Description
- Are you a whoop racer looking for the sharpest performance without compromising reliability?
- Or perhaps a freestyle pilot that wants a robust frame with quick maintenance?
- Maybe you simply want a stronger alternative to those flimsy nylon frames to keep you longer in the air?
If you answer yes to any of those, then the Fractal 65 was designed for you!
— A little backstory —
The lifecycle of this craft started back in 2018 already, right around when brushless 0603 powertrains appeared and started looking like a solid next step in 65mm whoop class
Back then I entered the class with a UR65, and although it flew great compared to any other canopy whoop I’ve tried before, something was still off…
The nylon frame didn’t seem to hold up very well to the added weight and power from the brushless era design.
It needed to improve on 2 main factors; rigidity and weight.
So I went to work and came up with the first revision of the project, based on the CrazybeeF3 board and 0603 spinners.
Basically an UR65 powertrain on a carbon frame with individual ducts and 3D printed parts
And while it was great for my basher use, the weight, at 23g wasn’t quite up to my standard…so the project fell off, waiting for better hardware to support the idea…
For almost 3 years I kept flying the first revision occasionally until Happymodel released the right hardware that would make it all possible this time…
You may think there isn’t much to it, that I’m just pulling it out of my arse, but trust me, there is lots of R&D and testing that went into it; I wouldn’t have released it otherwise.
This frame was designed to the lightest it could, where it could, without compromising strength, where it needed it the most, in true aerospace engineering fashion.
here’s a little snippet of the FEA optimization I performed,
ensuring the stress gets spread out across the whole structure without concentrations
— So what about that frame? —
Remaining true to its original intent, the Fractal65 features:
- 65mm diagonal, squished X geometry, for 31mm props
- 1.5mm Carbon Fiber / Individual Nylon ducts hybrid construction
- Low-profile camera mount, no props in view, no tilt offset
- Low Center of Gravity, by bringing the AIO closer to the frame/motors
- Allows mounting with USB pointing up for easy accelerometer calibration
- No need for a canopy as all electronics are tucked safely between the ducts
- Maximum rigidity where it matters most; connecting the motors to the FC
- Easy maintenance, break one duct, replace only the single duct
- Lightweight, less than 19.5g with HM DiamondF4
As always, this is a project that I designed for myself first, that I put together in a product to share with any pilot that would like to experience the same level of requirements!
Designed with love, by a pilot, for pilots.
But don’t take my word for it, here’s what Team Pilot Glenn “Bellaciao” has to say about it:
I am using the whoop at Full Send FPV’s races every week. I’ve been finishing higher and higher, even got a podium the other day. It is extremely stable in flight, and working on it has been incredibly easy. I am surprised at how the flight controller has held up – it is more protected than I expected. Redpine is a dream. Putting an 85% throttle cap on it improves the battery vastly. For angle racing, the camera angle was too aggressive. After a buddy glued the camera to about a 30 degree angle greatly improved angle racing performance, at the cost of acro performance. I cannot state enough how much I love the flight performance, stability, and workability of this platform. I already am planning on building a second one to use as my backup racer, and want to use this as my racing whoop frame, period.
— What do you get? —
As a BNF, I will assemble a fully flight-ready craft that you can take out and fly right out the box
You have several build options to choose from;
Analog: Runcam Nano 3, HM FX17-B or caddx nano 3 lite camera (depending on availability, check the “additional information” tab to see what’s available at the moment, Diamond F4 AIO Flight Controller, ELRS 3.0 or Frsky for super lightweight (~19g AUW excl. battery)
HDZero: Superbee F4 Flight controller, HDZero Whoop Lite VTX and Runcam Nano Lite camera (~25g AUW excl. battery) – a rather heavy build for this size; not recommended unless you have really good BT2.0 batteries and don’t mind a couple of minutes flight time only
And EX0802 or SE0702 motors of your choice. JST-PH pigtail by default, BT2.0 optional
A quick note on EX0802 motor gearing, 19000kv will be best suited for long flight time and efficiency – still does pack quite a punch, as you can witness from the video above with this build. Should be able to do well into the 3-4mins on a 300-450mah
22500k will grant you significantly more power while remaining fairly balanced, and well 25500k is just ludicrously fast. It will pump the juice out of your lipos but those 3mins of flight time will give you a hell of a kick. You may still use a throttle cap to make it more controllable in tight environments 🙂
SE0702 in either 23000kv or 26000kv are both extremely zippy and lightweight, at the expense of throttle resolution. Not recommended for general use; only if you’re looking to push boundaries, on the track or otherwise
It will be tuned to the latest, bleeding-edge firmware, including a Quicksilver tune, as well as BlueJay ESC firmware
Please note that each build is custom-built to order and goes through extensive tuning, testing and preparation before leaving the shop to make sure you get the best possible experience unboxing, plugging in and simply go fly.
