The Best Racing Drone for Beginners (it's Not the One You Think)

Apr 6

What drone should I start with?

A common question that gets asked all the time.

Anyone who knows anything about FPV racing drones will say this…

Build it yourself!

Why build a racing drone?

You can buy a drone that is pre-built, or Ready To Fly (RTF), and it may even get you flying quickly. But how long will this fun last!?

There is a reason why many people build racing drones, even when they aren’t into ‘racing’.

Building a racing quadcopter is a little extra work to begin with, but it will save you plenty of time and money in the long run.

This is because you can fix it when you crash!

By spending just a little effort in building the drone yourself, you can learn how all the bits and pieces go together.

Not only is this a fun and rewarding experience, but it allows you to learn how to put the drone back together when you crash! Remember, you will be crashing a lot in the beginning, so it’s a good idea to learn how to fix your drone early on!

Other benefits to building a racing drone…

✔ Future proof design

Upgrade flexibility with higher voltage 4S capabilities, will make your drone last a long time.

✔ Best value for money

Mix and match the best components and get the best drone for your money.

✔ A sense of achievement

Building your own drone is a tremendously rewarding experience.

Buying Your First Racing Drone

If you are looking to buy a racing drone as your first drone, or like the idea of flying by First Person View (FPV), it is quite easy to get started.

If this is your very first drone then it’s best to start with a RTF mini drone, then build your own racing drone after a few weeks. This is because in the beginning it is easier to learn how to fly with a small drone. Crashing with a small drone is a lot more forgiving than a full sized racing quadcopter.

Buying a Mini drone or ‘toy drone’

Some of the high end mini drones, or toy drones, are perfect to learn on. They allow you to push yourself to the limits and learn advanced maneuvers without worrying about crashing.

Starting out this way means you will spend less time on the ground fixing things, and more time in the air.

There are a few options to choose from but we believe the best mini drone is the Hubsan X4.

You can always skip the mini drone if feeling adventurous. But remember that practicing on a mini drone allows you to progress your flying skills much quicker than any other approach.

Even if you start out on a mini drone, it won’t take long to progress to a full size race drone.

Building or Buying a full size racing drone

When it comes to racing drones, the FPV platform to work towards getting is a 180-250 sized racing quad. These are the types of racing drones that professional pilots use, so what better way to learn than using the real thing!

The next question you have to ask yourself is do you want a pre-built FPV drone that is Ready To Fly (RTF) or do you want to build the drone yourself?

Remember, the best racing drone is the one you build yourself

If you want the best start to flying a racing drone, you simply must build it yourself. If you don’t build your own drone, then it will be much harder to fix on your own. It will also be harder to source replacement parts. Building a racing drone yourself just makes sense.

The best DIY drone for racing

The best quadcopter kit in the racing drone category which is also the most popular, is the ZMR250 frame with Naze32 & Baseflight. Simple to set up, stable flight characteristics and great value for money, there are many reasons why the ZMR250 is the best platform for new pilots.

The most popular DIY racing quad in existence

The carbon fiber frame makes the drone incredibly crash resilient, plus the combination of the Naze32 flight controller and Baseflight create a powerful and reliable drone that works well.

Ready to fly racing drones

If you are limited on time and want to get flying straight away, buying a RTF racing drone is still a great option. Your best bet is to buy a drone like the Walkera Runner 250, which includes everything you need to get flying.

There are a lot of other RTF drones on the market, but the Walkera Runner 250 is our most favoured one right now.

The Walkera includes a good combination of performance and reliability, while still not being too hard or too expensive to fix. Repairs can be a huge money sink so it’s important to choose a good platform.

Also this drone includes decent quality components, better than most other RTF racing drone kits out there.

How hard is it, flying a racing drone?

I have absolutely no experience flying a drone, how can I start?” – A newbie drone pilot

Yes, it’s true, many people are put off buying their first drone. The idea of flying one without any experience does seem intimidating.

I had the same reservations myself when starting out. But in the end it turned out to be a lot simpler than I thought it would be!

All you need is a good quality drone (one for beginners), a nice open field, and then you are ready for take-off!

A cheap drone for beginners

If this is going to be your first drone, you can always start out on something that is a little more crash resilient.

In terms of racing drones the V666 is the best cheap drone for beginners.

The V666 is robust enough to survive the harshest of crashes. It also has great performance which will keep you excited for a long time. It comes complete with a 2.4GHz transmitter and a 720p 30FPS camera screen built into the controller. This kit gets you up and running within minutes. When compared to other similar quadcopters, it is safe to say that this is the best drone under $200 for FPV racing.

Other important information

If you are after further information about flying drones, you may find the following topics of use.

Review the rules

Before you operate a drone it’s important to know the regulatory laws regarding UAVs. If you want more information about CASA rules in Australia (click here).

Learning to fly

Armed with the knowledge of a few basic rules all you really need to do is take your quadcopter out to your local park and let loose. You won’t get better experience than actually flying your drone, so we encourage you to go out there and have a go.

If you need more help with flying and training guides, you can check out Buzz Drones’ blog section here.

Also if you decide to fly with Buzz Drones we offer free tutorials with each purchase.

Drone simulators

A great way to learn how to fly a FPV drone is to use a drone simulator. Practicing like this allows you to get comfortable flying FPV before you move onto a real drone. In fact we recommend anyone who wants to be a good pilot to get a simulator. Simulators emulate flight profiles really well. It’s like flying the real thing!

Where to next?

By now you should have a pretty good understanding of which direction you should take when it comes to buying your first racing drone.

If you haven’t already done so, check out the Buzz Drones’ blog for more information. Don’t forget you can contact Buzz Drones directly if you need help with anything else.

Thanks for reading and good luck!

Josh Carr