Quitters can't be racers...

[Jtrjr]

This is a tough hobby. You really have to be prepared for failure. It comes in many forms. Your equipment and your ability mostly. Equipment is a total crap shoot, you pick and choose based on the advice of the others that came before you. You pick an FC, a frame, a VTX, props, battery, etc. You have no real idea on how they all work together. You just pick based on research.

Your ability is totally on you. I've watched others surpass me in their ability in mere weeks. The younger guys and experienced heli pilots seem to do a bit better than us old inexperienced guys. Must be the video games and the staunch heli discipline and (military) experience. I'm a grunt Jarhead.

Don't let anyone fool you, this is an expensive hobby. A decent battery is at least $20. A frame $30-$120, a Flight Controller - $20-$60, a PDB $10-$50, a VTX - $12-$50, Motors $20 a pop, ESC's $12-$20 and so on. These things will break, be prepared to buy new stuff. Add to that chargers, checkers, soldering iron, solder, flux, wire, connectors and talent and you've got the perfect mix for failure. Especially, if your wife is breathing down your back.

Like any real success in your life, this takes time, patience, money and a WILLINGNESS TO FAIL. Because you will! You'll do it over and over again, or you'll quit. If you like failing and have unlimited time and resources this is the perfect hobby for you.

Here's the catch, when you have done everything and you get that bird in the air for 3-6 minutes, you are free! You see something that very few will ever see. It's all on you, what you've done, what you've learned, your tenacity! No one that you talk to or that sees your video will ever understand it. They won't get what you went through to get to this tiny milestone. Nobody will get it but you. It's all your moment.

If you quit things when they don't suit you, stay away from this hobby. If you want accolades and applause from your feats, stay away from this hobby. If you hate fixing things, stay away from this hobby. If you don't like to research and learn, stay away from tis hobby. If you want freedom, your own time and space for 3-6 minutes at a crack, suck it up and learn. Do it again and again!

QUITERS NEVER WIN AND WINNERS NEVER QUIT!!!

Just my thoughts after 6-7 months in this hobby.

Jerry

(P.S. I'm a winner. I never quit. IMHO, so is Green and Virtue. Many others have come and gone.)

 

[VirtueViolater]

Well put!
I think a good analogy would be golf, you spend loads of money and a lifetime trying to perfect it. For some, it's the process that's appealing. Surely those who give up run out of money? Do people quit this hobby?
Btw, I'm 5 months into this hobby myself and don't even want to know the amount of cash invested. Where was this hobby when I was younger? Probably wouldn't have been able to afford it then anyway......lol

 

[QAVRT]

Interesting perspective from the OP. As someone who just seriously got into the hobby (2 months), I found what the OP states to be the same for me regarding the actual experience flying and that even capturing it on video it doesn't convey what its really like and what it took to get there...

Just my .02; I did a lot of research (6 months off and on) into this hobby before ever buying any FPV part let alone a drone. It is one of the most challenging hobbies I've ever undertaken. There is so little knowledge in one place, but there is lots of knowledge all over the place (web). There are so many variables, it makes it a challenge to put it all together (knowledge-wise) The FC and programming is almost a Black Art. Then there is the actual flying with goggles that no matter what you spend and then the image looks like something from a early 70s rabbit-eared TV. Your skill set has to be very complete to be and stay in this hobby.

A few things I learned so far:

Cost - Maybe its my choice in hobbies, but I don't find this hobby to be nearly as expensive as my other hobbies. I calculated 1500 (USD) bucks to get into the hobby. Not bad IMO, considering each of my AP drones have cost me more (Phantom 4, 1500 for the basics, 2500 - Inspire 1). I used to race Nitro R/C cars and in just the car alone which I had a buggy and truggy, each were over 1k. Add in back-up/spare racing motors, a mountain of tires, Fuel and chassis spares, I easily had 5k into my gear at any time (not cumulative which was much higher). My other hobbies are motorcycles and firearms. Obviously the motorcycles are way more expensive and the firearms vary but a quality rifle with optics is up there, not to mention how expensive ammo can be per round. FPV is my least expensive.

