1.8kg with battery its around 1kg ( the battery is about 550grams). If they sell the frame separately I would buy it.
It is hard for me to to understand the target market for these drones . When you put all the gear together (battery, charger , RC, goggles etc) it will be priced similar or higher than a DJI Mavic but with lower performance (no gimbal, no sensors, poor auto-modes, not foldable, lower flight times) So why would you buy it ? It is not an enthusiastic DIY drone, not a cine-lifter … not an advanced Ardu platform
@@squirrelynutz1 I agree and I can attest that jello on dives is indeed an issue. I think arm braces would sort it out but hard to find for purchase and I don't have a CNC router. I've tried multiple types props and balanced them all.
The price is ridiculous. No market for these at that price point! It's a looker but not a buyer! Thanks for review, but I have seen several since they hit the market!
Ordered mine about a week ago with the 915mhz elrs receiver and also ordered the 915mhz true dual diversity elrs receiver with 500mw of telemetry and the secondary antenna mount that would be used with the crossfire diversity receiver for the second antenna. I also found out that the large radiomaster 915mhz Bandit module will indeed go up to a full two watts of output power just like their full size 2.4ghz Ranger module will and did a video of it on my channel. I’ll be flying mine with the 10,000mah and 16,000mah upgrade energy packs.
Hard to keep this one off one’s bucket list, I don’t even intend to try. When I earned my full size licence decades ago, I quickly invested in instrument and multi engine ratings to be able to fly wherever I liked whenever I liked. And that’s exactly why I hereby decide to go for this quad. I’m tired of waiting for calm evenings. Thanks for the tip!
As an owner of a Helion 10:
- Camera jello has been encountered by several owners (myself included) and iFlight hasn't been able to resolve.
- This rig is definitely capable of doing true long range, but the default setup hinders it's ability. (I've modded mine with diversity and moving antennas)
- This is a 1st gen frame with issues. For now I would recommend getting another tried and true 10" BNF for a lot less money.
With all that being said, it's an awesome rig to fly and sounds freaking awesome in the air. Even with it's faults (again I've heavy modded mine) it's my go to rig for long range.
Thanks for sharing your experience. I always check the props and motors are balanced and all the screws are tight when I see jello... Best of luck
The motors are set to 24khz, which is the same as the o3 gyro. A fix is changing the esc to 48khz, but it affects the tune. Less motor breaking.
@@squirrelynutz1 I've changed the ESC to 48hhz, balanced the props, moved the battery back, etc. The jello is less, yet still present. iFlight is now providing a replacement bottom plate that is thicker.
@adriancp9957 yeah the plates made my jello worse. I'm just living with it
Same here. She's still a pleasure to fly though.
This is my Favorite BnF at the moment besides Five33's BnF Race Quads!
Hi Lee, WOW ! That quad is insane. I want one. I have Betaflight in my 7in and so far I'm happy. GPS doesn't RTH doesn't land, but it works fine to return back to me.I guess they prefer to you setting it up your way. EAK ! That OSD is a mess, I have my ELRS antenna on the arm, Beautiful quad in the air, I think I would replace the LED'S, I would use RGB LED'S,and setup the led functions. I just built a 6s 4500ma lion pack, but with the size of the 10in top plate, I can fit two pack on it. Thanks again for the video and information about this quad.
One thing: it's called the Helion, not Helios.
Good to see you review this. Diversity ELRS 2.4 is well suited to this quad and the range it is designed for, even with horizontal antennas. But I agree that non-diversity on a quad like this is a mistake by iflight. A low end ELRS receiver without a PA+LNA will limit the range of this quad.
In a similar vein, GPS rescue should absolutely be enabled out of the box. You mentioned betaflight rescue being unreliable in high winds, which is somewhat true, however a high authority build such as this one should perform well during rescue even in high winds, unless poorly configured. I have done literally hundreds of test flights in order to feel confident saying this. There are also more GPS features coming to betaflight in the near future, and the excellent flight performance of betaflight is an important part of the equation here.
Awesome flying and review, Lee! 😃
But I definitely agree, a quad like that deserves iNav or ArduPilot!
Anyway, stay safe there with your family! 🖖😊
Great Review addressed all my questions. Thank you.
that battery at the bottom is a nice recipe for cell puncturing and disaster waiting to happening. The antenna position is really weird. My only explanation is to show that it is not possible to attach a payload, but it doesn't consider the almighty duct tape
You can always add a 3d printed or carbon fiber plate if you needed to, but in all my years, I've never had a battery damaged in that position. Simply don't land on sharp stuff... Happy flying
Thanks for this review. Do you know if this copter has a remote-id device or capability included?
Not on the one I got. Happy flying
what FC is it using? cant it be reflashed and a compass added?
I keep reading these owner feedback about unsolvable jello and shakes in the footage. Is there any other 10" frames you would recommend?
Not at the moment. I'm keeping an eye out but a lot of the new stuff isn't only for hobby flying... Stay tuned!
Jello and shakes were fixed a while ago. It was a tuning issue and iflight have updated it
Thank you Lee...🍻
Hey it looks like this might actually fit a walksnail VTX for once lol. Begging for an INAV conversion!
