Learning to fly FPV drones with AI flight coach
Divyendu’s Notes
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Learning to fly FPV drones with AI flight coach
Divyendu Singh<br>Aug 03, 2026
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I recently got into flying FPV drones and wanted to share my learning experience. Learning anything is understanding terminology, repetition and loads of practice. I aim currently at a place where I can be air borne for 30 seconds to 1 minute or so on a real tiny whoop drone. That means I am at the beginning of my learning journey and have used the word “learning” very generously.<br>This post is also not a 101 to get into flying FPV drone, however, I have linked enough posts for you to get going, if you read this post and all the linked links.<br>Divyendu’s Notes is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
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The beginning: simulators
I actually don’t remember how I got into it but about a year or so ago I purchased a RadioMaster Pocket radio / controller and started flying a bit in Liftoff simulator. I was following the famous playlist from Joshua Bardwell. I highly recommend that as a starting point.<br>I think my source was running into the Flow State documentary on YouTube but I am not sure.<br>Anyways, after about 10 hours practice in Liftoff this hobby died for the moment and I wouldn’t get to it until a year or so later.<br>I got back to the Liftoff simulator (early July 2026) and after another 10 hours of flying (20 simulator hours total), I felt I was no longer useless in the simulator i.e. I could recover from going out of bounds which was very hard before and crash less when trying things, kinda maintain my altitude and overall started enjoying it as a game.<br>Liftoff has a mode called “slipstreams” in which you can chase a car with drone thereby simulating making a cinematic car chase video. I started playing it like a game and really enjoyed it (albeit it was and still is pretty hard).<br>Here is a video of me in simulator after 20-30 hours of flying practice (maybe less?)
Let’s try it for real
At this point, I thought I was ready to try some real life drone flying and for that I explored the excellent OscarLiang blog<br>https://oscarliang.com/fpv-drone-guide/
Based on this guide, I knew that I have to start with a tiny whoop (They can take a lot of beating / crashes and therefore are perfect for newbies like me.
They are small and have less licensing / formal requirements. TL;DR they are just safer.
FPV done flying seems like a pretty expensive hobby and they are relatively cheap to get into the hobby
The minimum set of gear you need to be air borne is (and listing what I got and why)<br>Drone - I got an BetaFPV Air65, it is a very tiny 17g drone that can take a lot of beating and highly recommended for beginners.
FPV Goggles - I got Fat Shark Echo. They are not the cheapest available goggles but if I keep into this hobby and want to fly outdoors, I can keep using them. It also has a recording feature.
LiPo Battery Charger - I got a ViFly Whopstor 3. It can charge the batteries safely and also has a storage feature. LiPo batteries when not to be used must be at middle point of their voltage for longevity.
LiPo batteries - I got Betafpv lava 320mAh. They were recommended for my requirements by both OscarLiang blog and AI agent.
New toys - Air 65, Fat Shark Echo<br>Purchasing the gear was the first instance where I used AI seriously. While I had a good idea of roughly what I wanted from reading the OscarLiang blog. I made AI agent agy (Google antigravity) look up available gear, compare prices in local shops across EU and actually override some decisions like getting a Fat Shark Echo vs a totally entry level FPV goggles.<br>Reality is unforgiving
Simulator was easy. As far as I remember, the day RadioMaster pocket arrived, I didn’t have to do anything really except calibration in Liftoff to be air borne in a simulator. But getting the real gear to talk to each other requires work and understanding a lot of terminology. The FPV world is vast and has many jargon terms (most annoying part of learning anything new for me). OscarLiang has a nice glossary blog page, which got me going.<br>But very roughly here is what you need at the very least to get going<br>Bind your drone to the radio master pocket radio. This is what I followed:<br>plug replug the battery from drone 3 times
in RadioMaster pocket, press sys, scroll to bind, click bind
if bound, pressing the arm button (LB in PlayStation speak) should Arm the drone i.e. the propellors start moving
Tune Fat Shark Echo to the broadcast frequency. The FPV video goggles don’t “bind” to get the video feed. The drone broadcasts the video feed at 5.8 GHz and the Fat Shark Echo receives the feed. You need to tune the channel and luckily it has a button on top that auto scans for the channel. When in sync, your goggles should show something like this
Charge the batteries, in my case to 4.85V for flying and 3.85 for storage. Do...