I took a different approach about learning to fly. I spent my first 4 weeks doing nothing other than flying using FPV FreeRider. I bought a BNF QAV-R which when the parts were priced out would have saved my only 50 bucks. With all the time spent on the simulator my first flight was decent. Sure I wasn't doing anything insane or awesome but I didn't auger in either. I had a few hard landings, but that smoothed out with more practice on the Sim. 4 flying sessions into this hobby (approx. 12 battery packs). I'm doing rolls, flips, and can do a decent "split S". I'm not bragging nor am I one of those young guys anymore with you guy reflexes, I'm in my mid-fifties. Sure I've crashed hard a few times already, sending my drone cartwheeling across the ground throwing the battery several yards away. I've clipped the goal post on the empty football field, I've pulled out of the split "S" too late and hit hard.

I've been criticized by some for not building my first FPV drone because I bypassed some of the "learning" needed to stay in this hobby. But I disagree. I know how to solder, I'm an Engineer, I understand the concepts and correlations when playing with BetaFlight. While I didn't know anything about PIDs or rates or how to set pitch-roll, end points, etc.. I do now.

I guess I'm just not a quitter either. It took me a long time to take the plunge. I am determined to be able to do some of those freestyle moves I see on Youtube.

 

[VirtueViolater]

I have horrible eyesight yet I can see well enough with my fpv gear. My worst crashes come from flying line of sight because I don't see well.
@QAVRT:
I think you must have bad fpv equipment because of the way you describe your image quality. I'm using a switchable 25 200 600 milliwatt transmitter and have no problems with image quality. Maybe you need to try different fpv equipment? I'm also using quality cameras and lenses
-Danny

 

[Jtrjr]

QAV,

Very nice write-up! Interestingly, we have very similar tastes in hobbies and I also started out with an RTF kit. I've also bought a few ARF's. I do agree with this being the least expensive of my hobbies but it's climbing every day. When I put my whole "drone" inventory together, including my AP stuff it really gets up there.

I also agree on the quality of the video. We've been spoiled by DJI with the awesome quality of Lightbridge. I'm surprised that something similar hasn't taken hold in this hobby yet. We're seeing some HD stuff now but it's pretty dang pricey and untested.

I am looking forward to throwing my Mavic on the back of my bikes this summer. I've been hauling around P3Pro's for the last two summers! The Mavic will fit right in my tourpack or saddlebags.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

Jerry

 

[Jtrjr]

I want to fly like Steele, Raymon and the RCAddict! (Too many to list).

Jerry

 

[QAVRT]

Thanks guys! My equipment is good quality. I was darn sure to not go cheap and sacrifice quality. I had the local club "experts" check it out. We've checked the Band and Channel on both the video board and goggles. Its more my expectations than anything else. I expected the image to look like the posted GoPro images on Youtube or what my DJIs transmit as Jtrjr says. The image transmitted and received from my QAV-R is the same when I look through the other guys equipment...

I also agree Jtrjr! While my "buy-in" was around 1500 bucks it is climbing! I've got the LHS who specializes in FPV drones building me a custom one...

Now if the darn weather would cooperate and give me some flying time!

I have horrible eyesight yet I can see well enough with my fpv gear. My worst crashes come from flying line of sight because I don't see well.
@QAVRT:
I think you must have bad fpv equipment because of the way you describe your image quality. I'm using a switchable 25 200 600 milliwatt transmitter and have no problems with image quality. Maybe you need to try different fpv equipment? I'm also using quality cameras and lenses
-Danny

 

[Speeder]

That was great Jerry,
I have lived my adult life that way. It should be noted that i have little or no experience with computers at all. So this hobby is a massive learning curve for me. I am up to the task but the reward of speed and height is well worth the slow knowledge acquisition. I flew in acro the last 2 days and i got a little dizzy...anybody else have that? It did go away.
I ruined my camera on the GT200 and swapped the one from the 150.also broke a motor mount on the GT150 luckily i
Had a spare, soldered it up and it flew great. So intimidated about programming boards and set up...i really wants build my own bird but not yet. I am a ing a Armattan chameleon built for me that is custom(my specs) then i can see how it is done .

Peace and progress
Keith

 

[MPPilot]

With a LOT of patience I have finally managed to get my overpowered X frame up in the air for about 30 seconds at a time under varying levels of control before it becomes a lawn dart. I have been flying LOS. Does putting on the FPV gear make it any easier to control or should I master FOS before trying FPV?

