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Steve Carr · Apr 4, 2026

Stephen1988 said:
drained it in the typhoon h past all 3 low battery warnings

I always land before the 1st battery warning to prevent damage to the battery. My batteries have lasted years and I think that is the reason as well as storing them at 50%.

Fbrooksr · Apr 6, 2026

Steve Carr said:
Q500 batteries are available here:

q500 - www.gifipower.com

q500 - www.gifipower.com

www.gifipower.com

Thanks. Less expensive than Amazon. Purchased a charger and spare battery.

Stephen1988 · Apr 16, 2026

Stephen1988 said:
I’ve just purchased the q500. Luckily I came across a new one in 2026 . The batteries will no doubt be shot with age . What is the biggest generic battery any of u guys managed to fit into the quad .

Finally arrived. Loving the q500 already. Very impressed with the st10+ controller, very comfortable and the box this comes in is very nice. It was nice to unbox it and take off all the stickers. Very pleased there was a new one available or new old stock. Flies very nice, perhaps not as stable as the hex in wind . I was very surprised how massive the props are on this model. Looking forward to the weather improving a bit now. My wife said it’s ugly as ****

Peter b · Apr 16, 2026

Stephen1988 said:
Finally arrived. Loving the q500 already. Very impressed with the st10+ controller, very comfortable and the box this comes in is very nice. It was nice to unbox it and take off all the stickers. Very pleased there was a new one available or new old stock. Flies very nice, perhaps not as stable as the hex in wind . I was very surprised how massive the props are on this model. Looking forward to the weather improving a bit now. My wife said it’s ugly as ****

I loved mine but I crashed more than one. My fault and flying it was awesome fun. I still have my hex and fly it carefully now!! Enjoy, it's a great drone!!!

Steve Carr · Apr 17, 2026

Stephen1988 said:
I was very surprised how massive the props are

That's why the Q500 is so much quieter than other drones made in 2015-2017.
When you mount the props only tighten them enough to smash down on the o-ring. If you over tighten they will be very difficult to remove and could damage the threads. The prop tool is used to remove the props, not to install them.
Also, landing is tricky because of the ground effect from the prop wash. So it you can get it down to a foot off the ground, press and hold the kill button and it will land nicely.

Stephen1988 · Apr 17, 2026

Steve Carr said:
That's why it's so much quieter than other drones made in 2015-2017.
When you mount the props only tighten them enough to smash down on the o-ring. If you over tighten they will be very difficult to remove and could damage the threads. The prop tool is used to remove the props, not to install them.
Also, landing is tricky because of the ground effect from the prop wash. So it you can get it down to a foot off the ground, press and hold the kill button and it will land nicely.

Thank you Steve, yes I did notice that while landing, I’ll try this trick next flight. I did end up using the tool when installing the props and it was difficult to remove them after , worst still I started to tighten it even more when trying to remove the props as it’s difficult to see the direction with the full prop being black. Maybe a bit of white paint would help display the direction a bit clearer

Peter b · Apr 17, 2026

Steve Carr said:
That's why it's so much quieter than other drones made in 2015-2017.
When you mount the props only tighten them enough to smash down on the o-ring. If you over tighten they will be very difficult to remove and could damage the threads. The prop tool is used to remove the props, not to install them.
Also, landing is tricky because of the ground effect from the prop wash. So it you can get it down to a foot off the ground, press and hold the kill button and it will land nicely.

Don't land the q500 on a clay type baseball field either. The craft took off perfectly but while landing it can bounce and lean over breaking a prop or two. Grass is safer and easier. Talking about this wonderful drone is making me miss it even more.

Stephen1988 · Apr 18, 2026

Peter b said:
Don't land the q500 on a clay type baseball field either. The craft took off perfectly but while landing it can bounce and lean over breaking a prop or two. Grass is safer and easier. Talking about this wonderful drone is making me miss it even more.

Yes exactly what I noticed when landing it just floated around like it was having too good a time to stop and bounced a bit in disagreement with my landing, I was landing on concrete. Definitely giving Steve’s recommendation a go next flight. It’s a good time to purchase this model, some cracking deals available for used models.

Steve Carr · Apr 18, 2026

Stephen1988 said:
I was landing on concrete

@Peter b is right. Landing on grass or a soft surface is way better than a hard surface. And avoid anyplace where sand will get blown up into the motors.

Stephen1988 · Apr 21, 2026

Steve Carr said:
@Peter b is right. Landing on grass or a soft surface is way better than a hard surface. And avoid anyplace where sand will get blown up into the motors.

