Getting into FPV Drones

My journey into getting into FPV drones was by accident, It started sometime in July 2023. I had been interested in the rise of camera drones for some time, but could never quite imagine how i would personally use one. I finally convinced myself to purchase a DJI Mini 3 Pro, I had seen the goggles and thought that sounded neat so I got a motion controller to complete the FPV experience.

It wasn't long after taking my first flight in the goggles that i was hooked, it felt very awkward to fly with the motion controller and the FOV was lacking with the Mini 3 Pro, from what i recall. I also soon thereafter crashed it into my house failing to brake in time.

Sadly I don't have footage of this crash so this dramatic reenactment will have to suffice.

I had to send the Mini 3 Pro to DJI for a free gimbal replacement as they deemed it as "malfunctioned". In short I wouldn't recommend the Mini 3 Pro or any of the photography drones for FPV in particular, but i can attest that it furthered my interest into what FPV was.

This is one of the first "flights" i did with the Mini 3 Pro and Motion Controller 2 & Goggles 2.

Video is straight from the drone, nothing edited.

I quickly realized that perhaps there was more to this drone and FPV thing than I initially realized, it was soon here after i started to get more targeted content from most of the social media sites. This lead me down quite the FPV rabbit hole, the amount of information was plentiful but scarce.

Whether it was this lack of and or informational overload I was faced with, I decided the next best course of action was to purchase a DJI Avata.

I flew a few flights with this using the Motion Controller and Goggles 2 and while I found the Motion Controller amazing as a introduction device into FPV I could tell I wanted more, more control, more speed, more flipping, more crashing. It was a blast!

I then purchased a DJI FPV Controller. The main benefit of this controller vs motion controller was that it allowed me to practice true flying in the sim and eventually real flight.

I flew around a bit using the "Normal" and "Sport" mode but I wanted to graduate to "Manual". At this point I was consuming ever more FPV content. I new I needed to put in some sim time, myself being a Steam user, I landed on, Liftoff Simulator. After some fumbling around in the sim for 7 hours and sort of getting things figured out, I decided it was time for some real world experience.

Off to the local park for some pokemon go, with my wife as my visual observer. Overall it was a success, the simulator practice easily carried over and I was flying, it was a bit windy that day which is something you can't practice in the simulator, but I quickly figured it out.

I have since flown 300 plus flights put in around 40 hours of additional simulator time and have found myself ever drawn not only to FPV flying in general but the return of an old love of video editing. And thus this blog, vlog, streaming site was born.

That brings us to today, I have been flying, crashing, watching and editing, just trying to have fun, learn, and hopefully inspire people to try FPV in the future.

In the coming days, weeks, months, I hope to share with you everything I experience as I venture further into FPV.