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I Fought in Ukraine and Here’s Why FPV Drones Kind of Suck - War on the Rocks (warontherocks.com)

submitted 2 days ago by yojimbo@sopuli.xyz to c/world@lemmy.world

11 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Written by an individual who has spent 6 months as a foreign volunteer FPV pilot looking into effectivity of these drones on the frontline. He claims they are pretty much a fad with limited impact. The issues are:

unreliable / cheap hw
limited amount of radio channels for video / control (I thought they were running custom FCs - they aren't!)
weather and light conditions dependent
suseptible to electronic warfare
lack of qualified pilots / hard to fly
not always the chapest or quickest option

Note: I am something of an FPV "pilot" myself, I am not sure I agree with everything being said (eg imo fpv drones aren't toys for rich people - I am definitely not rich), but interresting reading anyway. Also - I've never been to a war - I know crap.

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[–] yojimbo@sopuli.xyz 13 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

These drones were originally designed to be toys for rich people. Before they were press-ganged into service as tools of war, they were used either in aerobatic displays or in races where a group of operators would compete in flying through an obstacle course. In either case, the drones were not meant to be easy to fly. They were meant to be highly maneuverable, but also unstable. First-person view drones cannot really hover, fly slowly, or linger above a target. The assumption among hobbyists is that enthusiasts will invest the time and money to become proficient at flying. As a result, training a highly proficient operator can take months. A standard, base-level course for Ukrainian drone pilots takes about five weeks. The quality of operators it prepares is questionable, and graduates of the course need extra on-the-job experience to become truly proficient. Most drone pilots I encountered did not go through this course. Instead, they learned to fly drones on the job. Even experienced operators routinely miss their targets and crash into trees, power lines, or other obstacles.

This surprised me also. FPVs can't hover (it ain't EZ but I thought I can)? 5 weeks for training? I believe I've learned to fly "acro" (on a computer) inside a month - and I am going to work... I don't know what they mean by "highly profficient" though. There may be complexities I don't appreciate, that aren't mentioned...

[–] venusaur@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I wonder what configurator they’re using because I’m pretty sure most have a hold mode now. And if not, why not use one that does? It won’t hold like a DJI drone, but def works.

I’d say I was a decent pilot when I was flying a lot but my skill level after a month vs a year of flying was vastly different, and I could still be a lot better.

[–] yojimbo@sopuli.xyz 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

AFAIK betaflight (IMO the most coommon fc fw) will only start supporting POSHOLD / ALTHOLD from yet unreleased version 4.6. I've recently seen a video about it from Joshua Bardwell - its far from perfect and relies on GPS module that Ukrainians don't use (according to the article above) to keep the cost as low as possible.

I agree that there is a difference between learning to fly and learning to fly well.

[–] venusaur@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Damn they’re behind. I was using emuflight for a bit and iNAV. Wonder why they aren’t using iNAV. Great for long distance. You also need a barometer for altitude.