Kill button on the q500 works a charm. One thing i noticed was this model is the q500 4k with black motors. The batteries however are white. It’s possible they were replaced and some stage but the drone itself and all its accessories were brand new, it clearly never seen a flight or even a proper unboxing unit I got my hands on it. Perhaps some suppliers bundled them with white batteries clearing remaining stock. The batteries weight 399 grams so I’m thinking they are the 5400mah ones like displayed on the label although I see some online were over 6000mah with the same label. Fully charged flight time is just a few seconds over 10 minutes. Drain is very stable with no big dips with aggressive movement. The batteries are potentially 10 years old. Any idea on what kind of flight time could be expected from something like the 7500mah Gifi battery’s .

Steve Carr · Apr 21, 2026

I'm guessing those batteries are old and suffering from degradation. Do you have a way to measure the IR?

The original Q500's were white including the batteries. The original camera was a CGO2, then the CGO2+.
When the CGO3 was introduced it was black and the Q500 body color was changed. So white batteries are likely at least 10 yrs old. A 5400mah battery in good condition should yield about 15 min of flight time.

Stephen1988 · Apr 22, 2026

Steve Carr said:
I'm guessing those batteries are old and suffering from degradation. Do you have a way to measure the IR?

The original Q500's were white including the batteries. The original camera was a CGO2, then the CGO2+.
When the CGO3 was introduced it was black and the Q500 body color was changed. So white batteries are likely at least 10 yrs old. A 5400mah battery in good condition should yield about 15 min of flight time.

Definitely worth getting a set of new batteries. Yes good idea with the IR , it will be interesting to see the results. This model isn’t near as punchy as the hex series which might be for the best with older batteries, a quick punch of the throttle with such old batteries could very likely cause a power cut.

A lovely morning here for it, even when the weather is nice it’s rarely not windy and this is where the yuneec models shine , they seem to be very suited for windy conditions

h-elsner · Apr 23, 2026

The Q5000 tends to wobble around its vertical axis in strong winds. The Blade 350QX had the same problem.
What it means you can see here:
The drone resists a little bit during rotation and starts to wobble.

When descending in windy conditions, you should also apply a little pitch or descend in a spiral.

Stephen1988 · Apr 23, 2026

h-elsner said:
The Q5000 tends to wobble around its vertical axis in strong winds. The Blade 350QX had the same problem.
What it means you can see here:

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The drone resists a little bit during rotation and starts to wobble.

When descending in windy conditions, you should also apply a little pitch or descend in a spiral.

This model looks very high up . Great footage

Steve Carr · Apr 23, 2026

h-elsner said:
The Q5000 tends to wobble around its vertical axis in strong winds. The Blade 350QX had the same problem.
What it means you can see here:

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For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

The drone resists a little bit during rotation and starts to wobble.

When descending in windy conditions, you should also apply a little pitch or descend in a spiral.

The forward mounted camera on the Q500 was intended to keep the props out of the camera view. But it also seems to catch the wind. In the early days we called this "Snap Yaw". It was nearly impossible to fly cross wind or up wind in a straight line. The front would suddenly snap to a downwind direction. So we would always fly upwind at low altitude at the beginning of a flight and then fly downwind for filming. A lot of Q's were lost by people unaware of this issue.

I believe that problem had a lot to do with the symmetrical design of the H with a center mounted camera which eliminated the uneven effect of wind.

h-elsner · Apr 23, 2026

Stephen1988 said:
This model looks very high up

Yeah, the good old times as we lived in a free world. The whole unattended airspace could be used. It's still possible in Switzerland, the last island of freedom in Europe.

h-elsner · Apr 23, 2026

Steve Carr said:
The forward mounted camera on the Q500 was intended to keep the props out of the camera view. But it also seems to catch the wind.

Exactly. This did not happen without camera.

Stephen1988 · Apr 23, 2026

h-elsner said:
Yeah, the good old times as we lived in a free world. The whole unattended airspace could be used. It's still possible in Switzerland, the last island of freedom in Europe.

Maybe a trip to Switzerland is in order

. Here it’s 120m which is a good height but I’d love to get above the clouds. It sounds like there has been some good times with this model. It’s nice at least to experience some of it now

Enrico Jorysch · Apr 23, 2026

Eleven years ago, my first drone was a Q500. Here are two examples...
one of the flights was at an altitude of 506 meters above ground level.
That’s no longer allowed today. Unfortunately, Switzerland is increasingly aligning itself with EU regulations.

Stephen1988 · Apr 23, 2026

Enrico Jorysch said:
Eleven years ago, my first drone was a Q500. Here are two examples...
one of the flights was at an altitude of 506 meters above ground level.
That’s no longer allowed today. Unfortunately, Switzerland is increasingly aligning itself with EU regulations.

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For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

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That’s incredible. I just assumed there had always been a limit to the height a person could fly. I suppose it makes sense these days with how popular drones have become. The view from 500m is unbelievable. A fresh battery at this height id imagine would be very important as it would require extended full throttle. How long would it take to reach them heights with a q500.