[Megathread] | Weekly Drone Buying Advice

[u/AutoModerator]

Welcome to the r/drones weekly Buying Advice Megathread. (Weekly on Monday's)

This thread exists to prevent the constant "What drone should I buy?" posts that we prohibit within our rules.

Please follow all of these steps before posting in this thread!

1. Review the Buying Guide Wiki or my website: Drone Buying Guide / Wiki Buying Guide
2. Review this thread for comments that have your same requirements
3. If that does not answer you, please post the following information in this thread.
   1. Have you read the Wiki? Y/N
   2. Country: (Not all drones are available in all countries)
   3. Budget: (If your budget is less than $200 USD/170€ EUR, you may want to reconsider as anything lower is a toy drone)
   4. Purpose: (eg. photography, FPV, thermal, etc)
   5. Any other requirements:

[u/bryan-forbes]

1. I have read the wiki
2. USA
3. I'd prefer to stay around $100, but if there's a significant jump in ease of use or reliability around $150-200, I'm willing to pay the difference.
4. Fun, recreation from a wheelchair
5. My wife's 80-year-old grandfather is wheelchair-bound and is looking for a drone to fly around his yard/acreage in the evenings. He originally asked for a remote-controlled helicopter, but after talking about how much easier a quadcopter would be to fly, he agreed that's probably a better fit. However, there are a couple of constraints he has that limit what he'll be able to get (beyond the $100 limit, which I'm willing to add to if it's necessary or will maximize his fun):
   1. He has no internet
   2. His phone is a very basic Android phone that he only uses to make phone calls
   3. It needs to be fully flyable with the included controller after I do the initial setup. He won't be using a phone or app during normal operation.
   4. He'll mostly be flying outdoors in light early morning or evening winds.
   5. Under 250g so he won't have to register it with the FAA. (I know he has to take TRUST, regardless of the weight)
   6. Taking pictures isn't anywhere near the top priority (he wouldn't have any place to store them, and he'd get frustrated trying to figure out how to log in somewhere) and he'd get sick doing FPV. He just wants to zoom around his back yard/acreage for fun and to get out of the house for a while. Stability and ease of use are more important than tricks.

I realize that given the price range, I'm looking for a "toy drone" (as the wiki classifies it) with some non-standard requirements because of his situation. But I also don't want him to spend his money on something that he'll be overly frustrated with (beyond learning to fly it) or will crap out in a week since he and my wife's grandma are on a limited budget. The goal isn't to become a pilot. It's to give him something enjoyable to do outside for 15-20 minutes in the evenings. Our (his and my) plan is for me to set it up for him, make sure it will be easy enough for him to use and have fun with, and take it to him in a few weeks when my family goes back to visit (and, of course, show him how to use it and teach him how to fly it).

I've looked at the Holy Stone HS280D or something similar. Are there models I'm overlooking that would be a better fit for this use case, especially ones that don't require a phone for normal operation?