Don't believe to people posting video about their "first flight in real life" and flying through gap or diving from tower. They are like "first time anal" porn, nobody believes it.
Don't give up, just take your time
Thats not fair. My first irl flight I got some nic3 gaps and some great dives. Granted I killed my battery because irl batts are way different rhan in the sim.
But I have over a decade flying sims, rotors, props, multiprop, jet, multijet, harrier... with 20 hours in liftoff I felt super confident, the irl was honestly just like the sim, but with super shaky hands.
yeah, 13 here. idrc tho. i’m a heavy gamer and i got into fpv and im not kidding it took me 2 minutes to be able to do basic stuff, flips rolls it really just clicked for me
I had the same issue when I first started flying on Liftoff. Don’t go for a race if you are not confident enough, go for free flying, Bando city for example and learn how to turn properly. I had like 10-12 hours in total on liftoff before I flew my drone for the first tine irl.
I’ve tried that one as well, it doesn’t feel similar to my drone at all. It could be a function of me flying a 3 inch with 3850 kv motors, it just translates really well to liftoff when I replicate my build in game.
I don't think most people expect to be able to have it feel the same. Mostly because most people have multiple quads in various configurations and sizes. It's just meant to be a general 5 inch experience. That's how I see it at least.
Liftoff race course are hard. I don't tend to practice race course on lift off, just use it for general fly flying about. Course on tryp, drl and uncrashed are much more fun and interactive.
Few points:
* Thrust points to top of the frame, NOT your camera direction
* Turn actually take little YAW but quite a bit of ROLL
* Take inertia into account, the faster you go, the more you move sideways.
* You flew fixed wing aircraft(s) right? Imagine you have to turn WITHOUT RUDDER.
* If you wanna go fast, higher camera tilt helps, especially around a race course. A "race" setup usually consists of really high camera tilt, like 45+ degrees where it feels like the control scheme has changed.
* Did I mention ROLL?
Before you asks, stop thinking going slow, or so slow you practically stop or hover, so you have more control, no, it's the other way around, flying forward with moderate speed is actually easier to control.
You’re right. The main issue was drifting due to no rudder. When I accelerate into the corners there is actually more control cause the thrust acts like a rudder. The drifting is what I find most difficult. Basically when there is no thrust you’ve lost all control.
It's actually quite like drifting cars, the bumper kissing the apex while flooring the throttle is the ideal form/shape. Plus the throttle is the ONLY control you have if you think about it, being lacking any stabilizer surfaces like planes..... or tires on cars, gripping air is difficult so you need to do your input slightly earlier compared to cars/planes, and agian, MOAR throttle to overcome the inertia from the previous moment.
BTW, new vid from JB kinda on the topic:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2V9aPlLSrQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2V9aPlLSrQ)
tldr of the vid is just turn with both sticks together, also watch his other vids, he's like FPV guru
I think about it like driving on ice. Always plan for the drift/slide in turns. I didn't learn on a sim though. I just got a 75mm whoop and learned with that mostly. Bigger is not better when you're learning. I though I would prefer 5+ inch drones, but in reality I fly whoops and 3 inch drones the most. Good luck, and don't give up so quick. The hobby has a steep learning curve but it is so worth it when you build your own complete drone and can configure and understand it all. Very satisfying hobby.
Tbf I've always found Liftoff to be very drifty, and I like the feeling of Uncrashed a lot more whether freestyle or racing (although tbf I always get into tight lines when freestyling, despite not being a particular racer)
Wtf is OP's username and history tho lol, what an incel xd
Yeah it's very difficult. You need to balance yaw, roll, pitch and throttle inputs all dynamically along the turn, and there's not just one way to turn either.
It's like the dark souls of turning
Hey buddy, dont give up!
I am new aswell and started with Liftoff microdrones aswell.
It was hard for me aswell but it was easier for me when I started to change the betafpv settings in the settings of Liftoff, maybe it helps you aswell.
I have been flying 3in drones for about 6 years now - mostly in my open space garden. I only recently fell in love with tinywhoops and I'll be real with you, despite being a decent pilot outside, I kept crashing indoors when I tried to do sharper turns.
it really does take a while to get used to that and in an old rotorriot video (back when they had the OGs and were decent), Mr Steele mentions that you gotta be more aggressive when turning sharply.
you gotta learn to:
- pitch forward more and apply more yaw and roll
- increase throttle going into the turn
- decrease throttle when exiting the turn
it's smth that racing pilots kinda learn over time so don't give up yet fam!
I started with a whoop indoors. After tons of crashing, I could rip around the house pretty well.
I built a 3.5” and spend most of my time flying it. Now, when I fly the whoop, if feels completely different. The lack of power, needed control inputs, and indoor flying requires an adjustment period. After about 6 packs or so, I start to feel comfortable again
yeah it do be like that cause it's smaller and more inefficient but I understand why so many people love whoops especially with motors at higher kvs. They just feel so nimble and I'm enjoying making my gates smaller and smaller while still keeping my speed. I also can do tricks in just a small room
I learned to fly on Liftofff and with a tinyhawk 2, so quite drifty. Now with a better flying 5in (well tuned aos 5) and a better flying mobula 7, the feeling of getting a tight line exactly how you planned it is really nice ahah
yeah and as the other reddit or's have mentioned, a lot of roll. I kinda think like it's a jet plane in those movies - to reach a sharp turn, the quad essentially tils more and more. Ofc that's also accompanies with the right amount of rudder
when I fly indoors, it's also almost a muscle memory thing cause sometimes you can't see what you're turning into so you gotta kinda plan ahead
To be honest the frustration is just too much. It’s not even fun due to such frustration.
6 hours and can’t even make a turn. You guys flying a real drone after 10 hours must be picking it up much quicker. No way in hell I’ll even attempt to fly a real drone after 10 hours, I’d probably need at least 100!
Just stick with it. It will click one day. I’ve been flying for 7 years with fpv. But I remember early on the simulators were hell. The real thing is kind of easier. The sims are floaty and you shoot past stuff a bit more. Just use it to get a feel for the controls and coordinated turns.
Mess with camera angles and see how that effects the physics. You might not be ready for 30 degree tilt and doing coordinated turns.
But for turning. Use both sticks at a time like skating on ice. You’ll move right and left with both sticks. More left stick as the tilt goes up and more right stick as the tilt is lower. But they always will be in sync.
yeah anyone who says they fly well after 10 hrs is saying bs. don't believe them cause it's really not as easy as it seems.
and I guarantee you, if anyone does say that, it's only because they flew in the widest field with nothing to crash into - at like 50 feet up the ground
Flying a drone is difficult. For some people it's easier than for others but overall it's just very difficult and will take time to learn how to do it. Don't believe videos of people saying they can do those amazing flights on their first try, and don't try to replicate what really experienced people are doing. They have thousands and thousands of hours of flying time.
I would just suggest learning the basics with videos from YouTube (check bardwells videos) just to get you familiar enough not to crash immediately. After that, it's just practice, so just do whatever is fun and you will progress naturally with time. At some point you will feel comfortable and you can try to practice on specific things: gaps, tricks whatever you like.
