FREEFLY Systems Alta Review

[jackwrangham]

We've had the Alta for a bit now and I thought I'd try my hand at a review as I've had quite a lot of people asking what I think about it!

http://www.horizonap.com/freefly-alta-review/

 

[LordPikaChu]

Great review. I wonder if lowering the gains (instead of increasing) would help with flying in windy weather. Please keep us posted if you manage to make the bird behave in wind! I am looking closely at all the Alta users because I'm considering purchasing one too so your review was very helpful.

When it comes to winds - I am now flying an X8 with A2 and it's terrible in the smallest possible winds. Flies perfectly in calm weather, though. I was under the impression that Alta would handle winds a lot better since seeing one video review where the guy flew the Alta in really strong winds and it was very stable. Go figure...

 

[Bartman]

More than most other manufacturers I'm willing to give Freefly the benefit of the doubt and some time to improve things incrementally. To date though the best wind tolerance I've seen goes to Mikrokopter on a coaxial quad. I had one up in winds that were 22 kts steady gusting into the low 30's and felt like I could have flown comfortably in at least another 10 kts of wind.

 

[jackwrangham]

Great review. I wonder if lowering the gains (instead of increasing) would help with flying in windy weather. Please keep us posted if you manage to make the bird behave in wind! I am looking closely at all the Alta users because I'm considering purchasing one too so your review was very helpful.

When it comes to winds - I am now flying an X8 with A2 and it's terrible in the smallest possible winds. Flies perfectly in calm weather, though. I was under the impression that Alta would handle winds a lot better since seeing one video review where the guy flew the Alta in really strong winds and it was very stable. Go figure...

Thanks, lower gains result in much less stability, got to be careful there! Interesting about your x8, ours uses the wkm, so I woundt say the a2 is your issue, it's just finding the right balance between motor/prop/voltage and weight!

Which is why the alta is pretty great really as at least that's done for you, I'm sure it can be tweaked to perform better in wind like you say Bartman! I just completely trust are x8 in lots if wind, and the alta isn't there yet

 

[JLO]

We've had the Alta for a bit now and I thought I'd try my hand at a review as I've had quite a lot of people asking what I think about it!

http://www.horizonap.com/freefly-alta-review/

Jack I really enjoy reading your Alta blog, I recently acuire one too, I am in to the initial testing face, indeed is a remarkable machine, I also come from building copters and the many hours (and $$) to figure this things out and to find the correct components recipe, just like you I have a custom X8 with A2 that I like & trust a lot, I know this is a Alta thread ,but I notice that on your X8 you are flying 3 blades what is your opinion on flying 3 blades vs 2 blades certainly in your case its not about boom to boom clearance
thanks

 

[jackwrangham]

Jack I really enjoy reading your Alta blog, I recently acuire one too, I am in to the initial testing face, indeed is a remarkable machine, I also come from building copters and the many hours (and $$) to figure this things out and to find the correct components recipe, just like you I have a custom X8 with A2 that I like & trust a lot, I know this is a Alta thread ,but I notice that on your X8 you are flying 3 blades what is your opinion on flying 3 blades vs 2 blades certainly in your case its not about boom to boom clearance
thanks

Hi, thank you! We actually flew two X8s - one with tri blades for heavy lift, but to be honest it wasn't that great, I think maybe still under powered for the weights we were lifting, resulting in not great stability in the wind. Tri blades should allow higher gains, and of course more lifting power with a smaller footprint, but at a loss in efficiency. Anyway the Alta has replaced that system. The X8 I refer to in the Alta review is a smaller one we have, which uses standard tiger 14" props.

 

[SleepyC]

Triblades SUCK for X8's, Try that rig again with 2 blade carbon props.

All the tri-blades use props that FLEX way to much for the bottom props...
I had a rig that would hardly fly with 3 blades, and was glass with 2 blade carbon props.
BIG Hexacrafter listing 7 - 10 lbs.

 

[jackwrangham]

We did, with similar stability issues. But I do agree, especially the DJI blades we were using! I think the KDE carbon ones would be a lot better. May as well stick with normal 2 blade carbons unless clearance is an issue.