Steve Colman

+1 for the East Glider, Solius and Heron. Alternatively, have a look at the models by TopmodelCZ which offer excellent flying performance and good value for money. Their Prelude/Ava and Marabu are within your specs. Only negative is that they do need some work to put together which you may not want.

I'm with Ron on this one.

What about the Multiplex Lentus? Or is a foam model out of the question for some reason?

A friend of mine recently bought a 6m Ventus from the company. To cut a long story short he was not pleased at all! He made a bespoke order with them to include a pilot which they had in stock, a particular registration number to be applied, a Spanish tail flag and a whole of other things which were all agreed. He heard nothing from them for almost two months despite emailing them several times with enquiries re the models progress. When they finally answered him they reeled off a load of excuses and promised him another date for completion which came and went. Turned out that the worker was telling my friend a bunch of lies about the models progress and accused my friend of lying. A letter came from the company owner who promised to sort things out but delays persisted for another couple of weeks. When the model was finally delivered there were several defects to the surface finish; the underside of the fuselage had an area of about 20mm x 100mm that seemed to have had filler applied and very badly finished and there were several small blemishes on the wings. The model registration number was not as ordered, the Spanish flag was absent and one of the decals alongside the cockpit area was peeling off. Additionally, the pilot figure did not arrive with the model although it was in stock and available from the begining. He and I put the model together to check all was ok and there were no problems on that front and the model did look great from all normal viewing distances. Unfortunately my friend had to then go away on busines for a couple of months and I won't get to spek to him again before August. Therefore I can't offer a final judgement on the model and it will be a while before it's fully completely and takes to the air for the first time.

Thank you for the link David. Very reasonably priced kits. One of these might make their way to me sometime in the future.

David, are those Barons the model by Ecotop? I've been looking for something similar for a while.

Frank, over here in Spain I should really take the Level 1 and Level 2 test certificates to fly anything over 250g within the law anywhere outside my club site which is making me think again about the Mavic. Despite it being a bargain, for the number of occasions I'm likely to fly it I'm now thinking it's not worth the investment. About the phone situation, I've been seriously thinking along the lines that you've outlined. It's one thing to be able to download the App but it needs to function properly too, especially with almost 1Kilo of multirotor in the air.

An update. I have discovered that my mobile will run the DJI GO4 App and have downloaded it with no problem. A good friend, who's in the model retail business, has offered me a brand new, never been used Mavic 2 Pro with carry bag, 1 battery and maybe a second, ND filters and charger for 450 Euros. This seems a great deal on a highly rated machine although I would prefer something smaller which I don't have to register and preferably, cheaper. However, given the price/qualit ratio of the Mavic 2 I'm tempted.

Ron, glad to hear that I'm not just "seeing things" so to speak.

The photo I posted above is soft, grainy and lacks the detail of the original. Therefore, from my perspective there is no great difference to the photos I was posting before. And, I think your photos also seem to be suffering from the same problem David.

I'm going to do the same with one of mine David. Here goes.

Posted here because there seem to be problems posting in the video channel.

A weekend to remember. The second video.

I'll be uploading a second, more interesting, video shortly. ?

Club Aeromodelismo Osca, Igries, Huesca, Spain.

It was a special event that our club hosted. Only two pilots from our club flew. The rest are from all over Spain and a couple from France. I think the combined cost of the models ( not all shown in the video) was over 500,000 euros. The flying was as impressive as the models!

A photo compilation of our club even over the weekend 24-26 June.

Can someone tell my why my photos appear to be of such poor quality on the forum when they're pin sharp and much less grainy when viewd direct on my PC?

Last one. Photographing the photographer.

A few more.

Some more photos from today's club event. A bit better quality this time.

A special event at my club this weekend with guest pilots from all over the country. 40 plus models of all types and mostly large. A couple of poor quality pic from my phone to set the mood. Hope to be able to share more plus a video soonish.

I've discovered 3 new things! First: My phone is on the list of "Incompatible" with DJI drones. Second: My phone's processor is 64bit, not 32bit as I previously thought. Third: My phone also connects to our Wi-Fi router which is 802.11ac Thus, I may be able to use my phone with one of the more budget friendly machines on the market.

Frank, yes it's the aerial video/photography that I'm mainly interested in here to replace the XK380 which was cumbersome to set up and transport. I actually sold it yesterday for a reasonable price given it's age. I am still going to research the cheap end of the current phone market along with the 2nd hand market too.

A quick update on this option. My local hobby shop has offered me a DJI mini 3 with Tx/Display payable by up to 4 installments if I so wish. I'm seriously thinking about this now.