My First Day With the Zorro – When FPV Suddenly Became Real

The Package

It was just a delivery.
But when the doorbell rang and I held that small box from China in my hands, it felt like a milestone.

I had made a decision, endured the waiting,
and now the next step in my FPV journey was right in front of me.

Until then, FPV lived mostly on my screen:
DRL, Uncrashed, long evenings with the Xbox controller.
My hands knew triggers, thumbsticks, and a centered throttle.

But this box was different.
It held actual FPV hardware — the kind real pilots use.
And for the first time I felt:

I’m getting closer to real FPV.

Unboxing Reality

When I unpacked the Radiomaster Zorro, my first thought was:

“This isn’t a game controller anymore.”

The shape was familiar enough not to be intimidating, but the details were completely new:

Switches.
Gimbals.
Scroll wheel.
Antenna.

Even before powering it on, the Zorro felt like a tool — not a toy.

My thumbs touched the sticks and instantly reported back:
this feels different.

• more travel

• more resistance

• more precision

The Setup Fight — and the Big Misunderstanding

Of course, it wasn’t “plug and play”.

I had to:

• set the correct mode

• connect it to the PC

• map the channels in the simulator

• check if all axes behaved correctly

And then something interesting happened:
For the first time, my hands understood what had felt “off” in DRL and Uncrashed.

With the Xbox controller, the throttle was always centered —
the stick snapped back to the middle automatically.
I thought that was simply “normal”.

But the moment I moved the Zorro, it clicked:

The throttle isn’t supposed to center at all.
It stays exactly where you leave it.

That realization suddenly explained so many problems I had in the sim:

• why I constantly overcorrected

• why holding altitude felt unnatural

• why certain maneuvers felt “wrong”

It… wasn’t me.
It was the wrong input device.

That moment felt almost like a mental release.

First Flights — Same Sim, New Brain

I went back into DRL, and later Uncrashed, but nothing felt the same anymore.

The screen showed the same world.
The maps were the same.
The physics were unchanged.

But my hands had a new interface.

I immediately noticed:

• less jitter in the thumbs

• cleaner micro-movements

• holding lines by position, not constant correction

And yet, I felt clumsy.

Years of gaming with a centered "throttle" had shaped my muscle memory.
My body expected the stick to snap back to middle —
but the Zorro stayed exactly where I left it.

At first it felt “wrong”,
but in truth, it was finally right.

A bit of frustration.
A lot of motivation.
And above all: clarity.

From Toy to Tool

What stood out most on that first day:

The Zorro didn’t magically make me a better pilot.
But it changed how seriously my brain treated FPV.

With the Xbox controller, it was easy to think:

“If I mess up, I’ll just restart.”

With the Zorro in my hands, it felt more like:

“This is training for later.”

Every stick movement suddenly had weight.

Even simple exercises —
straight lines, soft turns, holding altitude —
felt more meaningful, because I was holding a tool that would eventually control a real quad.

A Small Day That Felt Big

From the outside, the day was nothing special:

No crazy tricks.
No wild gaps.
No dramatic crashes.

Just me, a new controller, and the same simulator.

But internally, something shifted:

• FPV felt less like “playing around”
  and more like an investment in the future.

• Simulation felt less like “gaming”
  and more like actual training.

• And for the first time, I truly understood
  how much the right controller matters in FPV.

A small moment on the calendar, but a big step in my mindset.