I've been flying a Tornado/ CG04 for almost two years so I feel I'm qualified to give some input on this bird.
First off, I'm a full-time commercial pilot. Who does real estate (both residential and commercial), construction, inspections, film and tv, and special projects.
I fly the Tornado at least three times a week and have 8 batteries that I use on rotation. I have not upgraded to the Plus although I'm considering it this winter while I'm out of action with shoulder surgery. For $400 Yuneec will upgrade our original Tornados to the Plus model. The comments about propellers coming off in flight are certainly worrysome. Most of the points mentioned in this thread are certainly on point. But let me list my pros and cons:
PROS:
(1) It is a large UAV and wind has little effect on it. I've flown it in 35+mph winds on the ground I can only imagine the additional winds aloft with ZERO jello. In fact, I've only seen jello ONCE in any of my videos and it was due to one of the arm nuts coming loose in flight (more on this later).
(2) The CGO4 (Panasonic GH4) Is an AMAZING video camera. The 100mb bit-rate 4k video on my color calibrated 4k 27 inch LED look absolutely amazing and holds its own against any raw video I've seen short of an Alexa or Red variety. The 4/3 sensor in terms of video quality puts the CGO3 variety to shame and should still produce a better video image than the highly touted new E series due to its sensor size. But this is only the video, images are a con, more on it later.
(3) It just works... Yes, it does not have all the bells and whistles that newer uav's have. No way points, no auto cable cam etc. (obviously the Plus version does and I know nothing of this). I fly exclusively in ANGLE mode and it's always come home when I tell it to. It doesn't do weird things in the air like my DJI products do.
(4) It's built like a tank... I've crashed her once. Well not really a crash... I backed her into a tree at 60 feet up and she wobbled to the ground. The only thing I broke was the carbon fiber gimbal mounting plate ($45) . No damage to the camera, no damage to the arm or ESC's, I didn't even break one of the carbon fiber props. Amazing.
(5) It's impressive to look at and even more impressive while in the air. It re-enforces the image you are trying to project--that you are a professional. Everybody and their brother has a Phantom and even an Inspire now a days. I know people will be flame me here and be like... it's not the drone but how you use it yadda yadda yadda. Maybe for you that's true. But I have gained more business because I have owned this particular uav. Your milage will vary. When you show up to a shoot of a 13.5 million dollar commercial complex and pull out the tornado... people stop and say "WOW!" I'm not kidding.
Those are the good... but truthfully there is a lot of bad too. =(
CONS:
(1) True, it's built like a tank, but it also flies like one. It takes a lot of stick command to move it around the sky. It took me weeks to work out the custom exponential and gain setup to my liking.
(2) RANGE... an added range extender is MANDATORY. Stock... I was getting out to 1000 feet or so before I would lose video signal even in the most favorable setting(s). With the added range extender, I can comfortably get out to 2500 feet (that's enough for me) before my video starts to wane. NOTE: not once under any circumstances have I lost RC control at any time.
(3) Support... non-existent.... Manuals? what Manuals? seriously.... if you're new and need hand holding, this probably isn't the UAV for you.
(4) BATTERIES... oh the batteries. Yuneec doesn't make great Tornado batteries. I'm on my second set of 8 and about ready to have to purchase my third set of 8. That's more than a grand. I'm meticulous with them too. I never leave them fully charged. I put them in storage mode if they're going to sit for more than a week. I never run them down too low etc and I charge them at 4amps which is very conservative.
My flight times when I first start is around 20-25 minutes with three new batteries. After a year, I'm getting 12-15 minutes with three batteries and then it's time for new ones.
On the NEW Tornado PLUS. There is a problem with the Yuneec Tornado batteries. It's giving a low battery warning after only 5 minutes of flight. (Check Facebook Tornado group). When owners report this to Yuneec, they are told to purchase and use TATTU Tornado batteries. There's something different and better with the TATTU's that I can't remember higher something... The PROBLEM for us in the good ole' US of A is that TATTU Tornado batteries AREN'T available here. You can find them all day long in Europe, but not in the USA. And nobody will ship them here.
So this is huge and we're stuck using the stock Yuneec batteries.
(5) The threaded nut that locks the arms in place has a tendency to come loose with vibrations. Some added loctite to the threads but I added plumbers tape more than a year and half ago and it has completely solved the issue for me. Note I have the Version 2 of the original Tornado. The first batch of Tornados had a weird hinge system that was quickly changed. I got my Tornado in th second batch.
(6) Image quality. The CGO4 is NOT a great camera for still images. In fact, the new E90 is actually better for still images than the CGO4. BUT, I don't take images with the CGO4. I actually find the quality better to grab 60mb TIFF screen shots from 4k video. Work them in Lightroom and photoshop and export 8mb jpegs for the clients.
CONCLUSION:
If I could go back, would I have purchased the Tornado again? Probably... I have DJI product too and I like it. But motor redundancy is huge for me. I know DJI has the Matrice and prodigy in the hexa-motor department, but it's incredibly more expensive than the Tornado when well equipped. If I had 4 grand and needed this type of aircraft, I'd probably pull the trigger. I have tremendous confidence with it in the air and it has always done what I have asked of it (even to back itself into a tree).
Is it the perfect "drone?" God no... it's flawed and really your intended purposes are really going to make it obvious if this is the right uav for you. If you need something that is absolutely rock solid in the air under almost any weather situation and will put incredible 4k footage on your monitor flight after flight, then maybe it's for you. But go into the purchase well informed from those of us who use it daily.