 

[VirtueViolater]

That was great Jerry,
I have lived my adult life that way. It should be noted that i have little or no experience with computers at all. So this hobby is a massive learning curve for me. I am up to the task but the reward of speed and height is well worth the slow knowledge acquisition. I flew in acro the last 2 days and i got a little dizzy...anybody else have that? It did go away.
I ruined my camera on the GT200 and swapped the one from the 150.also broke a motor mount on the GT150 luckily i
Had a spare, soldered it up and it flew great. So intimidated about programming boards and set up...i really wants build my own bird but not yet. I am a ing a Armattan chameleon built for me that is custom(my specs) then i can see how it is done .

Peace and progress
Keith

hang in there Keith, youll be building before ya know it

 

[VirtueViolater]

With a LOT of patience I have finally managed to get my overpowered X frame up in the air for about 30 seconds at a time under varying levels of control before it becomes a lawn dart. I have been flying LOS. Does putting on the FPV gear make it any easier to control or should I master FOS before trying FPV?

hi mp,
i suggest you download a simulator as that is the quickest, cheapest way to learn to fly period. its also lots of fun

 

[anthony.debiase]

I have horrible eyesight yet I can see well enough with my fpv gear. My worst crashes come from flying line of sight because I don't see well.
@QAVRT:
I think you must have bad fpv equipment because of the way you describe your image quality. I'm using a switchable 25 200 600 milliwatt transmitter and have no problems with image quality. Maybe you need to try different fpv equipment? I'm also using quality cameras and lenses
-Danny

I Have the same problem with LOS crashing due to poor eyesight. I find that I can only really fly line of sight during the dusk, night and early morning hours where there is no visible sun in the sky. Having red and green leds on the quad really really really helps me to not lose sight of a tiny little dot in the sky. Bad eyes are a horrible thing to have. You never appreciate eyesight until it fades.

 

[theGreenOrange]

LOS is much harder than FPV to me. It is helpful if you can already fly LOS. If you don't already I wouldn't bother with trying anything in LOS other than learning to hover.

I had already flown some toy drones in LOS so I skipped the simulators but that sounds like a great route to go. Other than that, I would say buy a brushed micro like one of the Eachine ones around 100mm size to practice FPV.

 

[anthony.debiase]

I built a drone crashed a lot. Things got expensive so i used my tx and got on DrL simulator for a few weeks. Then went and flew my quad and flew the while battery pack. Prior to sim, longest flight was maybe 20 seconds max


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[MPPilot]

I built a drone crashed a lot. Things got expensive so i used my tx and got on DrL simulator for a few weeks. Then went and flew my quad and flew the while battery pack. Prior to sim, longest flight was maybe 20 seconds max

Thanks for the DRL simulator recommendation. Both fun and frustrating.

 

[anthony.debiase]

Drl is good for transmitter compatability. I have a spektrum dxe that I bind to an Orange rx USB receiver. The usb rx was like $14. Its a dsmx/dsm2 rx for flight sims. Works perfect . Has support for lots of other tx too.


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[MPPilot]

Drl is good for transmitter compatability. I have a spektrum dxe that I bind to an Orange rx USB receiver. The usb rx was like $14. Its a dsmx/dsm2 rx for flight sims. Works perfect . Has support for lots of other tx too.

Can you go into more detail? I'm kind of confused about using a receiver with a sim. How does that work? I have both spectrum and Taranis and I connect the Taranis to the PC with a USB cord.

 

[VirtueViolater]

Can you go into more detail? I'm kind of confused about using a receiver with a sim. How does that work? I have both spectrum and Taranis and I connect the Taranis to the PC with a USB cord.

With the dx6e, you have to use a wireless "dongle"

 

[anthony.debiase]

Can you go into more detail? I'm kind of confused about using a receiver with a sim. How does that work? I have both spectrum and Taranis and I connect the Taranis to the PC with a USB cord.

Well the USB rx is made by orange rx. I got one on ebay and have seen them other places like HobbyKing. I didnt need to download any software on the mac i just plugged it in. The simulators see it as a controller right away. There i also a button on it that u press down and hold in before plugging into computer to make it flash lights for BInding. In the simulator u just set up your controllerto get channels correct or reversing if needed. It just works .


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[anthony.debiase]

Well the USB rx is made by orange rx. I got one on ebay and have seen them other places like HobbyKing. I didnt need to download any software on the mac i just plugged it in. The simulators see it as a controller right away. There i also a button on it that u press down and hold in before plugging into computer to make it flash lights for BInding. In the simulator u just set up your controllerto get channels correct or reversing if needed. It just works .


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Basically looks like usb flash memory. Just plug it in.

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