As I recently got back into FPV flying, I found my skills were a bit stale. To get a better feel for the sticks I have been practicing LOS flying which is actually great fun. To get started, each session I have been flying a few packs in HOR mode, doing flips, loops rolls etc. HOR made it quite easy because whenever unsure, I could just release the sticks and increase throttle to punch the drone up then bring it back.

There was a negative effect however, which was when I would switch to FPV flying in ACRO mode, my prior session in HOR would cause me to push the sticks too hard. This affected rolls the most. 

So yesterday, I decided to try LOS flying in ACRO mode for the first time. It was really hard but actually much more fun. Yes I crashed and even broke an arm on my 5-inch (replacement is on the way). 

I just want to say that I highly recommend trying this if you have enough space for it and you aren't too afraid of crashing. It's best to keep the switch to HOR or ANGLE mode in easy reach in case you want to be able to quickly straighten the drone out to prevent a crash. 

I found that in that single session, I gained a much better feel for the sticks and the rates than before. The first loop was a bit scary but after 2-3 packs I was confidently throwing the quad around with a reasonably good feel for its orientation at any given time. I plan to experiment with different color props for the front and back and perhaps some LEDs. The last bit of LOS I did with my Chimera 7 which has an LED under its nose, and I found this helped my visual perception of the quad's orientation. 

That's it for now, if anyone has some insight into getting started and growing skills in LOS please share!

It does seem useful, especially if your video connection drops. Something that I would like to practice, but is VERY hard at first, tough to motivate myself to try more. I was using a tinywhoop in the house, so crashing wasn't a problem. Maybe I'll give it another whirl.

FPV and LOS are two completely different disciplines which aren't transferrable. While it's impressive to see someone like quadmovr or TheRCAddict on YouTUbe flying LOS skilfully, I personally don't find actually doing it myself much fun. I'm also no good at LOS and thus have no desire to try and do it well. Also, 9 times out of 10 if you lose your video feed your quad is going to be far enough away that it will just be a tiny speck in the sky which you won't be able to see or locate, let alone see what orientation it is in so you can take over and try to fly it back by LOS, so I think there is probably little value in the probability of being able to do that.

There is nothing wrong with leaning to fly LOS, and it's a great skill to have, but I don't see that it's really needed for FPV equipped quads and it also means you need to invest stick time flying LOS as well as flying FPV to prevent your skills in either discipline going stale.

I started well before fpv existed in the late 80’s. So piloting cars, planes, helis, and quads LOS was something I came in to fpv with. So I have learned to enjoy the pleasures of both disciplines; they both have moments that get my adrenaline flowing equally hard. I agree with what Snowleopard mentioned. The disciplines are pretty much not relatable, at least beyond generally knowing how an aircraft behaves, which of course is required for both skill sets. Reverse orientation and sharp eyes are key with Los… not getting sick and staying situationally aware are key items for fpv. Awareness comes easy with los, and orientation doesn’t really apply to fpv. Most would never get sick flying Los, and eyesight is also sorta irrelevant with goggles and diopters. But idk in the end everyone’s brain works so differently I can imagine others feeling different about this.

(23-Aug-2023, 09:36 PM)truglodite Wrote: I started well before fpv existed in the late 80’s. So piloting cars, planes, helis, and quads LOS was something I came in to fpv with. So I have learned to enjoy the pleasures of both disciplines; they both have moments that get my adrenaline flowing equally hard. I agree with what Snowleopard mentioned. The disciplines are pretty much not relatable, at least beyond generally knowing how an aircraft behaves, which of course is required for both skill sets. Reverse orientation and sharp eyes are key with Los… not getting sick and staying situationally aware are key items for fpv. Awareness comes easy with los, and orientation doesn’t really apply to fpv. Most would never get sick flying Los, and eyesight is also sorta irrelevant with goggles and diopters. But idk in the end everyone’s brain works so differently I can imagine others feeling different about this.

I agree that it's different but I disagree that there is little or no relation. By flying LOS I finally learned how to do certain maneuvers such as proper power loops. I wasn't able to figure out how to do that using FPV alone. 

As for the enjoyment, LOS lets me watch the quad as it flies, something I missed in FPV.

I use sims to practice those moves. That seems to translate pretty seamlessly.

I've tried doing stuff LOS, but no way did it translate to the same thing. What I learned in LOS and tried doing FPV was not the same thing, and seemed foreign. To me.

I still try LOS outside when I'm testing a new build, but if I get more that 20 feet away I start getting anxious that I'll fly away.