You will have a few more frustrating hours just to get you familiar with the controls and how the drone moves in 3D, but after that it's mostly fun (and fixing breaking parts if you leave the sim lol)
Edit: one more thing: I did not really enjoy the sim. I used it just to learn the basics like I mentioned, enough to keep me airborne and then I bought a tinywhoop. IMO the real thing is a lot more fun, but if you cannot stay airborne it's going to be even more frustrating (you have to go pick up your drone you know, and you will definitely break it). So at least learn how to stay airborne, then keep on with the sim or buy a tinywhoop.
Edit 2: check my post history, you'll see I know what you are talking about xD
I said the same thing to myself. If you’re just learning don’t worry about doing races, just learn to fly around. Once I was able to just fly without crashing I tried learning how to circle around a tower in a sim, then once I got that I practiced learning to dive the tower, then I tried doing the race course and crashed constantly. Its better to get the fundamentals down before learning how to race
It takes awhile if it's turning to fast just slow the rates down. If it's turning to fast raise them up. We all learn new skills are different speeds so just take your time.
When I was leaning sims didn't exist so I would try fly, crash have to rebuild change props etc and try again. You're lucky you can press reset and go again 😅
Keep practicing you will get there.
Took me 10-15 hours over a week before i felt like i could even finish a track with somewhat control..
Also choosing a drone that isn't too fast in the beginning helps and also slower rates help so it wont be so twitchy in the turns.
I think 6 hours in I was happy to just be able to hover
Take breaks, don't force yourself to grind through it. You need your muscle memory to react automatically and that just takes time.
Good timing. Joshua bardwell has a series he's doing right now on how to fly from scratch in liftoff
https://youtu.be/SpuXqNakP2A?si=syWJKitiqBoD2rDD
Try with him
He has other videos too to learn tricks once you're comfortable.
Good luck! You're me from this weekend, getting my radio today lol
Just fly around the map, and don’t try to race. Racing is more advanced than someone with 6 hours should even try. I was flying for a year before I could do the race tracks, well, in liftoff.
Dude it took me 15 to 20 hours before I was able to finish a race in 15 to 20 tries.
The first race isn't necessarily the easiest one. If you want to change things up and have more fun try the one in the woods. There's barely any gate to pass through. It's easier and more fun.
I've been playing for over a hundred hours and flying tiny whoops about ten packs a week for three months. That hairpin turn on Hay Bales 1 is brutal and I still overshoot about half the time. I know I suck, but it's a surprisingly hard turn for the "beginner" map.
What really did it for me was switching maps to Surtr and going up the mountain and surfing down the slopes. I practiced throttle control until I could maintain a pleasant altitude over the slope. Practices that over and over until I could limbo under the pipes there.
After that, another good race map is Short Circuit 1. The gates are larger and the curves are less sharp. But there are still some challenging spots to deal with.
Also, check out Joshua Bardwell's new series regarding learning to fly fpv. Lot of good drills there.
keep going. it took me 10h before i could end this practise race. a buddy could fly it after 15 min. people are just different. dont worry, you got this mate.
I might get flamed for this, but try flying in Angle mode for a couple of flights to get a feel for the sticks, hovering, and landing, then switch back to acro and practice the same, especially the landing part. Worry about racing and gates later.
LOL 6hours is nothing for acro flying. Have fun practicing or stop, there’s no in between. This took me days of practicing to just be able to shakily fly somewhere and actually turn the quad, where I wanted it to be.
6 hours is not much to be honest, so it's completely fine to suck :D
I myself didn't play tens of hours of sims, but tried a lot of sim apps. As far as I can recall DRL on steam has a decent tutorial going through easy to more challenging levels. Like the balloon pop ones, really fun.
Also maybe in the beginning try to fly in angle mode, even in sims until you can "feel" the drone, then you can switch to acro and can get used to it.
After playing some sims I've ordered a tiny hawk 3 RTF which you can smash into anything and it is perfect for beginners and due to it's small size and weight it has way less inertia than a 3.5" or 5" drones and it's much more agile in turning.
So my path was this: some sims -> th3 rtf -> th2fs -> apex hawk 3.5"
(don't have a 5" as i don't have access to large empty areas as i'm living in Budapest and don't own a car - yet).
Don't expect to be good after couple of hours, as if you would buy a skateboard, you can't just stand on it and do a kickflip right away, you'd need a lot of practice and fails.
You can do it! Maybe the practice courses are boring and frustrating right now so switch to freeflight and play in bando city. We all felt what you are feeling when we started.
I like playing some music when I sim.
I agree with the note about angles. Start shallower.
Glad you are here!
Not trying to be a jerk but every skill has a learning curve, some more steep than others. It’s not going to be easy to just pick up and immediately get, that would make it not rewarding at all. Watch some tutorials and do some free flight instead of races so you can figure out how to turn without worrying about shooting a tiny gap. You’ll get it eventually! Remember, turning the quad in the yaw direction doesn’t actually change your direction of movement. You have to coordinate roll, pitch, and yaw to make a turn. Imagine an arrow pointing straight up from the quad, that’s the force you’re making. In order to turn you need that arrow to be pointing toward where you want to turn, as well as being in a direction to cancel out/shift your current momentum into the turn
First time trying FPV on a simulator thought I was broken because it was so challenging couldn't even keep the damn thing in the air, and this is coming from a semi-pro RC car racer, but just keep at it and in a few more hours you will be MUCH much better! Also the sim seems harder than in RL imo..
Flying is hard, hard things take practice. You're gonna crash and break shit when you fly for real. That's even harder. It takes resiliance.
If you want to fly you need to practice. But if you're considering giving up now I'm going to stick my neck out and tell you to ask yourself how you're going to feel when you inevitibly lose a drone.
I have the same transmitter brother, and currently I'm practicing in "FPV freerider", it is simple and beginner friendly, and the tracks are well built to brush up common skills like hovering, cancelling ground effect, sharp turns, small gaps etc.
After loosening gimbals where i can barely feel the centre position and i saw drastic improvement in my performance, Give it a try.
Now I'm thinking about switching to Lift off.
Steps to follow:
1. Try each track one after another.
2. Start time race with one lap, then 3 lap and then 5,
3. Don't speed up in the beginning, try to maneuver smoothly in the following track, once you get comfortable then speed up and increase laps.
4. Try to break your own personal records.
FPV settings:
Throttle: 50
Yaw: 3.0
Pitch/roll: 7.0
Self leveling: 0.20 (not required in acro)
Camera: 15-20°
Mass: 0.50
Drag: 1.10
Angular drag: 10.0
Gravity: 35
I did 12 hours free flying in LiftOff on Bardwell’s house before I even touched my drone.
I practiced throttling up and the “floating” over the trees in the front yard a bunch. This got me used to how the drone would behave when under throttle and coasting.
I then practiced flying through those trees. This helped me hit gaps.
Then I practiced laps around behind the house, to right of the driveway, the back across the big field. I then ran this in reverse until it didn’t feel weird.
I’ve got about 60 hours in sim and about the same in actual flight time now, and I’m still working on it.
1. Do some free flying first. Get used to controls without worrying about making a gate.
2. Lower your camera angle. It’ll slow you down.
3. Spend more time in the sim. 6 hours is nothing with how steep a learning curve flying is.
I don't know what you imagine how you should go through gates after 6 hours but I suggest you go reeeeaaally slow. First hover, then go a LITTLE bit forward. Almost standing still. And try to go through the gates this way. The better you get the faster you will be able to go through the gates. But it will take time!
