When i think drones, I think of an amazing tool used for photography. However, there are many other uses for drones and FPV is one of them that has slowly been benefiting me when it comes to practicing my flying.
A few weeks back, my buddy Vin and I went to B&H and stumbled across the little Kolibri Torpedo and Blade Inductrix drones. After having one for a few weeks a couple years back, I knew these things were a lot of fun but I was never good at flying them. Priced from $30 to $100, this seemed like a perfect investment to make so that I could fly around my house without any worries of breaking anything or crashing a more expensive drone. By doing this, I have been able to get a lot better at controlling drones in general and these little guys have truly helped me manage my flying when it comes to taking out my Mavic Air or Inspire 2.
Kolibri Torpedo and Blade Inductrix
Blade and Kolibri Controllers
How It's Helped
As corny as it sounds to buy a "drone" like this, I think anybody can improve their flying and reaction time by practicing with them. A few little things I have picked up on are paying attention to the direction my drone is facing. When I rotate it, the controls are reversed so it is good to immediately know that and be able to have control over the drone when it faces towards you. This is also very helpful when I fly for real jobs an back into tiny slots to photograph or take video. I used to think that trees and other obstacles were a good excuse to not get what I needed but over the years learning how to control all my drones, I have gotten to a point I am really happy with my flying.
Another big thing the little drones have taught me is depth perception. When I fly a drone far away from me at a job, it is hard to identify its distance from other objects around it. When you lose that line of clear site or depth, it can become scary to fly and easy to lose control or bump into something. Having the comfort of knowing my distance subconsciously by looking at the drone is huge because I can gauge my distance between objects a lot better than I had been able to before flying these little guys.
Kolibri Torpedo
The Torpedo
The Torpedo has a smaller controller that it is a lot harder than most to hold, let alone use. I think that this adds to the fun because the controller is so different that you have to really get a feel for it to fly well. I can also relate this one to how my Mavic Air flies. This drone also offers a few different modes where you are able to change the speed to fly faster or slower. I have noticed the props can go kinda quick if you tend to crash so I bought a few extra props just incase I need them.
Blade Inductrix
The Inductrix
The Inductrix has a bigger controller like most other actual drone controllers out there, yet it still feels a bit cheap. Once I got used to the controller, it's been a really fun experience flying this drone because its so different from the other one. This one is a lot lighter and more responsive like what I'd expect a real FPV drone to feel like. You can do flips and fly this one stable which is nice depending on what I am doing or practicing. I also don't have to worry about the props as much or replace them as frequently because they are well protected to start. Again, extra props are just a good idea if you are going to be flying a lot and most of the stuff you buy for these little things are fairly cheap.
Conclusion
These are really fun to have. They do not fly perfect by any means but getting used to that is what makes them so good to learn and practice on. I feel like if you can fly one of these, you can easily fly any DJI drone out there so much easier. Practice is a big deal when it comes to anything we do and the more we do something, the better we can get at it. If you are interested in improving your skill level with a drone and have $50 laying around, I don't think you will be disappointed buying one of these drones. I am looking to eventually up my game and grab a real FPV drone once I feel comfortable enough with these cheaper ones but overall, I have been having a lot of fun flying them. I need some more time to do research and get better with the controls before investing in a better FPV though and this does exactly what I want it to do right now.
The term "FPV" stands for first person view. Basically drones that are able to be flown by viewing a live transmission of their camera display. The Torpedo can do this (with only 15 fps), the Inductrix cannot. If you're not reviewing the ability to fly them this way, then using the term FPV in your title is very misleading.
I mean the torpedo has that to an extent but at the same time, you aren't going to find a good FPV drone at that cost. These are more of an intro to that next step. Didn't intend to mislead anybody but flying FPV is always a good way to practice too :)
I currently fly the Inductrix with FPV. So pay no attention to the prior comment. As an actual racer, I can tell you the misleading part of the article is stating these two mini whoops can only be flown with the type of remote control provided. I have a Spektrum 6 and there’s other brands like Tarannis. Racing mini drones like this are very raceable but not with the type of remote control provided in the box. With better remotes you can adjust the types of yah and how the craft moves through turns. I soldered a 1.3gh compositor to my Inductrix circuit board and it gave her a good amount of speed boost. Once you get into this hobby you can adjust just about any setting, lift and speed. Feet per second is somewhat misleading bc it depends on the speed of your craft. Mine is doing about 25pmh and my 5.5 racer is doing about 80mph. Depth perception is based on how fast you can react. Adjust the speed setting in the remote Spektrum/Tarannis control settings and your drone won’t have the ability fly off with uncontrollable speed.
Overall good article but it’s not detailed enough for a newbie to understand. Buy an Inductrix with a good remote control and you’ll have a blast. Haven’t flown a torpedo but it’s definitely not built for mini FPV racing. Bc the props are underneath it’s built to hover and record. The Inductrix has a much better built frame for higher speeds.
Thank you! From someone working at a hobby store for the past 3 years, +1.
Glad to see you comment on this cause I get to learn a little bit. I've been going more FPV style on my Mavic Air but thats not really an ideal drone for that. I got the smaller ones to get used to the flying because they are harder to control and I wanted to see what it was like to get into that style of flying. Since I've been having so much fun with them, I am looking to do a few upgrades with the controllers and drones.
Think you could be a help in here and throw in some links to all those things your talking about? I'd love to take a look and make the upgrades soon!
These little ones I have now are just my intro to what I'm about to get into and I sure have a lot to learn. I mainly fly to control the camera right now haha
Thanks for the info on the Inductrix FPV capabilites. From it's listing on the linked website, it listed no ability to do that, so I assumed it couldn't.