okay so this has been going back and forth in my head for a couple weeks. i want something for indoor flying and occasional outdoor cruise, nothing fast just something fun i can throw around without worrying too much. friend keeps telling me just build a 2.5inch whoop from scratch because youll learn more and itll fly better once you tune it right.

but like im already pretty comfortable with betaflight, ive built 5inch quads before so its not like im scared of soldering or anything. i just kinda want to fly more and build less at this point if im being honest. the Pavo25 looks solid and the walkon brushless motors seem decent enough for what id be doing with it.

is the prebuilt whoop market actually at a point where the stock tune is acceptable or is it still one of those things where you spend the first three weeks fighting the factory settings before it finally feels right

the Pavo25 out of the box is honestly pretty flyable for indoor stuff, i was suprised. the stock rates felt a bit sluggish to me but thats personal preference more than a tune problem. spent maybe 20 mins adjusting rates and filtering and it felt solid. if youve already built 5inch quads youll have it dialed in within one or two packs no question.

the argument for building your own whoop makes more sense if youre trying to optimize weight or run a specific camera setup, but for just having fun flying indoor there isnt a compelling reason to scratch build when the Pavo25 exists at that price. your friend isnt wrong that youll learn stuff building, but sounds like you already learned it

i mean i built a mobula7 equivalent from parts once and yeah i learned a ton but it also sat broken on my desk for like six weeks because i couldnt track down why one motor was stuttering. turned out to be a cold solder joint the size of a grain of rice. so there is definitely something to be said for just buying the prebuilt and actually flying the thing instead of debugging it