At its inception, the Toothpick formula was to turn a whoop inside out and give it the ability to perform like a much larger craft. Just a typical brushless AIO whoop board with similar motors but very large, very light 65mm(2.5in) props on a very light frame. The resulting performance was jaw dropping in any configuration from an AUW of ~37g on 1S to 73g on 2S and pure wackiness on 3S.
The goal with the Toothpick project was first and foremost to be safe for almost any environment, fully legal, quiet, durable, reliable and most importantly, loads of fun! These features should not be compatible with each other but the magic of crazy disk loading and power radios made it possible.
As with anything, the more you do it, the more developed and fine tuned your tools become. Like a surgeon that gets better at their craft and graduates to more and more developed instruments, the TP3 is literally a refined, purpose built, surgical instrument of the sky. If built to top end spec on 3S, this sucker is a frikin bullet! So throw that safety out the window. However the same setup on 2S becomes a very safe friend :-). Just as safe as the original Toothpick setup. The noise profile on 2S is significantly quieter than a 65mm/2.5” Toothpick twin blade on 2S. On 3S it’s still slightly quieter than a top power spec 65mm/2.5” Toothpick.
The TP3 formula is similar to the original. Extremely low weight, large props for such a low weight and the smallest motor that can spin that prop with good control. The pudding is in the details however and we spent months intensely testing everything just to find out that what we’re looking for doesn’t exist! So we started making custom parts. There is a lot in how it’s setup as well but that’s better left to the video than writing pages on pages...
Starting with the prop, we knew what we wanted but it didn’t exist. Having a good relationship with Gemfan, we carefully crafted a prop together and they got working on manufacturing. With the prop in mind, we then tested custom motor products from just about every known company out there before landing on a couple of gems...that only became good with numerous revisions. Other manufacturers will figure it out and give us more options in time but the two we have now are stellar. Given the crazy performance we were after, the frame also needed to be reimagined to perform and hold up to a new level of punishment. Next, we had to solve the annoyance with whoop boards and how difficult they were to solder. FullSpeed and BetaFPV were instrumental in the execution of the redesign and we now have two great options in case one runs into QC or reliability issues. The rest of the build is arbitrary but we prefer just a basic camera and Vtx to keep the weight down.
Performance wise, this thing is FAST. FAST fast. There are probably other things in this size class that are faster in a straight line, but that's not what we mean by fast. It’s like flying a laser pointer, it just does EXACTLY what you want it to do with absolute precision. Throttle control is also exquisite. It's a bit difficult to explain all the performance in words but when you fly one, you'll understand. The performance profile on a low weight load out also fits a Betaflight stock tune with just a little more TPA.
Durability is one area that may be in question and is where we need to put a little bit of a disclaimer on this style build. When built to top spec on 3S, this thing is VERY FAST and INSANELY AGILE. This build is designed for advanced pilots but it doesn’t mean that it’s weak or not for beginners. That’s actually far from true. The frame is quite robust, motors are quality built and even the prop shaft is beefed up. When you first learn to ski or snowboard, you fall. You fall a LOT. It hurts. As you improve, you learn how to fall. Pro level athletes do amazing things and also know how to fall amazingly well. As an FPV pilot, you learn how not to break your equipment….or, balls to the wall and you know you’re going to break it and are okay with it. To achieve this level of performance, high durability has been replaced with repairability. It definitely still takes quite a bit of force to break an arm. The extremely low weight means that if you’re a beginner and running 2S, it’ll be quite difficult to break. It really only becomes a hazard to itself when you're darting around at high speeds.
This thing is so incredibly easy to fly with its low weight and incredible control, it’s exactly what the advanced pilot needs to push their own limits and exactly what the novice wants to learn on.