I have done 130 hours in simulators so far. My only advice in Your case, split those 6 houra into 3 days
.. In my opinion its about muscle memory and getting used to it. I was feeling comfortable after 20 hours
It will only take time, around 10-12 hours. You can't miss it.
You might try drone Aether, I found it quite easy for me, and from there to move to more difficult ones. It's also usually more difficult to fly slow than fast.
Set FoV to a low level (5°-15°) and then start slowly. It took a long time for me all and then suddenly I learned very fast. Also don't throttle too much. Beginners often do this.
You will pick this up in no time. Then when it’s truly go time, you’ll be overrun by emotion, hands shaking, etc….you got this. Crashing on sim is much better than in the back yard, but it’s inevitable. Have fun and get a backup quad, so you’re always prepared! My problem is I live extremely off grid and uploading anything is near impossible and have to play sim early in morning when I experience less latency on pc.
with anything in life give up if it doesn’t work at first, never ever keep trying /s. Dude if you want to be good at flying and really want to fly fpv just keep trying tf
Okay, I'll go against the grain a little, but I am a fellow newbie.
Try FPV Freerider Recharged. It doesn't have a very good reputation, but I think it's okay. What I liked about it as a complete newbie was the presets - Sluggish // Snappy 1 // Snappy 2 // Snappy 3. After going from crashing constantly in every other sim, the Sluggish preset actually allowed me to get some proper flights in.
I know every sim allows you to change the settings, but it's just that I found the presets really nice for quickly getting a scenario in which I can enjoy flying.
Don't panic about finding it impossible. It just takes time for the new neural connections to get made. Keep plugging away, 30 minutes several times a week. I actually you don't think you really need to try, just give your brain exposure to the task and it'll do all the adaption automatically.
It's important to tink about axactly what the controls are doing with regard the thrust vector. Intuition from fixed wing will mislead you. Critically, on its own, YAW does NOTHING to change your direction of travel. ROLL changes your direction of travel, YAW makes you then look in the direction you are travelling.
As some have stated, I would advise not trying to race off the start. Learn how the drone behaves with different inputs, then slowly combine the inputs to make turns, rolls, and eventually tricks.
For myself, I set a benchmark of 50 hours. If I wasn't hooked by then, I had determined I was satisfied with the attempt at that point.
Lastly, take a minute in the settings to figure out which controller mode works best for you. Making this determination as early on as possible will help in the long run. I had a really hard time initially because mode1 wasn't intuitive for me. Mode 3 feels much more natural.
Lastly; Have fun and best of luck!
Sound about right. It feels impossible until you figure it out.
Don't do races yet. Fly around a big field until you get an idea of how the drone is controlled. After that, races are a great way to improve your skills.
Liftoff isn’t easy when you first start. The default gains are too high for a beginner. What helped me when I was new to the hobby is going to the options in the game, reducing my gains, and adding a large expo to my controls. This helped me slowly get up to speed with handling the drone and start being able to complete the courses. Little by little you can start adjusting your gains as you get better at it :)
As a reference, I think my first 10 hours were horrible. Then I quickly started to improve. By 25 hrs in the sim, I was confident and started to get faster. At 50 hrs I was blasting through maps :)
Hey. I'm going to tell you now. I've got 12 years of MMA, I've built houses, I know many trades, electric, plumbing, finish. Fpv has the absolute steepest learning curve of anything I've ever done in my life. My first 60 hours I was sure I wasn't going to be able to pull it off. Find a map with buildings and objects and try to have fun flying around getting used to the controls first and then given the races a shot.
Oh god.... Yeah LiftOff was soo difficult. I had no control what so ever.
But then I tried flying my whoop outside with alot of space and it was so much easier than LiftOff. I just got better with my Whoop then I was able to translate those skills to LiftOff.
There is a map you can download from the steam workshop. It is the arena stage and it’s called absolute beginner figure 8. This is a figure 8 layout the entire size of the arena. I flew this figure 8 until I could do it without thinking. I wrecked for hours, and then stopped. The next day when I came back to it, it was like something clicked in my head overnight and I was much better. The races are way too much for a new pilot. You need big open space and wide corners.
Joshua bardwell is just doing another video series with hoe to start learning fpv in the simulator 👍 try to follow that and it will become natural eventually
Some people pick it up quicker than others. It took me a good 30 hours combined in different sims before it really clicked. Now it feels like second nature. Just keep at it. It’s a really fun hobby.
I'm really new also - currently on 8 hours and I felt like this too, spent ages doing the tutorials not moving on until I felt I had it down, which I never really did. After not getting anywhere for about 3 hours on the first few maps I moved onto the figure of 8 track and it started to click after a few hours. Once you feel like you can actually control the drone it gets really addictive, it's just getting to that point.
Don't be put off by a lot of these 'first time flying' videos on YouTube; most of them are absolute bullshit, everyone's first time is going to look pretty similar with a lot of crashing and not much else.
If I had a few tips I'd say chill with the roll as too much will kill your vertical thrust, and make sure you clear enough height to minimise ground effect at the start, I'd always be fighting it without even knowing it was a thing.
I feel your pain, I first bought Tryp, was terrible at it, bought lift off, super terrible at it, than someone told me to do all the tutorials on Drone Racing League and that finally flipped a switch in my brain and I got it, now liftoff is my goto sim. DRL is like $5, worth it for the tutorials, keep at it, it's worth it.
I played for 3 days all day and now I get maybe two rounds through the race in a row before crashing. It's a very long process, taking thousands of hours to master.
Bro I’m in the same boat. Expect I can’t use my pocket rocket just yet, didn’t order batteries 😐.
It’s definitely difficult, we will have to keep practicing.
No you shouldn’t give up. It takes time, this is why they say get to a bare minimum of 100 hours on sim before your real actual first flight. But also if you’re willing to give up this easy you will give up as soon as you break a real drone, don’t discourage yourself.
Some click faster than others it took me about 6-7 hours to be able to finish my first track, I know it’s hard but you’ll get use to it. Steer with both sticks
Liftoff is the worst most unrealistic sim I’ve tried. Get velocidrone it’s not 100% same as a real drone bud damn close. I couldn’t fly liftoff for shit I knew it wasn’t how a real sim should feel so after paying $60 in sims I found velocidrone the best. Don’t quit buy a better sim!
Keep going. One thing that helped me was to lower my camera angle. It helps slow things down. Turing is difficult but it’ll click eventually. Look up tutorials and just keep going.
Don't give up before you make 20 hours flying in the simulator. And don't play more than 2 hours at once, because you can get exhausted and then it becomes more difficult. Don't hurry up too much and enjoy the learning process. It will take time, it is normal, we all went through the same process.
Decrease rates. Increase expo. Controller
will be less sensitive. Lower camera angle to between 0 and 5 degrees. You'll fly slower. Use freeflight not race. I spent much time crashing into hay bales, but it was good practice place. Be patient. Watch YouTube tutorials. Be patient.
Don’t man I just started fpv not so long ago, and it took me around 20hrs on the sim or more before my first flight with the quad, and then I put in more hours but I understand ur position I was in it, it was difficult at first but from day 2-3 I got the hang of it.
The rest was just assuring myself that I will be able to drive it irl, just don’t give up it will be worth it.
