Recommendations for best sub $250 drone for 11yr old

Hi all,

My son is looking at his first proper drone for his birthday coming up. He's already go the hang of small indoor drones and we're looking for something on a larger outdoor scale now with a camera preferably. I'm not sure what features we should be looking at but some of the things that I think it should have after some reading is headless mode, one touch return/landing and a reasonable fly/charge time. We will obviously need to have the ability to replace parts and look at spare batteries etc. We live in Melbourne Australia.

There are a few that I've found at online stores here in Australia, not able to post links, but here they are. Thoughts or other recommendations would be appreciated.

T1 720p HD Wi-Fi FPV Quadcopter
DM009 Conqueror Wi-Fi FPV Quadcopter
XK X300-W


Thanks,
Mick

Price under 250$, and all of the feature are fit for you, you can check it at
http://www.genstattu.com/wingsland-s6.html

Thanks for the suggestion, but that's $260 US, so by the time I land it in Australia it's about $400. Is there something else, are the models I listed ok?

Eachine wizard 220. Although it can be built cheaper & for about 180 then a flysky Tx. All under 250.
When you step up the speed bigger crashes happen. This means time & money without the drone.
Unless you know how to fix it.
Plonk all the bits down in front of him tell him to build it. Lol.
Emax 2205 $50
Qav-r 220 $20
Any 20amp bl-heli esc . $40
Seriously pro F3 fcb $20
Matek pcb $5
Vtx & antennas optional $40
3S lipo $20
Flysky i6 Tx & RX. $45
& a few other low cost bit n piece's.
Your kid should be OK with goggles it's adult who buy goggles then realise the ipd is for little China men with Diddy ipd measurements. Be careful.

Hey Mick,

Awesome you've got your son into drones so young! Have you checked out the Parrot AR Drone 2.0? I've just checked and its about $160 on Amazon, but not sure if you have amazon in Oz. Could be worth looking into though, it's made from very durable and lightweight material so even if you are to crash it into something, it'll just bump off. It comes with and inside and outside hull, so you can fly it in both.

It is however flown via a mobile device, not sure if you're son has flown like that before. You can do this pretty cool thing where you pilot the drone by tilting the smartphone/ipad in the direction you want it to go. You can check out more about it on the Parrot website.

I wouldn't buy it from there though as it's going to be more pricey. You could maybe get a second hand Bebop 2 for around that price, although I have no idea if thats possible where you are.

For some other drones around that price point you can check out this article on affordable drones.

micktaylor said:

Hi all,

My son is looking at his first proper drone for his birthday coming up. He's already go the hang of small indoor drones and we're looking for something on a larger outdoor scale now with a camera preferably. I'm not sure what features we should be looking at but some of the things that I think it should have after some reading is headless mode, one touch return/landing and a reasonable fly/charge time. We will obviously need to have the ability to replace parts and look at spare batteries etc. We live in Melbourne Australia.

There are a few that I've found at online stores here in Australia, not able to post links, but here they are. Thoughts or other recommendations would be appreciated.

T1 720p HD Wi-Fi FPV Quadcopter
DM009 Conqueror Wi-Fi FPV Quadcopter
XK X300-W


Thanks,
Mick

Click to expand...

Thats great to get your kids into the hobby! Awesome fun. I am pretty new to quadcopter and just got an MJX Bugs 2 on Friday. This thing is PERFECT for a young kid to learn with. It has a pretty decent camera, brushless motors, altitude hold and GPS which makes the thing pretty much fly itself! Not quite, but if you have the GPS on and say your son is flying and gets nervous or loses orientation, he can literally let go of the sticks and it will hover in place. You can then hit headless mode and fly it back to you or just hit return to home and let it do the work for you. I cannot suggest this quad enough for a beginner. It's fantastic! Best part is, if you don't get the 2w with fpv(which I got and wish I wouldn't have because it's Wifi and not that great) it's only about $110 online at Ebay! You could get one for each of you, order a couple extra Bugs 3 batteries and stick a rubber band around them to hold them in place and both be flying for about $250! Check them out! Good luck.

Hi noflyaways.... that looks pretty good to be honest. The only thing it doesn't have in comparison to some of the other ones I listed is FPV. How important do you think that he is introduced to that tech earlier rather than later?

Drone Riot said:

Hey Mick,

Awesome you've got your son into drones so young! Have you checked out the Parrot AR Drone 2.0? I've just checked and its about $160 on Amazon, but not sure if you have amazon in Oz. Could be worth looking into though, it's made from very durable and lightweight material so even if you are to crash it into something, it'll just bump off. It comes with and inside and outside hull, so you can fly it in both.

It is however flown via a mobile device, not sure if you're son has flown like that before. You can do this pretty cool thing where you pilot the drone by tilting the smartphone/ipad in the direction you want it to go. You can check out more about it on the Parrot website.

I wouldn't buy it from there though as it's going to be more pricey. You could maybe get a second hand Bebop 2 for around that price, although I have no idea if thats possible where you are.

For some other drones around that price point you can check out this article on affordable drones.

Click to expand...

Thanks, that's a great article for affordable drones. Looks like there are so many options out there. Hard to choose.

micktaylor said:

Hi noflyaways.... that looks pretty good to be honest. The only thing it doesn't have in comparison to some of the other ones I listed is FPV. How important do you think that he is introduced to that tech earlier rather than later?

