I started my FPV journey in 2012, first going along to what felt like a slightly clandestine meetup behind a bush at the old airstrip at Ocknell campsite on the New Forest where a handful of pilots were setting up their red and white DJI F450 frames with expensive Nazas and gingerly taking off, hovering for 5 minutes and then carefully landing again. That was it! No fancy actobatics as it was simply just too expensive to crash.
I was hooked and bought a Hubsan Spy Hawk fixed wing immediately from my local radion control shop in Southampton, with its built in camera and RC controller with a colour screen. Whilst this diminutive plank was my first plane and helped me to learn to fly as it had a basic flight assist mode, it was certainly not my last and within a few months, I’d progressed to an AXN Clouds Fly and a few online shopping trips to hobbyking.com had this kitted out with an autopilot capable of RTH, a head controlled camera gimbal, 2 cameras and larger batteries.
As the months and years rolled by and the £££s were evacuated from my current account, further fixed wing airframes came and went but the AXN love stayed, got its wings clipped, crashed numerous times, replaced twice and then the drone scaremongering started.
Reports of drones flying over major UK airports caused the whole hobby to shudder, change and ultimately share the living sh*t out of me and since then really, Iv’e barely flown anything, despite paying for my FPV-UK membership for years and registering myself and my +250g craft.
Being one of the first people to see the technology become miniaturised and affordable and what we called quadcopters only 13 short years ago, from the KK boards to the control boards of today allowing pilots to fly in ways that I fear I will never master.
Now perhaps its time to don those ageing Fatsharks again, dust off those crusty LiPos and sit or stand at a jaunty angle with my mouth agape while gliding/soaring/crashing and not fear for the drone police, or the annoyed passerby (of which I only ever met one).