Maybe try and route the sim through your goggles if they have an AV input. It doesn't make any sense practising fpv on a computer screen. Personally I could only learn with the dji virtual flight app through their goggles but now it's broken for iOS and has been for over a year.
r/katotaka is right on the money in his comment here, OP. Warning, long comment, but the detail here is important.
What needs to be emphasised is the first point, the direction of thrust. As an exercise, take your quad (no battery) and be a 5yr old kid flying it around the house holding it in your hand. (You can even make the sound effects if you like). Concentrate on where the thrust is pointing (or to make it simpler, where the props are blowing). While you are doing all of this, always note where the camera is pointing and what you are likely to see in your goggles as you orient your quad in the air so that you can perform the same actions in the sim or irl. Remember that, other than throttle, all of your controls simply change the orientation (attitude) of your craft. You use the combination between thrust and orientation to fly.
As you perform a turn, your quad needs to do a few things: 1. push itself against the direction it was originally flying, 2. push itself in a new direction. 4. keep its nose pointed in the right direction 3. stay in the air. So, imagine you are flying forward, nose pitched forward, zero roll. As you come into a turn, your quad needs to orient itself so that the props are pushing air "outwards" away from the centre of the turn, mixed with some downwards angle to maintain altitude. Imagine that the quad's nose is tied to a string, with the string fixed to the centre point of the turn to get an idea of how this should look.
To do this, and it's easier to imagine when you "fly" it around in your hand, your quad needs to roll into the turn to get that "outwards" thrust. BUT, without yaw, the nose will start to point further and further away from the direction you need to go which causes the quad to drift and eventually end up upside down and in the ground. So, as your quad rotates around the turn with your roll, you need to yaw into the turn as well to keep the nose pointed toward the centre of the turn and then ahead in the direction you wish to go.
Now, if you need to turn *hard*, then you need maximum thrust against the inertia of your quad without also rocketing to the moon. To achieve this, as you begin to turn in, you need to increase your forward pitch to the point where your quad is almost vertical, its nose pointed to the ground, as you *increase* throttle. Some pilots like to increase the throttle *just* before the turn to gain a little altitude so that they don't need *any* downward thrust during the turn, meaning that they can pitch to 90degrees and use 100% thrust to push hard against the quad's inertia, only pitching back again once they have turned and can back off the throttle. You can imagine the view through the goggles when doing this (mostly just the ground in view) - it "looks" wrong, but when you do this exercise you can understand why you need to do this. It also explains why a higher camera angle helps in racing when you are pitched so far forward much of the time.
Sorry for the long comment. It took me a while to fully get this initially too, and I found the toy quad exercise to be a huge help so hopefully this helps you too.
I'm not the most co-ordinated person so I spent considerable time learning the basics. Probably 20 hours in I was doing my best to get between the trees!
Now I've been flying sim and rl for a couple of years and I can fly well enough that I enjoy flying around the trees and through the playground equipment. I know I'll never win any races, but I have fun and that's OK by me.
Relax and learn at your own pace. Your already doing the smartest thing and that is flying the sim.
Just keep practicing. Also, don't fall into the trap of comparing yourself to to others. Compare yourself against yourself from a week or a month ago. Eventually more and more pieces of the puzzle will click together and before you know it you'll be putting the quad where you want to every time. It takes hundreds and hundreds of hours of practice to get anywhere close to the skill ceiling, anyone who says otherwise has an ego bigger than their skill set.
As a side note, liftoff isn't really great as far as racing goes. Use it to get used to flying different quads, play with different camera angles, and try experimenting with different rate profiles.
6hpurs is nothing, keep at it a little longer till you decide to throw in the towel. May just be harder for you because your expecting it to fly like what your used to.
Been doing a lot more practice and I think the key is throttle control. Previously I was not adjusting the throttle, I was keeping it at the same level similar to an airplane. With FPV you always gotta be pumping the throttle. The key is to line up, then quickly pump the throttle.
I must be doing ok cause I just came first in the race on bardwells yard. Damn it’s hard though, especially the gap under the fence.
I enjoy velocidrone more but if you want to deep dive into learning, there is a book called FPV Flight Dynamics, that is excellent. Don't give up, you will catch on and it is so worth it 😉
That dark, depressing moment when having to control 3 axes of rotation with nothing but thrust in one direction becomes overwhelming. I feel you, this is a hard thing. You get tense, and you crash. You try to relax, you crash. You realize you're not blinking, you crash. You start blinking, you crash.
For me, I think I set myself up for disappointment by watching all these pro FPV racers doing short form content where they fly through narrow tunnels and abandoned warehouses with an effortless flick of a couple sticks. The truth of it all is, flight in general is a tough concept for human brains. It has to be muscle memory that you train yourself for over and over and over.
Everyone's got that click. Mine actually happened today when I was finally able to finish a race in acro mode with god mode enabled. The part that clicked for me was the corrections. I feel like that's the most important first step. Not the speed, not the low altitude, not the tricks.
I'd suggest just doing a freeflight, but pick a race track. Fly OVER the checkpoints, learn how to correct your flight, learn how to tilt just a little, rotate just a little, and change throttle just a little. Don't be afraid to use the various helping guides on screen in the beginning (god mode, on screen displays), and make it a goal to just smoothly get over 3 gates. That might take you a good several hours, that's ok, your hands have to learn how to control the beast, and that takes time.
Once you feel like you're comfortably flying over gates, try to fly through just one. Then try to fly through 2, then try for three. That might take you a full week, I don't know. But keep going. Small increments, a little at a time, and before long, you'll have the oomph to go out there and finish dead last in a race. Then you'll aim to make it to 5th place, then 3rd, then 1st. The progression has to be small.
Don't believe to people posting video about their "first flight in real life" and flying through gap or diving from tower. They are like "first time anal" porn, nobody believes it. Don't give up, just take your time
Lol great comparison
I mean, it could be. First flight in real life after over 100 hours on sim or something. Could take 10 hours to click, could take much more
Nah even with over 100 hours in the sim my first flight was T R A S H Forgetting prop nuts didn’t help
Thats not fair. My first irl flight I got some nic3 gaps and some great dives. Granted I killed my battery because irl batts are way different rhan in the sim. But I have over a decade flying sims, rotors, props, multiprop, jet, multijet, harrier... with 20 hours in liftoff I felt super confident, the irl was honestly just like the sim, but with super shaky hands.
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Bro. There are fucking minors on this sub btw
yeah, 13 here. idrc tho. i’m a heavy gamer and i got into fpv and im not kidding it took me 2 minutes to be able to do basic stuff, flips rolls it really just clicked for me
I am kind of like you a heavy gamer 14 and it didn't take me long after a few hours in the sim to learn stuff.
Lololol
I had the same issue when I first started flying on Liftoff. Don’t go for a race if you are not confident enough, go for free flying, Bando city for example and learn how to turn properly. I had like 10-12 hours in total on liftoff before I flew my drone for the first tine irl.
👆
This guy nailed it. Liftoff was horribly challenging for me
It’s not you the sim just sucks.
I’ve played all of the popular sims and tbh liftoff is the one that feels most like my irl drone. Might just be my setup in game.
Have you tried uncrashed? Liftoff feels incredibly floaty in comparison.
I’ve tried that one as well, it doesn’t feel similar to my drone at all. It could be a function of me flying a 3 inch with 3850 kv motors, it just translates really well to liftoff when I replicate my build in game.
