UPair One vs Phantom 3 Professional

Really?  I've seen videos where this comparison is proposed, but I cannot disagree more! The DJI Phantom 3 Professional is a quality flying machine.  The attention to detail is clear and unmistakable.

Yes, the UPair is a workhorse, but again the quality of the Phantom in comparison is obvious for even the most casual observer. But for all of it's corners cut, the PX4 board on the UPair One appears to be a stable flight controller but none of the serious attention to detail can be seen in the G10 UPair where the DJI product takes quality for granted.

Don't get me wrong, I learned to fly a full featured camera drone using the UPair One.  I still fly mine almost everyday.    Just this evening I was working on tight figure-eights at 28kph in my front yard!  I wouldn't do that with my P3P, but the UPair with her little fixed-pitch racing drone camera beneath, handles it pretty well!

Actually, you can get pretty good video using just an FPV camera with no gimbal at all!  I was having some trouble with my UPair camera/gimbal so I removed the whole assembly and flew LOS with only the quad.  Not being able to determine my position at the limits of LOS, I attached a $20 fpv camera to the camera mount and added back my 600mw VTX.  Below are the images streamed back to my phone, actual camera recording would provide a better image, but you can see that the UPair platform is pretty stable if you keep the control movements gentle.

First Flight of the new UpAir One

Basic control evaluation.  I was very impressed with the ease of control.  After 5.5 minutes, I selected RTL and the quad shot up to 15 meters as it’s supposed to do.  I read about it in the manual but it was still a bit of a surprise.  It landed within 1m of the takeoff position, but I forgot about the horse’s reaction and I was a bit concerned about how he was going to react to the new noise in his pasture.

In the end, it turned out just fine.  Archie has learned about the new noise and it doesn't seem to bother him and I've had about 90 flights on the UPair One so far.