For some time now the drone industry is wanting to move out of its shadows and become mainstream. The potential of drone technology is beginning to be noticed and used in various walks of life. Like for instance, it can be used for sport activities such as drone racing.
Drone racing started out as an amateur sport in the countries Australia and New Zealand. Before it was referred to as FPV drone racing, it was formally known as Rotocross. In the later time of the year 2014, drone sports enthusiast started working on FPV drone racing kit. The progress of the efforts put into this event grew quickly and today the sport is gaining more attention as years goes by. With so much attention it is recognized as a Projected Virtual Reality sport.
Drone racing
Drone racing is a competitive sport that involves its players/participants controlling quad-copters (or small radio-controlled aircrafts), equipped with cameras while wearing 3D display goggles showing them live feed from the drone. This participants will race with the aim of completing a set course the fastest way possible. In order to race you will need the fastest drones, which is really different from a cinematographic drone. This race is much harder than it looks. It involves Tearing through wide open spaces and timing each turn just to prevent hitting an obstacle lap after lap until the stutter of a pilot’s joystick breaks.
Racing drones are quite dissimilar from the cinematographic counterparts, which happens to have cameras attached to them and automatic stabilizers. Racing drones have front-mounted cameras and manual controls. The front cameras of the racing drone are fixed to give the pilot a good view while going through courses at a speed of up to 8mph. racing drones happen to be the hardest drone to fly than the common quadcopters.
The sport then gradually developed and lead to the creation of the Drone Racing League.
Drone racing league
The drone racing league is a sport (Media Company) where drones are used to race in different courses. DRL does not only host the games but also teaches people how to play it, since they require promotion for the sport. There is the provision of different resources that can be used by the pilot to acquire better skills. The DRL official website has a simulator that gives pilot ideas of what FPV is. Lots of videos are also present, which shows the competitor’s eye view from the drone. This league obviously has rules, like any other sporting league.
DRL has a system for awarding points and assessing the performance of the pilots competing in the race. These rules are as follows: Passing two checkpoints and visiting the course, pilots are awarded 50 points. For every second underneath the two-minute time cap, the pilot will be awarded 10 points. Each race is represented by the number of heats and the total number of points is calculated by counting the total number of points over the number of heats.
Due to the complexity and intensity of the sport, it has attracted the like of world top-rated drone pilots named Zoomas- a pilot from the US who began to fly drones from the year 2012 to the present.
Several competitions within
DRL is so difficult and pilots will have to prove their skills first. There happen to be several events that can improve the skills of amateurs.
Some of the races hosted by DRL is as follows:
- The preseason Gates of Hell: it involves the use of a concrete steampunk chamber, which is used to test the pilot and his skills. This particular competition is suitable for pros who are quite comfortable with controlling drones. In this competition, large turbines are used to cause difficulties for pilots.
- Level 1: this the first level of the competition which features a three-dimensional course. It has a qualifying round, semi-finals, and finals. For curious people still want a better idea of the course. The Official DRL websites has level1 competition video for elaborating the course.
- Level 2: the competitions in this level is much harder than the previous level. Level 2 competitions is called L.A.pocalpse, which will require 40 acres of abandoned venue with a range of obstacles.
- Level 3,4 and 5 competitions: these are obviously more difficult than the previous levels,
- World Championship: this is the main event, the mother of all FPV events. This was best drone pilots from different parts of the world, come together and face outstanding challenging course.
Many consider the FPV drone racing to be the sport of the future, to be adored by billions. It definitely going to keep growing larger for years to come. Chances are with time additional rules, and obstacle courses will be made. This will give drone enthusiasts different opportunities to test their skills.