How hard is it, flying a racing drone?

“I have absolutely no experience flying a drone, how can I start?” – A newbie drone pilot

Yes, it’s true, many people are put off buying their first racing drone. The idea of flying one without any experience does seem intimidating (I had the same reservations myself when starting out). In the end I finally bought a mini drone, and I’m glad I did. Flying a drone turned out to be a lot simpler than I thought it would be. 

As soon as I got my Hubsan X4 I was hooked

If you are looking to buy a racing drone as your first drone, or like the idea of flying by first person view (FPV), it is quite easy to get started. All you need is a good quality drone (one for beginners), a nice open field, and then you are ready for take-off!

What drone should I start with?

If this is your first drone then it’s best to start with a mini drone, then upgrade to a 250 racing quad in a few weeks. This is because in the beginning you will crash quite a lot, and crashing with a small drone is a lot more forgiving than a full sized racing quad. Starting out this way means you will spend less time on the ground fixing things, and more time in the air.

Mini drones or ‘toy drone’ options

Some of the high end mini drones, or toy drones, are perfect to learn on. They allow you to push yourself to the limits and learn advanced maneuvers without worrying about crashing. Also the are quite cheap too! There are a few options to choose from but we believe the best mini drone is the Hubsan X4.

Practicing on a mini drone allows you to progress your flying skills much quicker than any other flying approach

Hubsan X4

The best drone for beginners

Transmitter is included

2 x flight modes (including expert)

Want to buy a mini drone?

If you want to buy a drone but not sure which quadcopter to choose, read more about beginner drone options here.

If you are ready to buy a drone, visit the Buzz Drones shop…

Buy Mini Drone

Buying a full size racing drone

When it comes to racing drones, the FPV platform to work towards getting is a 180-250 sized racing quad. These are the types of racing drones that professional pilots use, so what better way to learn than using the real thing!

The sooner you can get flying on a 180-250 quad the better

Even if you start out on a mini drone, it won’t take long to progress to a race drone. Also you can always skip the mini drone if feeling adventurous. The next question you have to ask yourself is do you want a pre-built FPV drone that is ready to fly (RTF) or do you want to build the drone yourself?

Ready to Fly

walkera_runner_250_png-400

Build it Yourself

ZMR250B-png

The Verdict…

Anyone who knows anything about FPV racing drones will say this…

Build it yourself!

Why build a racing drone?

If you want the best start to flying a racing drone, you simply must build it yourself. It may seem like more work in the beginning but building a racing quadcopter is the best option in the long run. 

The best racing drone is the one you build yourself

First of all, RTF drones are harder to fix. Second, it can be hard to get replacement parts for RTF racing drones. And last of all, if you buy an already made RTF drone then you won’t know how it went together, so you won’t be able to fix it when you crash. And remember, you will be crashing a lot in the beginning. So building a racing drone yourself just makes sense. You can fix the drone yourself when you crash!

Other benefits to building a racing drone…

Future proof design

Upgrade flexibility & 4S capabilities will make your drone last a long time.

Best value for money

Mix and match the best components and get the best drone for your money.

A sense of achievement

Building your own drone is a tremendously rewarding experience.

The best DIY drone for racing

The best quadcopter kit in the racing drone category which is also the most popular, is the ZMR250 frame with Naze32 & Baseflight. Simple to set up, stable flight characteristics and great value for money, there are many reasons why the ZMR250 is the best platform for new pilots. 

The most popular DIY racing quad in existence

The carbon fiber frame makes the drone incredibly crash resilient, plus the combination of the Naze32 flight controller and Baseflight create a powerful and reliable drone that works well.

zmr250-artur-mini-quad-quadcopter

The ZMR250 is one of the most popular DIY racing drones ever!

See more details about ‘building the best DIY racing drone’ here.

Get the ZMR250 FPV racing drone kit

If you are looking to buy an all-inclusive DIY racing drone kit, including video tutorials and more, please visit the Buzz Drones shop.

Shop for the best drones…

BUY A RACING DRONE

Ready to fly racing drones

If you are limited on time and want to get flying straight away, buying a RTF racing drone is still a great option. Your best bet is to buy a drone like the Walkera Runner 250, which includes everything you need to get flying. There are a lot of other RTF drones on the market, but the Walkera Runner 250 is our most favoured one right now.

The Walkera includes a good combination of performance and reliability, while still not being too hard or too expensive to fix. Repairs can be a huge money sink so it’s important to choose a good platform. Also this drone includes decent quality components, better than most other RTF racing drone kits out there.

walkera runner250

The Walkera Runner 250

A cheap drone for beginners

If this is going to be your first drone, you can always start out on something that is a little more crash resilient. In terms of racing drones the V666 is the best cheap drone for beginners.

The V666 is an affordable gateway to FPV

The V666 is robust enough to survive the harshest of crashes. It also has great performance which will keep you excited for a long time. It comes complete with a 2.4GHz transmitter and a 720p 30FPS camera screen built into the controller. This kit gets you up and running within minutes. When compared to other similar quadcopters, it is safe to say that this is the best drone under $200 for FPV racing.

Buy a racing drone

Fast track your way to becoming a racing drone pilot – visit the Buzz Drones shop for a range of the best racing drones available on the market today.

Visit the Buzz Drones shop…

BUY RACING DRONE

Other important information

If you are after further information about flying drones, you may find the following topics of use.

Review the rules

Before you operate a drone it’s important to know the regulatory laws regarding UAVs. If you want more information about CASA rules in Australia (click here). 

Learning to fly

Armed with the knowledge of a few basic rules all you really need to do is take your quadcopter out to your local park and let loose. You won’t get better experience than actually flying your drone, so we encourage you to go out there and have a go.

If you need more help with flying and training guides, you can check out Buzz Drones’ blog section here.

Also if you decide to fly with Buzz Drones we offer free tutorials with each purchase.

 

Drone simulators

A great way to learn how to fly a FPV drone is to use a drone simulator. Practicing like this allows you to get comfortable flying FPV before you move onto a real drone. In fact we recommend anyone who wants to be a good pilot to get a simulator. Simulators emulate flight profiles really well. It’s like flying the real thing!

Where to next?

By now you should have a pretty good understanding of which direction you should take when it comes to buying your first racing drone. 

If you haven’t already done so, check out the Buzz Drones’ blog for more information. Don’t forget you can contact Buzz Drones directly if you need help with anything else.

Thanks for reading and good luck!

Author: Joshua Carr

Intrigued in flight from a young age, Joshua completed a BE in Aerospace Engineering from Adelaide Uni & now spends his time between designing aircraft for local start-ups and as a private drone operator for Buzz Drones.


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