Yu Xiang W500 VTOL

[Bad Raven]

OK, so I'm a complete sucker for VTOL planes.

This buy was a bit different though, as I'd seen two fly on two different occasions indoors, and was impressed.

It looks a clone of the EFlite Mini-Convergence, which I'd avoided as I had (briefly) owned a Convergence which was frankly total carp.

I bought from Banggood, and it arrived in less than a week.



First thing, the LiPo has NO labelling, safety or otherwise.  Manual says its a 1000mAh 3S.

Battery straight on tester, and one cell not recording at all, the two cells that did record being way out of balance. Charger would not charge it.  Did my "recovery" process and that got it up and seemingly balanced.

Chinese Manual is seriously laughably dangerous or comedic, or both.

First attempt at binding (throttle up/down) and then arming (both sticks down and out)  had it on arming stabbing straight to full throttle with no control. 

Luckily, not being born yesterday, I'd got a grip of it, though hanging on while unplugging the battery was a little fraught.   

Anyway, three tries later, it appeared not to freak out on power up.

Today, while looking like rain, I managed to get it to the field, where it bound, armed and then flew excellently straight away. Its quite quick in quad level flight mode, and its "prop hang" mode is also excellent. With a stiffening breeze, I didn't try 3D plane mode.

Managed to get two decently long flights with a couple of aged Turnigy "Bolt" 850mAh HV that likely have not been used for five years plus. These fitted, even with a XT60 to XT30 converter and the larger size. (Another battery order to HobbyRC    )

There are quite a few videos on YouTube, so I'm not going to make one. 

Worth the money? I'd say a definite yes.

[Bad Raven]

I have had no repeat of the "full uncommanded throttle" incident, in fact, its flown very well

I now have some GNB 3S 1100mAh HV that fit the battery bay perfectly.

Transitioning between modes is a doddle.

[Bad Raven]

The LiPo has NO labelling, safety or otherwise.  Manual says its a 1000mAh 3S.

I put it straight on tester, and one cell not recording at all, the two cells that did record being way out of balance. Charger would not charge it.  Did my "recovery" process and that got it up and seemingly balanced.

And................its stayed balanced now through a large enough number of cycles and balance charges and delivered power for long enough to have fully survived the extremely low voltage.

Only "downside" to this model, well that depends on whether you want to and its safe to shock anyone around. The transition from tricopter horizontal base angle to bicopter vertical base angle is (for an electric) quite noisy and certainly violent.  The firmware gives a blast of throttle that keeps the model at the same altitude within very controlled limits and that and the sudden snap rotation does surprise onlookers    (and maybe yourself the first time, so be prepared!!  )

Its very good control makes it a doddle to fly in a sports hall space, but its instantly too fast to fly transitioned as a PLANE. It can be fast or slow as a tricopter and has the reverse angle thrust from the tilt rotors to brake if needed. Its controlled by a three way switch which is Tricopter/Plane/Vertical, and switching straight through past plane mode works perfectly. 

Then there's the "big red button" which alters it from normal 6G to 3D mode to allow flips/rolls, etc.  Rather in the manner of Betaflight Angle to a mix of Horizon and Acro.

It does not like much of a breeze without drifting and due correction, especially (unsurprisingly) when "prop hanging", where on standard "rates" its possible to be pushed downwind beyond the angle of control available.

Overall though a good little model, and its making me want to try one of their  traditional Helicopter designs with this control firmware.

[Bad Raven]

OK, transition to plane (props forward, rear prop stopped) and back out of it is about as smooth as I'd think possible, really quite impressive. The person doing the programming for that FC REALLY hit the sweet spot.

Turning circle in stabilised mode is as expected rather "large". Safe I guess, but DO NOT engage it unless you have ooodles (TM) of space, or you'll be panicking reaching for the switch into hover mode!

And its quick, and I mean seriously quick, so it gets very small very fast.

Its a shame though its not firmware based on one of the FC OS standards.  A flying buddy fitted a "spare" FC from one to a Convergence.  Took ages, and the limiting factor is the rates, etc when there's little or no adjustment possible.

Still think its good value.