Really nice drone nice set up
I won't the frame and can't find it anywhere? Hope that will become available soon?
Ita available but $400 it's crazy for a frame
have you tested the Radiomaster bandit module? JB calculated it will go about 8 or 9 times longer than the 2.4 ELRS
Yes, only the 2.4ghz ELRS stuff is legal in the EU.
Why is that? ELRS has the Regulatory_Domain_EU_868 regulatory domain that implements LBT. Isn’t that good enough?
See my video, it doesn't surprise me that US based reviewers skipped that part ;)
@@Painless360 Forgot about that part
good review, theres 900 ghz for ELRS and Crossfire for really long range they use that, you dont mention it. Plus you can turn up the power in the RC for ELRS.
But for really long range a good wing better for me with 1 motor and much longer battery life.
Ive got a Parrot Disco with 4G apparently no limit as long as youve got 4g... over an hour flight time with 2500mw.
How was the reception long range? did you fly it manual and do some rolls etc? Whats the noise of it?
Thyere much harder to travel with, you could ask why not just use a DJI air or Mavic 3 with better GPS or even my ol;d Phantom 4 has all that...
On my speedybee V5 the little GPS with skinny wires broke easily in a crash
regards from Spain lot of space here for those. Yes Crossfire is nice but you cant get the parts or RC last time I looked.
Lots of stock of Crossfire pieces.. www.hobbyrc.co.uk/tbs-crossfire-nano-receiver-special-edition Happy flying!
only interested in the frame ill build myself. the carbon blades are a bad idea though that a big carbon disk that diminishes your reception some
I looked at this when it was first released and find it very confused. I don't understand what iFlight were thinking on this one.
How long can you fly?
Flight time is covered in the video... Happy flying!
Are there any bnf out there running INAV natively?
I've had a few where they offered INAV CLI settings and wired up the compass.. See the Rekon reviews... Happy flying
A good review but I don't really see who this is aimed at. For a big heavy drone, there isn't an option to carry a big cinema type camera. Its not really designed to freestyle and the lack of GPS flight mode and line of sight rules in most countries restricts long range flights. its basically a medium/long range cinematic action camera drone. You could similar flight times and characteristics/performance from a 7 or even 5 inch quad with a gopro lite and slightly large battery than normal.
It is odd that they missed so many seemingly obvious enhancements. Diversity reciever, compass, inav and Arducopter support...
I could understand if this was a drone built for use in areas of conflict, but why add the clamshell and HD FPV system? Why not optimise it for the market you're selling to? A slightly confused one this... Happy flying
Very good review
You can just flash inav on it and put m10 gps on it and you're all set.
That should be an option when you order it, as covered in the video... Happy flying
shame it's not a H743, istr an F722 can't run ardupilot?
Very nice video. (It is called HELION 10 tho😉)
Seems to me IFlight designed this for something other the long range cruising.......
I might be gettin a raise in the new year.. maybe I'll take out a small payday loan and get one.(its about 1400$ with dji o3, without battery or anything else. Add 2 batts, charger, case, mem cards etc, looking at around 2000$) i already have V2 goggles n controllers etc.) I've wanted one for over a year now, so here I am drooling over it again... 😅
It’s only $1066 if you get one lithium ion, 1 lipo, Dji o3, and elrs receiver. Don’t know why yours is so expensive unless you use something besides USD
not for me, I love big quads 10" and up but this is badly thought out and heavy. The main draw back is no inav or ardupilot. cheap receiver and no compass is the nail in its coffin especially with the price tag for me. I built a 10" with normal two blade props and on 4s 5500mah with a frame very similar to the one on this quad and I get 25-28 mins of spirited flying and about 35-38 mins+ ( probably hover for a fair bit longer I got bored when testing the hover) hover but mine is nowhere near 1.8kg with battery its around 1kg ( the battery is about 550grams). If they sell the frame separately I would buy it.
It is hard for me to to understand the target market for these drones .
When you put all the gear together (battery, charger , RC, goggles etc) it will be priced similar or higher than a DJI Mavic but with lower performance (no gimbal, no sensors, poor auto-modes, not foldable, lower flight times)
So why would you buy it ?
It is not an enthusiastic DIY drone, not a cine-lifter … not an advanced Ardu platform
Long range freestyle with a GoPro. Diving mountain waterfalls and cliffs.
@techstuff6829 2raw said it's not for diving
Mountains 😂 it has bad jello at 30% throttle on level decent. It's annoying
@squirrelynutz1 no it doesn't, I have one. Your probly got a defective unit. Ask for exchange.
@@squirrelynutz1 I agree and I can attest that jello on dives is indeed an issue. I think arm braces would sort it out but hard to find for purchase and I don't have a CNC router. I've tried multiple types props and balanced them all.
Hello was fixed. You just have to find the cli inav sent that fixed the tuning
The price is ridiculous. No market for these at that price point! It's a looker but not a buyer! Thanks for review, but I have seen several since they hit the market!
you get what you pay for buy once cry once!
The jelion. It has nothing but jello when at 30% ish throttle and level decent. It's annoying
lol awesome.