Is there any need for another 3" Quad

[controlz]

I lost my Emax Babyhawk 3" in a tree after 20 packs.

I then purchased a Diatone R349 but theTBS Unify was faulty so the store refunded me.

Fast forward to today....

Do I purchase a direct replacement of one of the above or something new? The alternative is to go 5" but my understanding is they break more easily and given I am a beginner and I WILL crash, that may not be the best choice.

Note - I have no interest in building so I need to buy BNF. Alternatively, I buy PNP and have my local store install the receiver as I did for the Diatone. I am happy to pay my local store to build/repair as I get my enjoyment from flying and not repairing.

Many thanks in advance

[ched]

Have a look at a Emax Tinyhawk Freestyle. They come with FrSky spi D8 receivers. So depending on what tx you have might just be a bind and fly. It is small, quiet, has cheap batteries and would be great to learn with. It is quite robust as long as you are crashing onto grass, not many quads would stand concrete impacts.
One thing that is quite good is that the camera is quite a low angle which really helps when learning. The reason it helps is that you can fly slowly which means you have more time to get out of trouble.
The R349 is megga fast, probably too fast for a beginner, sorry if you have more experience. The way for a beginner to fly a R349 would be on 3S and maybe limit the throttle, as it's so powerful one slight slip on throttle and you are away.....

If you can get a sim like Velocidrone or FPVFreerider and practice, practice. Velocidrone is good as you can play with rates same as real quad. This can help you gain control because sometimes your fingers have to learn the fine control required for a quad.

Hope the above helps?

[controlz]

Thanks Ched.

I actually already have a Tinyhawk on 1S and fly it very well both indoors and outdoors so I am looking for something more nimble with much better range and at least 200mw on the VTX.

[ched]

Are you trying for under 250gms? 3" are usually more robust as they have less inertia.
The tinyhawk freestyle is a 2.5" quad without prop guards and does use same 450mah 1s as your tinyhawk but 2 of them in parrallel OOPS series to double voltage, chers BR. It does only have 25mw vtx and not a great one at that.

[Bad Raven]

Are you trying for under 250gms? 3" are usually more robust as they have less inertia.
The tinyhawk freestyle is a 2.5" quad without prop guards and does use same 450mah 1s as your tinyhawk but 2 of them in parrallel. It does only have 25mw vtx and not a great one at that.

Series connection to get 2S, not parallel.

I have not had any issues with VTX range but then have bigger quads with better quality VTX  to achieve limit of spotter range while complying with UK 25mW max law. The Tinyhawk Freestyle VTX is plenty good enough to give range up to that which might be a visual issue to my spotter, and that in effect is its limiting legality.

[controlz]

Definitely keen to have at least 200mw with a good VTX! It's a real shame they don't make the babyhawk with a TBS option like the Diatone R349.

[badger1]

whatever you buy, get a long pokey stick too, to get it out of trees.   

the Babyhawk R 2.5"/3" have 25/200mW switchable VTx's

[ched]

I have seen people use a 500ml water bottle and some strong string/thin rope.
Tie the string to the bottle and the other end to you. Then throw the bottle into the tree to create a rope loop over the branch the quad is stuck in. Then you can pull the rope loop and bounce the quad out. Alternatively throw the water bottle at the quad to dislodge it.

Back to a replacement quad.
What batteries do you have?
If they are 4S 650 to 850mAh maybe this would be a good compromise.
It's 4" 25-200mW vtx, binds with FrSky D8 tx, and even comes with a battery!
It wont be as heavy as a 5" so probably more durable. With a 650mAh lipo you can get under 250gms if that helps?

The R349 having a faulty vtx was unfortunate. I do like flying mine and you could just limit or scale the throttle to reduce it's power. Also you can tweak the camera angle down. I found that the lower the camera angle the easier it is to fly slowly. Lastly you can reduce your rates RC Rate controls middle of sticks eg 0.8 is quite a lot of stick movement for a little quad movement 1.0 would be standard which makes it a bit faster to respond to stick movements. Super rate is the rate at the end of the stick rates say 0.7 gives reasonable rolls etc. Then RCExpo reduces stick sensitivity over whole stick range.

If you already have batteries it might be best to match a new quad to those?

[Bad Raven]

I have a telescopic 8 metre pole, and a "Happy Dog" tennis ball catapult, but then we fly round and bomb mature 80 foot oaks, etc. I used to use a half full water bottle and flexible rope/string for boat recovery, worked well. Problem is a quad is a small target and has lots and lots of things to get caught up.