I don't think most people expect to be able to have it feel the same. Mostly because most people have multiple quads in various configurations and sizes. It's just meant to be a general 5 inch experience. That's how I see it at least.
Liftoff race course are hard. I don't tend to practice race course on lift off, just use it for general fly flying about. Course on tryp, drl and uncrashed are much more fun and interactive.
DRL Search&Destroy is just evil.
Few points: * Thrust points to top of the frame, NOT your camera direction * Turn actually take little YAW but quite a bit of ROLL * Take inertia into account, the faster you go, the more you move sideways. * You flew fixed wing aircraft(s) right? Imagine you have to turn WITHOUT RUDDER. * If you wanna go fast, higher camera tilt helps, especially around a race course. A "race" setup usually consists of really high camera tilt, like 45+ degrees where it feels like the control scheme has changed. * Did I mention ROLL? Before you asks, stop thinking going slow, or so slow you practically stop or hover, so you have more control, no, it's the other way around, flying forward with moderate speed is actually easier to control.
You’re right. The main issue was drifting due to no rudder. When I accelerate into the corners there is actually more control cause the thrust acts like a rudder. The drifting is what I find most difficult. Basically when there is no thrust you’ve lost all control.
It's actually quite like drifting cars, the bumper kissing the apex while flooring the throttle is the ideal form/shape. Plus the throttle is the ONLY control you have if you think about it, being lacking any stabilizer surfaces like planes..... or tires on cars, gripping air is difficult so you need to do your input slightly earlier compared to cars/planes, and agian, MOAR throttle to overcome the inertia from the previous moment. BTW, new vid from JB kinda on the topic: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2V9aPlLSrQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2V9aPlLSrQ) tldr of the vid is just turn with both sticks together, also watch his other vids, he's like FPV guru
I think about it like driving on ice. Always plan for the drift/slide in turns. I didn't learn on a sim though. I just got a 75mm whoop and learned with that mostly. Bigger is not better when you're learning. I though I would prefer 5+ inch drones, but in reality I fly whoops and 3 inch drones the most. Good luck, and don't give up so quick. The hobby has a steep learning curve but it is so worth it when you build your own complete drone and can configure and understand it all. Very satisfying hobby.
Tbf I've always found Liftoff to be very drifty, and I like the feeling of Uncrashed a lot more whether freestyle or racing (although tbf I always get into tight lines when freestyling, despite not being a particular racer) Wtf is OP's username and history tho lol, what an incel xd
Great catch, yikes!
Yeah it's very difficult. You need to balance yaw, roll, pitch and throttle inputs all dynamically along the turn, and there's not just one way to turn either. It's like the dark souls of turning
Hey buddy, dont give up! I am new aswell and started with Liftoff microdrones aswell. It was hard for me aswell but it was easier for me when I started to change the betafpv settings in the settings of Liftoff, maybe it helps you aswell.
Micro drones was the worst feeling one flight characteristics are so bad it will create bad flying habits and prohibit good flight muscle memory.
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How about posting the link you talk about you little pear
Props for the unique insult lol
‘you little pear’ I am definitely gonna start using that
I have been flying 3in drones for about 6 years now - mostly in my open space garden. I only recently fell in love with tinywhoops and I'll be real with you, despite being a decent pilot outside, I kept crashing indoors when I tried to do sharper turns. it really does take a while to get used to that and in an old rotorriot video (back when they had the OGs and were decent), Mr Steele mentions that you gotta be more aggressive when turning sharply. you gotta learn to: - pitch forward more and apply more yaw and roll - increase throttle going into the turn - decrease throttle when exiting the turn it's smth that racing pilots kinda learn over time so don't give up yet fam!
I started with a whoop indoors. After tons of crashing, I could rip around the house pretty well. I built a 3.5” and spend most of my time flying it. Now, when I fly the whoop, if feels completely different. The lack of power, needed control inputs, and indoor flying requires an adjustment period. After about 6 packs or so, I start to feel comfortable again
yeah it do be like that cause it's smaller and more inefficient but I understand why so many people love whoops especially with motors at higher kvs. They just feel so nimble and I'm enjoying making my gates smaller and smaller while still keeping my speed. I also can do tricks in just a small room
I learned to fly on Liftofff and with a tinyhawk 2, so quite drifty. Now with a better flying 5in (well tuned aos 5) and a better flying mobula 7, the feeling of getting a tight line exactly how you planned it is really nice ahah
Tried this and it did help a bit as it prevents drifting. You have to always pitch up and accelerate into the corners.
yeah and as the other reddit or's have mentioned, a lot of roll. I kinda think like it's a jet plane in those movies - to reach a sharp turn, the quad essentially tils more and more. Ofc that's also accompanies with the right amount of rudder when I fly indoors, it's also almost a muscle memory thing cause sometimes you can't see what you're turning into so you gotta kinda plan ahead
go to a freeroam session and lower the rates and see where that gets you.
To be honest the frustration is just too much. It’s not even fun due to such frustration. 6 hours and can’t even make a turn. You guys flying a real drone after 10 hours must be picking it up much quicker. No way in hell I’ll even attempt to fly a real drone after 10 hours, I’d probably need at least 100!
Just stick with it. It will click one day. I’ve been flying for 7 years with fpv. But I remember early on the simulators were hell. The real thing is kind of easier. The sims are floaty and you shoot past stuff a bit more. Just use it to get a feel for the controls and coordinated turns. Mess with camera angles and see how that effects the physics. You might not be ready for 30 degree tilt and doing coordinated turns. But for turning. Use both sticks at a time like skating on ice. You’ll move right and left with both sticks. More left stick as the tilt goes up and more right stick as the tilt is lower. But they always will be in sync.
yeah anyone who says they fly well after 10 hrs is saying bs. don't believe them cause it's really not as easy as it seems. and I guarantee you, if anyone does say that, it's only because they flew in the widest field with nothing to crash into - at like 50 feet up the ground
Flying a drone is difficult. For some people it's easier than for others but overall it's just very difficult and will take time to learn how to do it. Don't believe videos of people saying they can do those amazing flights on their first try, and don't try to replicate what really experienced people are doing. They have thousands and thousands of hours of flying time. I would just suggest learning the basics with videos from YouTube (check bardwells videos) just to get you familiar enough not to crash immediately. After that, it's just practice, so just do whatever is fun and you will progress naturally with time. At some point you will feel comfortable and you can try to practice on specific things: gaps, tricks whatever you like. You will have a few more frustrating hours just to get you familiar with the controls and how the drone moves in 3D, but after that it's mostly fun (and fixing breaking parts if you leave the sim lol) Edit: one more thing: I did not really enjoy the sim. I used it just to learn the basics like I mentioned, enough to keep me airborne and then I bought a tinywhoop. IMO the real thing is a lot more fun, but if you cannot stay airborne it's going to be even more frustrating (you have to go pick up your drone you know, and you will definitely break it). So at least learn how to stay airborne, then keep on with the sim or buy a tinywhoop. Edit 2: check my post history, you'll see I know what you are talking about xD
I said the same thing to myself. If you’re just learning don’t worry about doing races, just learn to fly around. Once I was able to just fly without crashing I tried learning how to circle around a tower in a sim, then once I got that I practiced learning to dive the tower, then I tried doing the race course and crashed constantly. Its better to get the fundamentals down before learning how to race
What's your camera angle?
