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How to Drone

Input Interface

You will need:

Then you can pair the controller with a computer via USB (TX16S/Orqa) or Bluetooth (Nomad) so you can practice in a simulator environment using a real-world controller.

Drone simulators

  • FPV.SkyDive: basic flying tutorials + introduction to controlling a drone.
  • VelociDrone is geared towards realistic physics with the goal of letting drone racers get as close as possible to the same experience but in a virtual environment. This means you can configure a drone to be very similar to your own and practice things repeatedly.
  • Zephyr -- lets you practice real-world scenarios like tower and bridge inspection with the Orqa controller.
  • Wings -- This lets you practice flying planes with an OSD overlay.

Simulators aren't 1:1 with how drones actually fly and so it is important to also fly an actual drone at some point in your learning process to understand the difference. However, when you crash in a simulator you can restart the program, which is significantly cheaper and easier than the same thing in the real world and so it is a valuable practice tool.

First Person View

Getting video from the drone to the viewer is an open problem depending on what your needs are. OSD (On screen display) overlays superimpose flight information (altitude, heading, battery info) from the flight controller (VTX output) over the video feed in order to make it easier to understand the drone's state. Most systems transmit data locally over the 5.8Gz spectrum via analog (NTSC) or digital (HD) encoding. Analog is lossy, but since the circuits required for analog transmission are simple it can have very good latency and performance with inexpensive hardware. Using modern HD equipment can increase the tick/framerate to 120 Hz for improved performance and latency, but this means the video/receiver combination ends up being a custom/proprietary solution (eg you can't mix and match headsets and video cameras). You can get a cheap NTSC FPV camera, point it at your computer screen, then send the signal to a EV800D NTSC headset while running the above simulators to practice basic flight patterns. Most NTSC camera setups will pair with this headset. Mapping doesn't need FPV per se, but being able to manipulate the controls is a valuable skill if you ever need to take over in an emergency.

IRL

PNP/BNF drones are a good way to get something working before trying to build a drone. You will need to set up a receiver (eg ELRS) for your drone.

Quad: A pre-built FPS quad with an analog vtx controller is the best place to start. DarwinFPV with an analog VTX system + ELRS will give you a bunch of basic functionality out of the box with a non-Ardupilot controller.

Winged: Landing a winged drone involves flying a pattern similar to manned planes and is harder than landing a VTOL craft. The best place to start is to buy a trainer RC plane, which are cheap, fly at slower speeds, and can handle unplanned landing events. Once you have basic flight patterns figured out you can start to think about more advanced flight controllers. A H-King Bixler pusher-prop glider is a safe bet.

Mapping: DJI has issues (Q4 2025) for use in the United States, but if this isn't a dealbreaker then there exists an ecosystem of tools you can use to build your own maps using this platform.

rPIC

Some people who have good info on drones, tools and techniques: