FPV stands for first person view.

This means that in order to fly the drone, a pilot must wear goggles. When the pilot looks through these goggles, they see from the front of the drone. It’s as if they are sitting right there in the drone’s cockpit.

Most consumer drones are aerial cinematography drones.  People control them by simply looking at where the drone is flying, or watching the camera feed on their phone. This is a great option for creating beautiful aerial shots, since the camera is at the bottom of the drone.

However, if you are looking to race your drone through a complex course, you need something different. You need an FPV drone and a pair of goggles.

In the picture above, you can see Zoomas doing an “FPV check”. This happens at the beginning of every DRL race to ensure that the connection between the goggles and drone is good and the pilot has good video and control. If his FPV is good, Zoomas’ goggles should show him this:

That’s the (FPV) view from the start line at DRL Level 1: Miami Lights. This is what Zoomas sees through his goggles in the first picture.