Eachine Falcon 250 - Now I get it!

The sun came out, the wind died down and the rain abated just long enough yesterday for me to get out and fly my Eachine Falcon 250 . And boy, was it worth it. Now I get it! :)
I've roughly cut together two of my flights. No music but at least you can hear exactly what the motors are doing. As I got more confident I realised that extended full throttle is no problem. However, with the 3S 1500mAh packs, flight time is very short. When I charged the stock ER250 pack following the second flight it took 1471mAh :o Both this and the fact that there is obviously plenty more speed to be had indicate to me that the EF250 is very definitely a 4S aircraft.
The fact that I was able to see where I was going made a huge difference. I've installed the Foxeer XAT600SM DC5V-22V 17*17mm 600tvl Sony Super HAD CCD Camera from SurveilZone with the 2.1mm wide angle lens No words other then "It's brilliant!" when compared to the stock CMOS cameras on the ER250 and EF250. At no point did I get complete black or white out even looking directly into the sun with the sun so low in the sky. I could see everything, sometimes with better light contrast than the HD Mobius C2 that captured the flight for this video. And for those who don't believe a greater FOV is advantageous, I would encourage you to give it a go. Without a doubt, being able to see more allowed me to fly in a more controlled and precise fashion. You can spot your turns and you have greater pitch visibility. So whereas with the standard 2.6mm lens I was contemplating adding a custom camera tilt mechanism, with the 2.1mm lens I no longer feel that will be necessary.
I had just a slight tilt on the camera as the EF250 has the 10 degree tilted motor mounts which mean that it's already flying forward before the frame tilts. I'd previously wondered whether there was any benefit to the mounts. Perhaps they were more trouble than they're worth? As far as I could make out in this flight they aren't detrimental to the general handling. The setup certainly inspired confidence and they do provide motor protection which was relevant as there were a few occasions when the EF250 had a less than elegant coming together with the ground.
I was incredibly happy with the setup using BetaFlight 2.3.5 on the CC3D. It's not perfect but in this video you see the EF250 flying with stock MultiWii Rewrite PIDs and a 2kHz looptime frequency. I think you'll agree that it's not bad for no tuning!
If you have a Taranis with X4RSB and would like to replicate the setup I've used then you can download the Taranis .bin file and the BF CLI settings from .
And propellers? Having had great success with the KINGKONG 5040s on my ER250 I fitted the KINGKONG 5045s . I wasn't disappointed! They withstood some significant impacts without incurring any damage. They were quiet and evidently powerful. I couldn't fault them.
So there you have it. After 6 weeks of preparation waiting for properly flyable conditions I finally managed to give the EF250 a good workout. With just a few changes to the stock hardware and settings it's evident that it's very able out of the box racer. I've only just begun to scratch the surface of its capabilities but I now can't wait for the next flyable day. Just need to find some way to keep my fingers warm until the warmer air arrives. I couldn't feel the sticks at all after 3 minutes out in the open!