It was this forum that got me started in FPV flying.
Do you remember that crazy dangerous video of the guy chasing a commercial flight landing near Vegas? Many here said it had to be fake. They said no one could fly like that with a drone. Someone else said that it could easily be done with an FPV drone. I googled it and was amazed at what folks were doing with FPV. I have no interest in chasing planes, but the rest of the sport looked VERY cool. Hence the new equipment purchases have restarted......
It's an entirely different type of flying than the Mavic. My Mavic is all about awesome stable videos and images being within the reach of a novice pilot. FPV (for me) is all about developing crazy flying skills.
I baby and protect my Mavic, yet with my FPV equipment the motto is "Fly, Crash, Repair, Repeat".
I have a small drone (Snapper7) for going nuts in the house. (It's awesome for winter, rainy days, etc) and I'm replacing my now deceased Walkera Rodeo 110 with a Fullspeed Leader 3SE (3" drone) for flying outside.
Some advantages to these over my Mavic are:
- Neither of these drones is near the FAA registration required weight which is a plus.
- When I fly near people they don't freak out and think that I'm spying on them. They think of it like a child's toy.
- I'm completely at ease flying the Snapper7 inside. I wouldn't think of flying my Mavic indoors.
- I don't tend to fly the Mavic unless there is something that I want to film. I fly the FPV drones just for the fun of actually flying.
- I now know how to solder about 10,000% better than before. (Trust me, if you get into FPV you will be taking up soldering as a hobby too!)
- My crash inspired repair work has taught me so much about what actually makes a drone fly. I actually went out and dismantled my Simtoo Dragonfly (a pre Mavic "lets save money" mistake) and rebuilt it on a new carbon fiber frame with my son. We had a blast and it actually flies!
A disadvantage is that I have to remember when flying the Mavic that moving the left stick up doesn't make it go FASTER, it makes it go HIGHER. (Thank goodness for being able to set a 400' altitude limit.....)
It's another fun avenue of this hobby to explore. I have a LONG, LONG, LONG way to go before I will be remotely good at it, but it is a very fun ride! If you haven't tried it, you can get a small indoor drone, a decent controller, and some beginner
goggles for about the price of a Spark/Air. You'll have a blast and you can drive your family and pets crazy!
Peter T.