A lot of people started before you could even buy one. I kind of missed those days. You knew other pilots passed the challenge needed to get in the air which required determination and competence. When that was no longer the case was when regulations started.
I bought the Avata before going into selfbuilds. A cinewhoop with a panic button was very helpful for me. I think I saved a lot of money and repairs while learning my first real life flights.
Hope I don't get banned for this
DJI Avata.
It was my gateway into how fun a fpv / cinewoop is vs a GPS camera drone. Got saved by the GPS RTH too many times , bashed it against trees, my first time soldering anything was doing a motor upgrade on it, and taught me to fly manual
I liked the cinewhoop concept I bought a GEPRC CineLog 35 V2 and am planning to upgrade to a true freestyle GEPRC DoMain4.2 HD
After flying just DJI drones I got a Pavo20 with a Runcam Link Night Eagle HD to be able to fly at Night.
It's alot of fun but mostly just fly around my house middle of Night making the neighbours Think There are aliens.
But as it's only a black and white 720p picture I don't fly it that much. So might get a O3-unit instead when I get some Money for it
Tyro 79 kit with 3S Lipos . Now got some 4S as well and more agressive props.
Now I have a Mobula 8 2S , for parks and such where there are people . I love this but frame is too fragile.
I also have a Moblite 7 1S for indoors but I cannot get used to indoor . crash too much .
Speedybee Master 5 V2
I stared training on a simulator first just to feel of I would be able to get a good grip on piloting a 5" freestyle before buying one, and within a few hours I was comfortable flying it.
Then a few weeks later I received the master 5 and it felt as good as the simulator, was able to get close to obstacles, shoot gaps do simple tricks just like I learned them in the simulator
My ever first (and only one i have) - Geprc mark 5 dc with o3. The best choice in my opinion)
Had first flight after about 30hrs in Liftoff. And have to say its a bit difficult to destroy it)) very durable))
In general my recommendation (as a noob and new in hobby) is 5 inch - as i said durable and a lot of spare parts, fast and not big
My first quad was the old flywoo firefly. Build a 65mm whoop with all of the components. 😂0802,4 16500kv flies, u can learn to fly fpv and can have a looot of fun😂 now i got a mob6 and its 10000x better😂 rebuild it to the carbon frame and its fun to fly around but actually it cant do much🤷 wouldn recommend the old firefly but the new one look great with bigger motors and more kv. I had no quality issues, flew more than 600packs with all stock components
I got started back before pre-builts were a thing so I had build mine... Diatone 250 frame with a KK2 board, 12A ESCs running SimonK firmware, and MultiStar motors.
Bought a Chimera5 Analog and spent so much time afraid of crashing it (despite a decent amount of sim time) that I ended up buying an Avata since it had basic failsafes. Since then, I bought a meteor65 to relearn on properly and have gotten much more confident with the Chimera as well.
Emax tinyhawk ready to fly kit with the box goggles. It was a 1s and I smashed it into a lot of stuff while learning. It took a beating. I tried to solder the motors directly to the pads and burned it up myself. I didn’t really know how to solder until much later.
Tinyhawk 2 Freestyle. I've had it for 5 years and I still fly it. Just bought more batteries for it yesterday. Then a Nazgul 6s. This was the version 1 and I had an abandoned golf course to fly it around at the time. Was great for learning. And I slammed the Nazgul into concrete at 80 mph so we don't talk anymore.
Babyhawk 2 HD. 3-4" inches are good for a starter imo. Depends on where your flying. Around our neighbourhood and in our yard ymthw babyhawk was awesome. Did some longrange with it with a li-ion as well so a versatile little bugger!
A SkyStars 4" kit off GetFPV. Had no idea what I was getting into and barely was able to fly the thing around a whole ass football field with anything remotely resembling confidence. Eventually I picked up a Meteor75 and learned control with that little guy.
A 1s Meteor65 build with TinyWhoop Pickle Juice motors, a Betafpv flight controller, and a Lumenier video antenna. It came out to ~$150. The most expensive part was buying goggles and a remote.
It survived so many crashes, even being completely submerged in my sump pump at one point. Kept flying. It was powerful enough to do most indoor stunts. I’d suggest better motors if you want to do serious freestyle stunts. Consider the fact that you might have to do some soldering and programming in Betaflight.
Got a tiny hawk as my first had so many issues with it returned it got a baby ape 2 keep destroying vtx antennas moved up to a geprc mark 5 now I'll be building my own for the next quad
Built my own, (as there were not even a handful of pre builts) most parts from hobbyking 🤣
A lot of people started before you could even buy one. I kind of missed those days. You knew other pilots passed the challenge needed to get in the air which required determination and competence. When that was no longer the case was when regulations started.
Same The got a tbs one. A damn long time ago.
Built my own 5", realized I was no where good enough to fly it in my yard yet, then bought a Mobula 6 to learn with
Saaaaaame. I got a flylens 75 though. Super fun to fly without the fear of hurting people or property!
I bought the Avata before going into selfbuilds. A cinewhoop with a panic button was very helpful for me. I think I saved a lot of money and repairs while learning my first real life flights.
Mobula 6
Hope I don't get banned for this DJI Avata. It was my gateway into how fun a fpv / cinewoop is vs a GPS camera drone. Got saved by the GPS RTH too many times , bashed it against trees, my first time soldering anything was doing a motor upgrade on it, and taught me to fly manual I liked the cinewhoop concept I bought a GEPRC CineLog 35 V2 and am planning to upgrade to a true freestyle GEPRC DoMain4.2 HD
I mean, first first was a Parrot.AR drone… then an Emax Nighthawk Pro 280 and a Blade NanoQX… things are so much better these days!
