I've never really done RC before, but after months of research, I'm excited to get engaged in the hobby.
I came to the interest a little backwards. I follow Corridor Digital on YouTube. I'm sure plenty of people here are familiar with their work with DJI quads, as well as their collaboration with Rotor Riot for their "Drone Star Wars" video. I'm neither a videographer nor a pilot, but the intersection of the two fields caught my interest, so I've kept up on the technology. A few months ago, my ex-wife bought me a Cheerwing CW4 - a toy-grade autolevel quad with a small 720p camera. After having a ton of fun with it, I went back to that Star Wars video and watched the behind-the-scenes footage. Acro quads hooked me hard, and I watched the entire Rotor Riot backlog, which led to me watching individual FPV pilots' channels and listening to quad podcasts.
The expense of FPV acro quads, however, was a sticking point. When I realized that I'd spent a solid week tweaking a spreadsheet with different build configurations to try to find a way to get into the hobby for less than a month's pay up front, I decided I couldn't possibly justify it. But by then the flight bug had bitten hard. Couple that with my ex-wife's decision to start the process to get her PPL (in fact, I just got off the phone with her after her first lesson) - flight was going to be in my future one way or another. I needed to find a better way to access the air.
That led me to Flite Test. I'd watched a few FT videos in the past, mostly through Facebook shares, but I always associated fixed wing RC planes with grognards who had too much time and money on their hands. My perception of the field as an arcane and insular community kept me from looking at it closely. But watching Wren of Corridor Digital experience Flite Fest showed me I was 180 degrees off target. Getting into the air is cheap and quick, and the community is amazing. Now my ex-wife is interested in RC flying as well, and we're both excited that it's something we can do with our kids.
I'm putting a little aside for a Taranis Q X7. (After all those quad videos, I think I'm convinced that Taranis beats Spektrum for me.) The Simple Cub looks like a good first plane to build and fly. I have a feeling that after that I'll branch out into scratch builds; it appeals to the paper modeler in me. And maybe after that, who knows, I might take the Gremlin route into quadcopters after all.
I came to the interest a little backwards. I follow Corridor Digital on YouTube. I'm sure plenty of people here are familiar with their work with DJI quads, as well as their collaboration with Rotor Riot for their "Drone Star Wars" video. I'm neither a videographer nor a pilot, but the intersection of the two fields caught my interest, so I've kept up on the technology. A few months ago, my ex-wife bought me a Cheerwing CW4 - a toy-grade autolevel quad with a small 720p camera. After having a ton of fun with it, I went back to that Star Wars video and watched the behind-the-scenes footage. Acro quads hooked me hard, and I watched the entire Rotor Riot backlog, which led to me watching individual FPV pilots' channels and listening to quad podcasts.
The expense of FPV acro quads, however, was a sticking point. When I realized that I'd spent a solid week tweaking a spreadsheet with different build configurations to try to find a way to get into the hobby for less than a month's pay up front, I decided I couldn't possibly justify it. But by then the flight bug had bitten hard. Couple that with my ex-wife's decision to start the process to get her PPL (in fact, I just got off the phone with her after her first lesson) - flight was going to be in my future one way or another. I needed to find a better way to access the air.
That led me to Flite Test. I'd watched a few FT videos in the past, mostly through Facebook shares, but I always associated fixed wing RC planes with grognards who had too much time and money on their hands. My perception of the field as an arcane and insular community kept me from looking at it closely. But watching Wren of Corridor Digital experience Flite Fest showed me I was 180 degrees off target. Getting into the air is cheap and quick, and the community is amazing. Now my ex-wife is interested in RC flying as well, and we're both excited that it's something we can do with our kids.
I'm putting a little aside for a Taranis Q X7. (After all those quad videos, I think I'm convinced that Taranis beats Spektrum for me.) The Simple Cub looks like a good first plane to build and fly. I have a feeling that after that I'll branch out into scratch builds; it appeals to the paper modeler in me. And maybe after that, who knows, I might take the Gremlin route into quadcopters after all.