Aeronavics / Droidworx Droidworx Booms

[Droider]

Most Droidworx stuff is way over priced.

Well I guess everyone is entitled to their own opinion but try costing the R&D that goes into this.. Of course there are are cloners that sit i the wings just waiting to snaffle all the R&D pioneers do and then rip it off. Well sort of rip it off using crap materials and even worse customer support.

I have personally seen DW or Aeronavics as they are now called (All because George Lucas Inc decided they did not like the 'Droid' part - imaging how much that cost) since they started up in Australia. Their ethics and vision can't be funded with 200 buck frames, hence the reduction in available models, the door to the hobbiest has been closed to them by the cloners, cheap crap with substandard components and absolutely NO investment in R&D.

Sorry rant over, go buy crap, sooner rather than later the powers that be will start stomping down on these things, e.g.. DJI being forced to include restricted flying zones in to their firmware, inhibiting authorised and licensed operators using their products in certain areas.. Airframe certification is coming and thats when companies like Aeronavics will succeed and others will have doors closed on them,

Happy flying

Dave

 

[Droider]

@ Quniton, have you emailed Aeronavics with your issues?

They are very responsive to customer issues. As for straps I guess if they made then shorter peeps using bigger pack would complaint they are to short! Guess they have know where to go on that.

As for frame break down and folding the frame, I guess they rant fully catering for operators using a mini to transport a sky jib! Not that you do but just as an example. If you are going to be collapsing your frame after every job then I guess its time to think about your transport and the airframe you have chosen. Their system is as good as any and probably better than most taking in to account the whole picture. Personally I would rather not have the system and instead when travelling abroad carry out a systematic collapse of the frame and a systematic rebuild on final destination with all the checks and testing that that requires in my operation manual. I guess there are alternatives out there like the S1000, S800, Carboncore to name a few but they all have their own issues. How any fold and fly commercial aircraft are there? WHEN airframe certifications are rolled out in the UK and other countries less will be more!

Dave

 

[Scott Drysdale]

Twill weave was developed to enable the fabric to curve around obscure shapes such as the transition between a cowling and a wing etc. and is a bit more expensive.
When used for creating CF tube the value of twill is purely cosmetic as plain weave achieves the same strength.
CF clot weight is most commonly 3K = 200 grams per square meter which many tend to think of as 3 oz. per square yard.
I tend to buy tubes from Famous Hobbies thru AliExpress and have never been disappointed yet.
There are two wall thicknesses to consider as well as the typical OD. http://www.aliexpress.com/store/group/4F-Carbon-fiber-tubes/109347_211797457.html
Beware of cheap substitutes such as G10 with simulated CF appearance and even some of the RC Helicopter booms made of super thin aluminum tube wrapped in a thin cosmetic layer of CF or similar appearance material.

 

[Quinton]

@ Quniton, have you emailed Aeronavics with your issues?

They are very responsive to customer issues. As for straps I guess if they made then shorter peeps using bigger pack would complaint they are to short! Guess they have know where to go on that.

As for frame break down and folding the frame, I guess they rant fully catering for operators using a mini to transport a sky jib! Not that you do but just as an example. If you are going to be collapsing your frame after every job then I guess its time to think about your transport and the airframe you have chosen. Their system is as good as any and probably better than most taking in to account the whole picture. Personally I would rather not have the system and instead when travelling abroad carry out a systematic collapse of the frame and a systematic rebuild on final destination with all the checks and testing that that requires in my operation manual. I guess there are alternatives out there like the S1000, S800, Carboncore to name a few but they all have their own issues. How any fold and fly commercial aircraft are there? WHEN airframe certifications are rolled out in the UK and other countries less will be more!

Dave

I did indeed, but the response was not exactly one I was expecting, albeit was 2 months after but it was Winter time and it went a bit like this..


Oct 29th
Hi Quinton,

Thank you for your enquiry. We received your email at 11pm on Friday Evening New Zealand Time. This weekend being a public holiday on Monday...thanks for your patience this is the soonest we could have replied.
Our policy states that we notify our dealers about new product releases normally 1 month in advance. We don't publicly announce these as the date can often be delayed. The dealers are advised that they can pass on this information in confidence at their own discretion. We cannot control whether the dealers decide to relay this information or keep it to them selves, we have found it makes for the most practical business relationship to follow this process.

I can understand your frustration and would like to offer you the upgrade pack for the following price.

Upgrade Kit : SkyJib-6 to SkyJib-Super 6-QR: NZD 355.00.
We will specifically manufacture the upgrade kits for this promotion based on the demand. We have two cut-off dates: 04-11-2013 and 04-12-2013 and the lead time is approx. 4 weeks from these dates.

As i understand it all of the build manuals are up to date for Ti and Ti QR craft. Please could you let me know the specific content that is incorrect and I can look further into it.

Any further queries please don't hesitate to contact me. Let me know if you would like to order the upgrade kit.



Best Regards
Tom



On Thu, Jan 16, 2014 at 10:20 AM, Quinton wrote:
Hi Tom



Hello Quinton,

Tom is still on holidays. I will forward this email to sales to work out if the offer will stand now.

Please be patient while they look over this and assess if it can be honored.

Kind regards,

Nic.






Hi Quinton,

I've checked, and unfortunately the upgrade offer time has lapsed.

Please see the following links for the upgrades. Please don't hesitate to contact me should you need anything. We value as a customer, and unfortunately do to the expiry of the offer we cant proceed with the discount.


http://aeronavics.com/products/shop/upgrade-skyjib/upgrade-kit-skyjib-6-to-skyjib-super-6-qr/

http://aeronavics.com/products/shop...table-landing-gear-shoulder-upgrade-to-ti-qr/

http://aeronavics.com/products/shop/skyjib-booms/booms-engine-mounting-skyjib-super-6-titanium/


Kind regards,


Nic.

The links that they sent me, were'nt actually correct for the upgrade, the only things required was the first link and the "booms" only from the 3rd link, I just went ahead and purchased what I needed from my UK reseller.
I don,t break it down at all now, I just leave it as it is.
Saying that you are correct, it is a frame you can completely trust, but I am sure there are other cheaper ones out there that are just as good.

 

[wm1]

Not all cheap stuff is crap just like not all expensive stuff is good. A FP multi rotor is a very simple airframe to design. The 'R & D' flag is always waved when someone is accused of charging high prices. My DW AD8 cost over £700 a couple of years ago and mainly consisted of two circular cf plates with various holes cut into them, some plastic blocks to mount the tubes, some plastic motor mounts, some ugly flimsy curved pieces of CF for landing gear, some CF tube, a small square CF platform with holes and a selection of plastic stand-offs, screws and nuts, oh and a plastic dome that cost about £60 to replace. Some of the cap screws that went through the boom blocks were not long enough and barely entered the nylon section of the nyloc nuts, had I been certifying this airframe it would not have passed.

Admittedly their airframes are pretty good these day but still too expensive. That is my opinion and that of many others too. Compare the prices with conventional model helicopters and it is clear the multi owners are being milked in a lot of cases.
As for travelling aboard, I don’t think you will need to bother as UAS flying will be illegal before too long at the rate things are going although I would favor collapsible arms to a systematic strip down and rebuild, that would just take too long and probably kick up more potential problems.