The Marque Ventures 2025 FPV Drone Gift Guide
Marque’S FPV Holiday Shopping List
If you’ve spent any time in defense innovation this year, you know drones aren’t just the future - they’re the now. So, whether you’re a curious beginner, an operator looking to sharpen skills, or someone who keeps hearing “FPV” and wants to know what the hype is about, this list is for you!
Our friend Jeff Wright, Founder of SplashOne, has fielded the same question dozens of times:
“What should I buy if I want to get into FPV drones?”
We’re wrapping up his go-to recommendations, from stocking-stuffer simulators to full build kits.
Start Here: The Only Thing You Should Buy Before Anything Else
Buy. Your. Controller.
No drone. No goggles. Just the controller paired with the Liftoff simulator.
Jeff’s rule is simple:
“Log 20 hours in Liftoff. If you can complete the Hayfield race in under 6 minutes without crashing, you’re ready for the real world.”
This is how all serious FPV pilots start. It saves money, prevents frustration, and ensures your first battery in a real drone lasts longer than 30 seconds.
1. Beginner: Ready to Fly, Ready to Crash
For the person who has played Xbox, wants to learn FPV, and doesn’t want to solder anything or accidentally hurt a loved one.
Safe indoors. Zero risk. High fun. ⚠️ Warning: Labradors will snatch these out of the air. Ask Jeff how he knows.
Drone: BetaFPV Meteor75 Pro
Controller: Pocket Crush
Goggles: Fat Shark ECHO Goggles
Perfect for:
Kids (supervised!)
Service members who want reps
People who want instant gratification without solder burns
2. Intermediate: Full-Size, Full-Send
For the graduate of the indoor whoop stage.
These require outdoor space, more skill, and cause actual damage if you’re careless.
Think: “I want the real thing, but I’m not ready to build from scratch.”
Drone: Nazgul 5" BNF/ HD RTF by iFlight with the Caddx Nebula Pro HD FPV System
Perfect for:
Serious hobbyists
Early-career operators
Anyone who wants to understand FPV beyond TikTok edits
3. L337 Level: Build It Yourself or Don’t Even Try
Joshua Bardwell’s course is the gold standard. This is the “you will understand everything” path.
Jeff’s notes: “If you’re comfortable changing a timing belt, you’ll love this. If you need Jiffy Lube for your oil changes… maybe sit this one out.”
This is the closest civilian path to understanding what’s happening on the front lines: how drones work, fail, and can be adapted under pressure.
DIY Kit: QAV-S 2 Sub-250 Joshua Bardwell SE 3” Beginner DIY Analog FPV Drone Kit
Controller (Elite): Lumenier Edition TX16S MK II MAX PRO Radio Transmitter
Goggles (Premium): Orqa FPV.One PILOT Goggles
Receiver: XR3 Receiver
Perfect for:
Engineers
Tinkerers
Anyone building toward real-world tactical FPV competence
4. Advanced: Onboard Compute for Autonomy
If you want to push beyond flying and begin experimenting with autonomy, computer vision, and onboard processing, Colin MacLeod and Enrique Munoz de Cote, Co-Founders of Mutable Tactics, have a gift guide recommendation of their own: add a Raspberry Pi to your FPV toolkit.
A Raspberry Pi can sit on the drone and run lightweight AI models, enabling early hands-on experience with: visual navigation, object identification, edge compute workflows, and autonomous cueing and decision support.
This is where hobby-grade FPV meets real-world tactical innovation.
Raspberry Pi Zero 2: The most common Pi found on drones. Tiny, efficient, easy on batteries, and ideal for visual navigation and light models.
Raspberry Pi 5 + AI HAT+: If you’ve got the budget and battery headroom, this combo unlocks dramatically more computational power—perfect for object detection tests, reinforcement-learning demos, and prototyping next-gen autonomy behaviors.
Perfect for:
Tinkerers with a software bent
Anyone curious about autonomy beyond “buzzwords”
Engineers and operators exploring AI-enabled UAS
This is the inflection point where FPV stops being just a hobby and becomes a hands-on education in the future of unmanned systems.
Stocking Stuffers for Every FPV Pilot
These are evergreen and always appreciated:
Batteries (lots of them)
ELRS modules (Jeff’s favorite: RadioMaster RM3)
Antennas
Battery bags (fire safety matters)
Lanyards
Chargers
FPV pilots treat batteries like candy and chargers like coffee. You can never have enough.
Jeff Wright is a defense technology expert and Founder and CEO of SplashOne Robotics, which develops man-portable, fully autonomous fixed-wing “fighter” drones that detect, dogfight, and neutralize threat drones.
Marque Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm supporting companies advancing U.S. national security and the values of the Western world.