Hey guys,

I just purchased a DJI FPV drone and looking forward to participating in this community. One thing I'm curious about is given drones have fixed pitch blades, do any drones fly inverted by reversing motor direction?

I suppose drones just flip and loop but cannot hold an inverted position?

Most multirotors cannot hover inverted. The pilot just gains as much upward energy to be inverted for a little while at a time. However there is a way to do this which remains a niche thing, but very possible. Most of the FPV multirotors are running Betaflight open source firmware on STM32 flight controllers. and with BLHeli firmware on the ESCs. This software and these ESCs can reverse the direction of the motors enabling inverted flying and hovering. Ive never done it.

The upside is this modern multirotor firmware actively uses the motors to control and stablize the copter even when the throttle is at zero and even when the copter is inverted, as well. Known as 'Airmode.' it was kind of revolutionary when that came out maybe 5 years ago.

There was a wave of this a few years ago and it seemed like it was going to catch on, but then it just fizzled. I think it was such a huge change for people that were already used to flying standard quads that it was almost overwhelming. This video even shows helicopters as a comparison.

The Complete Guide for Flying 3D Freestyle Drones (14 min 49 sec)

http://rchobbiesindo.com/index.php?r...product_id=817

This was out a few years back. It had collective pitch props at 4 corners blending both the collective pitch of a helicopter in a quad fashion. Looked kind of blah to me. But there you go.

I too came over from cp Helis a few years ago and sold all but 2 Helis and I still don’t fly them anymore. Once you get into the fpv immersive experience, you will likely never turn back to Helis and sell all but a few of them. The wow factor coupled with the durability of these quads these days and all the neat technology makes it so much more fun. What I recommend is yes, enjoy the dji fpv, but do yourself a favor and build your own out of any of the wide variety of carbon kit out there. Now thst you’ll have dji goggles, you’d be wise to stay digital instead of investing in a pair of analog goggles too, though if you did, it wouldn’t my be a total waste.

Rotor riot sells a very good and cheap frame called the rotor riot hd1. Like $40 bucks and you can get a caddix air unit, cheap motors and flight control stack and you will have something to bash around. The dji looks great. The downfall is, the durability is nothing like rc enthusiasts drones.


If you do opt to build your own one day, sadly the dji radio will not pair with anything you build, so you could probably use any of the existing radios you have from cp, but you’d be better suited to get something like the tbs tango 2 and run the crsf for your radio link. Cheap and easy to set up. Then you’d be set.
Good luck and welcome to this awesome hobby.

I kind of went down the wormhole after posting that initial video and watched some more.

I think the real issue for me is that going upside down has very limited appeal for both FPV and capturing footage. Doing a powerloop or something with a standard quad is really exciting, but the novelty of just viewing things upside down wore off for me in seconds.

Flying with birds FPV style is a very cool experience :-)

Flying with the birds in NorCal (0 min 59 sec)

Prepare to recalibrate yourself for drone life. What you call flying with the birds, everyone else here will call Harassing Wildlife.
You're judged by a completely different set of standards.

Originally Posted by TOK

Prepare to recalibrate yourself for drone life. What you call flying with the birds, everyone else here will call Harassing Wildlife.
You're judged by a completely different set of standards.

Sorry if I caused some offense - thanks for the feedback. Is there some rule or law that I'm not familiar with, or is it an etiquette thing? I don't want to cause a stir.

It's just that I see other videos of flights with birds that are also taken with drones?

It doesn't bother me. Even people that fly RC planes seem to hate FPV. I saw a guy get attacked for flying with Canadian geese, birds that are typically considered a nuisance here. You can have a dog chase them off your property, but don't dare use a quadcopter!

Originally Posted by TOK

It doesn't bother me. Even people that fly RC planes seem to hate FPV. I saw a guy get attacked for flying with Canadian geese, birds that are typically considered a nuisance here. You can have a dog chase them off your property, but don't dare use a quadcopter!

I fly drones. Love it. But as fun as they are, they are equally dangerous. I think it does appear to be menacing behavior to “chase” birds of any kind. If you hit one, it can really hurt them and after all, they are still a living innocent being. I think the difference between flying a drone toward a flock of geese and “allowing” your dog to chase them falls into the consideration that with a drone, you are 100% in control of making that happen. Whereas a dog, there is still an element of a dog having a behavior and temperament of its own thst you can’t 100% control.

I always cringe when I see people fly close to people or animals because it can really hurt them.

Originally Posted by Leftyatm

I fly drones. Love it. But as fun as they are, they are equally dangerous.

well this has been mitigated HUGELy by miniaturization. 5 10 years ago a typical enthusiast CP heli is a 450 class+ , death machine with fatalities on record. Definitely more lethal than any multirotor of the typical 5" prop variety. However yes those 5 incher that dominate the racing./acro scene for 5 years now are powerful and have danger of their own, albeit with a record of serious injuries .. BUT in the last 3 years we have seen the emergence of much better Betaflight, BLHeli and motors and electronics that make ultralight 2-3 inchers fly as well or better than 5 inchers did 5 years ago. The cruising 250g and 100g quads now feature range and acro abilties in a package that is nearly silent and relatively harmless. Regulatory thresholds has pushed this tech to function very admirably at such low weights and energy.

Sure CP helis also come in smaller , safer and improved performance too, but I don't follow them too much. I think responsible flyers still do a good job mitigating risk flying even a 450 heli in parks.

Obviously a pusher foamie like a nanogoblin is about as harmless as a nerf football.

Originally Posted by Leftyatm

I think it does appear to be menacing behavior to “chase” birds of any kind. If you hit one, it can really hurt them and after all, they are still a living innocent being. I think the difference between flying a drone toward a flock of geese and “allowing” your dog to chase them falls into the consideration that with a drone, you are 100% in control of making that happen. Whereas a dog, there is still an element of a dog having a behavior and temperament of its own thst you can’t 100% control.

I always cringe when I see people fly close to people or animals because it can really hurt them.

I respect your opinion. I thought flying with birds was harmless - they are good at keeping their distance. I would think people would instead protest more at people deliberating shooting birds for sport.

Originally Posted by tshiah

I respect your opinion. I thought flying with birds was harmless - they are good at keeping their distance. I would think people would instead protest more at people deliberating shooting birds for sport.

I appreciate that you agree we can agree to disagree and remain civil. I wish we could all do that!

Yes I agree the idea behind flying next to birds is kind of the experience we seek in flying fpv to begin with. It sounds your intentions are pure. And I can relate. But my answer was aimed at outsiders looking in and not quite understanding the motives behind such a situation.

Have a good night

Originally Posted by tshiah

I respect your opinion. I thought flying with birds was harmless - they are good at keeping their distance. I would think people would instead protest more at people deliberating shooting birds for sport.

You're absolutely right, and without making this a complete sidetrack you also highlight a key difference.
The NRA protects shooters rights vigorously. The AMA sucks and lets you get trampled. Race Day Quads is fighting the FAA because the AMA is too spineless.

I have a really cool video of a Coopers Hawk seeing my quad and turning around to pursue it. When I spun back around to get a look at him, he decided to break away. If I posted that here, I bet I'd get piled on for it by people in the hobby despite the fact I didn't even instigate it.