so ive been flying for about three weeks, got a cheap drone to start out with before spending real money. Holyton or something like that, got it off amazon. anyway when i hover and let go of both sticks it doesnt just stay in place, it kind of slowly drifts in whatever direction the wind is going i think. sometimes its barely noticeable but yesterday it was pretty windy and it was drifting pretty aggressively to the right and i had to keep correcting.

is this just what drones do or is mine broken or is this a GPS thing. i genuinely cant tell if im flying it wrong or if this is a budget drone issue. my friends drone which is a mavic of some kind just sits there perfectly when he lets go

yeah that's almost certainly a GPS thing. budget drones in that price range often have really weak GPS or sometimes no GPS at all and they rely on what's called optical flow sensors for position hold ? basically a downward camera that watches the ground. optical flow works okay indoors or in low wind but outside with any real wind it just can't keep up. your friend's Mavic has a much more robust GPS/GLONASS setup and actually actively fights drift by adjusting the motors constantly.

its not really something you did wrong, its just a hardware limitation. some people actually think learning on a drifty drone makes you a better pilot because you have to actually fly it instead of letting the autopilot do everything. i dont totally disagree with that tbh

drift in wind is basically just physics, even expensive drones move around a bit in strong gusts. but if its drifting in calm conditions that could be a calibration issue or the optical flow sensor is having trouble, like if youre flying over water or a surface without much texture it can lose tracking. the cheap ones are pretty sensitive to that stuff. honestly if youre serious about getting into it the jump to something with decent GPS is night and day, i flew a budget one for two months and then borrowed my brothers mini and it felt like a completely different hobby almost