New to Boot Camp 101?

Rates and Camera Angles

It’s important that we set you up for success by making sure your rates and camera angles match your flying style. By fine-tuning these settings, you’ll build muscle memory to allow you to fly smoothly and perform tricks consistently without overthinking your stick motions. Building this foundation is important to your long-term success with freestyling.

I initially created an in-depth guide for rates and camera angles, but it ended up being waaay too long to include in the challenge video. I plan to release a standalone video or written guide hopefully in the coming days, which will be posted here. But for now, here’s the short version:

Rates

Rates are critical Betaflight settings that determine how your drone responds to stick movements from your radio transmitter, directly affecting its agility and responsiveness. The three main components of rates are Center Sensitivity, Max Rates, and Expo.

Center Sensitivity controls how responsive the drone is near the central stick position, with most pilots setting it between 100 to 250. This setting is essential for smoothing out your overall flying experience, making small adjustments more precise and less jittery.

Max Rates define the drone’s rotation speed, with typical ranges between 670° to 850°, although more aggressive freestyle pilots might go up to 1200°. Higher Max Rates allow for faster trick execution, while lower rates provide smoother, more controlled movements. Keep in mind that bigger drones may require a slower Max Rates due to the additional power and hang time they provide.

Expo adjusts the curve between center sensitivity and max rates, usually set between 0.3 to 0.55. Expo works alongside Center Sensitivity to ensure a smoother flight experience, especially when your sticks are near the center positions.

Adjusting these settings to fit your flying style can make your flights smoother and more enjoyable
(I’ll share the Mentors Rates here soon)

Camera Angle

Selecting the right camera angle is crucial for freestyle because each angle necessitates slightly different stick movements to perform the same tricks. While you may not notice a significant difference with a change of 5°, a change of 10° or more will be noticeably different. There are pros and cons to both lower and higher angles, but here are the main differences:
Lower angles between 10° to 20° allow for smoother, slower flights, making it easier to perform tricks like Matty flips, as well as fly indoors with whoops or in a proximity setting with a bigger drone.
Higher angles over 30° will increase your overall visibility and control when performing tricks like powerloops and trippy spins, which means that your overall trick execution will be more consistent.

Camera Angles Used by Mentors:

• 10°: MoeFPV and JALFPV
• 15°: Heads
• 25°: AkiraFpV and Cha Cha
• 30°: Tyrantt, Callisto, and inz
• 35°: FPVSammy

Challenge Objectives

To complete the challenge, you’ll need to successfully accomplish all the main objectives listed below. Each objective is designed to help you refine your skills and improve your control

1. Objective 1: Perform a double orbit around any object. Find an object or pole-like structure and perform two smooth and consistent orbits around it.
2. Objective 2: You’ll need to locate a different object and perform a double orbit around it, but this time in the opposite direction of your first orbit.
3. Objective 3: Fly through the smallest gap you can find to test your throttle control and accuracy.
4. Optional Bonus Objective: This objective is optional. You’ll need to find two objects and perform a figure 8 orbit around them by performing a single orbit around one of the objects and then switching directions while between them, and then finish by performing an orbit in the opposite direction around the second object. The Bonus objective is not only a great way to learn how to switch directions on the fly, but you will also earn additional leaderboard points for a chance at winning the leaderboard prize!
5. Optional Cash Objective: Perform any of the orbit objectives around the most interesting object you can find. The most creative and unique object will win a $10 PayPal cash prize. So go out and find something awesome to orbit!
6. Optional Pilot of the Week: This week, our judges will be voting on the most creative video to determine who will become our NewBeeDrone Pilot of the Week for Challenge 1. Tune in to the Pro Whooper Show on August 7th to see who will win the title, receive a $40 NBD Gift Card, bonus leaderboard points, and be featured on ProWhooper.com!

Video Requirements

1. Deadline: August 3th at 9am PST, or 5pm GMT
2. Time Limit: 60 seconds. This is the total time limit for the entire video, start to finish.
3. Objectives: Please note that while each objective must be completed in a single clip, you don’t need to combine all objectives into one continuous clip. However, it’s an added challenge to combine as many objectives into a single clip as possible, making it even more impressive to watch.
4. Passing the Challenge: To pass the challenge, you must complete all 3 main objectives. You do not need to participate in the bonus or cash objective.
5. If you’re new to video editing and need some help, then check out Shauny D‘s tutorial for a step-by-step guide on creating and uploading your video to YouTube. It’s a fantastic resource!

Prizes

We will be giving away over $514 worth of prizes this week, including multiple weBLEEDfpv Gift Cards, Cash Prizes, Chargers, Flight Controllers, Props, and Prop Poppers! Make sure to submit your video on time for a chance to get your hands on these fantastic prizes!