Old man with toy drone

maddawg46

Member
i got this Chinese drone for $40 with everything. Yep it's a toy class drone. I'm pretty bad at it, but I'm still trying. My idea of a majority r upgrade is $200. I just looked at the classified section.....$10,000.00! Are you kidding me. I'm teaching myself because I don't know anybody that has one.

I hope I'm on the right forum. I'm retired and just want to have some fun.
 


jamesb72

Member
Just for balance, there are some great toy drones at low end of market, the Hubsan X5, Cheerson WD-10 to name a couple, but they are small indoor fliers, perfect for learning/practicing controls, and many come with usable low res camera's for fun pictures. The small quads have a huge advantage in crashing as they have so little weight/momentum they are almost indestructable, and don't damage what they hit (walls/furniture etc), also flying indoors you have much more reliable weather ;)

The step up to GPS/HD cam quads is a bit higher than $200 but is coming down almost every month, so I'm sure won't be long, and there are a few models in that range from Chinese suppliers, but they are a bit less commonly known/appreciated, so buying at that price point is much more of a gamble, than if you can stretch to a 'known' item like the Blade Chroma, or DJI Phantom 3 Advanced, these have GPS/altitude hold, HD camera's (1080p up to 4k) and lots of other features, but at a cost.

Nothing wrong with starting on the cheaper quads to learn/practice, as the controls are identical on the cheapest to the most expensive, and mastering the controls on something cheap/robust is definitely more sensible !

This is a video from the Cheerson WD-X10 which is around $40 and has wifi video downlink to smartphone, basically the same concept as DJI Phantom3 at much lower resolution/cost.

 


DroneTalk

R/C Expert
Staff member
Owning a hobby shop, when I take a person that has never flown a drone and hand them a Phantom they take off and land and fly around with very little problems and zero frustration. So IMO it all depends on what your end result is, do you just want the challenge of a toy, or wanted to be get that perfect shot. Being in the hobby for over 30 years and learning to fly without a simulator, I can tell you that toy are fun but will lean to learning bad habits that will be hard to break, but again lots of options and lots of choices.
 

maddawg46

Member
Owning a hobby shop, when I take a person that has never flown a drone and hand them a Phantom they take off and land and fly around with very little problems and zero frustration. So IMO it all depends on what your end result is, do you just want the challenge of a toy, or wanted to be get that perfect shot. Being in the hobby for over 30 years and learning to fly without a simulator, I can tell you that toy are fun but will lean to learning bad habits that will be hard to break, but again lots of options and lots of choices.

So what phantom model do you recommend? Do they come with a radio controler and a video screen? I don't have a flip phone. I do have an iPad
 

DroneTalk

R/C Expert
Staff member
So what phantom model do you recommend? Do they come with a radio controler and a video screen? I don't have a flip phone. I do have an iPad

The Phantom 3 Pro or Phantom 4 , even the Autel would be a good pick as well.
 


maddawg46

Member
So I guess that the Phantom does not come with a radio controler. Since I don't have a smart phone, which controler would have a screen built in? It's a shame I have to spend $1000 + to see if I like drones. Went and practiced with my creepy toy one. Biggest issue is since it does not transmit video, when she gets higher you can't see the LEDs to know which is front.
 


DroneTalk

R/C Expert
Staff member
The phantom does come with a Radio controller, but their are other models out there than has build in screen.
 


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