With all this waiting for my still pending September 29th order, I figured let me get some minidrone to fly around my living room. But this time I thought I'd spend a little more than I have in the past with all kinds of Hubsan and Syma craft. So I spent about 130 on a Parrot Mambo and Flypad controller. Wow, I'm very pleasantly surprised. It performs truly like a mini DJI product. I will now be recommending this as a practice quad and nothing else. Braking effect is pretty effective, altitude hold is solid, contol format is exactly like DJI's, contoller and quad both use micro usb for recharging, no need for trimming since there's one downward sensor, and both a cannon and grabber are included. It cost a fair bit more than the Hubsan X4's I had previously but the quality is far higher. Great little quad.

That's great, thanks for posting.
I too recommend new pilots to purchase an inexpensive multirotor to get experience on.
$1,000 is a lot to spend on and aircraft, and a easily avoided pilot error mishap could be costly.
Also, everyone should purchase DJI Care Refresh which covers those plot error mishaps.

I have the Mavic.  It's been great so far.  My only experience prior to this was flying a $25 indoor RC helicopter that I got around 5 years ago. I played with it off and on for about a month and not much at all since.  I honestly don't think it is necessary or even much help for a first timer to practice on any thing prior to owning the Mavic.  First of all it has a simulator that does a pretty darn good job of getting aquainted with the controls.  Then there is the fact that the Mavic just sits there and hovers if you just remove your fingers from the sticks.  So, at any time, just remove your fingers from the sticks, stop and think a second to reorient yourself and proceed.  The biggest advice I would give to a new person would be to go to a big wide open field... like an unoccupied football or soccer field, for your first several couple hours of flight time.

However, that Parrot Mambo does look like fun while waiting for your Mavic! Maybe I should consider one for my kids!

At 100 bucks they aren't the cheapest out there. But the quality is way beyond what I've had with Hubsan and others. The build quality is far better. Also, the center sprung auto throttle with altitude and position hold transfers skills perfectly to DJI's control format. What impressed me about this particular one instead of others including Parrot's previous rolling spider based quads is that the altitude hold and dynamic braking are far better on this one. I'm a proponent of also buying a mini quad. While simulators are great, they cannot even come close to replicating the "fumbled under stress" situations that come with flying real craft. Also, they are wonderful for indoor fun on crappy days. The beauty of the Mambo is that it's the first one that felt DJI like in control and behavior. Get plenty of props and go at it. Once you can do anything inside your living room crash free, there's no way in hell you'll crash a mavic. Besides, they're pretty fun. I'm a DJI owner since the phantom 1 days and still fly minis.

I started with a $33 Syma from amazon

stealle Posted at 2016-11-28 12:22
I have the Mavic.  It's been great so far.  My only experience prior to this was flying a $25 indoor ...

I wouldn't be so sure, I've already seen plenty of Mavics in the repair shop from user error and they lost orientation.
When you panic in GPS mode all you have to do it let go, BUT even new Mavic users have told me that they banked one way a little but the Mavic went the opposite way (they were nose in) and instead of letting go or moving the stick to the opposite side they panicked and gave full deflection in the same direction as they already had it. A few seconds later they're Mavic smashed into a brick wall in Sport Mode.

So being able to practice on an inexpensive multirotor realy does help.

FrequentFlyer Posted at 2016-11-28 14:57
I started with a $33 Syma from amazon

That's the perfect price and aircraft to start with.