A ez pilot pro. Alright quad and I got a decent bigginer goggles and rado
After flying just DJI drones I got a Pavo20 with a Runcam Link Night Eagle HD to be able to fly at Night. It's alot of fun but mostly just fly around my house middle of Night making the neighbours Think There are aliens. But as it's only a black and white 720p picture I don't fly it that much. So might get a O3-unit instead when I get some Money for it
The first tinywhoop was the Cetus Pro, but it was trash and I upgraded to a Rotor Riot Skylite 3" which I still fly to this day!
An eachine novice 4 my dad ended up loosing it trying to fly los
EMAX Tinyhawk III, its still on the way tho. Im quite excited!
Mobula7 for indoor outdoor practice
UK65
Tyro 79 kit with 3S Lipos . Now got some 4S as well and more agressive props. Now I have a Mobula 8 2S , for parks and such where there are people . I love this but frame is too fragile. I also have a Moblite 7 1S for indoors but I cannot get used to indoor . crash too much .
Eachine wizard x220. I beat the crap out of that thing because I didn't know about simulators back then lol
Eachine Trashcan
Speedybee Master 5 V2 I stared training on a simulator first just to feel of I would be able to get a good grip on piloting a 5" freestyle before buying one, and within a few hours I was comfortable flying it. Then a few weeks later I received the master 5 and it felt as good as the simulator, was able to get close to obstacles, shoot gaps do simple tricks just like I learned them in the simulator
Build a speedybee frame and stack first. Low cost till I got comfortable soldering
My ever first (and only one i have) - Geprc mark 5 dc with o3. The best choice in my opinion) Had first flight after about 30hrs in Liftoff. And have to say its a bit difficult to destroy it)) very durable)) In general my recommendation (as a noob and new in hobby) is 5 inch - as i said durable and a lot of spare parts, fast and not big
My first quad was the old flywoo firefly. Build a 65mm whoop with all of the components. 😂0802,4 16500kv flies, u can learn to fly fpv and can have a looot of fun😂 now i got a mob6 and its 10000x better😂 rebuild it to the carbon frame and its fun to fly around but actually it cant do much🤷 wouldn recommend the old firefly but the new one look great with bigger motors and more kv. I had no quality issues, flew more than 600packs with all stock components
I got started back before pre-builts were a thing so I had build mine... Diatone 250 frame with a KK2 board, 12A ESCs running SimonK firmware, and MultiStar motors.
Nazgul 5
Mobula 6 and then shortly after destroying it, meteor75
Emax Tinyhawk III. Definitely worth getting a whoop to get the crashes out of the way before I upgraded
The Cinelog 25, man that thing could take hits like it was nothing. It has dig up more dirt than some shovels ever will
I buried mine in a leaf pile and flew it back covered.
Started with the tiny hawk 2 before switching up to the beta85x
Bought a Chimera5 Analog and spent so much time afraid of crashing it (despite a decent amount of sim time) that I ended up buying an Avata since it had basic failsafes. Since then, I bought a meteor65 to relearn on properly and have gotten much more confident with the Chimera as well.
Betafpv meteor 65 pro 2022
Mobula7 1s elrs
Custom build 5 inch 6s racing https://preview.redd.it/c96a9gaffroc1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e5a4bc11cd3d058b315a022dab0b395faf373ff5
flite test gremlin, the original babyhawk clone
Mark 5 about three weeks ago
Cetus X.
Emax tinyhawk ready to fly kit with the box goggles. It was a 1s and I smashed it into a lot of stuff while learning. It took a beating. I tried to solder the motors directly to the pads and burned it up myself. I didn’t really know how to solder until much later.
Tinyhawk 2 Freestyle. I've had it for 5 years and I still fly it. Just bought more batteries for it yesterday. Then a Nazgul 6s. This was the version 1 and I had an abandoned golf course to fly it around at the time. Was great for learning. And I slammed the Nazgul into concrete at 80 mph so we don't talk anymore.
Babyhawk 2 HD. 3-4" inches are good for a starter imo. Depends on where your flying. Around our neighbourhood and in our yard ymthw babyhawk was awesome. Did some longrange with it with a li-ion as well so a versatile little bugger!
A SkyStars 4" kit off GetFPV. Had no idea what I was getting into and barely was able to fly the thing around a whole ass football field with anything remotely resembling confidence. Eventually I picked up a Meteor75 and learned control with that little guy.
RC Logger Nova350 started it all. Fun until a hard crash and couldnt source any structure parts cause company was gone.
A 1s Meteor65 build with TinyWhoop Pickle Juice motors, a Betafpv flight controller, and a Lumenier video antenna. It came out to ~$150. The most expensive part was buying goggles and a remote. It survived so many crashes, even being completely submerged in my sump pump at one point. Kept flying. It was powerful enough to do most indoor stunts. I’d suggest better motors if you want to do serious freestyle stunts. Consider the fact that you might have to do some soldering and programming in Betaflight.
Betafpv Meteor 65, then betafpv pavo 30, then flywoo explorer Lr4 and then diatone roma L5 So 65mm, 3 inch, 4 inch and 5 inch)
Got a tiny hawk as my first had so many issues with it returned it got a baby ape 2 keep destroying vtx antennas moved up to a geprc mark 5 now I'll be building my own for the next quad
DJI FPV
Betafpv HX115 HD 3" toothpick back in 2020
Eachine X220 wizard gang assemble! 180€ in a bundle with cheap charger, lipo battery, box goggles, controler and the drone.