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First Flight Impressions of the Plus

Ty Pilot

One Hexy Pilot
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Okay so real quick; I finally got the Plus updated and calibrated. We were having storms in the area so I thought I would try a little backyard lift off and see what is what. Like a lot of you, one of my biggest apprehensions was 'how does it feel' and how 'does it compare to the 480' from the pilots perspective. As I said, I did NOT fly a complete flight so I only got an inkling of the full parameters of Plus flight. However the parameter I was most looking to get a feel for; I did, and I must report . . . .it is very good, better to this operator than the 480.

The parameter I wanted to feel was the off center movement - does it lurch like the 480 or is it worse? Well its better - I would almost goes so far as to say its smooth compared to the 480. This three minute flight was ALL in Angle Mode AND all at "rabbit" mode. Well now that I said that hold; on I'll be right back. . . .

Okay, I flew again and this time in "Turtle" mode and to be honest - its dead smooth off center. I am not trying to gush here and this does not mean everything is hunky-dory but, the one aspect about the 480 that I found maddening coming from a Phantom is all but gone, if you've got the chops you can fly this thing around like its nothing. I was able to do figure eights inside of a ten foot circle and probably can do it under five. Okay enough of that.

Other things I noticed so far
  • The ST16s eats its battery at a rate about twice that of the 480. (In design there is an old saying: There is no free lunch - see belo
  • The ST16s has a brighter screen and; I didn't think I would like the new Interface but I do
  • Boot up time in the field is quicker than the 480
  • In all phases of operation (thus far) the Plus is noticeably quieter - more on that below
  • The Plus seems to maintain it's position slightly better than my 480
  • You can only turn off the front two lights - the two lights in the rear now indicate flight mode rather than a dedicated LED underneath.
  • As mentioned the right stick feels buttery smooth and the rudder rates feel very right. In fact IF Yuneec was to add in the ability to do rate curves - I wouldn't touch them, I would leave it as is - it feels that good to me - again in the slower off hover commands
The throttle and start stop differences

  • The idle speed is slower and thus very quite, my wife could not hear it 20 feet away - at Idle
  • As you raise the stick to take off, there is a point at which it just powers up to the point that the arms flex and it lifts off, at first I did not know what to expect but I can live with it as the throttle is very predictable from that point on.
  • Landing feels a little different but certainly that is to be expected and one can easily deal with it.
  • Warning: To anyone who is used to landing with the "Red Button Technique" of the 480 - be advised it now drops like a rock in comparison. This is obviously due to the lower idle speed but trust me when I say; learn to land it or be very judicious with the kill switch.


There is a whole lot more that needs to be found and observed about the Plus to say its a solid craft but so far what I'm seeing and experiencing is very encouraging.
So this is just a first glimpse; I wanted to put out there. I have shot my entire process and hope to put that video as soon as I can, and will get out to a flying site to see more of the flight profile this aircraft is capable of.


P1000577.JPG
 
@Ty Pilot Great summary AND you answered a couple of my specific questions . Specifically,
  1. no apparent need to do rate curves. One to-do off my list :).
  2. It seemed to me, just messing around with the ST16S that it was eating batteries at furious rate. I may have to plan on using an external battery pack for situations when I want to fly a couple of missions back-to-back. Turning down the screen brightness to save the batteries defeats the purpose of having a screen that can be seen...
 
Sorry, not sorry... yer my little guinea pig now :p

Warning: To anyone who is used to landing with the "Red Button Technique" of the 480 - be advised it now drops like a rock in comparison. This is obviously due to the lower idle speed but trust me when I say; learn to land it or be very judicious with the kill switch.

When you get a chance... so when you say it drops like a rock... do you mean a greater distance each time the button is pushed, or the velocity is faster... is there any difference with the position of turtle/rabbit? If not is the velocity so fast, that in your opinion this landing option is not viable for the H+ ??

Irrelevant of individual opinion on the practice, does the camera configuration still allow to hand catch?

