With only the control circuit between the autopilot program on the phone and the plane for autonomous flights missing, the weight of the plane is now just below 1.9 Kg. Not bad for all the equipment.
But is it better? Yes!
First, the vibrations are almost gone:
Left picture, previous flight, fully loaded with the stock motor at full throttle.
Right picture, this flight, fully loaded with the new motor at full throttle.
The difference is enormous:
And that's not al. With the new engine, the plane now climbs effortlessly:
In this test, with no one around on the ground or in the air, altitude difference of around 300 m was achieved.
And with no problems with telemetry this time, we learned that the cruising speed at which the altitude can be maintained is around 45 Km/h, which takes about half throttle.
Unfortunately, but not unexpectedly due to all the extra equipment, the gliding profile is somewhat disappointing. With the engine off, the plane glides, but the vertical speed necessary to maintain the cruising speed is around -35 Km/h, peeking at -50 Km/h. In short, it flies but it eats up altitude like crazy as can be seen on the video above at 3:00 mark (yes, the propeller keeps spinning due to resistance).
But, smoother and more powerful motor means better images and video from the cameras, and that's what we want!
Warning, awesome stereo video of the flight: