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FPV
Note in CANADA:
All drone flights must be conducted with either the pilot or visual observer maintaining visual line of sight at all times. Looking through FPV goggles or at your display on your controller is not sufficient, so an additional spotter is required for VLOS
What is FPV Multi-rotor?
FPV or first person view is the most dynamic way of flying multi-rotors possible. It lets you see the view of the drone essentially in the captains chair, as if you were in the movie "Honey I Shrunk the Kids" and jumped onboard the aircraft. It's piloted remotely from a first- person perspective, from an onboard camera which sends video wirelessly to your FPV goggles. There are 4 main actions that control your multi-rotor; thrust, yaw, pitch, and roll. These actions work independently but can work together to make more complex movements such as flips and rolls. Your remote (transmitter), controls these actions plus additional switches that can be fully customized to your needs. These machines are completely different than most peoples vision of a typical drone. Unlike the pre-built drones you can buy at your local Best Buy, FPV drones are fully customize-able and extremely agile as they can maneuver in the air any way possible. Most pilots build and tune their own machines, but you can also purchase preassembled ones if you're just getting into the hobby and soldering is intimidating. The two main purposes of using this type of drone are usually for freestyle flying and FPV racing.
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FPV Freestyle
Freestyle is our most favourite use of these machines as it can move in the air like an acrobat very smoothly and quickly. It immerses the pilot into the environment you are flying and is based more on combination tricks and smooth movements. This is a form of art and to each pilot, they create their own style. Doing a combination of gaps, tricks, and dives, lets you explore the area in a more appealing way rather than just flying over a subject slowly. Gaps are any tight space that you can fly through such as between branches on trees, or rock formations on a mountaintop. Tricks can be as easy as rolls and flips or can be a series of very complex manoeuvres such as the inverted yaw spin. There are open air tricks as well as tricks that require objects. These tricks really let you interact with the environment. Dives can also be simple as in the open air to the ground or using objects such as down the side of a mountain. The idea of a dive is pretty simple as in the name, having your pitch go straight down to the ground and then thrusting forward and pitching up to be horizontal usually at the last second before you hit the ground. The speed and agility of these multi-rotors really make this type of flying what it is and pushes the limits of the pilot.
FPV Racing
In the last few years, FPV Racing has gotten more popular as they are selling out arenas worldwide on a professional level. You can race solo or with a group of pilots, through a made up track which consists of obstacles, flags, and gates. This can be setup either indoors or outdoors and can be as small as in a backyard, or as big as a couple holes in golf. You can either race solo and beat your previous times to prepare for racing against others. Many communities have their own league and compete for prizes or bragging rights. As fun as it is racing, creating and setting up the tracks can be just as enjoyable.
Building
There are many factors involved in choosing the right parts for your multi-rotor. Choosing what class you want to mainly fly (freestyle or racing), to what size of build you want. Micro drones to 3", 5" and 7". Motor sizes and propellor sizes have a significant roll in ability and usually pair with battery size and type of flight controller. For many beginners in the hobby, you can also purchase full build kits, that all you have to do is assemble and tune. This eliminates the stress of piecing the right parts together for your needs.
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For Drone & Roam, first getting into FPV, we spent hours on YouTube researching build videos as there are many great channels available for this. We soon picked the right parts for our needs and started our own builds, plugging in the soldering iron and creating a mean flying machine.