Drones are all the rage right now and most likely they will be popular well into the future. FPV is one of the main reason drones have grown in popularity, FPV allows you to view what the drone’s camera sees in real-time. It’s an amazing experience, especially if you wear FPV goggles, however, flying FPV drones with goggles requires a lot of practice. Personally, I feel the best FPV drones for beginners are the ones that allow you to view the live video feed on your smartphone/tablet. These drones are usually easier to fly because they have a mixture of gyroscopes, GPS modules, altimeters and sensors.
These FPV drones’ range in price and the more expensive ones like the models from DJI, Autel and Parrot can be used for professional photography, photogrammetry, search and rescue, surveillance and other applications. These drones cost around $600 to $3000 and although they are relatively easy to fly thanks to their advanced technology, I would not recommend them for absolute beginners.
Fortunately, there are a lot of cheap FPV drones that are easy to operate and suitable for beginners. These drones usually have a 6-axis gyroscope, and the more expensive ones may come with a simple GPS module and an optical flow sensor. There are lots of drone brands that produce these types of inexpensive FPV drones, some of the more popular ones include Eachine, JJRC, MJX, Holy Stone and Hubsan.
Many of these FPV drones cost less than $100, they come with decent cameras and have features that will make them more enjoyable to fly.
If this is the type of FPV drones you are looking for, check out the following articles;
Best FPV Drones For Beginners
There are also FPV drones that are used for racing and something called freestyle flying, these drones are much harder to fly because they don’t come with flight stabilisation features. This gives pilots more freedom on how they can fly the drone and these drones fly much faster than the other types of FPV drones.
Freestyle and racing drones are usually flown with the aid of an FPV goggle or an FPV monitor, this provides a more immersive and realistic flying experience, but it does require a lot of skill to pilot these drones properly.
Drone racing has become so popular that there are now multiple drone racing leagues, its televised on sports channels like ESPN and rewards are becoming increasingly lucrative which only means it will get bigger.
If this is the type of FPV drone you want to fly, you will need to practice a lot, regardless of whether you want to race with friends or try to go pro and join on these drone racing leagues. I will be honest with you, drone racing isn’t for everybody, to master it, you will need to dedicate a lot of your time and practice often.
However, the rewards do outweigh the negative aspects of learning how to pilot an FPV racing drone and the experiences are quite exhilarating, especially when you are pushing the speed limits.
The best way to learn how to pilot FPV racing drones is via a drone simulator like velocidrone or the DRL simulator, there are multiple others but these two will do and they are relatively cheap to purchase. You will need to purchase your own transmitter to practice on these simulators and with some of them, you can even race against other aspiring drone pilots.
If you don’t want to learn on a simulator and want to get straight into the action, its best to purchase a cheap full kit FPV racing drone that comes ready to fly (RTF) like the ones listed below. They are very durable drones that cost just over $100 for the full set which include a box FPV goggle.
5 Best FPV Drones For Beginners
A mini quadcopter that is suitable for indoors, it comes with an F4 processor, powerful brushes motors and is built from polypropylene that makes it durable. It comes with a box FPV goggle that has a decent resolution and the drone has a flight time of 4 minutes and can reach a speed of 56 km/h.
The TinyHawk 2 comes with an upgraded camera from Runcam, the camera has a 700TVL and a switchable power system for longer range and better reception that results in clearer video footage. It’s a fast little drone that has upgraded brushless motors for more power and speed and has a flight time of around 4 minutes.
#3. Beta65S Lite Drone FPV Starter Kit
A mini FPV drone that is great for indoor racing, it has a whoop design and is made from highly durable plastic. This drone can take quite the beating and not get seriously damaged, it comes with 2 batteries, with each one providing around 3 minutes of flight time. You also get a box FPV goggle which has a decent resolution and has foam padding for added comfort. It comes with a modern F4 brushless flight controller which will allow you to upgrade many parts of the drone and you get the LiteRadio 2 transmitter which is easy to use and supports FrSky D8 and D16 transmission protocols.
Probably the best FPV racing drone on this list, its suitable for both beginners and more experienced drone racers. The drone has a nano F4 flight controller which will allow you to modify the drone with better features and comes with brushless motors proving the drone with more flight power than a brushed motor would. The drone also features a nano camera from Runcam that has a 700TVL, which provides decent live video footage. You also get the Eachine VROO5/9 FPV goggle which features a 40ch race band with an auto search function, a 3-inch LCD screen with a decent resolution and an internal lithium polymer battery.
#5. Meteor75 Lite Drone Beta FPV Advanced Starter Kit
A fast powerful mini FPV racing drone that is perfect for beginners, it can be flown outdoors and indoors and can do some amazing acrobatic moves. The package comes with a nice FPV goggle that has a 4.3-inch LCD screen which displays high-resolution live video footage. You also get the upgraded LiteRadio 2 transmitter which has been enhanced for new FPV drone racers and comes with a better battery.
All of the drones I have listed are called Tiny Whoop quadcopters, the Whoop references the protective guards the encircle the propellers. Most Tiny Whoop quadcopters are suitable for FPV beginners, they are durable and relatively easy to fly.
Once you have become more experienced and want to move on to more advanced FPV racing drones, you will have a few options on what type of racing drones to purchase.
If you have some type of background in electronics and enjoy building stuff, you may want to build an FPV racing drone by yourself. Obviously, this isn’t an option for everybody but if you do have the skillset or are willing to learn, this will give you the opportunity to build a custom made FPV racing drone to your own specifications.
Building your own FPV drone will also give you better insight on the inner workings of a drone and give you the skillset to diagnose any problems that may occur and fix them.
The best option is to purchase ready to fly (RTF) FPV drones, unlike the beginner-friendly FPV RTF drones I listed above, the advanced RTF FPV drones usually just come with the drone itself. Some come with a radio controller as well but usually you will have to purchase the controller and FPV goggle separately.
Advanced FPV Drones For Beginners
FPV drones are not just for racing, with many of these drones, you can attach HD action cameras and record some amazing video footage. These video footages are very different from the ones that are recorded by the like of Mavic Pro and Autel Evo. What I mean by different is that because FPV drones can fly really fast and do some acrobatic manoeuvres, the video footage will look and feel more exciting.
There are many action cameras to choose from, for example, insta360 released an action camera specifically engineered for FPV drones. It is called the SM0 4K camera and is compatible with many types of FPV drones which includes the Beta95 V3 Cinewhoop drone, the Diatone Taycan 25 whoop drone and many long-range FPV drones like the Flywoo lr HD 4”.
You can also purchase FPV drones that are compatible with GoPro action cameras and some like the drones from iFlight are installed with the DJI FPV system.
For more information on advanced FPV drones check out the following websites:
Final Thoughts
Drones with FPV feature are very fun to fly, they let you see and experience the world from above and many transmit video footage in true HD. The easiest FPV drones to fly are the ones that come with flight stabilisation features, these include drones from DJI, Autel, Parrot and less expensive ones from the likes of Hubsan, Eachine, JJRC and Holy Stone.
FPV drones for racing are a little harder to master but they give a more immersive flying experience because most of them are flown through the use of FPV goggles. Check out the following guide for a more in-depth introduction into the world of FPV racing drones.