And while I try my best to keep the batch sizes manageable on both my end and yours, it can get pretty busy on the bench at times.
I try to process every build within the week, but please allow for up to 2 weeks to account for occasional high demand
— Contents: —
- 1x Fractal 65 BNF
- 1x Spare Gemfan props sets
- Spare components (scews, TPU…)
Notes:
-Due to continually ongoing development the actual product may differ from pictures.
— Video Reviews: —
Charlton Isaac Mitchell (verified owner) –
WOW!! I’ve had this whoop for quite a while now. First I was impressed with how it looked then I was taken back with how well it flys now I’m amazed with the durability.
it looked so perfect I almost didn’t want to fly it but quickly I was bouncing it off the pavement and walls, after about a week I forgot the ceiling fan was on and broke a duct, I used a meter 65 frame I had as a replacement and haven’t changed anything elce since. I fly my whoops every day inside and out over tile and pavement quite often I break everything except my fractal 65. after months of diving into the tile and pavement bouncing off walls at full speed it still tracks butter smooth and stable. WOW!!!
Donald Ailport (verified owner) –
Love it took some time getting here but we’ll worth the wait the acro mode on these are like flying in angle mode just exceptional
ZOETEK (verified owner) –
So unrated, quality built made with love, I’ll always support a company like this! Thank You! I wish I can provide more than 5 Stars! #madPROPS #weBLEED!!
Torres (verified owner) –
Best flying whoops drone. Everyone should get one.
Torres (verified owner) –
Great tune and attention to details.
Collin (verified owner) –
Just get one you won’t regret it. This little guy rips. It flies like a slot car and has no problem performing all the tricks you are capable of pulling off. It’s a blast inside. I’m going through gaps I could never make with my other whoops with ease flying the Fractal 65.
I had no issues setting it up. It took about ten minutes to have it ready to fly. I was waiting for the batteries to charge longer😆.
The video quality is great and I’m getting about 2.5 minutes on the Tattu 300 mah batteries.
All said and done I’m stoked I got this thing. It will certainly get put through some durability tests being in my possession but I bet it takes a serious whooping. Plus Yves is super helpful and responsive. Thanks for a great drone and all your hard work.
Dennis Gort (verified owner) –
I am still a newbie and WOW this drone flies amazing right out of the box
Great customer service as well
Thank you for being a great company
J. Slaker (verified owner) –
Full disclosure: I have the good fortune of regularly chatting with Yves, but I purchased this drone out of pocket with my own money.
I’m not the typical whoop pilot. I fly almost exclusively 5″ freestyle drones with the occasional 3″ thrown in for variety. I have basically no interest in racing. My Mobula6 sits on a shelf largely unused. Project Mockingbird’s angle mode confuses and frightens me.
I am about as an acro-mode-or-bust and “I haven’t gone flying if I haven’t broken a bunch of parts and destroyed at least a couple of sets of props” FPV freestyle pilot as they come.
So I’ve genuinely been surprised by this little whoop. It has just enough power for legitimate freestyle flying — even outdoors! — while still having a character very different from the 3″ and 5″ drones I usually fly. It’s a refreshing, fun breath of fresh air.
And more surprising than that is the fact that it puts up with my abuse. Crashes from height into fixed objects. Absolutely hammering turtle mode while stuck in trees or tall grass. I’m legit shocked that I haven’t blown something, anything, up at this point.
The sum total of the damage I’ve been able to inflict on it over the last several months is a single snapped duct strut. And it doesn’t care. It just keeps flying and doing all the things I ask it to. Permanent grass stains on the ducts and all.
