ur not wrong about the prices, It's a very affordable hobby, individually the most expensive part is about the cost of a pair of 1/10 tyres.
all year I was planing to buy a new scx10. But when u start comparing value for money the quadcopter was more attractive.
Lets compare
Scx10, dead stock, nothing fancy, crap RTR radio gear, and would need a pile of modifications and upgrades
quad copter, loaded with new technology, digital 2.4ghz 6ch controller, long range 2.4ghz receiver, 5.8ghz FPV equipment, 4 brushless motors, carbon fibre frame, cool little LED's, and programing options galore
firmware on quads is amazing, generally for each part there is at least 2 different firmware....
The flight controller does come with a pre flashed firmware that's really good and same with the ESC
But the chip for the OSD did not.
so even tho there is nothing wrong with the stock firmware on a naze32 (it called baseflight) I switched over to Cleanflight because it has a programme for self calibrating certain aspects of the flight controller (PID's) and I really wanted to give it a try.
my ESC Are running the SimonK firmware and I can't fault them one so I won't be touching that unless I have problems with motor sync.
and my miniOSD, they come blank with only a boot loader flashed. So it requires a FTDI programmer (virtual com port, USB arduino programmer)
wow, reading back on that it looks very confusing.... But it's not.... The programs are really easy to use and people have complete how to threads and videos.... The hardest part is remembering what is what, there are a whole bunch of new Terminology that's used.
one good thing, if u are experanced with surface vehicles you already have a head start because u will know what most of the receiver and ESC setting do, so all u will have to learn is the flight controller.
how I learnt to fly..... Games.... To get use to doing smoothe and slow stick movements I've been trashing Microsoft flight simulator... It's nothing like flying a quad but it really helps getting ur movements smoothe so the controller don't feel touchy. So dead set give it a go and when u can complete all the basic missions then it's time to buy a nano quad... I spent 2 weeks flying that around inside with a nano before I attempted the big quad.... If u look at the first pic u can see the nano I was practicing with
it was $25 for the nano quad and it really cool, they are not really big enought to damage them self...I haven't broken anything on mine and I've had a lot of crashes.
Its got a 2.5ghz micro controller, fully proportional, 3 different flight modes (changes max tilt) and can do flips in any direction
id recommend spending at least 10min each day flying it until u get to the point that u are not crashing, then jump back on flight simulator have have a crack at the advanced helicopter mission with the oil rig.... If u can finish that then it's time to really learn to fly the nano quad... It's really easy to fly a quad if it's facing the same direction and the pilot. But it's extremely difficult flying when it's facing you or sideways... So practice that until ur fingers get the muscle memory and u don't have to think about the movements.... Now that hopefully u have muscle memory it's time to try banked turns.... They are hard I won't lye.... It's just practice practice practice
But now for the good news... Lol
If you are very confident flying a nano quad.... Flying a 250 mini will be a breeze..... They are considerable smoother and the gyros and accelerometer are a lot better.