I work at a makerspace and we teach drone classes to kids. We start with the Inductrix Blade (pretty unbreakable), upgrade its motors, solder on a camera to the power leads and use a cheap FPV headset to fly it around. We then hold nano drone races in our space about once a quarter for the kids.
The Inductrix is a great cheap way to get started with indoor flying that wont poke an eye out.
Haven't you seen the drone racing league shows on the sports network? I cut my cable many years ago, but every time I head to HQ for work, I get cable in the hotel, and there's always Shark Tank on one channel, and DRL ("Drone Racing League") on another. Check it out! They all fly with headsets. It's actually pretty intense and awesome.
The Inductrix Blade I have comes with an FPV camera built into the drone. It comes with a 6" FPV screen, and a big plastic clamp to hold the screen above the controller. This makes the controller assembly a little awkward, since the FPV display is heavier than the controller to which it mounts.
VR Headset might be a bit too much, but it's probably better than a small screen mounted awkwardly to a lightweight controller.
Drone racing is more like F1 where everything is stripped down for performance. Learning how to fly in non-stabilized mode is so freeing. Albeit with the stock Inductrix controller you are at a disadvantage. Check out the FrSky QX7 which is $100 and get some flying time in a simulator.
The controller is a good point. This one only supports 1 of the 4 control styles, and I think another control style might suit me better. Thanks for the suggestion, I'll try that controller.
DJI makes nice platforms for a wireless camera with auto-stability and auto-flight. A beginner can easily fly in high, gusty winds with minimal effort while taking smooth, high-resolution video. It's seriously impressive technology.
But it's like driving a tugboat instead of a jet ski. While it does have impressive speed and power, it's all expended in service of stability. If you want to do crazy stunts at speed, dancing nimbly around the sky, you want manual-control on a racing drone.
Saw it on tv for the first time a few weeks ago and loved what I saw. I'd like to get into it but need more time, money, and practice :) Are there any good simulators out there?
With both you can use a normal transmitter if you have one and that's the best way to get a similar experience of real flight. The FrSky is the easiest to setup but a Spektrum can be made to work w/ a special adapter. I like both of them for different reasons.
Yes it's amazing. The great part is a league called MultiGP with chapters all over the world that are grassroots where locals come together for organized races and compete against each other. They even have a regional series that leads to a national championship where anyone has a chance to make it. I love that compared to most sports where there's a professional league and it's untouchable.
It's the best value for money starter racing quad you can get. I bought it for my first drone and it's just as capable as anything you can build for twice the money.
Start off with the $15 cheapies like the E10 and solder a small TX03 camera onto it followed by Lizard95 and similar sized drones and then onto larger 180-250 size drones like the Wizard x220s.
For the goggles I'd recommend the Eachine VRD2 if you're cheap or Aomway Commander if you want low profiles.
On the other hand, having a wireless camera that can fly anywhere has unique security and surveillance implications.
Edit: Editing this post changes its position: https://imgur.com/gallery/4nVD1