my brother keeps telling me to buy one of those $30 amazon drones to learn on before spending real money but honestly they look like toys and i dont know if flying one of those would even teach you anything useful. i was looking at the DJI mini 2 SE since its on sale and seems like a decent starting point but its still like $250 which is a lot if i end up crashing it in the first week. has anyone here actually started on a cheap toy drone and then moved up, did it help at all or just waste time

honestly your brother isnt totally wrong but also isnt totally right. the cheap ones do teach you basic orientation and panic control in a weird way, but the flight characteristics are so different that some habits you build wont transfer. like those little toy drones are super twitchy and dont hold position at all, so you end up fighting the sticks constantly which isnt really how you fly a GPS stabilized drone like the mini 2 SE.

that said $250 is the mini 2 SE worth it as a first drone, yeah probably. its stable enough that you wont feel like youre constantly on the edge of crashing and the image quality is actually decent so you stay motivated to fly it. just register it with the FAA if youre in the US before you take it out

i went straight to a mini 2 and dont regret it at all, the stabilization basically holds your hand while you figure out the controls. only thing I'd say is maybe look into whether you need to pass the TRUST test first, its free and only takes like 20 minutes, some parks and areas require it even for recreational flyers now