Learn How to Fly FPV With Your DJI Neo Drone Today!

So if you want to learn to fly your drone in manual mode, full acro, there is no better drone to do that than with the DJI Neo. This little drone is super cheap, and the body is fairly resilient to crashes. This means during your time learning full acro, you can beat this thing up and just keep going without worrying about doing significant damage, that’s going to cost an arm and a leg to repair.

Versatile Flight Options

Now, as I’ve highlighted in previous videos, the DJI Neo is very versatile with many different ways to fly it. For one, you can fly it with literally no remote, so it’ll follow you around by itself, which is great if you’re on a bike or doing some other medium-paced activity. You can also fly it like a traditional GPS drone, like a Mini or Mavic that holds its position, hovers in place, and generally is easy to control. You can also use the motion controller y DJI Goggles to control the drone using your wrist.

To unlock the real fun and what we’ll be highlighting in this video as we work up to it is flying the Neo in full manual. Once you master this, you’ll be able to unlock the full speed of the drone. You can put on FPV goggles for an immersive experience and you can move the drone in a way that you wouldn’t otherwise be able to when trapped in the GPS guided modes. You can do dives, flips and really have a lot of fun.

So the question is, what is the best way to learn how to fly in full manual with the DJI Neo? Well, in this video, I’ll be walking you through step by step, how to get more comfortable and how to get out of those GPS guided modes and into flying full acro with the FPV goggles and with the FPV remote controller.

Step 1: Getting Started with GPS Mode

Okay, so the first step is to get familiar flying in the GPS flight mode. If you’re coming from another one of DJI’s drones and have experience flying in the normal or sport mode, you can consider this step done and move on, but if the Neo is your very first drone, it would be wise to get some time in flying with the help of the onboard GPS and sensors to get comfortable.

This can be done with the RC remote that uses your phone as a screen or the FPV remote that pairs with the compatible FPV goggles. Regardless of which remote you use, the Neo can be flown in the normal mode which is the first place to start, but once you get some confidence, you can bump it up to sport mode to get a bit more speed out of your drone.

One thing to note is that there is absolutely no obstacle avoidance on the DJI Neo of any kind. So if you’re in normal or sport mode, it doesn’t matter – the drone is not going to automatically brake for you. If there is an obstacle in the way, it’s just going to keep flying and end up crashing, but luckily, the design of this drone makes it fairly resilient, so crashes aren’t really going to impact the drone all that much.

The only sensors on this drone are vision positioning sensors under the drone that allow it to hold its position and detect when the ground is close to come to a soft landing. Flying in normal and sport mode, however, is just the starting point. Really, it’s to help you get comfortable having the remote controller in your hand, pushing the sticks around, seeing the drone move in the air, but now we’re going to turn it up a notch and move on to the next step.

Step 2: Required Equipment: FPV goggles and the FPV remote controller

From here on out, you’ll need a set of FPV Goggles and the FPV Remote Controller that’s compatible with the Neo. Using the included tool, you’re going to loosen the spring behind the stick to have the throttle control that’s necessary for manual flights. You’ll notice that the spring doesn’t automatically reset itself, but instead it’s loose as it moves up and down.

Furthermore, this remote doesn’t have a spot to hold your phone as a screen, so you’ll need to have a set of FPV goggles that display your camera’s live feed and give you that immersive first-person view. Both the DJI Goggles 3 and the Goggles N3 are compatible with the Neo. I won’t spend time going over the differences between those headsets in this video, but I’ll leave a previous video linked up in the top corner and down in the description if you want more information.

So once you have everything set up, your goggles and remote controller are paired to the Neo, you’ve loosened the stick, and you are all set. It’s now time to jump into manual mode, but we’re going to do it with some training wheels turned on.

Step 3: Setting Up Manual Mode

Right out of the gate, the manual switch on the back of the FPV remote is disabled to prevent any accidental crashes. In order to enable manual mode, you’ll use the directional button on your goggles to navigate to the settings, then go to control, and then select the remote controller settings. Right here under the button customization, you’ll go all the way to the bottom and set manual as our custom mode.

We also want to make sure that our attitude limit is turned on. It should be on by default right out of the gate, but it’s important that this doesn’t get toggled off as this enables the “training wheels” I mentioned. This toggle can be found by going to the right to the gains exposure section. With the attitude turned on, it’ll make it impossible to flip the Neo.

Remember, when flying in manual, we can fly the drone way differently than we would if we were in normal or sport mode of any GPS drone. We can flip the drone upside down, we can do dives, we can do full-on flips, so it’s way different. And as you can imagine, if you had the attitude limit turned off allowing the drone to flip upside down on your very first time, it would probably get very confusing. You might end up crashing the drone. It could go into a tree, hit a wall, or slam into the ground. So leaving the attitude mode turned on, right off the bat is a good way to get comfortable. This way as you’re flying around, the drone is going to hit these hard limits and won’t end up flipping over, but it still gives you the manual feel of the drone to get a feel for those controls.

