diff --git a/src/drivers/px4fmu/fmu.cpp b/src/drivers/px4fmu/fmu.cpp
index 739f7b1b4a..a8af4ed06c 100644
--- a/src/drivers/px4fmu/fmu.cpp
+++ b/src/drivers/px4fmu/fmu.cpp
@@ -1210,7 +1210,7 @@ PX4FMU::cycle()
 			_current_update_rate = 0;
 		}
 
-		int poll_timeout = 20;
+		int poll_timeout = 5; // needs to be small enough so that we don't miss RC input data
 
 		if (!_run_as_task) {
 			/*