I did 13 FPV flights in the past few days using Fat Shark Dominator Goggles. After previously having done over a hundred flights using an inexpensive, 7" LCD (I’m still using my starter FPV kit), it was really cool to be effectively projected into a flying virtual camera. When there is something like an Oculus Rift available for FPV, I’ll be first in line.
Pros of Goggle Flying:
- Built-in receiver and antenna (optional).
- Very portable and easily deployed. No tripod setup necessary.
- No break down after flight. Grab copter and get out of there, if you need to.
- No glare from the sun (although with the sun shade on the LCD, it hasn’t been a big problem).
Cons of Goggle Flying:
- No line of sight (LoS). Must remove goggles to see copter.
- When removing goggles in bright sunlight, your eyes will be really sensitive for awhile.
- Friends cannot share in the FPV experience.
- Can be disconcerting or cause nausea, for some people (I seem to be OK).
In the future, I think I’ll be doing a lot more FPV with goggles. In more tricky environments (e.g., flying up our of a grove of trees), I’ll likely continue to fly with an LCD so I can use both FPV and line-of-sight at the same time. I also have the PirateEye LCD Goggles, which allows for FPV and LoS at the same time, but because the goggles don’t have a receiver built in, the setup can be unwieldy to deploy in the field. I need to build a backpack receiver to make this setup really work.