The ST16s eats its battery at a rate about twice that of the 480. (In design there is an old saying: There is no free lunch - see below

Also when time permits... can you try turning off the ST16S, removing the battery, and then replacing (to simulate swapping a battery in the field)... Does it retain any preset settings?
 
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@Eagle's Eye Video

On the 480 when you tap the kill switch momentarily it lowers at a controlled speed that is not much below a hover. On the Plus when you tap the kill, the speed at which it drops is about two to three times faster. The first time I did it I was a little under two feet and I was able to arrest it before it impacted - any longer and it would have done so possibly with damage. Turtle and rabbit have no effect on the rate at which the kill button sheds altitude.

Basically it feels and sounds as though - the power is cut to idle which certainly will not sustain even a moderate rate of decent. One of my procedures is to not use the red button landing with the plus.

Hand catching should be similar to the 480 as the gimbal base is the same size of the CG03+
 
@Ty Pilot Great summary AND you answered a couple of my specific questions . Specifically,
  1. no apparent need to do rate curves. One to-do off my list :).
  2. It seemed to me, just messing around with the ST16S that it was eating batteries at furious rate. I may have to plan on using an external battery pack for situations when I want to fly a couple of missions back-to-back. Turning down the screen brightness to save the batteries defeats the purpose of having a screen that can be seen...

There is one of our British members that has a quick and dirty method for attaching the Plus battery to a real charger and thus shortening the painfully long charge time of four to five hours. I will soon be buying another TX battery as well as some 520 charge leads for the aircraft batteries.
 
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1 Alt landing method gone... 1 Alt landing method still usable... I can live with that... I wonder if any of the powerbank batteries have enough juice to extend the amount of time in the field with the ST16S in use, or only provide a charge. Your holder could certainly accommodate one velcroed to the bottom.
 
I'm taking the simple path on this...
  1. I just purchased the DY5 dual charger for the 520 aircraft batteries (customer support said the charger is indeed compatible with H+ batteries, as was stated in @ogrench 's version of the manual). I purchased the charger in part because it does smart conditioning and storage discharge for the batteries.
  2. I'll probably spring for this https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B01LYVF...olid=26GZ4QK1T54Z5&psc=0&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it "portable charger". Should give 2-3x the on-time of the ST16S battery alone. Setup is easy, just plug in the USB cable and stick the battery pack in my pocket or @Ty Pilot 's tray . :) .
 
1 Alt landing method gone... 1 Alt landing method still usable... I can live with that... I wonder if any of the powerbank batteries have enough juice to extend the amount of time in the field with the ST16S in use, or only provide a charge. Your holder could certainly accommodate one velcroed to the bottom.

I would certainly think there is something out there that would be a good match, I hadn't got that far just yet but I am one step farther away from a possible return. I am really liking what I'm seeing so far
 
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I just want to say something about the red kill switch.
It doesn’t operate like the 480 so don’t try to land it like that. You have to actually land it manually. Also RTL it comes down with a bump as well.
If you tap the red kill switch 3 times while holding down the left stick in flight it shuts the motors down in the event of a flyaway or toilet bowling. So don’t go testing that one out guys. And also inadvertently doing that combination.....

St16s battery... having both the 520 and the H plus I see a huge difference.
520 st16 will take about 8 hours to charge hence why I made the charging leads for the battery cutting it down to about 90 mins......but it will last 5 to 6 flight batteries.
H plus st16 takes about 3 hours to charge and lasts about 3 flight batteries so there is a huge difference is software going on here.

Hope this helps
 
I was originally looking at the 20,000 mAh units then decided 'what the heck', the price/charge is about the same, more is better :). The ST16S battery is 8,700 mAh so I wanted just a little more margin (I have a 'belt and suspenders' personality :) ).

Agreed... just trying to get my advance order of accessories, and I will also likely go with DY5 as well... I'm going to assume the DY5 will not charge 480 H batteries.
 