Step 4: Safety Features and Tools

Now, as we get into our first flight in manual, I want to point out some extra safety tools and methods that you can use to make the transition smooth. For one, I usually take off and fly the drone in normal or sport mode to get it up off the ground easily, and then I flip into manual and go about my time flying.

The same is true for when I’m all done and want to land – I switch into one of those GPS modes and just bring the drone back down easily.

There’s also a break button on the back of the remote that I’ve called the “oh shit button” for years. Basically, when you press this, the drone will come to an immediate stop. You could be upside down with no idea where you’re at, and if you press this, the drone will straighten itself and come to an immediate hover.

So as you can imagine, those two features make the learning curve way easier when transitioning from GPS over to full manual, as we still have the GPS to lean on in case we get in trouble. I mean, could you imagine trying to learn to fly FPV on a drone that just had manual and that’s it? Crash it, you fix it. Well, we can easily take off, get the drone out into space, go manual, and if we get into trouble, just press the button and come to a stop. Makes it way easier.

Step 5: Your First Manual Flight

For your first manual flight with the attitude limit or training wheels enabled, I’d head out to an open field, fly the drone up in sport mode to a high altitude, switch to manual, align my sticks, and just go for it. Use the height and the fact you’re in the middle of nowhere as a way to get a feel for how the drone reacts to the stick inputs because it’ll be fairly different from the GPS controls. Having the attitude mode on will keep you straight as you get a feel for the sticks, and as you start to get comfortable or close to something, just press the break button or flip back into sport mode and get yourself back into the open area.

This right here is exactly how I learned to fly in manual with the FPV drone. It’s been quite some time now since that drone released, but I went out to an empty golf course. It was wintertime, so it was completely closed. I’d fly the drone way high up, flip it into manual, get a feel for the controls, and whenever I got close to something that I’d run into, I’d go to sport mode, get the drone back in the open and then restart. And I won’t lie. I took the training wheels off fairly quickly, but I continued on with the same method. I’d fly up high, flip it into manual mode, get a little bit more comfortable with the controls, go back into sport mode as I was going to crash into something, fly into the open and restart.

Step 6: Advanced Flying Techniques

One of my favorite things to do was fly up to say, 300 or 400 feet, flip the drone into manual and just dive straight down. It was really an exhilarating experience to see the ground continue to get closer and closer and closer, but as I got more comfortable, I’d add in more movements. Instead of just diving down and then flipping right back into sport mode, I would dive down and lift up and try to move around some trees. And as I continued to add on moves, I was getting better with the controls.

I have to say, though, that first time that I did that, the first time that I dipped the drone down and looked towards the ground is really going to be that single defining factor for you – that feeling between flying full acro and with a GPS drone. When you’re diving down towards the ground, then slowly lift the drone out and level it, you start to feel like you actually have full control. And once you get comfortable doing this, it’s going to be hard to want to go back.

Step 7: Best Flying Locations

So, regardless of whether I’m flying the DJI Neo o el Avata 2, I’m basically always in manual with a headset on my face, buzzing around at a construction site, an empty park, around boats, really anywhere that I think would be a more fun experience than capturing photos and videos with my Mavic 3.

The Neo is also really fun to fly indoors in manual, and while I probably wouldn’t go buzzing around in my apartment, if you can find an abandoned building, that is like the ultimate playground for these drones.

Three Steps to Success

So to recap, there’s essentially a three-step ladder. You first start out flying in normal and sport mode to get a feel for the sticks. If you’re familiar with DJI’s other drones, you can skip that step, jump into our next step, which is flying in manual with the attitude limit turned on. So with the attitude mode turned on, as you fly the drone, it’s not going to tip over. Get a feel for those controls and then finally step three, rip the training wheels off, and just start flying.

Final Thoughts

Again, I think the absolute best way is to go out into the open, fly the drone way high in sport mode, get up there, flip into manual, do your thing, fly around, get comfortable with the controls, and once you feel like you’re going to potentially crash, if you get close to something, press stop, flip into sport mode, get that drone back out in the open and start all over again. And I’m telling you, you are going to be hooked. You’re going to go from the Neo and say, “I want to get the DJI Avata 2, I want to get the DJI FPV Drone.” Now it’s worth it to build your own. Once you have the skills, once you actually learn how to fly full acro, you can take advantage of a much larger quad, and that’s when building your own is going to be completely worth it. And I think the DJI Neo is a great spot to start.

Anyway, thank you guys so much for watching. Leave your thoughts on flying with full acro with the Neo down in the comments, and as always, I’ll talk to you later.