Hi all, I am new to this forum and I am looking to purchase a decent drone, I currently have a Holy Stone HS120D which I bought new about 3 years ago but have never been able to fly it. It goes into the hover mode fine then after a couple of seconds it does its own thing, flies off to one side then plants itself into the ground.
I don’t know whether its because I have purchased too cheaply or whether my drone is defective but any advice for purchasing something that fly’s would be appreciated.
I am only looking for a drone as a hobbyist, I understand the issues around licencing, different weights of drones etc and the limitations of their use (I work on a couple of outdoor events etc), I just want a drone that works as intended.
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I’m new to drones but I have the DJI mini 4k and it is very easy to fly. It doesn’t have all the bells and whistles like obstacle avoidance but it has a really good camera and great fun. It is probably one of the cheapest DJI drones too.
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Welcome to the forum, you won’t go far wrong with any of the DJI drones.
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Welcome @JockN !
If you’re looking for a camera drone, then I’d go with any of the DJI drones, they’re feature-packed, easy to get started with and have great batteries. If you want things like tracking with obstacle avoidance then I’d go with a pro-series mini, or if your budget stretches a bit further the I’d recommend the Air 3S - it’s a bit larger, very capable in terms of features and has a great camera - plus it’s a C1 so since January it can be flown in the open A1 category (“over people”). It’s worth noting that C1 classification is currently only valid until the end of 2027 unless DJI retrospectively recategorise it as UK1, but I’d be very surprised if they don’t do that.
If you want to spend a bit less then the Mini Pros are great drones, and the mini 4K is a great budget option (I have one myself) and under 250g so very restriction-free. The latter doesn’t have active track and other more advanced features - but the camera is still great.
Whichever you decide to go for I’d recommend getting the “Fly More” package, you’re going to want the extra batteries and the charging bank is very handy.
OTOH if you’re after an FPV drone, it’s a much broader field with a lot of variables (and one I’m still learning) so I won’t make any concrete recommendations, but I will say my son is looking at an Avata 2 right now which does support M-mode (though I don’t think it’s available with a regular controller so probably would need to source one of those separately). Personally I have a couple of DJI FPVs which are fun, but are basically flying buses, not the lightest and most agile. They’re also discontinued and not C-marked so not a great option IMO even if you can find them used for not much money. If I were starting again I’d probably go with a 5" and put in either HDzero or DJI O4 VTX, but if you’re going the FPV route I definitely recommend a lot more research before you start spending money.
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Hi all,
Many thanks for all your responses, all very helpful and informative, I am now looking at DJI website, I will keep you all posted on what I end up with.
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Hi Ross, I like the look of the Air 3 S, are the DJI drones ready to fly out of the box or do you need to programme/set them up first?
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They’re pretty much ready to go, the software might need an update but the process is pretty much automatic and only takes a few mins max. You need to charge the batteries too of course.
Air 3S is a nice drone, have one myself 
All the DJI stuff is well sorted out the box.
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Sounds like I will go for the Air 3S, thank you all.
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Best price appears to be Amazon, order going in tomorrow, I will update you all after it arrives.
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Hi @JockN ,
Cool! I think you’ll be very happy with it 
As @Westbury says it’s basically unbox, update, charge and then put it in the sky
Looking forward to hearing how you get on
Cheers,
Ross
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Ordered just now, watch this space
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Hi Jock, welcome to the forum i as well is new here I can only advise you the drone I mainly fly is the Potensic Atom2 have a look at that one. I can’t advise you on the DJI drones for I’ve never had or flown one but I’m sure there is plenty of owners and pilots of these drones that can advise you on them. Hope this helps. Take care fly safe. Andrew Tyler.
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And here’s me about to recommend picking up a RadioMaster Pocket and a copy of Velocidrone for your PC before you buy a quad…
As is patently obvious, I don’t fly camera drones 
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