PinchTune FPV Flight Experience
My name is Danny Cruz and I go by PinchTune in the world of FPV flight.
FPV stands for First Person View. In this case, it’s flying a remote controlled aircraft from the ground in first person view.
FPV flight is one of the fastest-growing industries in the last decade. What started as a fun hobby by radio control airplane pilots turned into a massive movement when someone came up with the idea of putting an FPV camera on a mini drone… to us a mini quad. To some, mini kwad.
Today the growth of this hobby has put pilots such as myself into a postion where we can explore the limits of the aircrafts that we build ourselves from an ever-growing array of parts. This experimentail aspect of FPV drones is seen in racing, freestyle and long range flights.
The usefulness of the FPV hobby extends past the competitive nature of racing and the artistic, almost athletic approach, to freestyle. Cinematic videos are now possible with what is essentially a sub-$1000 aircraft. That aspect of the hobby is still in its infancy and expected to really grow in the nexty few years.
I’m happy to be here to experience it all.
Fly safe. -Danny @PinchTune
What I fly by choice
My approach to gear choice has always been to fly I want to fly. This means that my focus has always been on performance and really enjoying this hobby without worrying too much about sponsorships and politics. That is the reason I’m comfortable establishing relationships with companies that are are in essence competitors. This allows me to really enjoy the hobby and push for performance over commercial influences while still allowing me to collaborate with some of the best FPV companies in the world.
The hobby of FPV is very different to other hobbies and sports. Think about a sport like wakeboarding. A serious wakeboarder will likely endorse only one boat company, as in general most professional and amateur wakeboarders will only have one boat. FPV is different. Most serious pilots have an entire fleet of drones. This allows room for trying many different designs and still permits enough leeway to select a handful of companies that you prefer, even if some of them compete again each other. Of course, all this is done while respecting boundaries, protecting and not divulging competing companies’ intellectual property while testing new equipment or suggesting new design ideas.
See below some of the preferred FPV brands I use
I was very influenced by the original Hyperlow 14xx Racer 4 inch quad. This frame sparked my interest in Hyperlow Frames and because of it I eventually found myself offering Richard Howarth, the designer, valuable input when he started work on the successor which was to become the Hyperlow RS and eventually the Hyperlow RS+. Many don’t know that the RS 5 inch design actually started with modified drawings for a 4 inch 14xx Racer successor. These days, my best analog freestyle rigs are FlightOne Falco X equipped Hyperlow RS+s.
I’ve flown Impulse RC frames since the original version of the Alien back in 2015. I’m also proud to say I’ve owned and flown every 5 inch frame design Impulse RC has released, including the special edition Helix and the BMS Racing JS-1. I love their designs and attention to detail and even though I fly frames from other makers on a regular basis, I always make it a point to have some Impulse RC rigs in my main fleet. With the advent of HD FPV and the new DJI Digital FPV System, my first choice for an HD FPV frame became the Impulse RC Apex HD.
PinchTune YouTube Channel
For us FPV pilots, our YouTube account is kind of a big deal. See, that’s where we post our exploits and achievements.
Go ahead and visit my YouTube channel. If you like what you see, go ahead and subscribe.
Historic Boris B Mini FPV Freestyling Video
Let’s take a look at the video that helped define the hobby of mini quad FPV flying. Before this video, nobody had really seen the possibilities that freestyle mini quad FPV flying brought to the table. After this, well, the rest is history.
