Hello and welcome back!
We're already passed mid year 2017 and as you noticed from my Twitter and Youtube channel i'm still enjoying my hobby everyday, building, flying, FPV 
and UAV stuff....and yes of-course neglected time writing article on this website Wish i could write article review and other stuff on this website since i still have some stuff in the hangar but i decided to lay back and enjoy my hobby, discover new tech along the way and posted progress on social media, you know as they say all work and no play makes a dull Joe..... i eat out a lot too and no time to cook. Most interesting thing about stuff i do recently is that i moved forward to build more interesting cheap and simplified FPV platform thanks to updated technology such as iNAV flight code and upgrades few of my old platform to new face. As years passed china makes FPV hardware tiny, lightweight and puny, also nowadays programming and flashing hardware is more friendly GUI interface than going through lines on ARDUINO codes. That's 2017 for all of us, really helps me a lot on my new build where in 2012 its takes us to be rocket scientist to do that and extra cash.
If you haven't been sniffing around what's latest FPV stuff and flight automation for this season 2017 then you should check out iNAV at this website and at online community forum. iNAV is an off-shoot branch from CLEANFLIGHT and BETAFLIGHT which emphasize of adding GPS automated flight capability which an improvement and more user friendly to setup than its fore father the MULTIWII also try getting close to ARDUPILOT capability with its more simplified hardware and setup.
Website: http://inavflight.com/
Forum: https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?2495732-Cleanflight-iNav-(navigation-rewrite)-project
So my latest iNAV project is on classic FPV250 (Transparent "Ghost" type) size frame. A month ago it was on APM MINI 3.1 while the quad hardware combo came from old project the FPV600 which ripped out and transfer to FPV250 frame. Now the APM MINI 3.1 have been replaced with SP RACING F3 
DELUXE then flashed with iNAV firmware via iNAV Configurator. Still uding the APM GPS module on the flight controller board the overall flight on iNAV was pure perfection frem from my hangar unlike the old APM thanks to its more modern 32bit processor and fast DOF gyro/mag/baro sensor....plus its damn cheaper than APM solution and more simplified. So that's one of my recent news and project which i will later reveal on my next FPV build article soon.
iNAV flight board type 1: Inav F3 Deluxe 30.5x30.5mm Flight Controller Integrated with M8N GPS
iNAV flight board type 2: Racing F3 Flight Controller 10DOF Deluxe Version w/ HM-GPMS M8N GPS
Video of my setup and test flight: iNAV auto flight on Diatone 250 FPV drone.
Some other UAV news you should know that my UAV Z-84 'V3' project which build recently to compliment V2 existence is the last project that i'm working on old 8bit APM based flight board because ARDUPILOT and its Mission Planner software no longer support much for 8bit processor which support the last minimal ARDUPLANE V3.5 firmware. So to go higher than that i need to use 32bit PX4/PIXHAWK flight controller boards for my next mini UAV projects. So if i'm going to build the V5 its going to be PX4 soon. The cons of going PX4/PIXHAWK is much firmware is not as stable as reported by end user unlike its old 8 bit APM which already stable at the end of its life shelf plus if you going for cheap build 8bit MINI APM PRO still around for under USD$38 does the job with V3.4 firmware just like my all previous successful UAV planes.
On FPV flight news, 2017 seems to be a busy year for me to do heavy 'mileage' maintenance on legendary FPV planes the ES DRIFTER, P-51D Mustang and Pitts Special as each of the have many worn-out parts and burned motor needed to be replaced due to aging factor fortunately its maintenance accomplished a week before this news updated article written. So been jumping around the clouds again. As mentioned before the new generation iNAV driven FPV250 was born multirotor and also the FPV700 size full carbon heavy duty multirotor was born too as shown below. Article build and videos in action coming soon. There's more likely another lightweight FPV fixed wing platform will be produce using iNAV too thanks to its cheap alternative way to get an autopilot unlike traditional way using ARKBIRD and APM. On the sad news, if you're big fan of FPV cockpit flight and love to get hands on ES Drifter ultralight then sad to say its rare to find one online this year because manufacturer seems to no longer produce this awesome FPV flyer, if you found one online or on physical store don't think twice just buy it because its hard to find an ultralight with perfectly crafted floaty wings for FPV. On ground FPV's ...yeah i did lots of them hehehehe...lots of adventure and dirt mods :).
So there you go, summaries of my recent activities this month with lots of fun stuff to do and new tech to try out. Actually there are two items left needed to do review which is the EACHINE AIO vtx unit and JJPRO-T2 but both products have slights defect from last year handout...hmmmm...i'll put that on my next schedule. Be sure to subscribe my Twitter and Youtube Channel because i always updates my stuff more often there. Remember that King Kong Q100 FPVmicro racer?....was fun, cheap and addictive now i have 5x of those speedy critters everyday. Peace and have fun!.
David L.
