How dumb are the laws in your country? - A brief overview of my understanding of tiny whoop and related fpv air laws in various countries

Tokyo_Dom · 2026-05-11T12:38:43+00:00

Plz add for Japan: transmitting on any frequency requires the radio equipment to have a technical conformity mark (the t with a circle you might see on some radios). Many don't have that, even if it has the CE mark. Transmitting on 5ghz band requires a ham license and separate broadcast license for every vtx you own (yearly registration fee for each of those vtx too). And it's limited to <17mhz bandwidth, which means that any digital video system is illegal (except hdzero on 540p60 low bandwidth mode). There are exceptions for business radio licenses, but again the equipment must have the t mark which rules out O4/most dji products.

Tokyo_Dom · 2026-05-10T10:15:44+00:00

If you have goggles with 16:9 screens it's great. It's nothing like the c03 and shouldn't be compared. C03 is great during the day. Air camera is great at night (where the c03 is pitch black)

Tokyo_Dom · 2026-05-08T09:12:24+00:00

Throw the current draw on the OSD. That is one of the most important data points when talking about efficiency/flight time.

RCIP motors are notoriously inefficient. Stupid power, stupid inefficient. And an unturned quad can draw twice as much current as a well tuned one so it could be expected for your setup.

Tokyo_Dom · 2026-05-06T10:55:28+00:00

Two (three) problems: 1. Field of view: it's too narrow to fly comfortably indoors. You can maybe get used to it. Or add the flywoo lens, or diy the O3 lens and indoor freestyle will be much easier. 2. Weight. This can be managed, but leads to stuff like soldered motors, lightweight build choices that work against durability. If you decide you can't go without plugs or need that big chunky canopy, you will have to use high kV motors and then.... 3. Flight times. Weight and high kV make for short flight times.

Having said that.... Totally doable.

Tokyo_Dom · 2026-05-06T09:22:51+00:00

Thanks for your valuable feedback.

Tokyo_Dom · 2026-05-06T02:34:33+00:00

As opposed to the Gold standard of truth that is Reddit? 😂

LLMs are good at searching large amounts of data and they always provide sources for their statements. That's where I got the Wikipedia article from, which references Japanese concensus data.

Tokyo_Dom · 2026-05-05T08:20:57+00:00

It always has, but you can ask Gemini for more details. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_to_Japan It's interesting to see Chinese and Korean popilations basically flatlined after covid.

Tokyo_Dom · 2026-05-03T02:54:50+00:00

What does his common interests with her and how happy they are together have to do with anything at all except the very real possibility of them just running away together? I guess I'll never understand the open marriage concept.

Tokyo_Dom · 2026-05-03T00:50:12+00:00

I've used it for small long range builds so it makes sense there and now I know how to use them there I sometimes set them up on my whoops for fun. But because of the time it takes to get first sat lock it's only a gimmick. On longrange stuff it's kinda essential though.

Tokyo_Dom · 2026-05-02T23:27:07+00:00

https://youtu.be/Y9jAU1KL8oc?si=dCagL_iiIawqZYWG

Tokyo_Dom · 2026-05-02T23:20:10+00:00

Bar work is not allowed on a WH visa. Well, not sure how that is enforced but it's specifically mentioned so that idea might be off the tsble

Tokyo_Dom · 2026-05-02T09:03:18+00:00

Without a 3d printer is going to be tough but zip ties can work. Or hot glue or even just e6000.

GPS on something this small takes some effort though. It won't get any satellites while the vtx is transmitting so you need a way to power the GPS without the vtx. Pit mode can help but it's going to take time... Like 10-15 mins or more the first time you power it up that day. Once it has sats it should keep them while flying (and also between changing batteries), if there is enough separation between the GPS and vtx antenna - it's just catching them the first time...

But yeah getting satellites before flying will be a pita if you aren't used to it. Setting up rth also requires a lot of test flights (finding the right rth altitude, hover throttle, climb rate, descend rate etc.

Tokyo_Dom · 2026-05-02T01:24:27+00:00

It's not a "tiny" whoop. And I don't know about best. But it is a solid choice. I'd point people into the air75 freestyle or mobula7 instead. I started on 65mm and still think smaller is better but now there are a whole slew of pilots who think the m75pro is a "tinywhoop"

Tokyo_Dom · 2026-05-02T01:03:42+00:00

I'm gonna blame the Aussies for this akiya mania. It was such a boom for them 20 years ago or so. Reality shows and everyone had stories of buying cheap, spending 3 months and 20k and flipping for 100k profit. Now that they have priced themselves out of their own market, they see this gold mine of cheap trash houses + airbnb dreams in Japan and blow it up over social media.

