Just out of sheer curiosity (if that’s how you spell it ?), what got you guys into FPV? What’s the story.

Ran out of things to do and stumbled upon plans for a 3d printed fpv drone and the rest is history.

Got a cheap GEPRC TinyGo RTF as a Christmas gift, got about 40 seconds into the first flight and flew it straight into a wall at full throttle - Started researching how to fix it, and decided to try 'real' FPV, so I bought the DJI FPV, and after two flights I realized that I was too paranoid to crash it - Bought the JB Xilo kit as my first 'real' build, and ever since I have been hooked!

I got my cat a Losi mini T buggy to chase, he sometimes fetches things thrown but he's more about the chase. Having been away from nitro truck RC for about 15 years I got the itch and jumped back in with an Arrma Kraton 6s beast. Exploring videos about the trucks on YT I came across a channel where a guy was running them with some FPV pilots. A year later and 5 quads later the Kraton hasn't been run since.

Now the cat is chasing an Acrobee65.

Got tired of RC helicopters.  The concept of FPV was intriguing, particularly long range.  Once I tried it, the hook was set.  FPV is the closest thing to flying a real plane, something I wanted to do my whole life but work and family prevented it.

My wife and daughter only have themselves to blame for my addiction to this hobby and all the time/money that I've haemorrhaged on it Back in 2017 they made a big mistake by buying me a Hubsan X4 H107D micro drone for my birthday which they probably now regret. After getting hooked on that and finally outgrowing the basic capabilities of it I then spent a good few months researching DJI camera drones and following topics on camera drone forums with the intention of getting a fully autonomous drone with all the bells and whistles.

Then one day a Mr Steele video popped up in my YouTube video recommendations. At that point I had no idea what FPV was (or that such a thing even existed) and thought to myself WTF is this? After watching it and then (lots of) others I immediately abandoned any plans I had of getting a (now seemingly boring) autonomous camera drone and my focus completely switched to FPV quads. I built my first 5" quad back in 2018 and as they say, the rest is history

On a whim a few years ago I bought a cheap $20 rc car from Costco. It reminded me how much I used to love rc stuff. Shortly after that, I bought a used rc10 on eBay. RC10’s were one of those toys that I lusted after as a kid but couldn’t afford.

Then I remembered how much I used to love rc planes. So, I built a balsa sailplane and a foam trainer. Joined a local club, went out to the field and flew a few times, and then I remembered that I’m antisocial. I wanted something I could fly at home, on my property, without having to interact with other humans in person.

Quadcopters were the perfect solution.

It took me a long time to get to the point where I feel like I know what I’m doing most of the time. This forum helped with that immensely. The journey from, “I want to build a quadcopter” to now is a much, much longer story.

Mine was a weird evolution ... starting with the original crappy gopros you wore on your wrist.

We were so stoked with the videos we took with those things of us surfing that we wanted to keep upping our game. I got a waterproof handheld video camera next lol. Then I remember walking into a Sammys Camera and seeing this huge white thing that evidently flew since it has 4 huge white propellers ... and carried a VIDEO CAMERA!! We had to have it. But She Who Must Be Obeyed (SWMBO) quickly overruled that because of the pricetag. Then I found one on eBay lol. SWMBO relented. And I was lucky to have an awesome seller who was himself a professional videographer. I remember succinctly how odd I found his stern warning to me ... "People will harrass you for flying this drone - you must not let them bully you because you have every right to fly it." Prophetic!!!

It was pretty much all downhill from there. I ordered some ghetto gimbals from China lol. Started really getting into the FPV aspect. Then decided it was time for the big boy pants and bought my first legit quad ... a MayMayDay designed Armattan prototype he sold on RCG. And here we are.

Oh, and I never took surfing videos LOL.

The foreman of a control company brought a drone to the job site in I’d say around 2015ish. I have flown RC planes and helicopters since the age of 17. The drone was pretty primitive compared to what t is available today as they were still debating 3S VS 4S. He had the first version of the FS dominator series googles and the picture was pretty grainy. I was hooked deep and went to several of the races and met the club. I figured I needed 1500.00 which wasn’t impossible but I had zero time to invest in it. He ended up with his first child and the wife said no more drones! Well I was bummed and my dreams of becoming a FPV enthusiast seemed to crash and burn. Well fast forward to January 2020 and the world was shut down. I suddenly found myself with an amazing amount of spare time and got to thinking nows  the time to get into it. Called up the foreman and was like I’m going to do this are you back in? He’s like my wife is having the second baby. I’m like crap. So I started searching the internet for information. Spent hours upon hours watching and getting an idea of how to get into FPV. Final ordered the stuff and of course ended up paying a little more because everything was selling out. That was March 2020 and I was in the air with a lot of help from this forum. 

