 A few months ago, I saw a clip that looked just like this. As soon as this video started, my mind just went like, What? What's happening? Like this is even possible? I didn't know I didn't. Why did nobody tell me this earlier? Once I found this clip, I decided to look more into what it was. And so this is something along the lines of drones, but it's not just any typical Mavic drone that you can buy on the market. This is called an FPV drone. First person view drone. And so I knew from the second that I saw this, had to get into this. But as I was about to dive into this, I was really wondering to myself, what is it like to actually learn how to build and fly and program this thing? So that's the reason why I'm making this video today. This is a Sinewup FPV drone. So it's not a typical five inch sinewup, which a lot of freestyle drone pilots use to do crazy flips and tricks and stuff that you might also see. This sinewup is meant to fly a little bit more serenely, a little slower. And the best part about this is that you don't have to be scared about running into something and chopping it up into a million pieces because there's these pop protectors. So what does it take starting from scratch to build this guy? My name is Kai from Vertigo Vision. And today we're going to go over what it's like for a noob to start learning how to build and fly a sinewup. So I've been learning and practicing FPV for about the last three months. Not going to lie and say that it wasn't challenging because as someone who knows nothing about electronics and drones, this is my first time hopping into that world. And so it was intimidating at first. I'm not going to lie. But luckily we are blessed with YouTube and the Internet. With the click of a button and the right questions to ask, you can find the teacher that will teach you exactly what you need to know. And that's some more advice we'll talk about moving on. But yeah, let's look into it. So the very, very first thing if you want to start building a sinewup is you have to know what kind of sinewup you want to build. This specific model of sinewup since it's a class of drone, this is called a Shenzhen Squirt 2. And it was developed and designed by a guy named Andy Shen. But the people who have championed this drone really say that this is the most reliable and popular one. So I decided to go with it. So the first thing you want to do if you want to build a Shenzhen Squirt or whichever sinewup or drone you decide to pick is look up other people's builds. You can buy a plug-and-play version that they sell online, but usually they charge a lot more. And if it breaks, which it most likely will, because you're going to be crashing this thing a lot when you're learning to fly it, you won't know how to put it back together. So everybody's recommendation in the FPV community is to build your own drone. Try to build it from scratch and buy the parts and learn how to put it together and learn how to solder. It sounds like a lot, I know. But trust me, it is a good investment in the long run. So let's go into parts, right? There is an awesome website called RotorBuilds.com. And in this website, people basically document and place their build process in all of the parts that they use to build their drones. And so that's actually what I used for one of the best references for this guy. Some things are pretty obvious what you want to get, but a lot of times it's a giant question mark, because there's so many parts. There's the motors, there's the propellers, there's the air unit, there's the flight controller and ESC. There's so many different modules and parts that are up to you to choose what to pick. But you have to make sure that you choose the right ones that go together. So the best way is to look up other people's builds. Once you have that, make sure you create your own checklist. This is super important because there's a good amount of parts that you need to take account of, and you're going to be buying much rent of parts. And if you want to make sure that you know exactly what you bought so that you don't double buy anything or you don't forget anything by the time you're ready to build. All right, now once you've got all your parts, it is time for the fun part, which is learning how to build it. When you're first starting to build a drone, I say it's fun because it may seem very intimidating at first. It's kind of like building an IKEA set that flies if I had to put it. Think about it that way, and you're going to have a lot more fun learning the process. So make sure you watch lots of build videos. Go on YouTube and just look up Cinewup Build, and you're going to find a lot of YouTube videos of people documenting and walking you through the process of building the Cinewup. And so that's going to be super helpful because you basically just have to follow what they do. And once you learn how to do that, then you're going to be good. You're going to be safe. So that you have an idea of what it was like for me to build it. Here's a quick video I put together of my process building the Cinewup. Enjoy. As you can see, it's pretty satisfying watching it come together. Sometimes there are issues that you have that you need to reverse, but honestly, it's nothing that you can't handle. I believe in you. Overall, I believe this build took two days and eight to 10 hours. That's including programming, which means plugging into the computer and making sure everything's okay and setting up the controller and finding it. So once you've got your drone, you've got your goggles, and you've got your radio, once you've bound them all together, you are ready to try flying. And one tip that is super helpful if you're just starting out is to practice on a simulator on a computer, like a $20 simulator. Just go ahead and play it like a video game. Plug your radio in so you can get the feel of what it's going to be like. It's going to be so helpful, trust me. So there are plenty of tutorials on actually learning how to fly, but I'll get into a little bit of what are the basic fundamentals that will probably be the 20% of skills that will help you with the 80% of your flying journey. So the first one is obviously going to be hovering, right? Just being able to get the drone off the ground and make it stay in place. But once you get the feel of how the drone kind of balances in air and space, then it's going to be a lot easier for you to start taking on movement. Next thing you're going to want to learn is being able to just float forward and break and stop. Once you get that flying sideways, flying forward and back, you want to learn how to turn, right? You're going to want to learn how to turn, which is coordinated turns. And there's super, super great tutorials online that will help you learn those in the simulator and in real life. Here's another piece of advice from one noob to another, because I know it can feel like a long process leading up to the flying portion, which is why I also think the simulator is really great for that because it can help you satisfy the flying bit while you're learning how to build it. It's a process trying to get the drone from being single individual parts to getting it into the air. But throughout all that, my biggest piece of advice is to make sure that you are in it, you're in it to learn, and you're in it to enjoy the process as well. A lot of it's manual, you're going to have to learn how to fly it. And that's going to require a good amount of practice. So in summary, from buying the parts to finally being able to fly the drone, it can seem like a lot. It can seem very intimidating. It's a process, but don't worry, because as this hobby grows, there are only more and more resources out there that make this easier to get into. Like even my friend Caesar, who's an amazing drone pilot who's like five years younger than me, he's been doing this for a long time. And he remembers that in his first three months, they were disastrous. So I've been getting compliments from my FPV friends about how fast I've been improving. But honestly, I wouldn't be here without them. You know, I'm lucky to be in a place where I can talk to them and that this hobby and that this craft has developed so much. It is so rewarding. And once you break through those first barriers and build your drone and get it to fly in the air, it'll be a feeling unlike anything that you've ever experienced. And I'm really excited for you to get there. I know I personally have a long way to go still. I have so much to learn. I'm just making these videos to make sure that I can document what it's like starting from zero and taking your way up. I'm having a great grand old time. Let me tell you. And I'm super excited for you guys to start your journeys. And if you want to see the journey and continue to watch the evolution of the work that I'm putting out, which is FPV learning and dance and filmmaking and combining it all together, it's going to be good. It's going to be a good time. So go ahead and subscribe and follow me on Instagram and TikTok. That's where I'm always updating. Take care, you guys. Peace till next time.