Why you should try a cheap $25 drone first

How my horror story began

My first drone was a DJI Mavic Air. The original one. And I paid $600 for that drone. In 2017, 600 bucks wasn’t loose change. Even for a drone. It was hard earned money, many months saving to get that baby. It wasn’t cheap at all.

And once I have it in my hands, I squeeze every penny out of it. The first of my problems was that this was the first drone I touched. Ever. In my whole life.

Let’s not talk about flying it. Let’s not think about crashing it.

Have you ever seen those videos on YouTube where a person bought a Ferrari and they just crashed driving out from the dealership?

Like, having too much power in their hands and zero control?

Just like that.

Having a $600 drone, not knowing how to fly it and being afraid of losing all the money in seconds was the perfect formula for slowing down (a lot) my process of becoming a good drone pilot.

My learning process looked like this: I wake up at 5 am, grab the drone and the batteries (thank god was a fly more combo), go to the balcony, insert first battery, fly straight 50 meters while feeling goosebumps, elevate the drone 20 meters high, turn back, rinse and repeat.

With the 3 batteries.

Every. Single. Morning.

In my head, that was the only way to lose the fear of flying my drone, to raise it up to 120 meters, and to send it further away. And eventually, it worked. But it took me at least three solid months of that routine to be able to fly with a certain degree of confindence in myself and knowing that I was not gonna lose the 600 bucks in one second.

Actually, having that DJI Mavic Air and not finding people on YouTube who teach you (in Spanish) how to fly drones was the reason that pushed me to create my own YouTube channel where I teach how to fly to everyone that was just starting in this world.

And now Rafa, why are you telling us this in an article that’s about getting a $25 drone as their first one?

Well because maybe if I just maybe had the chance to get a $25 drone as my first drone I could learn about flying drones A LOT faster and A LOT better!

And why is that?

Let’s talk first about price: If you are not afraid of losing a decent amount of money, you will be in a better position than a person that buys a DJI Mavic 3 Cine as their first drone, or without exaggerating, a DJI Air 3S.  When you buy an under $25 drone, for example the E88 on Amazon that costs $19,99 you know that the worst thing that can happen to you or your pocket is flying it through your neighbor’s window.

And nothing else. If the drone didn’t survive that crash, you just open the other one, cause at that price I bet you order at least half a dozen. You feel safe flying it because it’s not a big deal, you already know that you’ll get terrible video (mine records at 20 fps) and photos that are worse that the ones from the first camera phones that used to shoot at 320 x 240… but the important part here is that you learn how to feel the drone, how he moves in the air, how the wind push him and how a gps-less, sensor-less drone its harder to control it.

You know, stabilized drones are big pieces of technology with a lot of sensors, GPS, and intelligent return to home functions, and learning how to fly a drone with one of them it’s like learning to ride a bicycle with those little wheels at the sides. You’ll eventually learn, but when? In a month? Three months?

Why Fear is Your Worst Enemy (and How a Cheap Drone Can Conquer It)

So, when I’m telling you to buy a cheap drone it’s not because I want you to (only) save money, but to save precious, priceless and valuable time.

If you still haven’t bought your first DJI Neo, Mini or any of the entry-level DJI drones, then go now and get a cheap drone. Fly it fully confident and feel the drone.

With a cheap drone, you’ll really feel how it responds to your inputs. Try practicing gentle turns and hovers in a confined space to get a sense of its momentum, Learn how to move it, and try to hold it in the same place with just the sticks, doing this will teach you how to read the wind:remember that even a light breeze can throw a cheap drone off course. Try flying in different wind conditions to develop your skills on how to compensate and maintain control. This will be invaluable when you move to a more expensive drone.

And don’t forget to learn about the trim buttons: these are essential for fine-tuning your drone’s flight. Experiment with them to understand how they affect the drone’s stability and learn how to use them to counteract drift, and specially learn to fly without fear.

And just like that, that’s the magic about the price of these drones, the less money you pay, the less fear you get.