You had to ask.  Ok...here we go...

About four years ago, my Wonderful Wife  says..."Hey, come look at this!!"
She was watching a "SlaugherBot" video on YouTube. I was impressed that
an autonomous quadcopter carrying a 3 gram shape charge (explosives) that
would fit in the palm of your hand could identify and neutralize a target. Really.
Now, you have my attention and my research begins...

My fascination was with the small (ok, tiny) quads and what capabilities might be
possible in such a tiny format. At this point, FPV was not really my motive. As I
searched, the tiny (cheap) FPV quads piqued my interest especially since I had
wanted to fly when I was younger. 

So, I just had to give it a try and purchased an Eachine E013 tiny whoop combo
kit complete with EV006 (cheap) goggles and a "toy" grade dedicated transmitter
all for $ 75.00 USD. If I didn't like it, well, I wouldn't be out too much. 

Right out of the box, I tried FPV. WOW, I couldn't even tell where I was and the
quad bounced between the floor and ceiling until it crashed. Broke the VTX antenna
on the first flight. Ok, enough of that. I removed the camera/VTX and learned to 
fly it LOS in the living room.

       NOTE:   I am not a video gamer and have never been interested
                   in that type of thing so I had virtually NO experience with
                   a controller. Additionally, I am old so my manual dexterity
                   is not what it once was.

                   Also, a simulator was not an option since the transmitters
                   would not connect to the computer and I don't have any
                   "gaming" gear...and...was not going to get any. So, NO Sims.

I bought other cheap tiny whoop quads (about $ 20.00 USD each) and learned to 
fly LOS and control the quad with the included transmitters. It was several months
before I tried FPV again, but I was better this time...still cumbersome, but better.
Consequently, I learned to fly FPV on tiny whoops inside our house. 

By the way, I watched videos of those "Hot Dogs" like Mr. Steele and find them
interesting, but nothing that I even remotely considered actually doing.

At that point in time, you flew a 5 inch or nothing. You could hardly find anything
small except for the "toys". The "community" was just focused on 5 inch and larger.
Big quads, Expensive transmitter, Expensive Goggles (plus I wear eyeglasses). I was 
reluctant to spend these big bucks on the gear needed to fly REAL quads FPV.

In fact, I didn't get any "Real" gear until the EMAX TinyHawk Freestyle was released.
Now, this was a "cute" little quad that wouldn't break the bank. I also didn't get a "Real"
transmitter until the Jumper T16 was released. Everything seemed to come together at
about the same time. Now, I have real FPV gear. Now, I am in the game except that I
only have a 2.5 inch quad.

My second quad was a GEPRC Phantom which I actually liked better than the THF. Then,
I lost it. Was I ever depressed. My wife suggested buying another one, which I did, but
I also decided to build something. Now, I am going down the rabbit hole...at full speed.
Buying parts, tools, things, more things, another quad (Flywoo XBot3)...money going 
out everywhere. So, the REAL journey begins.

I just like to cruise around and maybe some easy proximity flying and have always worked 
to get the most fly time possible from any given quad. In addition, I like building and 
experimenting with different things. Consequently, I track my builds and almost all of
the flight data.

This forum is great. I have learned a lot and like to help others when I can. 

Onward and upward... up, up, and away. 

 
==============================================================
Due to the content, I did not link the SlaughterBot video, however, if you are interested...
copy the following phrase and paste it into the YouTube search:

New Dystopian Short-Film 'Slaughterbots' Shows Dangers Of Autonomous Killer Drones

==============================================================

Off and on RC Pilot since 1972, been there done that with line of sight Planes, Helicopters, Autogiros, Boat and Car racing. Was asked to start an after school "engineering" club which I did in 2007, using RC Cars only available as a kit. When they got too dear, I switched to Hovercraft based on the Eachine E010 quad, and suddenly realised micro FPV was affordable with care.

First personal quad was a 1806 powered 250 Diatone Hurricane frame on the then state of the art "huge" 1500Mah 4S DroneLab LiPo, Sony H11 Camera Still have it, still works. Then came EMax Nighthawk 280, EMax 200, and, and and...................

A year back went over to DJI HD for 3" and above, still analogue below that.

Nothing beats a screaming 5" doing a flat out power loop then straight under the tree canopy on the deckand up into a reversal the other side and repeat..................... LUVVERLY...............