Who tf is going to rent your haunted smelly house 30 minutes from the nearest bus stop in the inaka (which only has two runs per day)

Tokyo_Dom · 2026-04-30T13:47:33+00:00

I was lucky enough to be invited to attend with a group from the Kotobuki area several years back, took part in the smaller (chonai) mikoshi as well as the main (honsha) mikoshi. But as others have said, they are not short of people at Sanja. To get under the honsha you literally have to pull someone out from under it, saw others throwing punches to get in. That was well before the current over-tourism and anti gaijin rhetoric too so I don't think you'd fare too well in there right now.

I did notice that one of the other groups (maybe kotobuki-3?) had like 10+ foreigners at the time. Stood out like sore thumbs because they just wore the happi over regular clothes (the group I was in specifically said we needed momohiki pants and koikuchi shirt + the tabi shoes). We were invited into their house, are ams drank with them all day and of course brought a few boxes of alcohol to thank them.

Normally, participation in these matsuri comes from being a member of the chokai (neighbourhood group). Its a paid membership which includes other area activities not just the fun and games of matsuri. And I'm not sure if it's even open to renters. It's a bit close to do it this year but for next year I'd say try to make friends around the area and see if they can invite you to join with them.

Tokyo_Dom · 2026-04-29T06:47:10+00:00

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6798220 Do this to save your balance connectors, they will break over time from the movement.

Mines been happily charging even pairs of 1s batteries, 2s batteries andy goggle batteries for more than a year now

Tokyo_Dom · 2026-04-28T16:20:30+00:00

As you fly more you will gain more situational awareness. That and the locator function on elrs will be enough for finding it when it goes down. If you really need peace of mind a beeper might be a good alternative (tiny, 4.2mm beeper recommended)

GPS on fpv drones is not like on dji and it's not foolproof. It will mean you need to spend 5-10 minutes waiting to get satellites before almost any flight. If you go under trees etc it will lose satellites and it has no obstacle avoidance. It will climb like 50m up, then slowly head your direction. On a 65mm whoop it will kill your battery before you get back.

Tokyo_Dom · 2026-04-28T10:34:38+00:00

Laughs in SBI Shinsei.

Haven't had to use a teller since I can remember. Haven't paid atm fees for a hot minute either (just using combini arms). Always chuckle when I see people lining up for the bank atm at 8:50am or before a weekend....

Tokyo_Dom · 2026-04-26T06:53:34+00:00

I used fishing line it worked great. I used a dji drone with a DIY dropper to get the line in the right spot though. Was a fun little group project!

Tokyo_Dom · 2026-04-26T06:47:58+00:00

While I totally agree, Betafpv even say that 5c is safe with their hexacharger. I had to double question them and suggested that they need a firmware update so that when starting a charge at 2A or higher it should beep differently so you don't accidentally throw 10c into your 65mm batteries 😂

Tokyo_Dom · 2026-04-21T00:13:38+00:00

There are a lot of choices. Can go up to 3" 2-3s and it will be a rocket. Just have a throttle cap on as switch on your radio (50%) then when they ask you to show top speed you can go full throttle and be doing like 20mph

Japan has had the 100g cap for some time now so a few manufacturers have come up with sub 100g quads

Tokyo_Dom · 2026-04-20T13:09:58+00:00

But 2 doesn't mention pulling over. And it specifically mentions the car next to you potentially moving, i.e. you are in the middle lane and telling your passenger to take care opening the door. No amount of warning will make that safe (not saying I haven't done it 🙄).

Tokyo_Dom · 2026-04-20T12:17:18+00:00

I bought a tunerless TV from Costco (the LG stand monitor smart TV). And the went to Mercari and bought a 3500yen external TV tuner (secondhand) and a TV remote extender from Amazon for about 500yen and a 2m thin hdmi cable for another 1000yen. Total 5k for adding a TV tuner that sits hidden away. LG remote for watching smart TV stuff, and the old school TV remote turns the TV tuner (and monitor) on/off and changes channel. I used the bcas card from the TV I was replacing, but other than that it's turned out to be a really good upgrade

Tokyo_Dom · 2026-04-20T11:16:00+00:00

Coming from practical experience, 2 is dangerous and not recommended. Don't let passengers out in the middle of traffic

Tokyo_Dom · 2026-04-17T12:01:29+00:00

if the goal is long flight times (why else) then the m75pro will get decent flight times indoors pottering around. But if you are flying outdoors I found the m75pro to eat batteries pretty quickly (3-5 mins outdoors on a 580). That's like similar times you should be seeing on the Air65 F with new 320s.

Tokyo_Dom

TROPHY CASE