Your gun will be fine mate. I regularly see pellets in flight from my .177 and it's clocking 11.8 fpe with single figure fps variation.
The smoother your gun fires (or the better you handle recoil if it's a springer), the more likely you are to see your pellets in flight. Also means you're using good follow thru technique.
Always have to aim a bit lower with an airgun when shooting up or downhill as gravity has less effect on the flight path due to the angle.
Eg at my old ft club, there was a 55 yard target at the bottom of a precipitous quarry, so with the .22 I had back then I would have