So, the HT-FPV is (was) my first quad frame. At the time of looking at videos, and pics of others I thought it was a great frame. So I got it. While it works just fine in terms of flying performance, and the looks of it are rather nice (this of course is very subjective) I do feel there is some bad design in place as it relates to quads in general.

Space. The space on this layout is very poor. It's not that there is not "enough" space, it's that is has been poorly utilized for the common setups we use. For example, the battery (4S in my case) takes up almost 1/2 the upper deck by design. This leaves the NAZA, GPS, vtx, AND rx all sitting close together. In fact the rx is as far away as I can get it on an arm.. and guess what that is sitting next to? an ESC! Also not good. So the layout is really not great at all. IF the battery was able to fit in between the frames, then the RX could be at the far end of the quad, and I feel over all there would be better spacing.

Next.. the build. I dont care what people say.. the slot locking arms into the main frame sucks. It's bad for two reasons. 1.) it makes it a PIA to remove an arm if you need to service anything as you need to remove the top or bottom main frame plate as well to do it. Horrid. 2.) IF and when you crash, the slightest stress on the arm makes for a bad connection in the frame after. It goes from being tight and snug at first build to loose with play in it after a slight mishap.

Also, all of the alu. spacers are a little over done. AND the screw heads strip very easy!

I am moving everything to a TBS Discovery frame, as this design corrects ALL the issues above and seems to be a much better quality frame for the same money. Not to mention a power board built in!

I'm personally not a fan of the slot design either. I've assembled two frames (Including the HT-FPV) which uses that kind of design. One was a hexa and it was EXTREMELY fiddly to put together. I had to sand many of the slots to make everything fit, I had to use a third hand to hold everything in place while I secured the arms with the top and bottom plates. After that I had to use a plastic hammer to make the arms pop into the slots properly. BLEH! Never again.

TBS isn't perfect, it takes a bit of effort to get clean video because of the flexy arms. But it goes together in about 2-3 hours (From parts in a package to a quad with FC; ESCs, FPV gear etc) and it's easy to repair. I've crashed mine twice, it took about 10 mins to repair it. Remove 6 screws, take out the arm, move the motor to a new arm, attach it, put the screws back on, hook up the ESC, secure it with a cable tie, done. Easy!¨

Here's my latest TBS flight. Like I said, the jello is a pain to get rid of. I haven't really tried. But it's OK for stuff I only post on Youtube anyways.

TBS Discovery - FPV flight across Ljustern. (Without music, uncut) (5 min 16 sec)

Nice WiseDuck! Reminds me of home (Vermont). Yeah, I was wondering about the amount of "flex" in the arms.. but, your video looks great (looks the same as what I did with the HT-FPV). I actually used some "Moon Gel" to calm the Go Pro down. was night and day difference. Perhaps try that. You can get it at bestbuy. I used three pads.

What is your setup (motors / ESC / 4S?)

I use some sorbothane under the camera, but I think the sorbothane I use is a bit too hard. I'm going to test the strip of anti-vib foam that was included with the frame later. It's not a big deal though, it's watchable. Wouldn't hurt if it was a little better I suppose.

As for my setup. Stock DJI electronics basically... DJI 2212 920 kv motors, 30A Opto ESCs, 10x5 Graupners, Naza, 2200mah 4S 40C Zippy Flightmax lipo etc

Cool! How many flights have you logged on the stock DJI stuff? Curious on reliability.

Telling ya, the Moon Gel was magic. I mean unreal!

I dont know... Actually not that many flights on these motors, its a brand new set which I took from another quad that I have less than 10 flights on. The motors and whatnot should be quite reliable IF you make sure to redo the bullet connectors. The soldering from the factory is quite poor.

Ah! Good point. In fact, do you know where I can buy nice quality bullets? The motors I have did not come with them..

I don't think there's a massive difference between bullets from one store or another. :P Just buy a ton of them from Hobbyking and you'll never have to buy a set again. (3.5mm bullets is a very common size)

ARRGG.. what a POS this HT-FPV frame is! I am here trying to dismantle the frame, so that I can unsolder the ESC on the bottom power board.. and guess what?? I can't even get to it because 1/2 of the damn screws are STRIPPED on top AND BOTTOM! I HAVE TO CUT THIS FRAME APART??? YOU MUST BE KIDDING ME. This is ridiculous. Granted, this could also be the builders fault (Paul Baxtor BTW).

I am shocked.

The screw quality mustve gone down or something, sorta like what happend the later TBS kits. I only managed to strip one screw on my frame but I was able to get it out. The rest felt very solid and I was able to tighten them up real good many many times. (I rebuilt it with 2 different sets of electronics and couldnt get it to fly well, partly due to bad tuning, but even with my Naza it flew really bad. Moved my Naza to a TBS, didnt change a thing, it flew like a dream. So yeah, what gives? Anyway, I sold the frame a long time ago)