okay so been flying fpv for about a year and a half, running a 5inch freestyle build on betaflight 4.4, rates are pretty mid nothing crazy. i can do rolls and flips fine and my lines are getting cleaner but the split S is just not clicking.

every time i try it i come out of the half roll and then the half loop just eats way more altitude than i expect and i keep nearly scrubbing into the ground. i know the split S is supposed to lose altitude thats the whole point but im losing like way more than other people's videos show. watched a bunch of youtube and they make it look like they drop maybe 10-15 feet but im losing closer to 30-40 on a good attempt.

my throttle management is probably the issue but i genuinely cant tell what point in the maneuver i should be adding power back. do you add throttle during the roll part or wait until youre inverted and already pulling through the loop. or is this just a rates/tune issue and im blaming my flying when its actually a setup thing

throttle during the roll almost definitely not, you want to be at zero or near zero going into the inverted and then start your pull ? the throttle comes back in as you're coming through the bottom of the loop, not after. a lot of people wait too long and by the time they add power they've already fallen through most of the arc. try thinking of it as a smooth continuous thing: roll, pull starts immediately, throttle follows the pull. if youre waiting to feel inverted before you do anything your just freefalling longer than you need to.

also check your pitch rates arent too low ? if youre not pulling hard enough through the loop the radius gets huge and you drop more. not saying crank your rates but if your pitch response feels sluggish that could be part of it

tune could definitely play a role if theres P term oscillation on the pull it makes it really hard to execute a clean arc and you end up with this messy radius that drops you further. but tbh from what you described it sounds more like the throttle timing thing. i had the exact same issue and it was embarasing how simple the fix was ? just needed to start the pull sooner than felt natural. like the moment the roll hits 180 you should already be into the pull, not after you've registered that youre upside down