so my buddy who flies FPV told me i should just grab a cheap twenty dollar mini drone from amazon to learn the basics before spending real money. his logic was that ill crash it and wont feel bad. which ok fair point but i also feel like those tiny things fly nothing like a real drone so what am i actually learning. i dunno maybe hes right and im overthinking it. i have maybe 150 to spend right now and could save up to like 350 over the next month or two. is there a middle ground option or should i just wait and get something decent from the start

your instinct is right tbh. those tiny toy drones do fly completely differently, like the wind affects them way more, theres no stabilization to speak of, and the controls feel nothing like flying a GPS-locked quad. you wont build transferable muscle memory really. i get the logic of not caring when you crash it but if the flying experience is totally alien youre not really learning the fundamentals you'd use on a proper drone anyway. id say wait the extra month and get the Mini 2 SE or even look for a used Mavic Mini, those hold up really well secondhand and the resale market is solid so you can always sell it later if you decide its not for you

idk man i actually think the cheap indoor ones have their place for like absolute basics, just getting used to orientation and not panicking when it drifts toward your face lol. but yeah once youre outside in any kind of breeze that stuff goes out the window. the bigger issue at 150 is theres not a lot of great options in that range that arent junk. 350 opens up way better choices so if you can wait it out that seems smarter. also FPV is a whole different world from the camera drone stuff so your buddy might be thinking about it from a totally different angle than what youre actually trying to do