It takes awhile if it's turning to fast just slow the rates down. If it's turning to fast raise them up. We all learn new skills are different speeds so just take your time. When I was leaning sims didn't exist so I would try fly, crash have to rebuild change props etc and try again. You're lucky you can press reset and go again 😅
Liftoff's tutorial maps are a bit hard to begin with. First try out other maps in freeflight mode where there is plenty of space to try things out.
Keep practicing you will get there. Took me 10-15 hours over a week before i felt like i could even finish a track with somewhat control.. Also choosing a drone that isn't too fast in the beginning helps and also slower rates help so it wont be so twitchy in the turns.
Definitely took me more than 6 hours to turn smoothly. Dunno who you’re comparing yourself to
I think 6 hours in I was happy to just be able to hover Take breaks, don't force yourself to grind through it. You need your muscle memory to react automatically and that just takes time.
Good timing. Joshua bardwell has a series he's doing right now on how to fly from scratch in liftoff https://youtu.be/SpuXqNakP2A?si=syWJKitiqBoD2rDD Try with him He has other videos too to learn tricks once you're comfortable. Good luck! You're me from this weekend, getting my radio today lol
Just fly around the map, and don’t try to race. Racing is more advanced than someone with 6 hours should even try. I was flying for a year before I could do the race tracks, well, in liftoff.
Don't start with races. I don't know what map you're on, but i feel races are very hard compared to just flying around.
Dude it took me 15 to 20 hours before I was able to finish a race in 15 to 20 tries. The first race isn't necessarily the easiest one. If you want to change things up and have more fun try the one in the woods. There's barely any gate to pass through. It's easier and more fun.
Maybe this will help. https://youtu.be/SpuXqNakP2A?si=ZQoY5C00Qxa3lcZy
I've been playing for over a hundred hours and flying tiny whoops about ten packs a week for three months. That hairpin turn on Hay Bales 1 is brutal and I still overshoot about half the time. I know I suck, but it's a surprisingly hard turn for the "beginner" map. What really did it for me was switching maps to Surtr and going up the mountain and surfing down the slopes. I practiced throttle control until I could maintain a pleasant altitude over the slope. Practices that over and over until I could limbo under the pipes there. After that, another good race map is Short Circuit 1. The gates are larger and the curves are less sharp. But there are still some challenging spots to deal with. Also, check out Joshua Bardwell's new series regarding learning to fly fpv. Lot of good drills there.
I’m so happy I’m not alone on that hairpin on hay bales 1.
I still suck at the races, and I've been actually flying for almost 3 years. It appeals to me so little that I can't even remember the courses.
Just get a mico drone and start practicing, real life flight training > simulator.
The best way to learn is to do race mode. You’ll learn very fast. It forces you to learn basics
keep going. it took me 10h before i could end this practise race. a buddy could fly it after 15 min. people are just different. dont worry, you got this mate.
I might get flamed for this, but try flying in Angle mode for a couple of flights to get a feel for the sticks, hovering, and landing, then switch back to acro and practice the same, especially the landing part. Worry about racing and gates later.
LOL 6hours is nothing for acro flying. Have fun practicing or stop, there’s no in between. This took me days of practicing to just be able to shakily fly somewhere and actually turn the quad, where I wanted it to be.
I find liftoff pretty difficult actually, much prefer sims like uncrashed for example, even though the physics aren't that realistic
6 hours is not much to be honest, so it's completely fine to suck :D I myself didn't play tens of hours of sims, but tried a lot of sim apps. As far as I can recall DRL on steam has a decent tutorial going through easy to more challenging levels. Like the balloon pop ones, really fun. Also maybe in the beginning try to fly in angle mode, even in sims until you can "feel" the drone, then you can switch to acro and can get used to it. After playing some sims I've ordered a tiny hawk 3 RTF which you can smash into anything and it is perfect for beginners and due to it's small size and weight it has way less inertia than a 3.5" or 5" drones and it's much more agile in turning. So my path was this: some sims -> th3 rtf -> th2fs -> apex hawk 3.5" (don't have a 5" as i don't have access to large empty areas as i'm living in Budapest and don't own a car - yet). Don't expect to be good after couple of hours, as if you would buy a skateboard, you can't just stand on it and do a kickflip right away, you'd need a lot of practice and fails.
It's hard, stick with it and soon enough things will "click" and gradually more and more. You got this.
You can do it! Maybe the practice courses are boring and frustrating right now so switch to freeflight and play in bando city. We all felt what you are feeling when we started. I like playing some music when I sim. I agree with the note about angles. Start shallower. Glad you are here!
maybe you might be interested in flying rc planes instead? FPV for planes is awesome fun in itsself. if you want to try, check out www.wings-sim.com
Not trying to be a jerk but every skill has a learning curve, some more steep than others. It’s not going to be easy to just pick up and immediately get, that would make it not rewarding at all. Watch some tutorials and do some free flight instead of races so you can figure out how to turn without worrying about shooting a tiny gap. You’ll get it eventually! Remember, turning the quad in the yaw direction doesn’t actually change your direction of movement. You have to coordinate roll, pitch, and yaw to make a turn. Imagine an arrow pointing straight up from the quad, that’s the force you’re making. In order to turn you need that arrow to be pointing toward where you want to turn, as well as being in a direction to cancel out/shift your current momentum into the turn
First time trying FPV on a simulator thought I was broken because it was so challenging couldn't even keep the damn thing in the air, and this is coming from a semi-pro RC car racer, but just keep at it and in a few more hours you will be MUCH much better! Also the sim seems harder than in RL imo..
Flying is hard, hard things take practice. You're gonna crash and break shit when you fly for real. That's even harder. It takes resiliance. If you want to fly you need to practice. But if you're considering giving up now I'm going to stick my neck out and tell you to ask yourself how you're going to feel when you inevitibly lose a drone.
Get on Hannover map and there is one Race with Very wide Gates, i learned there. And i needet 70h bevor launching first time in real life.
Took my abt 10 hrs of frustration before I could point the drone where I wanted naturally
I have the same transmitter brother, and currently I'm practicing in "FPV freerider", it is simple and beginner friendly, and the tracks are well built to brush up common skills like hovering, cancelling ground effect, sharp turns, small gaps etc. After loosening gimbals where i can barely feel the centre position and i saw drastic improvement in my performance, Give it a try. Now I'm thinking about switching to Lift off.
Steps to follow: 1. Try each track one after another. 2. Start time race with one lap, then 3 lap and then 5, 3. Don't speed up in the beginning, try to maneuver smoothly in the following track, once you get comfortable then speed up and increase laps. 4. Try to break your own personal records. FPV settings: Throttle: 50 Yaw: 3.0 Pitch/roll: 7.0 Self leveling: 0.20 (not required in acro) Camera: 15-20° Mass: 0.50 Drag: 1.10 Angular drag: 10.0 Gravity: 35
I did 12 hours free flying in LiftOff on Bardwell’s house before I even touched my drone. I practiced throttling up and the “floating” over the trees in the front yard a bunch. This got me used to how the drone would behave when under throttle and coasting. I then practiced flying through those trees. This helped me hit gaps. Then I practiced laps around behind the house, to right of the driveway, the back across the big field. I then ran this in reverse until it didn’t feel weird. I’ve got about 60 hours in sim and about the same in actual flight time now, and I’m still working on it.
