Starter kit

If you decide to piece together your own kit, you’ll need at a minimum:

• Goggles
• A controller - generally all drones now will use ELRS, so you should look for an ELRS controller, not an FrSky one.
• A drone that works with the controller and goggles
• Batteries
• A battery charger
• A programming adapter if you plan on tweaking the Betaflight setup (you probably do)
• Spare propellers - I consider these consumables like ammo or magazines. You might not go through them quite as fast as ammo, but especially in the beginning and with a whoop you’re going to burn through them.

If you’ve already bought the controller for the sim, consider the following whoop starter setup:

• A set of analog goggles - I have the BetaFPV VR03s, another option is the EV800Ds. I haven’t used these, but they are well-rated.
• A BetaFPV Meteor75 Pro II Analog is a great whoop - I have two with analog VTXs and one with a digital VTX. 75mm is a great starting size for outdoor flying, though a 65mm works too; I have spent a lot of time flying the BetaFPV Air65 II.
• Some BT2.0 1S batteries in the 500-700 mAh range; for example, these Lava II 580 mAh batteries. If you got with a 65mm, you’re looking at the 280-300 mAh range.
• A charger, like this one.

You could go the RTF kit approach:

• The BetaFPV Aquila16 kit that I started with.
• I haven’t used it but the EMax Tinyhawk Lite RTF kit is cheaper than the Aquila16 kit, though I don’t think the controller works with simulators.