Long Range FPV? No problem! iFlight Chimera 7 Pro v2 Review
What’s up, guys? So this is what happens if you want to mix up your two passions into one day and you want to ride your dirt bike, but also. Take one of your Long Range FPV quads with you so you can record some epic shots because you know the location is worth it. And that’s the result of this whole adventure. A pretty muddy iFlight Chimera 7 Pro V2!
Long Range FPV, the iFlight Chimera 7 Pro V2 reviewed
This is the iFlight Chimera 7 Pro V2 with the DJI O3 Air Unit. It’s out here, if you can see that under all of that mud and dirt. However, I purposely left it like this so I could show you how it looks like it still works. Amazingly well. Nothing is wrong with the motors.
There is no mud inside. With all that protection on the side, everything is really solid, and nothing is wrong with this drone. It just looks like it’s been on a very interesting adventure, which was the case. So in today’s video, I’ll share my long-term impressions of this long-range FPV drone, the iFlight Chimera 7 Pro v2.
I’ve been flying it for the past couple of months, I think. It’s been a very long time since I’ve had this. I was not rushing to make the video about it because I wanted to really test it out. Most importantly, I wanted to try it out at a special place where you can really push the drone at a very long range to see how it performs. And, most importantly, how it handles the wind. How it handles the range with the O3 Air Unit, it’s a whole new world that I still haven’t explored that much.
So now I have some impressions that I can share with you, and I’m excited about it. Let’s go. So first things first, the dirt, obviously. Put the drone on your backpack on the outside without a rain cover or anything. It’s going to get very dirty. I really severely underestimated the situation.
I was thinking that it wasn’t going to be that bad because it wasn’t that muddy. But, of course, that’s never the case. We went through some huge puddles. We went through some muddy areas in the forest, which resulted in this drone being very dirty as well. And it’s very muddy on all the motors, all the protection. Everything is dirty.
But, the best thing about this drone is the fact that all the electronics inside are protected by the side panels, which means that everything on the inside, which is what really matters in this case, is protected, and it’s in one solid piece.
Everything is in great condition as well. Now, when you talk about long-range drone flying, I have been very interested in checking out the Chimera 7 Pro V2 in a place where there is a lot of distance to cover.
But, it is not only the distance that matters. I also wanted to capture some great shots. Because, after all, if you just point the drone towards a field and you fly very far away, it’s not that interesting. So I wanted to capture at least some type of nature that is gorgeous to look at.
And I think I managed to do that. We went to a really nice hill where we have a lot of visibility, direct visibility with the drone, so the signal was crystal clear. I was able to push the drone quite a lot. I think about two kilometers was the maximum range that I got before I actually decided to get it back, not because of the range. Not because of any problems with the signal.
I’m sure the drone can do three times more than that, or even more. But I was using this battery right here, this 4,000-milliamp-hour battery from iFlight. This is a Li-ion battery, which is made specifically for long-range drone flying. With a drone like this, it is quite heavy. And I’ve had it for maybe a year or something.
But the problem is that because it’s made for long-range flying, I haven’t really used it that much. So the maximum capacity of this battery now is definitely not up to its maximum potential. This time, the voltage is dropping a little bit quicker, and I just didn’t want to risk it that much on a flight like this because it was also very windy.
And I’m not trying to make up excuses, it’s just that I decided, hey, two kilometers is good for me. I managed to get some decent range with this drone. I managed to get some cool shots. Now it’s time to get it back. And especially because we were on the top of a hill, which was quite windy as well.
I was freezing, so it was just a nice test with the iFlight Chimera 7 Pro V2 to check out the maximum range in this particular situation. And like I said, I’m sure the system can go on and on for a long time before it actually cuts out. As long as you have direct visibility. That is because if you happen to go behind a hill or just somewhere where you don’t have direct visibility, then it’s going to be game over.
I actually did that a couple of times as, as soon as you lose direct line of sight and you go under a hill, there is no way for the signal to travel back to your goggles and you are missing. And you are starting to lose your signals.
