you could just watch a youtube build video and buy everything they used so you know it works...

time invested = 10 minutes.

and of course i do all of those things (well i don't grow my own food and cook every meal...) but i guess you can call me cheap in that i don't want to pay someone gobs of my money to do something i'm smart enough to do myself.

if we are talking about something i do everyday, or all the time (such as things you mentioned) there is plenty of room to spend money instead of time... like going to taco bell instead of cooking tacos.

but when it comes to a single purchase like this, something that only requires basic soldering skills, it's well worth the time to build something. you can watch a few flite test videos on youtube and learn how to build whatever you want. it's honestly not that complicated.

if you want to buy a RTF quad then by all means, do whatever you want. i'm just letting you know there are far better options.

you buying a phantom isn't going to change my mind that you got less for your money, or that most of the people being idiots on youtube or the news are flying the same quad i'm telling you is a waste of money.

there are a lot of problems with a proprietary system... cost for components is a huge issue here seeing as your batteries alone cost you almost 3x what they should. the other big problem is you are locked into that frame, you can't just decide to "upgrade" a phantom to a hex or an octo... you are stuck with it.

if you want to do more than what the phantom can do, which is quite a bit, you are back to square one needing to build something.

which you could have done from the start if you had followed my advice.