been flying acro on a 5inch freestyle build for probably a year and a half now and im just kind of plateaued. i can do basic stuff, split-s, power loops, the occasional roll, but anything more complex like a matty flip or even just smooth flow through tight gaps feels way beyond me still. i crash maybe once every few sessions which i know isnt terrible but it doesnt feel like im actually progressing either, just reinforcing the same 4 moves over and over.

i do use the sim (velocidrone) but honestly after the first few months i kind of stopped because it felt disconnected from actually flying - my real quad handles so differently that the muscle memory didnt seem to transfer great. or maybe i was doing the sim wrong idk.

is this just a time thing and i need to be patient, or is there something specific people do to actually break through a plateau like this. feels like ive watched every joshua bardwell and UAV futures video at this point and im still not getting whatever the missing piece is

sim disconnect is real but i think you might be using it wrong - most people jump into free flight and just do whatever they already know how to do, which is basically just practicing your comfort zone in a different environment. what actually helped me was picking ONE specific maneuver id never landed clean and just doing that single thing for like 20-30 minutes in the sim before touching the real quad. the transfer isnt perfect but the core muscle memory for something like a split direction power loop did carry over for me once i stopped treating sim time as general practice.

also flying with people better than you in person is honestly irreplaceable and i dont see people mention it enough. watching youtube is fine but when someones standing next to you and can immediately say hey your throttle input on exit is too early or whatever, that feedback loop is so much faster than trying to diagnose yourself from DVR footage

im kind of in the same boat so following this thread. one thing thats helped me a tiny bit is recording every session and forcing myself to watch it which i hate doing because its embarrassing but you spot stuff you never notice in the moment. like i had no idea how much i was jerking roll inputs until i saw it on footage, felt totally smooth from the sticks