Keep that in mind. If you are planning to go on a long-range flight, you need to have direct visibility, or at least the best visibility possible, with your drone at all times if you don’t want to lose your signal.
So with that said, the DJI O3 Air unit is definitely a step above everything else I’ve tried so far. With the previous air units, I’ve never had that peace of mind going a lot further for me because it’s.
You never see your signal as clearly as you do with the O3 Air Unit. So here, the way the signal works is you can really push the drone very far away from you. And even if you get down to five megabits or two megabits, it’s still flyable.
Whereas on the regular Air Unit, it wasn’t the case. As soon as you dropped below maybe 10 megabits, it was just very blurry. Everything was falling apart, and it was just all sorts of a digital mess on your screen in the goggles. Here, I’m actually really enjoying myself. That flying experience of pushing the drone far away from you and actually still having that crystal clear image in your goggles.
It’s a very pleasant experience. So I managed to do just that. And the great thing about the DJI O3 Air Unit is not only the way the signal works but also the fact that you don’t really need to put an action camera on it. Especially for long-range flights where you don’t do a lot of acrobatics, you are flying in almost a straight line.
I would say you can’t really get away with just flying with the O3 Air Unit. I would say that the quality is great. Of course, another point for the O3 Air Unit is the fact that since the quality is that great, you don’t have to put a GoPro or any other action camera on top of the drone, you can really get away with just flying with the O3 Air Unit.
And that eliminates the weight of the GoPro from the total weight of the drone, making it a lot more efficient and less, a lot less heavy, and just the whole flying experience becomes a lot more pleasant because you are not. Pushing around that much weight, which of course, can be a negative as well, especially when you are dealing with strong winds, which was the case in my situation.
The winds were very strong, but still, I managed to have complete control over the drone even without the GoPro on it, and with less total weight, it was still fantastic to fly even in those stronger winds. As you can see, the shakiness inside my goals is quite strong, but that is of course, to be expected.
However, when you stabilize your footage afterward in Gyroflow, for example, you end up with some really cool-looking footage that is just amazing to look at. And, of course, you can color-grade it and push it a little bit further to make it look even better in post. So I’m quite happy about that.
And all in all, I would say that with the protection on the side of this drone with the long-range antennas, which are currently not on, those long albatross antennas that iFlight is known for with these Gemfan props that I put, which I will link in the description. They are amazing. And in general, with this whole setup, I feel like you can do a lot.
And that’s the reason why I decided to take this drone with me. It’s different in terms of flying characteristics as opposed to a five-inch drone. This one is a lot smoother and a lot less aggressive with those, I believe, 1,250 KV motors. They are super smooth and very effective. Very, not aggressive, but if you really squeeze out some power from them, you can do some acro stuff as well.
It’s just not the main point of this drone. However, it’s still possible to do it if you really want to. With a battery like this, the whole setup becomes very efficient and very possible to be pushed around very far away from you. So I would say that this has been a great experience.
It’s been great fun for me to combine these two passions of mine. Like I said, I enjoy dirt biking and flying my drones, especially if you go to an area that is a little bit harder to reach. It is definitely not very easy to get there on foot. So if you want to get there, it’s easier to go either by bike, quad, ATV, or at least by some seriously well-equipped off-road vehicle.
Because of that, this made it even more spectacular because of those views. And the whole area was just… No one was to be seen around. And, of course, that makes for a very interesting experience list, in my view.
So, I really hope you enjoyed this video. It’s different not to talk too much about the specs, but mostly about my experience with a drone. Those specs are great, of course, but they really aren’t what really matters. It’s really important to not only look at the specs, but also to think about how you are going to use them and at least try to take this piece of equipment and use it to its maximum potential.
And that might be funny when I haven’t pushed it like 10 kilometers away. I plan to do it in a future video. I plan to try, at least, to reach the real maximum flight distance of this drone and see how much I can actually push it because I know it can handle a lot. With that being said, guys, thank you so much for watching today’s video.
It’s been a pleasure. This is Mike from Drone Supremacy. Thank you so much for your support. I’ll get you in the next one.
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