“Video games help a lot,” Fano said with a laugh. “If you’re a gamer, adapting to the controller isn’t that much harder. But it still takes a lot of effort and practice.”
The two used commercially available simulators such as Liftoff FPV, Uncrashed and FPV Kamikaze to build muscle memory. The simulations replicate what drone pilots see through their goggles: a first-person view that rolls and rotates with the aircraft, complete with signal strength indicators and crosshairs.
Liftoff is incredibly helpful for learning but heads up to anyone thinking about picking it up: your game controller will be a hindrance to your progress sooner than later.
The right stick on a radio tx defaults to vertically and horizontally centered like a game controller…the left stick only centers horizontally. That same stick, when pushed left and right, controls the yaw.
So you’ll be practicing precise finger movements while the controller fights to be centered.
Source: flew for years, sold my transmitter, decided to fly again and played a lot of Liftoff while waiting for a new one
Every time I try to get too into flying in Liftoff I find it fun for awhile but it feels fiddly compared to jumping in something like Operation Harsh Doorstop and flying helis. Idk, it is definitely a blast but it feels like halfway between Quake and flying a Helicopter lol.
I fly in Liftoff just using the onboard steam deck controls with some fiddling, I am not sure I know exactly what you are saying can you be more precise or show a picture?
Actually here’s maybe an even simpler way to explain it:
You have complete control of thrust with a proper transmitter. There’s no movement unless you tell it to move.
You’re sharing that control with a game controller. And the controller perpetually has its foot on the gas
So here’s a normal transmitter
See how the right stick is dead center and the left is only centered horizontally? There is no spring/magnet pushing it back to center. It’s held in place by friction alone.
When that stick is all the way down, the blades aren’t spinning (well…they are a little. Not enough for lift).
Having that stick centered vertical will make it go pretty fast. You’re gonna spend most of your flight time with it BELOW center, usually only going faster to gain speed.
Part of flying is also “floating” where you pull back the throttle until you need it. You’re gonna burn through the battery really fast if you stay at high throttle
So that means when you’re not punching it, you have to push the stick down to keep it at a manageable speed.
It’s not a ton of force to overcome but since you are constantly doing micro adjustments to both sticks, it’s quite a noticeable difference