Another Newbie, never flown before

[daveyb]

Hi all

Thought I';d introduce myself. I';m Dave.

After doing lots of research into quadcopters, it always lead me to this forum and it has answered many questions that I would of normally asked so thanks for your guides on flying and the laws etc

After lots of looking round, YouTube, asking pilots at my local RC club I was thinking of a DJI phantom 3 standard as my first quadcopter. It';s mainly for beginner mode, ease of setup etc. Is this a  good place to start?

I also see lots of posts from people saying get a cheap micro / nano quad for practice? Is this a good idea for someone like me?

I was also looking at 250 quads and I see the eachin falcon is recommended a lot as a starter into the racing / FPV side of things, I';m interested in hearing what you all think about this.

[Bajadre]

Welcome to the forum dave 

If you haven';t flown before we usually recommend a smaller quad to get used to orientation while flying that way if it all goes wrong there easy/cheap to fix the £35 hubsan x4 a good choice for starting out then move up size wise when you feel more confident to get outside and tackle the wind and the trees 

[Cheredanine]

Can not fault above advice from bajadre, you can even go cheaper and get a e010 for about a tenner

The point is to get used to controls, learn muscle memory and basically learn to fly without expensive crashes.

The phantom is very different from a 250 racer, in what it does, how it flys and what it is capable of. If your ultimate goal is to fly fpv racers I wouldn';t bother with the phantom, after a few ours on the micro yo ant to start in a 250

[daveyb]

Thank you for the replies :)

looks like i will be getting a micro drone for practice then

@Cheredanine my ultimate plan for both drones is to use the DJI for aerial Photography / Videos when im on holidays and I may be emigrating so would like to use it to help with travel blogs etc and then use the 250 for racing and FPV.

[Cheredanine]

Cool amigo
The 250 area:
When you buy rtf you pay for someone to put it together. Even if a machine does it you are paying for the machine.

So when you buy a cheap rtf quad, the quad you get is very cheap and cheerful.

When you crash and break a quad (and you will crash and break it) you need to diagnose and fix.
Either it uses plug and play bespoke components which will be difficult to get and be pricey, or it is a mor ubiquitous build in which case you need the skills required to build it to repair it

When it comes to upgrading quads of the first type generally can';t be upgraded or involve a lot of faff, quads of the second type again you need the skills to build

Generally therefore the advice is build your own, you will get a better quad for cheaper and upgrading and repairs will be much simpler, quicker and cheaper.

It is entirely possible to build a decent racing/acro quad and tame it through less aggressive props and lower cell batteries such as your 3s for a beginner

Also building a quad is no where near as complicated or difficult as you may think

Your 2200 3 cell lipos are way bigger and heavier than most racer/acro fly, WATCH THE C RATING, but otherwise they will hobble a quad nicely for learning to fly

[daveyb]

@Cheredanine

Thanks again for the advice, i really appreciate it

looking around here some more, especially on the 250 front, ive seen these come up a lot

http://www.armattanquads.com/armadillo-rxr/

are these any good as a starter /  kit build? coming from an RC background im ok with Lipos and electrics etc just literally the flying. We always tell people to buy cars as kits so i guess it would be good with a quad to learn how they work and how to maintain. I was unaware quadcopters are available as kits and I enjoy building so that makes sense.

So you know whats coming next haha, what motors, escs, lipos, radio gear will i need to purchase to get it up and running? also i guess i will need a stablility controller and things? these are definitely a whole new world to me.

Id also like an FPV that can record so i can watch my videos back and improve my flying from watching them, any recommendations?

With regards to the DJI, am I better spending a bit more and going for a pro or are the standards ok bearing in mind i would only fly in sight of it to stay legal etc

[Cheredanine]

I really can';t advise on dji, not my thing

Armattan make excellent frames but i really wouldn';t advise that one for a beginner it would be a tight build

Frame wise for someone new to buolding I would suggest a Stanton tsx220 or a lumenier 210 charpu edition.
These are both strong, light frames which can perform at the serious end but have a bit of room for the components.

You budget drives a lot of this, if those are too expensive then banggood has a lisam 210 which is a clone of the lumenier, you need to buy a few bits extra, the carbon weave isn';t as tight and you end up waiting for slow boats but considerably cheaper

hefe is a link I wrote for Electricwingman on building a racing quad. It contains all,the info you need, although it produces a super fast racing quad and a very agile acro quad, it can be easily tailed by using a 3 cell battery and props such as 5030:
https://www.electricwingman.com/guides/building-fpv-racing-quadcopter.aspx
It therefore has the advantage of growing with you :)

Otherwise you can take a drive through the 250 build forum, there are lots of builds there with explanations, parts and pictures

Suggest put together a list of what you want and post it, people will offer advice and correct any omissions or gotchas

Radio gear. De facto is frsky taranis (the new qx7 is about to appear on the shelves, that would make an excellent option.
People will doubtless pipe in with flysky which is cheaper, but frsky will do all you ever want, I would recomend that and xsr recievers (I would probably recomend xm+ but haven';t built with one yet)
Take a look at that, lot, figure out your budget and put up what you want, as I say, all will chip in

[GdLookinMingeR]

If your itching to get started you may want to try this for a starter.
All you need to get up and running.
http://www.radioc.co.uk/Learners-quadcopter-kit-p/5561.htm

If you have a half decent pc or mac try freerider

https://fpv-freerider.itch.io/fpv-freerider

P.S. no affiliation with RadioC

All the Best
Jay