so ive been flying whoops and a couple of bind and fly quads for about a year now and im finally pulling the trigger on a proper scratch build. been going back and forth for like two weeks on frames and i cant decide between the ImpulseRC Apex and just going with a Squish or maybe a TrueX style like the Chameleon. mostly gonna be doing freestyle, some light park flying, not really racing.

the thing is i want something that can take a hit because im definitely gonna be crashing a lot while i figure out how to actually fly a 5inch properly. my buddy keeps telling me to just get a Nazgul or something prebuilt but i really want to do the build myself, i feel like ill learn more that way and actually understand whats going on when something breaks.

also semi related but is 4mm arm thickness actually worth it over 3mm for a first build or is that overkill for someone still learning

honestly for a first 5inch i'd say dont overthink the frame too much, you're gonna break stuff regardless and most of the popular frames have decent spare arm availability. that said the Apex is a solid choice, arms are pretty chunky and the HD cam protection is nice if you go that route later. Chameleon is a classic but getting spares has been hit or miss depending on where you are.

4mm arms vs 3mm ? for freestyle learning i'd actually lean 4mm just because you're going to be augering in at weird angles and thinner arms will let you know about it. not a massive weight penalty on a 5inch either so might as well. if you were building a race quad id say different story but for bashing around learning moves, go beefy.

im in basically the same boat as you lol, just finished my first 5inch last month on a Mark4 frame. went with 4mm arms and already snapped one on like my third flight so maybe that tells you something haha. spare arms for the Mark4 are like $8 so that factored into my decision, just worth checking what spares cost before you commit to a frame