so ive been flying whoops for about a year and finally decided to commit to building a proper 5 inch freestyle quad. ordered a apex hd frame because a guy in my local group swore by it but now im second guessing myself after watching like 4 hours of youtube. some people say the arm thickness matters way more than i thought and this frame has 4mm arms which i guess is fine for freestyle but i dunno.

my planned stack is a f7 fc with a 45amp esc, running runcam phoenix 2 and a tbs crossfire nano rx. motors im still going back and forth on but leaning toward 2306 2450kv with 5x4.3x3 props. the whole point of this build is to just bash around a local field and maybe eventually get into some light freeestyle once i stop crashing every 10 minutes.

main thing im worried about is the soldering ? i did the motor pads on a tiny whoop board and that was rough honestly. any tips for doing the esc wiring on a 4in1 without bridging everything? i have a ts100 iron and some flux but i feel like im missing something

4mm arms on an apex hd are totally fine for freestyle, youre not racing gates at 120mph. people way overthink frame flex for casual bashing. ive snapped 6mm arms on a different frame just from a bad concrete landing so its really about how you crash not the spec sheet.

for the soldering ? honestly the ts100 is more than enough iron, the issue is usually tip condition and heat. i run mine at like 360c for motor wires on a 4in1, use plenty of flux, tin both the pad and the wire separately before you try to join them, and dont hold the iron on longer than 2-3 seconds or you risk lifting the pad. that part matters a lot on budget escs where the pads arent always great. and use silicone wire not the stiff stuff that comes with cheap motors, it makes a huge difference in not putting mechanical stress on the joints when you're routing everything.

i went through basically this exact same situation last spring, ended up going with 2207 motors instead of 2306 just because i got a deal but honestly i think 2306 at 2450kv is probably better for freestyle with that prop combo. my build flies fine but it feels a little soft on the throttle sometimes and i wonder if thats partly the motors.

the crossfire nano is a good call though, i have the same setup and range has never been a concern even when i accidentally flew toward a treeline and panicked