Agreed... just trying to get my advance order of accessories, and I will also likely go with DY5 as well... I'm going to assume the DY5 will not charge 480 H batteries.

No it doesn’t do 480 batts

I don’t get this DY5 malarkey.
Why would you spend more money on a charger that does half the things that say the A10 charger does. Ok you gotta buy 2 leads but it does do a better job, I personally don’t trust the DY5 to condition the batts the same way the A10 does
 
I just want to say something about the red kill switch.
It doesn’t operate like the 480 so don’t try to land it like that. You have to actually land it manually. Also RTL it comes down with a bump as well. If you tap the red kill switch 3 times while holding down the left stick in flight it shuts the motors down in the event of a flyaway or toilet bowling. So don’t go testing that one out guys. And also inadvertently doing that combination.....

St16s battery... having both the 520 and the H plus I see a huge difference.
520 st16 will take about 8 hours to charge hence why I made the charging leads for the battery cutting it down to about 90 mins......but it will last 5 to 6 flight batteries.
H plus st16 takes about 3 hours to charge and lasts about 3 flight batteries so there is a huge difference is software going on here.

Hope this helps

Thanks for confirming that Red Button behavior... that will prevent some WTF reactions.

And those 3 flight batteries, is with the ST16S running at it's brightest setting? Been waiting for a bright screen forever, so I'll go through as many batteries/powerbanks as necessary... :)
 
No it doesn’t do 480 batts

I don’t get this DY5 malarkey.
Why would you spend more money on a charger that does half the things that say the A10 charger does. Ok you gotta buy 2 leads but it does do a better job, I personally don’t trust the DY5 to condition the batts the same way the A10 does

I have been satisfied with the performance of my DY3, which is my basis for giving initial preference to the DY5. At this time I have not branched outside of these 2 airframes, so the versatility of the A10 is currently less of an issue for me.
 
1 Alt landing method gone... 1 Alt landing method still usable... I can live with that... I wonder if any of the powerbank batteries have enough juice to extend the amount of time in the field with the ST16S in use, or only provide a charge. Your holder could certainly accommodate one velcroed to the bottom.

As gravity accelerates a falling object at 32’/sec/sec I’ve never held the red button method for landing in much regard;)
 
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No it doesn’t do 480 batts

I don’t get this DY5 malarkey.
Why would you spend more money on a charger that does half the things that say the A10 charger does. Ok you gotta buy 2 leads but it does do a better job, I personally don’t trust the DY5 to condition the batts the same way the A10 does
The DY5 malarky is because you know what you are doing, i don't. :) I went with the DY5 because that was the only dual battery charger for H+ batteries that I could find on the Yuneec website. Fortunately or unfortunately, the order has already been placed... On the plus side, I now have two chargers that will charge three flight batteries, one 30 Ah battery, and the battery in the ST16S so an overnight charging should have me ready to go the next day...
 
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On the plus side, I now have two chargers that will charge three flight batteries, one 30 Ah battery, and the battery in the ST16S so an overnight charging should have me ready to go the next day...
Other than to charge the ST16, I would not recommend ever charging your main flight batteries overnight. You don't have to sit there and watch the readout change... but sleeping or being out of the house running errands, is unnecessary risk being added to the "lipo battery dangers" equation, IMHO.
 
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Other than to charge the ST16, I would not recommend ever charging your main flight batteries overnight. You don't have to sit there and watch the readout change... but sleeping or being out of the house running errands, is unnecessary risk being added to the "lipo battery dangers" equation, IMHO.
Good point, I'll keep this in mind. Once I see the time required to charge, the reality will probably be more like - charge in the evening, unplug, and then top-off charge in the morning while getting ready. In reality, my schedule is usually pretty casual so the charging will take place while I'm awake and present.
Thanks!
 
As gravity accelerates a falling object at 32’/sec/sec I’ve never held the red button method for landing in much regard;)

Me either but I know a lot do; and you would swear thats about the velocity it will assume in a short order when pushing it.:) I am another saying stay off the kill switch.
 

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