My first drone

If you're thinking of getting a drone for Christmas here's some advice.

Start cheap..... or really expensive.

Everything is hard until it becomes easy. I can still remember the first time I picked up a drone controller, the first time I took off, which coincidentally was the first time I smashed it into the ceiling. Shortly after I hit a wall, then the window, then I decided to take it outside and I remember fondly the walk around the field behind our estate looking for it. I was lucky, I found it, and thats when I really started learning how to control it.

The machine was the Hubsan H107c, my second Hubsan H107 is still going strong, the first one landed in a small tub of water and the motor stopped working shorty after that. They say any landing is a good landing, but that one wasn't.

I've never really paid it much notice, but there are a multitude of RTF (ready to fly) drones on the market priced between £50-£300 pounds
. Most lack GPS and Gimballs so are poor for both control (for a beginner) and camera quality (some however do boast RTH [Return to Home] so if this is your budget make sure you get one with it). I'm sure the price of this technology will decrease as there's obviously a market for it, and many years ago, Gimballs and GPS was exclusive for machinery costing 10 times what it does now. But for the time being, starter drones should be considered just that. Practice machines, that
1) Won't cause too much damage when they hit the ground.
2) Won't break the bank if they do end up in a bad situation.

There's a lot of fun to be had with entry level drones, but don't build your hopes up. It's a steep learning curve and camera quality is going to be amateur at best.

On the other hand, if you're feeling more frugal, the Phantom 3 standard is now available for the incredible price of £400. For anyone with a couple of hours experience, or the ability to keep a quad in the air and away from walls for more than a few minutes, you'd find this machine a doddle to fly. With in built GPS this beauty will keep it's position in the sky without you touching the controller. It will make you feel like twice the pilot you are though, so crashing is still a high probability when you start taking risks. It also has a gimbal that on it's own is the best part of £250, this will make footage you capture look smooth and professional. On a quad of this price, this is exceptional.

My advice, start with a pocket toy for indoor use. Get used to the controls then check the bank balance for a serious piece of kit that you can be confident you can control.