I made a custom first-person view (FPV) drone with the goal of exploring aerial cinematography and learning how to tune the PID controller for the smoothest possible flight. Along the way, I ran into a bunch of problems, because of course I did. I quickly learned the beauty of Loctiting my bolts so they wouldn't shake loose mid-flight. I also realized how important it is to zip-tie everything with strain relief unless you enjoy your cables ripping out at the worst possible moment. Building the drone was fun, but learning to fly was an entirely different challenge. I spent about 20 hours in a flight simulator before even attempting to fly in real life, and honestly, it was worth it. I had a lot of fun messing around with the motor settings, trying out different propellers, and experimenting with battery efficiency. I got to figure out the balance between heavy and light batteries, flight time, speed, agility, and overall mobility.