Was into cine drones for a while; then discovered FPV. Spent dozens of hours on simulators, now flying actual FPV drones in manual mode. Incredibly addictive. I'm having a hard time focusing on anything else right now.
Sounds very fun! I also spent many hours with simulators, but unfortunately never got to the real-life stage, as that was just about the same time as FPV flying was made effectively illegal here in the United Kingdom.
For those who are curious, it is not one single law that makes this the case, which is why many people will tell you that it's still allowed. However, with the combination of privacy laws forbidding the use of aerial cameras, UAV regulations limiting the locations you can fly, limitations on certain radio bands as well as specific rules about maintaining line-of-sight, it is not usually possible. How could it work? Perhaps if you live in a rural area with no nearby air traffic, have permission and access to use a large patch of land (such as a farm) from which to take off, a willing partner to maintain line of sight (which of course precludes many of the stunts often associated with competitive flying) and you have done the paperwork. Not really hobby territory for most people at that point :(
Heh. I was building/programming/racing FPV drones in 2013/14, back before teenaged reflexes and rich dads paying thousands for top line gear became a thing - and easily started beating 50 year old eyesight and reflexes with self imposed budgets of only a few hundred bucks...
For starting on a simulator you need a remote control (gamepads can technically work but are not recommended). The Jumper T-Lite V2 is around $60. Liftoff is one of the most versatiles simulators and costs around $20 on Steam (there are lots of others).
Then to start in real life, complete kits from BetaFPV or GepRC are around $200 (including drone, rc and analog goggles); you can find them used for about half that, in excellent condition.
But there is NO POINT in trying to fly an actual drone before doing plenty of hours on a simulator: you would crash constantly and destroy the drone before you even get started. So just start on a simulator. 10 hours is the absolute minimum you'll find everywhere, but I'd recommend around 50 (you can listen to podcasts at the same time).
If you want to go the extremely cheap route you can start with a cheap simulator (FPV Freerider, $5) or even a free one (FPV SkyDive?) and use an existing gamepad -- but gamepads really are confusing and don't work like RCs (the throttle joystick should not center automatically).
