There are loads of toy beginner drones on Amazon but many of them include stable hover mode and headless mode for kids. Can anyone recommend a true non GPS drone and controller for under £100 to learn ATTI flying? Not looking forDJI quality or racing speeds. Just something to practice on that doesn’t break down as soon as the props are started.
And no I don’t want to use a simulator before someone suggests it
What drone have you already got?
Does the Ryle Tello have gps?
A good old (cheap, now, if you can find one) Phantom 2 can do full on ATTI.
It’s the only way I’ve flown mine since I got the MP.
No but it has vertical position hold.
The Eachine E35 might be suitable, about the same size and form factor of a DJI Mini, has geared motors, and around the £30 mark. It also goes by about a thousand other names.
Back in the day, or rather around 2011 or so, the Hubsan X4 was the trainer of choice.
Good call, though I think the Phantom 1 might be an even better choice as it uses the ubiquitous 3s 2200mAh battery available everywhere. Reliable P2 batteries are very thin on the ground these days.
Or a cheaper option if you already have s DJI drone is to enable ATTI mode
Other than the Phantoms in ATTI, I’ve never heard of more recent ones actually doing genuine full manual.
I mean - can you do full flips with them? Have with my P2.
Thanks guys for yr inputs. I have a mini 2 which can be fooled intoATTI by putting metallic tape underneath over the bottom sensor but I don’t want to keep sticking and unsticking tape. The reason I’m asking is because Matt Williams in his last Drone Mentor podcast was talking about FPV and suggested you could get a toy drone from Amazon for like under £100 to help train yourself in ATTI but whenI went on the Amazon site I couldn’t find anything in that bracket that was true ATTI.
I think the answer is to try and pick up a Phantom 1 as someone suggested. No one wants to spend too much on an ATTI trainer when the chances of driving into the ground are pretty high. Im seriously wondering whether the market providers are missing out on a market opportunity if M Williams is correct in his assertion that ATTI FPV is a a growing niche market.
If anybody finds a cheap a Chinese toy drone that can do ATTI please shout out.
@canipus can I ask why you want an ATTI drone?
Personally, I’d wrap my trusty Mavic Pro in Tesco’s finest tinfoil. It’s a zero cost option.
No you can change the parameters so cine mode becomes ATTI mode
I rather not use £500 worth of hardware to practice ATTI.
@PingSpike Because it’s a useful skill to learn if and when the GPS signal goes awol.
Driving into the ground in ATTI would require one to deliberately drive into the ground.
Dji ATTI is fully gyro stabilised coupled with barometric altitude positioning, the drone will only drift with the wind when hands off.
Unlike full ACRO capable drones which as you know requires the pilot to be in full command of all functions.
ATTI is nothing to be afraid of, just requires a thought out approach if VLOS with specific goals in mind, in FPV it’s the easiest thing to do.
Dji Naza flight controller is an option towards a self build practice drone by just not connecting a GPS antenna. These flight controllers can be had second hand for little money nowadays if you have RC gear to hand already.
Not with the P2, it isn’t.
Hi I have a Syma x5 which was recommended then I did my PfCO to practice ATTI. It is stabilised only, has no position/altitude hold. It’s also indestrutable!
I will gladly give it to you if you’re interested.
Why not you have a bailout if you bottle it!, just switch to normal mode
So Dji P2 has ACRO mode misnamed as ATTI…
Kind of yes, but ACRO might be a step too far … but only because there is a significant degree of reluctance to fully rotate in pitch and/or roll … because …
- it’s heavy,
- the props are well above the centre of mass, and
- the max rate of pitch/roll isn’t significant…
… so, you have to really work at it, but it is possible - if you have enough height to complete before impact. (Got really close to that, once! )
The props being well above CoM means that hands off everything, other than throttle to (theoretically) maintain a hover, it will slowly roll/pitch, and vanish off in it’s chosen direction,

Not with the P2, it isn’t.
Yes it is. It all depends how you have the three position switch configured in the P2 assistant software. The P1 & P2 controller switch is labelled GPS/ATTI/ATTI, but the labelling on the transmitter itself can be rendered meaningless, e.g You could set the top position to RTH, the Middle position to GPS, and the bottom position to ATTI, if you so wished via the Assistant software. As default my P1 was supplied as GPS/ATTI/Manual from the factory. Most people would go into the Assistant software and configure the third position to RTH.
The Naza flight controllers, including the ones used in the P2 range, will still return the craft to level flight in manual mode but no where near as aggressively as they do in GPS and ATTI mode, it’s barely perceptible, allowing for flips and rolls. I suppose you could refer to it as ATTI mode or a very weak Horizon mode (without the altitude hold). The ACRO/Manual mode setting of our FPV quads have gyro stabilisation (all horizontal rotorcraft, except auto gyro’s, require stabilisation of some sort whether that be via a flybar, coaxial config, or gyro), but in ACRO mode they will not auto level no matter how long you wait.