I’ve not had the Mavic Mini very long, but between getting bitten by the drone bug and not being able to get out much thanks to the lovely English weather, I’m thinking of getting a little FPV to wreck the house (and maybe garden) with.
I’ve read through some pertinent threads, but I’m going to go ahead and ask for personalised advice anyway. 
Option 1: All-in-one RTF bundle
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BetaFPV Whoop Racing Advanced Kit 2
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Emax Tinyhawk II RTF
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GEPRC TinyGo 4k RTF
Of these, I like the look of the TinyGo the best but they seem to be impossible to get hold of.
Option 2: Separates
A pre-built whoop, batteries & charger, controller and goggles, but which of each?
What would make a good beginner’s set, in and around the price range of the above bundles? Preferably below £200 until I know if I’m going to stick with it.
Option 3: Self build
I make electric guitars, so I’m not afraid of a soldering iron, and I’ve worked for nearly 30 years in IT, so I’m happy to flash ROMs and navigate obscure text UIs, so maybe this is an option? Although having looked through a couple of build threads I may be greatly underestimating the skills required.
Perhaps leave this for the future.
What to do, what to do?
Finally, I’m an impatient git, so bonus points for not having to wait 6 weeks for things from China if at all possible.
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I’ve been looking at similar for the same reason.
I recently bought the tinyhawk freestyle 2 and can definitely say that unless you have a huge indoor space thats not the one for you.
I’ve been looking at some of the BNF whoops on the bay as i have or will have a receiver and goggles that I can use with one very soon.
I’m also impatient hence why I’m looking at eBay rather than something from china.
Hope that helps a little
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I went the separate route and you can read all about my experience in this thread here:
FPV: My Experience and kit list (with links)
I should probably update the thread now as I’ve progressed further into money sucking hobby 
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Also recently I’ve ordered a fair amount from china and they’ve taken less than 10 days to reach my door 
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I’ve actually just read your thunder bug build thread, which is what made me think I might be underestimating the job. 
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Good info. It’s annoying watching the Yanks on YouTube, with their huge, open plan houses, and then looking at my 1910, ex-council semi…
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I hear you.
I’m in a 1950’s ex forces house and can manage to hover about the front room at best.
Take it out in the field and it’s at the other end in a blink - surprisingly powerful for its size.
For your house and garden, a whoop with 1" props is perfect. But you might get bored of it real quick. It will fly in a field too though, but not too quick.
2.5" props and up are great for the outdoors, even in windy conditions.
If you go down the whoop 1" prop route, it’s far cheaper to buy a bnf or rtf than build the whoop from scratch then get goggles and a transmitter.
My advice would be to buy a bnf whoop for your house and garden (I think you’ll get bored of something that small, just saying), but get the goggles & transmitter separately. They can be used for possible future quads you may want, and rtf goggles and transmitters are likely to be of low quality.
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Excellent, thanks.
(checks what BNF is, because its clearly not British Nuclear Fuels)
This seems like a sensible and expandable way to go. Looks like I need to be careful with controller and receiver choices.
Edit: Is the tiny, boring house-whoop going to give me suitably upscalable skills? Is it a reasonable training vehicle?
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Definitely, if you get a brushless one (it will fly in a field ok). Put it into ‘acro’ mode, and away you go. That’s how I learnt.
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OK. So I’ve been window shopping and for (more or less) instant gratification from Unmanned Tech I could go with
- Emax Nanohawk (in fact, this is the only 1" whoop I’ve seen anywhere)
- Radiomaster TX12 (Open TX)
- FatShark Recon V3
As far as I can tell, this will all work together.
I could get Emax Transporter goggles for half the price, but just on the off-chance I stick with FPV, I imagine I may want the DVR function. Although I must admit, that seems like a hefty price to pay just for DVR - or are the FatShark goggles an order of magnitude better?