so ive been on velocidrone for like 4 months and feel pretty comfortable with the sticks, finally pulling the trigger on an actual quad. budget is around $150-200 for the whole package. been going back and forth between the tinyhawk 3 and the crux3 forever now and cant really find a straight answer anywhere that isnt just a youtuber trying to get affiliate clicks.

main thing i want to do is fly in my backyard and maybe a park nearby, nothing crazy, just want to get real stick time before i move up to a 5inch. im in the US so emax and betafpv both ship fine. does either one fly significantly better out of the box or is one just easier to not destroy when you inevitably crash into a fence

crux3 imo. the tinyhawk 3 is fine but betafpv's default pids on the crux3 feel way more dialed for someone coming from a sim, like the rates arent insane and it actually tracks corners without feeling mushy. the tinyhawk stock tune always felt a bit loose to me on quick direction changes, maybe thats personal preference but several people in my local club said the same thing.

also the crux3 uses elrs which is where everything is heading anyway, so if you ever upgrade your radio situation youre already set. tinyhawk uses their own futaba-based protocol on the cheaper bundles which is kind of a dead end. either way both will survive a lot of abuse, i've seen both get absolutely wrecked into concrete and come back fine with a prop swap.

i started on the tinyhawk 2 like two years ago and honestly just go with whatever comes in a bundle with decent goggles if you dont have any yet. the quad itself matters less than you think at this stage, sim skills transfer pretty well regardless. i spent way too long agonizing over which one and it really didnt matter lol