My 1 year in FPV

[Moirae]

I really liked @LicketySplit thread idea so I decided to do one as well. I've been into the hobby for about the same amount of time as him as well but he has way more hours on the sticks than me in that same time frame. I got a long way to go! I can never make myself practice in the simulator either.


I'm also in the process of building a 7 inch 8s drone so that's going to be fun and terrifying.

 

[N.Mango]

I really liked @LicketySplit thread idea so I decided to do one as well. I've been into the hobby for about the same amount of time as him as well but he has way more hours on the sticks than me in that same time frame. I got a long way to go! I can never make myself practice in the simulator either.


I'm also in the process of building a 7 inch 8s drone so that's going to be fun and terrifying.

 

[fredw90]

Gotta do 5” 8s!!

 

[NitroK]

I really liked @LicketySplit thread idea so I decided to do one as well. I've been into the hobby for about the same amount of time as him as well but he has way more hours on the sticks than me in that same time frame. I got a long way to go! I can never make myself practice in the simulator either.


I'm also in the process of building a 7 inch 8s drone so that's going to be fun and terrifying.

Excellent flying skills. Currently sober but my head started spinning half way through the video. How do you not feel dizzy flying FPV?

 

[Moirae]

Gotta do 5” 8s!!

haha man I'm actually in the process of doing that as well. Sucks because I'm going to need a new charger for 8s lipos. I planned on using 2x 4s lipo for the 7 inch build but single 8s packs for 5 inch is less weight.

 

[fredw90]

Excellent flying skills. Currently sober but my head started spinning half way through the video. How do you not feel dizzy flying FPV?

I sit when I fly. If I stand I have to be leaning against something or I sway. It’s all in your head.

 

[Moirae]

Excellent flying skills. Currently sober but my head started spinning half way through the video. How do you not feel dizzy flying FPV?

thanks bro! I was worried I wouldn't be able to handle it before I got into the hobby but It's actually not bad at all! especially when you're the one flying. Some more extreme freestyle pilots have some crazy flippy floppy stuff going on that does make me a little woozy though

I sit when I fly. If I stand I have to be leaning against something or I sway. It’s all in your head.

I'm 100% the same exact way. Standing is HARD

 

[NitroK]

Can handle the normal drones ok. FPV on simulator...left, right, flip, turn, brick wall. Really hard to get my orientation. Great work guys.

 

[rotauq]

I can tell especially from the first minute of the video, you have developed a good stickfeel and can properly play with gravity. I don't think you will get any better with more hours in a simulator. It's impressive to get to this level without/hardly training on a simulator. Improving on transitions and such just takes time. Not saying that my flying is much better btw, but i am 6 years in the hobby thusfar.

Going 7" / 8S isn't something i would do tbh. 5" has more than enough stability, power and autority.
Have you considered going smaller or at least tried it before? 2.5"/3" more racing style of drones will be a better step to improve you skills. Less autority and much higher power to weight ratio. Only downside is the less flighttime, but it will be way more intense. Especially if you go for a series of gates and are more focussed on where it will be at after a move, transitions in freestyle flying will improve a lot as well.

 

[Moirae]

I can tell especially from the first minute of the video, you have developed a good stickfeel and can properly play with gravity. I don't think you will get any better with more hours in a simulator. It's impressive to get to this level without/hardly training on a simulator. Improving on transitions and such just takes time. Not saying that my flying is much better btw, but i am 6 years in the hobby thusfar.

Going 7" / 8S isn't something i would do tbh. 5" has more than enough stability, power and autority.
Have you considered going smaller or at least tried it before? 2.5"/3" more racing style of drones will be a better step to improve you skills. Less autority and much higher power to weight ratio. Only downside is the less flighttime, but it will be way more intense. Especially if you go for a series of gates and are more focussed on where it will be at after a move, transitions in freestyle flying will improve a lot as well.

Yea I have no more than 15 hrs on the simulator total and that was basically all before I flew for the first time. Thank you for the kind words! it's easy to watch other people videos and feel down about your own lack of skill so I always think I should be better than I am. I actually have a lot of quads for someone in the hobby for only a year. When I first jumped in I bought a 5 inch and a 6 inch at the same time. More money than brains but it was fun

I have a decent collection now

3x 5 inch DC
1x 5 inch X
1x 6 inch DC
1x 4 inch DC
1x 4 inch X
1x 5.5 inch DC
2x 3.5 inch X - 6s
1x 3.5 inch X 4s (tiny trainer HD)

Thats not even counting the 3 drones the wifey has or the 2 i'm in the process of building now. I really didn't need to do a 7 inch 8s but it sounded so cool in my head and I had started really liking my 6 inch. I decided to make a 5 inch 8s as well just because I knew 7 inch was going to be too much. I told the wifey I wouldn't do anything else after the 7 inch but I kind of snuck the 5 inch build stuff in there when she wasn't paying attention

Foxeer has some really nice new budget 8s stacks for under 70$ my 6s stacks cost more than that

 

[fredw90]

Yea I have no more than 15 hrs on the simulator total and that was basically all before I flew for the first time. Thank you for the kind words! it's easy to watch other people videos and feel down about your own lack of skill so I always think I should be better than I am. I actually have a lot of quads for someone in the hobby for only a year. When I first jumped in I bought a 5 inch and a 6 inch at the same time. More money than brains but it was fun

I have a decent collection now

3x 5 inch DC
1x 5 inch X
1x 6 inch DC
1x 4 inch DC
1x 4 inch X
1x 5.5 inch DC
2x 3.5 inch X - 6s
1x 3.5 inch X 4s (tiny trainer HD)

Thats not even counting the 3 drones the wifey has or the 2 i'm in the process of building now. I really didn't need to do a 7 inch 8s but it sounded so cool in my head and I had started really liking my 6 inch. I decided to make a 5 inch 8s as well just because I knew 7 inch was going to be too much. I told the wifey I wouldn't do anything else after the 7 inch but I kind of snuck the 5 inch build stuff in there when she wasn't paying attention

Foxeer has some really nice new budget 8s stacks for under 70$ my 6s stacks cost more than that

Man I thought I grew a collection fast. I was up to 7 in like 4 months. All vtx so that was really the only pricey part.