I can’t speak for how good the Fractal65 is or isn’t for racing. What I can say is that it’s a ton of fun in acro mode when you don’t feel like hauling all your 5″ gear around and just want to do flippy floppies in your backyard and terrorize your doggos. Tons of fun in a very tiny, lightweight package.
I have a short compilation of footage from the Fractal65 available here. I hope it gives you a sense of just how much I enjoy this thing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnMwzsMHfnk
Glenn – BellaCiao FPV (verified owner) –
My racing name is BellaCiao, and the Fractal 65 is the only 65mm whoop I race with. I’m now sponsored by Fractal Engineering for racing, but I preordered this whoop long before the sponsorship with my own money. These thoughts are my own, have not been reviewed by Fractal Engineering prior to posting, and I’ve not been compensated for this review.
I’ve been racing this whoop since August 2021, about two to three races a week on average over that time span. I’ve had a grand total of three ducts cracked during that timeframe, and the carbon fiber has stayed laminated despite several extremely hard crashes. The board stays locked in place by the screws during crashes as well – I have never had any issues with my board making contact with the carbon fiber and shorting something out.
In terms of battery life, you can expect between 3-6 minutes depending on your KV and how you have it tuned. When I first got this thing and was just flying it around my apartment, I was usually getting 4-5 minute flights when doing acro. In angle, it’s more around 3-4 minutes with a fresh battery lead and clean motors. The flight characteristics of the whoop are reliable in acro – when flying it outdoors with little wind, it feels bigger than it actually is. The responsiveness to drops is impressive as well – it can bounce out of large dives and drops like it’s nothing. For racing, I’ve been loving the experience of flying this whoop. At 19.8g naked weight, the whoop is absolutely within the 18-22 gram range that you want for racing, and it can keep up with any of the other whoops you’ll find people racing at Full Send – it’s an absolute beast of a 1s ripper. I can cut corners incredibly tightly, and I find that the stability of the carbon fiber keeps the flight characteristics more consistent than your traditional plastic whoop frame. And yes, it can crashflip.
Another great thing about this whoop is how easy it is to work on. If you do chip a duct during a race, you don’t have to do a full frame swap or fumble with rolling papers and floss to bridge the crack – you can just clip a duct off another frame, remove your props, unscrew your motor, add in a new duct, screw it all back in place and you’re up in the air. It’s saved me more than once during races. The same applies for soldering – the Diamond F4 flight controller it comes with is a direct solder board, rather than using plugs. If you do need to do motor work, rather than taking the whole F65 apart you just need to remove the duct corresponding to the broken motor and you’ll have enough room to do work on the board. The ease of repair is by far one of my favorite features of this whoop, and the same advantages apply if you do use a different flight controller, such as the Crazybee X 2.2 that I run on my other Fractal.
The customizability of the whoop is absolutely the best part about it. You can run it without ducts – it even comes with screws for smaller motors, which turns it into an incredibly fun 1s ripper. You can print off some 2s straps for it and push the whoop even further. You can add a canopy to it as I did to my backup. You can turn it into a pusher. You can run the battery through the middle instead of the bottom. You could 3d print a top part to hold a vtx and transmitter. You can run it with whatever 65mm duct you’ve got – any one will do. You might find one that even feels better. And that’s the great part – there is no right answer. This whoop gives you the option to mix and match components like no other 65mm does,
There were two minor gripes that I have with the whoop. First, while in flight the camera’s angle is locked in despite the small TPU mount. Which is good – you don’t want wobble there. However, in a crash or midair, the camera can go slightly off center. This is a bigger deal for racing than freestyle, but it’s something to keep in mind. The Full Send FPV pilot TrimKing came up with the idea of putting a dab of hot glue at the bottom of the camera, which helped keep it locked in place and is how I still fly it when I have it in the default, slammed camera position. The second issue is that the receiver antenna in the back can get caught in the propellers. Either TrimKing or BrdsRtRl suggested gluing the antenna to the duct, and I’d have to recommend it – it’s common practice on a lot of racing whoops.
Overall, I can’t recommend this whoop highly enough. From the flight characteristics that translate from racing to freestyle to the ease of repair to the customizability, you’re not buying a whoop – you’re buying a platform for you to build and experiment on. And you’re buying a whoop that I can say with confidence has the most durable, long-lasting frame you’ll find in 2021 in its class.