@WhiteSpirit: Sometimes I do lose speed trying to thread the needle, and sometimes it's not the right choice, but try to do it anyway. It's more fun, and skimmers lose a lot of speed when they have to make sharp changes in direction.

I balance my craft so they don't gain altitude too easily. What does your craft look like?

Something I can definitely improve on is my understanding of 'normal' craft, with more than 2 lift vectors. I seriously can't pilot skimmers with 4 lift vectors :^p. I want to make a few videos to show how bad I am at it. They're so floaty and slow, it drives me nuts.

Thanks for recording the vid! Your craft indeed looks like it is constantly falling. One thing I noticed - you take the shortcut around the right side of the terraformer instead of going beneath it (I didn't actually think this would be faster), and you gain a decent altitude there. When my skimmer flies to such altitude, the lift vectors just stop functioning completely and skimmer soars into the sky. I have the same chassis, diverter and thrust vector as you do here. So what could be the problem? Like at 1:18, my skimmer would already lose control by then

For shizzle! I have one, but the video sucks.
Next one I need to get an external cam set up, so you can see my hand movements.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rw-4w4EOYx8

Can you record and upload some Vector 36 races?
From what you said it seems like your way of piloting is very different from everyone else.

I have not played Nest.

have you tried a game called Nest?
there's so many VR games. not enough free time!

My quest to 100% XCOM continues.

Merry Christmas.