I’d appreciate some guidance and FPV wisdom from more experienced pilots on here.
I’ve got a Neo 2 and an Avata 2, Goggles N3 and FPV Controller 3. The controller 3 I purchased for simulator flying to begin with, and some limited manual flying with the Neo 2 (for now). After about 30hrs in Liftoff simulator, I feel I’ve made good progress. I’m loving the movement and challenge FPV presents.
I guess the next step would be to go out and fly manual for real, probably using the Neo 2 to begin with, as I’m expecting loads of crashes. But I’m wondering whether I should skip all this and maybe go for a real FPV mini drone or maybe a whoop instead at this stage. Would this be better, as I wouldn’t waste time progressing with drones that aren’t purely FPV? Or am I overthinking this?
Any advice welcome. 
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Just go out and start flying fully manual with the neo and avatar 2. You wont be disappointed. You’ll be glad you can switch back to a standard normal mode at the press of a button. Clock up some time doing that and then get a cine whoop or 5 inch 
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That’s a good point. I noticed how helpful the switch back to normal mode is when I tried some hovering in manual in my garden. It’s a life (crash!) saver.
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Theres a few settings you’ll need to change on the avatar 2 before just selecting manual mode on the controller. I cant think off thetop of my head where it is in the menu in the goggles just at work at the mintute. Possibly where you can edit the rates. Let us know how you get on 
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Hi all. Followed the advice on here and just went out and flew manual in a large public playing field. I flew VLOS without goggles in a far away corner and just practiced hovering and simple moves within a radius of 20-30m. I blew through 3 Neo 2 and 2 Avata 2 batteries in the glorious spring sun. Brilliant! 
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@ptnqmstr sounds good! You will be needing to fly ‘with’ goggles in manual mode. Near impossible withought them 
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I hear you. I do find Line Of Sight without the goggles (ie put to one side) quite useful to begin with. It sort of makes sense to me, in a way.
I’ve just blown through another 3 batteries in the garden, this time with goggles. Bl**dy brilliant. 
It’s nice to see that the stuff I learned in the sim is translating well into the real world.
There are plenty of obstacles in the garden to help me practice (ie crash) 
I’d say th Neo 2 is a great way to get into this.
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Just wanted to give an update on my FPV efforts. Recent calmer days here in Warwickshire provided great opportunities for some serious flying. As mentioned by some of you, I took both Neo 2 and Avata 2 up to 30-40m in N or S and then switched to Manual mode, which is a great comfort. Once up there, I found manual flying fairly easy actually. Once again, the 30h+ in the sim are paying off. I’ve succumbed and ordered myself a Meteor 75 Pro O4 by BetaFPV. To start with, I want to reuse my existing DJI gear as much as possible. Maybe I’ll add an ELRS controller at some stage, if I think range or latency are an issue (I don’t think they will). One thing I’m now appreciating is what a great bit of kit the Avata 2 is. I bought a refurb version of it, which came with 1 battery. I have since added the fast charger and another battery, to give me more “stick time”.
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I bought a batafpv pavo 20 after getting the avatar 2. Ill always take them both out. Still practice to take off and land in the sims though. I use an old seat cushion for a landing mat. Next stop is a proper radio like youve mentioned. Then more then likely another pre built drone. 5 inch this time
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Sounds like a similar journey. I love the landing mat cushion . I’m using an old bamboo dinner table mat as a landing pad. It can also double up as a seat when it’s dry.
Building my own is the dream. It’s my (lack of) soldering skills I’d have to vastly improve, to begin with.
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Im sure you’ll get there with the soldering. Sadley theres no where safe enough at mine to start practicing.
We bought a new dog bed for the dog recently but shes rejected it so ive got my eye on using that as a landing pad/crash mat now. Its got a plasticy bottom. Might hold the wet ground off a bit better
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Soldering is not that difficult once you understand the principles and you have the tools to do it properly. Bardwell does a good job explaining it all in this video. Those skills are somehow also very relevant to BNF quads - you will more than likely break something at some point 
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Thank you! I’ve had mixed success with soldering in the past. I do a lot of home automation and have created my own LED controllers from parts and kits. As I said… with mixed results. Soldering something that eventually can fly will be a new frontier. I’ll get into this at some point, I’m sure.
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There is a challenging learning curve but loads of great info available to hold your hands through the various steps (soldering is only 1 of many ). It is extremely addictive though 
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