Getting started with FPV - equipment

Getting started with FPV - equipment


EasyStar for the begining. Maybe with EasyGlider wings. Or TwinStar. But I'm afraid it drains too much energy to power two engines... It should have enough energy to fly at least for 30 minutes.

Video goggles

HeadPlay. No compromise. I'm a little short-sighted and Headplay are the only goggles with dioptric correction. Good to use with my PS3 in rainy days :-). Price: 280 EUR ($400 - I just hope my friend's sister in the USA can bring me one..)

OSD Display

I love the F-16 design. Maybe I'm fool, but it looks best to me. I have found three OSD that has it: RangeVideo OSD (RVOSD). Has many nice features, but it's quite costly. I love the autopilot. But I'm not sure how reliable it is. Price 240 EUR. Or OSD644DMDG. Looks great, but without autopilot feature. Price 200 EUR. Main advantage for me is that it is an european product. Last I have found is Eagle Tree - but it's both costly and quite complicated (I don't want to say "messy"). If anyone has any (good or bad) experience with the above, please, advice...

Headtracker

I'm not sure, if any headtracker works with Futaba FX-18. If you know about any, please, let me know. But I've got at least 2 free channels on my radio, so I can pan the camera manualy (and wait for the tilt until the new TX).

So, I thing it's all. If I forget something, please, let me know. Again, please, any advices, experiences or links to e-shops are really welcome. I'll be really glad to start new flying season in first person Cool Thanks in advance!

I'm looking for equipment for my first FPV plane, unfortunately, I have no experience with it. So I want to try this way to get some more information from more advanced FPV pilots - to prevent for beginners faults in quite expensive "research" on my own faults...

I know it's hard to advice anything without more informations - everyone has his own preferences. So here are mine:

    I'm from Slovakia, so I prefere shopping within European Union
    My TX is Futaba FX-18 at 40MHz with Jeti Duplex 2.4 module (I can use both 40MHz or 2.4). I'm not sure it can handle headtracker...
    I would love to have a range to fly up to 5 kilometers. 3 km at least.
    I prefer sharp image on camera against nice colors - generaly, it should be CCD camera (not CMOS)
    I like F-16 design of OSD. At least I want to monitor position, (ground) speed, battery level (volatage, capacity), navigation to home (GPS is a required).
    Total price with the equipment (without carrier) should be up to 1000 EUR.
    Main goal is reliability and simplicity.


Now comes the part I want to choose from. If you've got any ideas, comments, links, practical experiences, please, I'll be really glad if you let me know.