I live and fly at 6,030 ft above sea level. I have an Anycopter, a Knuckle H Quad and a Bat Bone kit from Flite Test. I am running the Altitude kit on the Knuckle H Quad and the Bat Bone and ran the Altitude kit on my Anycopter (my first copter) for months. I bumped up the motors on the Anycopter to 1000 kv (also from Altitude) and am using the Altitude kit ESCs still.
I have been flying these motor/esc combos since before they were a package.
I hover at <> 50% throttle using a 2200mah lipo and 8045 rotors and get <> 10 minutes of flight with light acro. At 6,000 ft, it takes more to get me in the air. The Suppo 1450s do a fine job.
Pros:
I live in Colorado so shipping is free.
The kits are very plug and play. Everything fits, everything works out of the box (I do like to replace the motor mount screws) and the kits flew on a default FT kit build with the default settings for a KK2 or MultiWii Pro for all three of my copters.
The Ipeaka ESCs are pre-flashed Simon K.
The Suppo motors take a beating. When learning to fly my Anycopter with the 1450 Suppos I filled them full of sand, mud, ice and snow. Clean them out and fly. Altitude sells spare berings for Suppo motors.
The Suppo 1450s are light. Very light. When you are learning and you crash, these motors have a much less tendency to break the G-10 motor mounts than heavy 750kv and 1000kv motors.
I haven't had to balance a Suppo motor to get good video when I use the FT vibration mitigating camera mount.
The servo that comes in the tri-copter kit fits the FT Delrin tail strut and pivot mount perfectly and I have not been able to destroy it with 60 days of flying the copter.
My first Anycopter was built using the 1450KV motors. Three of which (I bent a can on a brutal crash) are now running on my Bat Bone. I have had these motors and been flying almost daily with them since June of 2012. I have flown in snow and 90+ degree heat to -20 degree temps with no issues. I have yet to destroy an iPeaka 20 A ESC.
Altitude sells wire, connectors, male to male servo leads, KK2.1 boards, Velcro, glue, heat shrink and the hat is premium (and goes well with my FT shirt). To build a Bat Bone, I buy zip ties and screws from Ace and the Bat Bone kit from FT. Everything else can come from Altitude.
Cons:
Suppo motors require colletes which Altitude does not sell spares of. I would like to see options for motors (preferably light motors) with bolt on prop adapters in higher Kvs than 1000, and the option to buy spare colletes for the Suppos.
The screws provided by Suppo are too short (IMO) and have a tapered head which I don't like. I replace them with M3 5mm screws from Ace Hardware.
Final thoughts:
If you are a beginner and building a new FT multirotor kit, this is a simple, proven way to go. You have plenty of power for a camera (even at 6,000 ft) or sweet acro (I am not good enough a pilot to try acro with a GoPro yet so no comment on both together). The ESCs give you upgrade room and have 2A BECs.
The selection at Altitude does not compare to the selection at Hobby King. However, in the past 8 months I have seen Altitude expand the selection to cater to what we at FT fly.
HK has more stuff and is cheap. Altitude has what I want/need and has gone out of thier way to provide superior service. My first order from HK was a horrible experience. Garrett answers his phone and his email and ships without delay.
The service from Garrett at Altitude helped me get started despite HK and is another reason why I continue to shop at Altitude.
