Hi Bruce and everyone,
My Name's Eddie and I live in Sydney, Aust. I'm 40 and finally have enough cash to realize some of my childhood RC dreams. My budget is about $1000 all up, but limited to about $1-200 until June as I'm going overseas in May. I've had a 2ch RC slope glider which has warped wings from bad storage, and a cheap 4ch mini heli that has a lot of control lag. I've also flown MS Flight Sim heaps, but mostly people tell me that's a bad thing.
Anyway, after watching some of Bruces great videos (and yes Bruce, I've subscribed ) I've been thinking that FPV totally rocks and I can't wait to get all the gear!!! But which gear? My plan is to buy the transmitter first so I can practice (play) on a sim (FMS), then the plane and basic electronics to fly, then the Fatshark gear to fly FPV and lastly an OSD and autopilot to fly FPV over longer ranges.
A transmitter/controller is a big decision, since the Turnigy 9x ones seem to be unavailable (are they restocked semi-regularly?). The Hobbyking ones don't frequency hop, and so would probably conflict with a 2.4Ghz Fatshark setup, right? I could get a name brand controller but then I'd really have to wait until June to get anything at all. From what I can tell all the name brands are ok as long as you get frequency hopping, and it depends on which menus you like and how comfortable they are in your hands. I'd also like the potential to fly a heli in the future.
The Hobbyking FPV plane seems good enough, and cheap to replace after it get's bashed around by my skillful landings.
For servos and other small things I have no idea about what is good. Hobbyking have suggestions to go with the planes, but are their suggestions good? Should I do a bunch of research on what motor, prop, ESC etc to get or doesn't it really matter too much for a beginner? Batteries seem pretty basic, but chargers could be another whole paragraph. Also, what other small things have I totally not thought about?
On one had a shopping list designed by an expert would be really handy, on the other I'd probably learn more by working it all out for myself. There's a lot to think about, so I guess I thought I'd write all this and see if I was on the right track so far.
Oh, one other thing, what's the go with flying in local parks? I'm assuming it's ok to fly around a playing field as long as no one else is using it, but what about leaving the field and flying FPV around surburban areas? Are there any legalities involved?
Eddie