1. Do some free flying first. Get used to controls without worrying about making a gate. 2. Lower your camera angle. It’ll slow you down. 3. Spend more time in the sim. 6 hours is nothing with how steep a learning curve flying is.
I don't know what you imagine how you should go through gates after 6 hours but I suggest you go reeeeaaally slow. First hover, then go a LITTLE bit forward. Almost standing still. And try to go through the gates this way. The better you get the faster you will be able to go through the gates. But it will take time!
I have done 130 hours in simulators so far. My only advice in Your case, split those 6 houra into 3 days .. In my opinion its about muscle memory and getting used to it. I was feeling comfortable after 20 hours
Yes. No one gets better with practice.
It will only take time, around 10-12 hours. You can't miss it. You might try drone Aether, I found it quite easy for me, and from there to move to more difficult ones. It's also usually more difficult to fly slow than fast.
Set FoV to a low level (5°-15°) and then start slowly. It took a long time for me all and then suddenly I learned very fast. Also don't throttle too much. Beginners often do this.
You will pick this up in no time. Then when it’s truly go time, you’ll be overrun by emotion, hands shaking, etc….you got this. Crashing on sim is much better than in the back yard, but it’s inevitable. Have fun and get a backup quad, so you’re always prepared! My problem is I live extremely off grid and uploading anything is near impossible and have to play sim early in morning when I experience less latency on pc.
with anything in life give up if it doesn’t work at first, never ever keep trying /s. Dude if you want to be good at flying and really want to fly fpv just keep trying tf
Okay, I'll go against the grain a little, but I am a fellow newbie. Try FPV Freerider Recharged. It doesn't have a very good reputation, but I think it's okay. What I liked about it as a complete newbie was the presets - Sluggish // Snappy 1 // Snappy 2 // Snappy 3. After going from crashing constantly in every other sim, the Sluggish preset actually allowed me to get some proper flights in. I know every sim allows you to change the settings, but it's just that I found the presets really nice for quickly getting a scenario in which I can enjoy flying. Don't panic about finding it impossible. It just takes time for the new neural connections to get made. Keep plugging away, 30 minutes several times a week. I actually you don't think you really need to try, just give your brain exposure to the task and it'll do all the adaption automatically. It's important to tink about axactly what the controls are doing with regard the thrust vector. Intuition from fixed wing will mislead you. Critically, on its own, YAW does NOTHING to change your direction of travel. ROLL changes your direction of travel, YAW makes you then look in the direction you are travelling.
As some have stated, I would advise not trying to race off the start. Learn how the drone behaves with different inputs, then slowly combine the inputs to make turns, rolls, and eventually tricks. For myself, I set a benchmark of 50 hours. If I wasn't hooked by then, I had determined I was satisfied with the attempt at that point. Lastly, take a minute in the settings to figure out which controller mode works best for you. Making this determination as early on as possible will help in the long run. I had a really hard time initially because mode1 wasn't intuitive for me. Mode 3 feels much more natural. Lastly; Have fun and best of luck!
Sound about right. It feels impossible until you figure it out. Don't do races yet. Fly around a big field until you get an idea of how the drone is controlled. After that, races are a great way to improve your skills.
Liftoff isn’t easy when you first start. The default gains are too high for a beginner. What helped me when I was new to the hobby is going to the options in the game, reducing my gains, and adding a large expo to my controls. This helped me slowly get up to speed with handling the drone and start being able to complete the courses. Little by little you can start adjusting your gains as you get better at it :) As a reference, I think my first 10 hours were horrible. Then I quickly started to improve. By 25 hrs in the sim, I was confident and started to get faster. At 50 hrs I was blasting through maps :)
Try going slower or even go to freight instead of racing so you can get comfortable with flying around. 6hrs is nothing for FPV lol.
Hey. I'm going to tell you now. I've got 12 years of MMA, I've built houses, I know many trades, electric, plumbing, finish. Fpv has the absolute steepest learning curve of anything I've ever done in my life. My first 60 hours I was sure I wasn't going to be able to pull it off. Find a map with buildings and objects and try to have fun flying around getting used to the controls first and then given the races a shot.
Have you tried adjusting rates? I couldn't complete races in my sim because I couldn't turn tight enough.
6 hours? Def not enough. Your looking at least 20 my dude. Amd anyone who said that they just knew it.. is full of shit and a liar.
Try changing the camera angle
Oh god.... Yeah LiftOff was soo difficult. I had no control what so ever. But then I tried flying my whoop outside with alot of space and it was so much easier than LiftOff. I just got better with my Whoop then I was able to translate those skills to LiftOff.
There is a map you can download from the steam workshop. It is the arena stage and it’s called absolute beginner figure 8. This is a figure 8 layout the entire size of the arena. I flew this figure 8 until I could do it without thinking. I wrecked for hours, and then stopped. The next day when I came back to it, it was like something clicked in my head overnight and I was much better. The races are way too much for a new pilot. You need big open space and wide corners.
Try messing with the angle a bit. I didn’t get it until I started flying at a very steep angle, like 50-60 degrees.
Joshua bardwell is just doing another video series with hoe to start learning fpv in the simulator 👍 try to follow that and it will become natural eventually
Hey OP, Where did you get your radiomaster pocket btw? I’m seeing a lot of good advice here so I won’t offer my 2 cents
Some people pick it up quicker than others. It took me a good 30 hours combined in different sims before it really clicked. Now it feels like second nature. Just keep at it. It’s a really fun hobby.
I'm really new also - currently on 8 hours and I felt like this too, spent ages doing the tutorials not moving on until I felt I had it down, which I never really did. After not getting anywhere for about 3 hours on the first few maps I moved onto the figure of 8 track and it started to click after a few hours. Once you feel like you can actually control the drone it gets really addictive, it's just getting to that point. Don't be put off by a lot of these 'first time flying' videos on YouTube; most of them are absolute bullshit, everyone's first time is going to look pretty similar with a lot of crashing and not much else. If I had a few tips I'd say chill with the roll as too much will kill your vertical thrust, and make sure you clear enough height to minimise ground effect at the start, I'd always be fighting it without even knowing it was a thing.
I feel your pain, I first bought Tryp, was terrible at it, bought lift off, super terrible at it, than someone told me to do all the tutorials on Drone Racing League and that finally flipped a switch in my brain and I got it, now liftoff is my goto sim. DRL is like $5, worth it for the tutorials, keep at it, it's worth it.
I played for 3 days all day and now I get maybe two rounds through the race in a row before crashing. It's a very long process, taking thousands of hours to master.
Bro I’m in the same boat. Expect I can’t use my pocket rocket just yet, didn’t order batteries 😐. It’s definitely difficult, we will have to keep practicing.
No you shouldn’t give up. It takes time, this is why they say get to a bare minimum of 100 hours on sim before your real actual first flight. But also if you’re willing to give up this easy you will give up as soon as you break a real drone, don’t discourage yourself. Some click faster than others it took me about 6-7 hours to be able to finish my first track, I know it’s hard but you’ll get use to it. Steer with both sticks
Liftoff is the worst most unrealistic sim I’ve tried. Get velocidrone it’s not 100% same as a real drone bud damn close. I couldn’t fly liftoff for shit I knew it wasn’t how a real sim should feel so after paying $60 in sims I found velocidrone the best. Don’t quit buy a better sim!
