A 2026 guide to building, tuning and flying
You watched the freestyle edit. Then you opened the retailer page and the listings made no sense. That confusion is normal — nothing on a shopping page tells you which quad does which kind of flying, or which $400 mistake you are about to buy twice.
This book is that order, with the reasoning left in.
15 chapters · 4 parts · 156k words · 2 complete builds
Not published yet. Chapter 1 is free and complete, and every tool and guide here works today. The remaining chapters are in beta reading and the photography is still being shot. Leave your email below and you'll hear when it's out.
The book is built around a real first year: something small, cheap and safe first, then something fast you can crash, repair and tune. You buy the radio, goggles and charger once and they serve both.
Build One
43.87 g
all-up weight, reference build
A 65–75 mm ducted quad you solder yourself. Small enough that a crash costs nothing and quiet enough to fly indoors in winter.
Build Two
626.32 g
all-up weight, reference build
A 5-inch HD freestyle machine — or a sub-250 g toothpick that stays legal under EU Open A1. Same chapters, two paths, both taken seriously.
Weight is not trivia. Under EU Open A1 the 250 g line decides whether you need certification to fly where you live, so the book treats a sub-250 g path as a first-class option rather than a footnote. The AUW calculator plans it before you order.
Read it in order. Each chapter assumes the one before it, which is the whole point — the sequence is the thing a scattered playlist cannot give you.
Five questions about where you fly, what the rules are where you live, and what you want to film. Ends with a specific pair of builds and the reasoning behind them.
Plan all-up weight from real listed part weights before you order, across 7 reference builds. Tells you whether you land under 250 g.
The whole bind procedure, and what every receiver blink pattern means. Binding is where new builders stall.
Five joints on scrap, from tinning a wire to a surface-mount capacitor. About an evening, and under $15 of practice material.
Every part the book specifies, what it weighs, what it costs, and what you can substitute.
Every term the book defines, with the chapter that introduces it. Useful on its own when a forum post loses you.