 

[rotauq]

Once you have your fpv gear, bnf and buidling your own, certainly isn't as expensive as RC cars. I think i have around 10 atm. Lost a few. A storm a few weeks ago did make me recovery my Nazgul 5". It's gyro had gone bad and had a fly away. Been stuck high in a tree for months.

I probably spend like 300h in simulators. It certainly helped me a lot.

If you can keep the 5" on 8S light you really get a ultra fast drone. 12S stacks and 8-rotor drones are getting more common as well, if you really would want to go crazy.

 

[LicketySplit]

I can tell especially from the first minute of the video, you have developed a good stickfeel and can properly play with gravity. I don't think you will get any better with more hours in a simulator. It's impressive to get to this level without/hardly training on a simulator. Improving on transitions and such just takes time. Not saying that my flying is much better btw, but i am 6 years in the hobby thusfar.

Going 7" / 8S isn't something i would do tbh. 5" has more than enough stability, power and autority.
Have you considered going smaller or at least tried it before? 2.5"/3" more racing style of drones will be a better step to improve you skills. Less autority and much higher power to weight ratio. Only downside is the less flighttime, but it will be way more intense. Especially if you go for a series of gates and are more focussed on where it will be at after a move, transitions in freestyle flying will improve a lot as well.

I’ll have to disagree with you about the sim. He will definitely get better. I never used a sim until the past month when I got rained in. Dunno if you saw my video but I’m not gonna bomb his thread. In the short time I’ve used the sim, I learned the stick movements and was able to learn new things. I’ll be doing trippy spins next week. For real. Not in the sim.

 

[rotauq]

I’ll have to disagree with you about the sim. He will definitely get better. I never used a sim until the past month when I got rained in. Dunno if you saw my video but I’m not gonna bomb his thread. In the short time I’ve used the sim, I learned the stick movements and was able to learn new things. I’ll be doing trippy spins next week. For real. Not in the sim.

I didnt see your video, so i searched and watched it. As you had a lot more training time, it's not fair to compare the video's back to back. Impressive though, you certainly have your technical fundaments at a higher level and are much more confident on taking gaps.
Sim training will certainly accellerate this, due to its no risk. But it's not that you can't train this in real flying. It just takes hours and hours of training time. 3hs for a trippy spin for fpvknowitall and using a smaller drone, as i mentioned before.

Yet, freestyle flying is also an artistic expression. It's not absolute like a race or speedrun. Audiences differ too. I personally prefer watching smoothness and frivolity(don't know if this is a correct translation, else i'd say "positively playfull"). Moirae certainly scores high at this point, in my humble opinion.

 

[LicketySplit]

I didnt see your video, so i searched and watched it. As you had a lot more training time, it's not fair to compare the video's back to back. Impressive though, you certainly have your technical fundaments at a higher level and are much more confident on taking gaps.
Sim training will certainly accellerate this, due to its no risk. But it's not that you can't train this in real flying. It just takes hours and hours of training time. 3hs for a trippy spin for fpvknowitall and using a smaller drone, as i mentioned before.

Yet, freestyle flying is also an artistic expression. It's not absolute like a race or speedrun. Audiences differ too. I personally prefer watching smoothness and frivolity(don't know if this is a correct translation, else i'd say "positively playfull"). Moirae certainly scores high at this point, in my humble opinion.

You seem to be missing my point. In no way is it a competition. I literally just meant more sim time will definitely help, no matter who it is. It builds muscle memory.

 

[rotauq]

You seem to be missing my point. In no way is it a competition. I literally just meant more sim time will definitely help, no matter who it is. It builds muscle memory.

Yeah, i left out the part where sim training also teaches little wrongs due to not being perfectly real. But i will sway, sim training helps everyone at every skill level.

Still want to praise Moirae. Especially for getting to this point without using much sim hours. It's not mandatory and most important that you can enjoy the hobby in the way you see fit.

 

[PeighDay]

I probably spend like 300h in simulators. It certainly helped me a lot.

I’d like to see one of your videos. Be interested to see what 300hours in the simulator looks like.

 

[rotauq]

I’d like to see one of your videos. Be interested to see what 300hours in the simulator looks like.

300h does include "FPV kamikaze drone" as well
I spend most of my flying on racing and cinematic, less on freestyle. Like i said in my first post "Not saying that my flying is much better btw"

I'd have to go through my flightcam card for some recent and decent freestyle footage. I hardly post stuff on youtube, this is some little cinematic examples:
Chasing RC bashers
Filming a sailboat in action
(i put in links not embeded videos as its not my thread)

 

[Moirae]

I’d like to see one of your videos. Be interested to see what 300hours in the simulator looks like.

I bet bardwell got 1000+ hours flying and he still doesn't seem like some super duper pilot. Tons of hours on the sticks doesn't mean much if all that time was just you messing around and doing what you enjoy. It just means you're good at what you enjoy!

300h does include "FPV kamikaze drone" as well
I spend most of my flying on racing and cinematic, less on freestyle. Like i said in my first post "Not saying that my flying is much better btw"

I'd have to go through my flightcam card for some recent and decent freestyle footage. I hardly post stuff on youtube, this is some little cinematic examples:
Chasing RC bashers
Filming a sailboat in action
(i put in links not embeded videos as its not my thread)

stuff like that rc video is why we even got into the hobby to begin with.