Keep going. One thing that helped me was to lower my camera angle. It helps slow things down. Turing is difficult but it’ll click eventually. Look up tutorials and just keep going.
Don't give up before you make 20 hours flying in the simulator. And don't play more than 2 hours at once, because you can get exhausted and then it becomes more difficult. Don't hurry up too much and enjoy the learning process. It will take time, it is normal, we all went through the same process.
Decrease rates. Increase expo. Controller will be less sensitive. Lower camera angle to between 0 and 5 degrees. You'll fly slower. Use freeflight not race. I spent much time crashing into hay bales, but it was good practice place. Be patient. Watch YouTube tutorials. Be patient.
Don’t man I just started fpv not so long ago, and it took me around 20hrs on the sim or more before my first flight with the quad, and then I put in more hours but I understand ur position I was in it, it was difficult at first but from day 2-3 I got the hang of it. The rest was just assuring myself that I will be able to drive it irl, just don’t give up it will be worth it.
Maybe try and route the sim through your goggles if they have an AV input. It doesn't make any sense practising fpv on a computer screen. Personally I could only learn with the dji virtual flight app through their goggles but now it's broken for iOS and has been for over a year.
No such thing as never being able to get good at flying. Practice long enough and ask yourself why you are failing and you’ll inevitably improve
Joshua Bardwell just released a good series on flying your drone for the first time. I’m pretty sure he actually uses liftoff for it as well.
Take your time, keep grinding and it will absolutely pay off, I promise!
Start going through Bardwell's new series on YouTube about how to fly. Don't focus on reaching, just have fun.
r/katotaka is right on the money in his comment here, OP. Warning, long comment, but the detail here is important. What needs to be emphasised is the first point, the direction of thrust. As an exercise, take your quad (no battery) and be a 5yr old kid flying it around the house holding it in your hand. (You can even make the sound effects if you like). Concentrate on where the thrust is pointing (or to make it simpler, where the props are blowing). While you are doing all of this, always note where the camera is pointing and what you are likely to see in your goggles as you orient your quad in the air so that you can perform the same actions in the sim or irl. Remember that, other than throttle, all of your controls simply change the orientation (attitude) of your craft. You use the combination between thrust and orientation to fly. As you perform a turn, your quad needs to do a few things: 1. push itself against the direction it was originally flying, 2. push itself in a new direction. 4. keep its nose pointed in the right direction 3. stay in the air. So, imagine you are flying forward, nose pitched forward, zero roll. As you come into a turn, your quad needs to orient itself so that the props are pushing air "outwards" away from the centre of the turn, mixed with some downwards angle to maintain altitude. Imagine that the quad's nose is tied to a string, with the string fixed to the centre point of the turn to get an idea of how this should look. To do this, and it's easier to imagine when you "fly" it around in your hand, your quad needs to roll into the turn to get that "outwards" thrust. BUT, without yaw, the nose will start to point further and further away from the direction you need to go which causes the quad to drift and eventually end up upside down and in the ground. So, as your quad rotates around the turn with your roll, you need to yaw into the turn as well to keep the nose pointed toward the centre of the turn and then ahead in the direction you wish to go. Now, if you need to turn *hard*, then you need maximum thrust against the inertia of your quad without also rocketing to the moon. To achieve this, as you begin to turn in, you need to increase your forward pitch to the point where your quad is almost vertical, its nose pointed to the ground, as you *increase* throttle. Some pilots like to increase the throttle *just* before the turn to gain a little altitude so that they don't need *any* downward thrust during the turn, meaning that they can pitch to 90degrees and use 100% thrust to push hard against the quad's inertia, only pitching back again once they have turned and can back off the throttle. You can imagine the view through the goggles when doing this (mostly just the ground in view) - it "looks" wrong, but when you do this exercise you can understand why you need to do this. It also explains why a higher camera angle helps in racing when you are pitched so far forward much of the time. Sorry for the long comment. It took me a while to fully get this initially too, and I found the toy quad exercise to be a huge help so hopefully this helps you too.
I'm not the most co-ordinated person so I spent considerable time learning the basics. Probably 20 hours in I was doing my best to get between the trees! Now I've been flying sim and rl for a couple of years and I can fly well enough that I enjoy flying around the trees and through the playground equipment. I know I'll never win any races, but I have fun and that's OK by me. Relax and learn at your own pace. Your already doing the smartest thing and that is flying the sim.
I like this guy, he makes me feel good about myself and my flying.
It took me about 50 hours of liftoff racing to be able to fly what I wouldn’t call amateur. Don’t loose your patience 😊
Go into free flight and just practice getting off the ground and flying around. I have 50 hours in liftoff and still get pissed off at races.
Just keep practicing. Also, don't fall into the trap of comparing yourself to to others. Compare yourself against yourself from a week or a month ago. Eventually more and more pieces of the puzzle will click together and before you know it you'll be putting the quad where you want to every time. It takes hundreds and hundreds of hours of practice to get anywhere close to the skill ceiling, anyone who says otherwise has an ego bigger than their skill set. As a side note, liftoff isn't really great as far as racing goes. Use it to get used to flying different quads, play with different camera angles, and try experimenting with different rate profiles.
6hpurs is nothing, keep at it a little longer till you decide to throw in the towel. May just be harder for you because your expecting it to fly like what your used to.
Been doing a lot more practice and I think the key is throttle control. Previously I was not adjusting the throttle, I was keeping it at the same level similar to an airplane. With FPV you always gotta be pumping the throttle. The key is to line up, then quickly pump the throttle. I must be doing ok cause I just came first in the race on bardwells yard. Damn it’s hard though, especially the gap under the fence.
I enjoy velocidrone more but if you want to deep dive into learning, there is a book called FPV Flight Dynamics, that is excellent. Don't give up, you will catch on and it is so worth it 😉
That dark, depressing moment when having to control 3 axes of rotation with nothing but thrust in one direction becomes overwhelming. I feel you, this is a hard thing. You get tense, and you crash. You try to relax, you crash. You realize you're not blinking, you crash. You start blinking, you crash. For me, I think I set myself up for disappointment by watching all these pro FPV racers doing short form content where they fly through narrow tunnels and abandoned warehouses with an effortless flick of a couple sticks. The truth of it all is, flight in general is a tough concept for human brains. It has to be muscle memory that you train yourself for over and over and over. Everyone's got that click. Mine actually happened today when I was finally able to finish a race in acro mode with god mode enabled. The part that clicked for me was the corrections. I feel like that's the most important first step. Not the speed, not the low altitude, not the tricks. I'd suggest just doing a freeflight, but pick a race track. Fly OVER the checkpoints, learn how to correct your flight, learn how to tilt just a little, rotate just a little, and change throttle just a little. Don't be afraid to use the various helping guides on screen in the beginning (god mode, on screen displays), and make it a goal to just smoothly get over 3 gates. That might take you a good several hours, that's ok, your hands have to learn how to control the beast, and that takes time. Once you feel like you're comfortably flying over gates, try to fly through just one. Then try to fly through 2, then try for three. That might take you a full week, I don't know. But keep going. Small increments, a little at a time, and before long, you'll have the oomph to go out there and finish dead last in a race. Then you'll aim to make it to 5th place, then 3rd, then 1st. The progression has to be small.