Absolute beginner and interested. What kind of scene is it out there?

Hi. I really like playing together with others and so I've been wondering what kind of scene is out there? I've been watching the videos on this subthread and noticed that a lot of them seem to be solo flying which makes me wonder:

• Are people pretty friendly? Or is it ultra competitive? Or people don't want to be friendly with those who aren't good?

• How many people gather for races and how often?

• How many people do you know that actually do this?

• How often do people crash and then can't play anymore?

• Are minor fender-benders pretty easy to fix? (I do plan to learn soldering if I decide to take this up)

• What kind of setbacks can keep you from flying for while?

• How quickly can one get the hang of this and start flying through courses or actually recording cool stuff? ( I really enjoyed the recent video of the footage of Chasing at the Jump Champs. )

• Other than racing, what can a small group of 2 or more people do have fun flying? For example recording car races?

• What is the proper way to take care of this equipment?

• Are there any skills other than soldering that one should learn?

• For practice, should I be looking for a FPV game on my PC to play?

• What is your total financial investment? Why? Do you anticipate this number to rise? If so, how much?

Investing in this is no easy endeavor for me and so I'm really curious about what I can do with it and expect from the scene and others.