I can’t say that I’m short of hobbies, but I decided to look into FPV drones. I originally was tempted by camera drones, but I don’t live anywhere photogenic or travel to one, plus they are definite Karen magnets. I think that one thing that attracted me to FPV drones is the fact that they take some skill to fly and are as much a hobby about making things as about flying them. So, it seems worth a look…
Now, this is a weird hobby. Other than the DJI elephant in the room (who barely acknowledge FPV as a thing), every other manufacturer seems like a tiny operation operating on a shoestring. Items are randomly in and out of stock. Only a subset of the products are available from retailers in the US, so you have to order direct from China if you want anything slightly out of the ordinary. There are so many sizes and topologies to choose from. The major video transmission systems are all quirky in their own ways – each has its advantages, but none is the obvious winner. If you’re used to thinking in terms of the traditional quality triangle (“good, fast, cheap – choose any two”), this is more like quality pentagram (a 5-sided quality measure, choose any 3).
Anyway, one nice thing is that we live in pretty good times to sample hobbies like this: simulators have gotten good enough to move a lot of the equipment-destroying first steps to the virtual world. It still isn’t entirely low-cost, even though the simulators are cheap because you realistically need a radio (e.g., the Radiomaster Boxer) to serve as a controller for the simulator – console controllers really aren’t up to the job. After a dozen hours in the simulator, I’m beginning to believe that I can get a hang of this – that this isn’t a completely unattainable skill – even if I am still actually terrible at it. It’s going to be interesting to take the next step, buy something and fly it.