RTF, BNF and ARF: Features of Drone Packages.

Introduction

Every time you take your first steps into a hob­by, whether it’s fly­ing a drone, fish­ing, or rid­ing a bike, you’re con­stant­ly exposed to slang words used by the com­mu­ni­ty. Not know­ing the ter­mi­nol­o­gy com­pli­cates the path of a begin­ner. This arti­cle will focus on three terms denot­ing the type of equip­ment in which drones can be sold: RTF, BNF and ARF.

What is RTF bundle?

When it comes to buy­ing a quad­copter, you will notice that the same mod­el can be sold in dif­fer­ent con­fig­u­ra­tions and, accord­ing­ly, at dif­fer­ent prices. The most com­mon con­fig­u­ra­tions are RTF and BNF.

RTF (Ready to fly) — means that the drone is assem­bled and the user does not need to pur­chase any­thing addi­tion­al. That is, the equip­ment is com­plete and the drone can fly imme­di­ate­ly after pur­chase. It remains only to charge the bat­tery and install the rotors. The pres­ence of a con­troller (con­trol pan­el) in the RTF set is the main dif­fer­ence from oth­er sets. If you are a begin­ner, the RTF pack­age is what you need.

What is the BNF package?

BNF (Bind and fly) — means that the drone is ful­ly assem­bled, and has a sig­nal receiv­er com­ing from the remote con­trol, but the remote con­trol itself is not includ­ed in the pack­age. This kit is suit­able for those who already have a con­troller that suits them com­plete­ly. The main thing is that the con­troller’s sig­nal trans­mis­sion pro­to­col match­es the pro­to­col of the receiv­er on the drone. If you are read­ing this arti­cle, then most like­ly you do not have suit­able con­trol equip­ment. So, we have ana­lyzed the two most pop­u­lar con­fig­u­ra­tions in which UAVs are most often sold.

What is the ARF package?

If you are one of those peo­ple who likes to get to the bot­tom of things and do every­thing by hand, then the ARF equip­ment is per­fect for you.

ARF (Almost ready to fly / Almost ready to fly) — the kit may or may not have a remote con­trol and a receiv­er, so you should first famil­iar­ize your­self with the con­tents of the kit. Since the drone comes com­plete­ly dis­as­sem­bled, you will need to assem­ble it your­self. This kit is suit­able for advanced UAV users and requires sol­der­ing skills.

Conclusion

Sum­ming up, we can say that:

1. RTF the kit is suit­able for peo­ple who are just start­ing their jour­ney in an unmanned hob­by, this is the eas­i­est option to imme­di­ate­ly start fly­ing.
2. BNF for expe­ri­enced users who have already found a suit­able con­troller for them­selves and are look­ing for a drone for it.
3. ARF equip­ment is more for enthu­si­asts and DIY enthu­si­asts.