Ive got a couple of quadcopters going, for those of you wanting a small racing quad to start off with I recommend this very cheap Eachine 250 for $129.
http://www.banggood.com/Eachine-Rac...-OSD-With-HD-Camera-BNF-Version-p-995366.html
Normally buying the parts separately and building it yourself would be cheaper than buying a built quad, but in this case..... its actually cheaper to buy this unit than the unit you need to build :/ Ive purchased two of them to start of with. They come with pretty good quality FPV as well.
But cause Im a nerd, I wont be racing with mine, I want to trade out their CC3D flight controllers and replace them with an APM set. While I know the CC3D flight controller is great for speed, turns and flips, I prefer working on the programing side of things and writing programs to fly for me. So I will need a GPS system and ardupilot.
This is my current and first drone.
Im currently waiting on a 3 axis gimbal and HD camera with 5.8Ghz live feed to arrive (basically its the walkera ilook).
I had a spectacular crash today. My own fault. I flew in high wind conditions and too close to a tree (was on a family farm). The nice thing about these quads, the parts that break are cheap. New frame is less than 700, motors are R100 each, props are dirt cheap, even the landing skids are cheap.
I am absolutely loving this hobby. Its taking up most of my time and money. I personally prefer pushing automated grid flying to the max (trying to find practical applications in agriculture). What I love about these modular DIY drones, my drone can do the same stuff as my brothers 22k dji phantom 3, but is a quarter of the cost. Also because its modular you can tinker, program and invent. One of the reasons I bought two Eachine 250`s is I wanna see if I can get them to do synchronized flying for 3d filming... or just because it looks cool
If you start this hobby. buy spares. The quad motto is: Build, fly, crash, repeat.
My next plan is to try build an octocopter or a hexcopter with 2x 10 000mah batteries and a small camera and gimbal. I really wanna make out that flight time and try get a multirotor with 45 min air time.
