FPV — Where to start

#fpv/start · Note 1 of 7 · part of Drones

The single most common way to start badly is to buy a drone first. Almost everyone does it, crashes it in the first minute, and spends the next fortnight waiting for a replacement part they don't yet know how to fit.

The order that actually works

1. Buy a radio. Nothing else. A radio is the one item you keep through every other upgrade, and it is the only hardware a simulator needs.
2. Fly a simulator for ten to twenty hours. See FPV — Simulators. This is where you learn orientation and throttle discipline, for free, without repairs.
3. Fly something tiny indoors. A whoop. It cannot hurt you or your walls, and it teaches the difference between a sim and real air.
4. Then a 5". Bought ready-to-fly or built — see FPV — What to buy.

Steps 1 and 2 cost roughly the price of one crashed quad, and save several.

The budget nobody plans for

Beginners budget for the build. The money actually goes on the crash budget: props, arms, a spare stack, the motor you burn out learning that grass eats props. Assume the consumables will match the build cost over the first year, and you will not be unpleasantly surprised.

What the sim will not teach you

Worth saying up front, because it changes what you practise:

• Soldering. Every build begins here. See FPV — The first build.
• Line-of-sight orientation. In goggles you are always looking forward. When a video feed drops you are suddenly flying a dot in the sky.
• Fear. A sim reset costs nothing. Your first real dive over concrete does not feel remotely the same, and that is a skill of its own.
• Failure modes. Voltage sag, a loose motor screw, video breakup at range.

Where the money goes wrong

• Digital goggles before you can hover. They are wonderful and they will still be wonderful in three months.
• A 6S build as a first build. More power, less margin for error.
• Buying a "kit" that omits the charger, the battery bag, or the smoke stopper.

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