Click to expand...

To be honest, I don't know. I'm just getting ready to pull the trigger on an ARFUN Pro 95 or Lizard 95 and transmitter and goggles. New to it myself. Couldn't hurt him for practicing and orientation LOS though.

I think it would be better to get a few hours of LOS in first.
No good flying fpv if you're signal goes.
You lose orientation. You don't know how to recover it. That's how accidents happen. Give the hobby a bad name.
Flying on a prayer.

mozquito1 said:

I think it would be better to get a few hours of LOS in first.
No good flying fpv if you're signal goes.
You lose orientation. You don't know how to recover it. That's how accidents happen. Give the hobby a bad name.
Flying on a prayer.

Click to expand...

Thanks Moz. With the FPV units, you can fly them via LOS as well first can't you?

Ha ha wise guy,
Why yeah you just don't put the goggles on. Woo woo woo nyuck nyuck.

... The way I did it was like this:
LOS Horizon mode (just let go of the sticks and the quad levels it's self out).
LOS Acro mode (get good at it before going FPV).
FPV Acro mode (Let the fun begin).

micktaylor said:

Hi all,

My son is looking at his first proper drone for his birthday coming up. He's already go the hang of small indoor drones and we're looking for something on a larger outdoor scale now with a camera preferably. I'm not sure what features we should be looking at but some of the things that I think it should have after some reading is headless mode, one touch return/landing and a reasonable fly/charge time. We will obviously need to have the ability to replace parts and look at spare batteries etc. We live in Melbourne Australia.

There are a few that I've found at online stores here in Australia, not able to post links, but here they are. Thoughts or other recommendations would be appreciated.

T1 720p HD Wi-Fi FPV Quadcopter
DM009 Conqueror Wi-Fi FPV Quadcopter
XK X300-W


Thanks,
Mick

Click to expand...

My suggestion is, pay more attention to price than to features. Why? Because there is a good chance your son is going to lose or crash his first outdoor drone, no matter how much he has the hang of flying a small drone indoors. Outdoors, there is something that does not appear indoors - wind. I am relatively new to drone flying, and I have had a number of bad experiences with wind while learning to fly these things. As you probably know by now, you can get a drone from $20 or $20,000.00 or anything in between. I do not recommend spending $800.00 or so on a Phantom for your son's first drone. There are very good learner drones out there for around $100.00 or slightly less. I am using a Syma. Check those out. Then, when the wind whisks it off to never-never land, you won't be out the big bucks.

Less features = less to break = less money I went from an indoor syma to a zmr250 after only 2hrs flight time. Don't know which was harder to pick up, but the weighty self builds are more forgiving with windy weather & alot more fun.

The hubsan h501s isn't a bad choice. Although it tends to have a mind of its own at times.

Hello Mick,

Your son is very young and you have put him on quadcopters, Great! Have you checked the Snaptain Sp500? I just checked it out and it costs about $160 on Amazon. It's made from a very durable and lightweight material, so even if you hit it with something, it will just crash. Comes with an indoor and outdoor propeller protection guards so you can fly both

However, when flying with a smartphone, I don't know if your teenager ever flew like this. You can do this wonderful thing where you fly the drone by tilting the smartphone / iPad in the direction you want it to go. You can find more information about this on the Snaptain on Amazon.

Besides, for some other drones at the price you are looking for, you can check out this article on affordable drones. https://dronesheaven.com/best-drones-under-150/

micktaylor said:

Hi all,

My son is looking at his first proper drone for his birthday coming up. He's already go the hang of small indoor drones and we're looking for something on a larger outdoor scale now with a camera preferably. I'm not sure what features we should be looking at but some of the things that I think it should have after some reading is headless mode, one touch return/landing and a reasonable fly/charge time. We will obviously need to have the ability to replace parts and look at spare batteries etc. We live in Melbourne Australia.

There are a few that I've found at online stores here in Australia, not able to post links, but here they are. Thoughts or other recommendations would be appreciated.

T1 720p HD Wi-Fi FPV Quadcopter
DM009 Conqueror Wi-Fi FPV Quadcopter
XK X300-W


Thanks,
Mick

Click to expand...

I own a XK X300 with a 2.4ghz wifi 1080p camera.
It is one of the best drones I ever own.
It is ideal for beginner because it has an Optical Flow Positioning camera located at the belly. It is used to register the distance between the drone and the ground. It will stay in that altitude (height) until the pilot decides to change it.
Meaning........ one does not have to worry about keeping the drone in the air. It won't drop from the sky.
Meaning........ one can concentrate on learning how to fly the drone, i.e. moving forward/backward, left/right, banking etc. Most importantly one can learn how to fly it in different drone orientations, i.e. drone facing left, facing right, facing you or facing away from you.
Once you set the drone to a certain height and let go the altitude stick, the drone will stay put and wait for your next move. You can put down the controller, go make a pot of coffee, or make/answer a phone call, or answer the door. When you come back , the drone will be exactly where you left it.......... unless you are flying it in gusty day.
I truly and highly recommend it.
As to spare parts accessibility, you can find them in Banggood or Aliexpress. I just recently (10 days ago) ordered 2 sets of rubber landing gear for my X300 from Aliexpress.

Adding....... X300 is a relatively good size drone. How is your country's aviation laws on drone flying ? Important to know what you will get into.