I have tried flying with it off and I just cant, even in combat. Thankfully I only pve and the AI is more than dumb enough that I never feel outmanuevered because I can't fly FA off.
Almost allways ON, but sometimes I tun it OFF in combat or for pure fun when floating around the station.
I like to drift sideways on when docking, facing the station, so that when I line up with the entrance I can re-engage FA and go straight in.No offense but flying completely without FA seems stupid to me. Theres literally no reason why you should do that. Its only good off for making tactical movements in combat, thats its only purpose.
Despite what people are claiming above FA-off does not allow you to turn faster. The illusion that it does stems from the fact that doing an axial rotation rather than an actual turn often brings an enemy into your sight quicker because you tend to be travelling away from them faster and thus end up with a lower relative angle of attack. Ditto for combined pitch and vertical/lateral thrust. Basically you cannot exceed the pitch rate of velocity in mid blue zone by any means, ever, except when boosting. Since you can do a serviceable axial turn in FA-on in most ships, FA-off only offers an advantage if you need to exceed the FA-on thrust envelope (e.g. go backwards at more than half speed).
Watch this persons videos, "Flight Assist Off" at all times, that's some awesome skills. https://www.youtube.com/user/Isinona
This is a particularly good one, although he dies in the end waiting to park at an outpost whilst his enemy get's fixed up, still some great skills here:
[video=youtube;1-dHqX5cFB0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-dHqX5cFB0[/video]