Drone Wars

Last year Time magazine went so far as to suggest it is the sport of the future. Television network cable giants ESPN and Sky Sports have already live-streamed major US competitions – no easy task when the midget X-shaped machines, racing at speeds of 100km/h, look much the same, save for different coloured neon strips added at this level of competition.

The sport – its correct name is first person view (FPV) mini-quad racing – is a technological and adrenalinefuelled leap from hobbyist’s radiocontrolled miniature flying machines. Quad or multi-rotor ‘pilots’ wear special goggles that relay a drone’s-eye view of the race circuit so they can fly remotely their machines, weighing as little as 300 grams, hard and fast.

The faster the better as it’s about Winning.

It’s a sport of two halves. On one side sensory skills are honed over many hours to guide tiny, lightweight, speedy rotor machines housing a camera and stripped to the bare necessities, over and through an obstacle-studded aerial circuit. The camera captures the drone’s route, shared over a wireless connection to the pilot’s goggles, as dexterous thumbs flip, turn, roll and move the drones on a hand-held remote control, not dissimilar to those used in gaming.

On the cinematographic side owners turn the quad’s camera video into creatively-edited spectacles injected with edgy music for enthusiasts to relive the race on YouTube or social media. The top ones already have followers in the Thousands.

The United States, Canada and Dubai are setting a cracking pace in the development of this futuristic sport with razzle-dazzle events in large football stadiums with obstacle courses lit in a blaze of neon, and there is lucrative prize-money up for grabs by the winners.

Australia has yet to enter the big league stakes backed by multimillionaires such as the Miami Dolphins owner, Stephen Ross who has invested more than US$1 million, betting on drone racing being the next big modern-day sport. Amazon and insurer Allianz have also thrown their sponsorship might behind events.

To bring an extreme racing circuit to Australia would cost $100,000 or more, but the country’s racing aficionados, predominantly in Queensland, Victoria and Tasmania, are not being left behind. In fact, they’re punching well above their weight in the international speed, skill and technological stakes.

Present dual world drone racing champion, Thomas Bitmatta, 18, from the Melbourne suburb of Roxburgh Park, was a year 12 student at St Monica’s College when he beat 300 other pilots at the 2017 world championships in Indiana last August. He had won an invitation to the US event following his win in the Australian drone championships earlier in the year. He took out the World Cup and Spec Race titles.

In 2015 Chad Nowak was crowned United States National Drone Racing Champion after winning the freestyle, team and individual championship races at the Californian event. The 38-year-old Gold Coast mini-quad supremo, also a qualified glider pilot and instructor, is one of Australia’s drone racing pioneers, much sought after by enthusiasts for advice.

Nowak is widely known in the racing community as the ‘go to’ man for the latest technological advancement and trends. He has had major input into the design of drone components that set the standards such as propellers, flight control, firmware and frames, motors, cameras and radio controllers. Clients include the military and surf lifesaving bodies.

Nowak has also worked closely with CASA on safety and security issues around quad flying in controlled airspace. He moved to Atlanta, Georgia for a period after his win in 2015 to deepen his involvement in the sport. In December he launched a new quad frame.

Queenslander Tighe Brown’s interest in mini-quad racing led him to launch the Australian FPV Association in 2015, following up with national championship events in 2016 and 2017.

He, like Nowak, has also branched into mentoring, teaching and public speaking about the sport and drones, though after two-and-a-half years of being consumed by the sport he recently took a step back to pursue a regular income job to “pay the bills”. That hasn’t made him any less passionate though about racing and drones generally.

He points to drones disrupting industries in much the same way as Uber did to the taxi industry and Airbnb to holiday accommodation.

“You see them being used in agriculture, disaster relief, search and rescue, shark and thermal spotting and even delivering hearts for transplant in quick time – all for the good of human development.”

Now they are a growth sport even though Brown believes it has reached a bit of a plateau in Australia.

“It will take someone with money and interest to develop bigger events and make it different, ” said Brown.

The flip side, however, is the people with money wanting to control the big events for commercial gain and that’s anathema to enthusiasts just wanting to have fun racing.

Brown said initial talks with business entrepreneurs and philanthropists interested in aviation had been promising, but moves in this direction were still in their infancy. The biggest Australian sponsor is Hobby King.

Brown got hooked on racing after watching a Frenchman in an online video “doing this fun recreational sport a bit like Star Wars pod racing. “At 37 for me it is the freedom of flight and escape from reality. It is in the DNA of every child to fly like a Bird.”

‘It is the freedom of flight and escape from reality.’ TIGHE BROWN

Brown was amazed when he first started looking at the sport to find a shelf. Parts were imported from China and programmers and engineers pulled them together.

Enthusiasts can now buy readymade quads, but Brown said modifications are part and parcel of the craft though battery and the power to weight ratio set limitations.

He has a background in middle management and retail, describes himself as “mechanically minded” but admits he didn’t know the first thing about quad flying when he started buying parts online.

The more he looked into the sport the harder he found it to get involved building, programming and fly the Machines.

“Racing outside was pretty much forbidden for quite some time because of a ruling from the early days requiring visual line of sight to fly your craft,” he said.

Practising was restricted to enclosed areas such as abandoned buildings and warehouses.

Brown met Nowak before he won the US championships, but it was after that win he realised there was a future for the sport and industry.

“From that point we were able to develop clubs through mates joining forces to work within the guidelines of law.

Melbourne’s Multi-Rotor Club was the first in Australia. There are now around 12 clubs with half of them members of the FPV Association, paying membership ranging from $150 to $300 a year. A few hundred more enthusiasts are backyard drone flyers. It has been estimated around 500 racers are socially active in Australia and 100,000 globally, though that number is likely to have grown substantially, said Brown. Racers fly under quirky monikers with ‘rebel’ being a popular choice in club names.

Brown worked with Nowak commercialising the goggles and meeting regulators to address issues such as security, safety and people’s privacy and security, paving the way for the clubs and competition.

“We fly around trees and race each other. We were not interested in what other humans are doing,” Brown said.

“We went to the Model Aeronautical Association of Australia for support and we built a relationship with Recreational Aviation Australia (RAAus).

“It was all about public liability and mitigating risk.”

Regulatory hurdles were resolved so the sport could come out in the open. The Defence Force also came on board, offering what Brown said is invaluable development support for the sport. He and association past president Mark Cocquio produced a video of the Army’s quads that has been viewed by many online.

The Australian Army team participated in national events Brown organised in 2016 and 2017 on the Gold Coast. In the first year 57 pilots competed and in 2017 there were around 70.

There are other Australian events such as the six-race series established in 2015.

By its nature, drone racing, like motor-racing, is a male dominated sport though Brown says there are two or three women in the world who are active on the racing circuits. But overwhelmingly it appeals mostly to young men who are tech-savvy.

An entry level cost for a ready-to-fly quad and goggles is less than $500.

At the top end prices can range from $1,000 to $1,500 for a quad and $700 for high-quality goggles.

An Israeli company is leading the charge on digital, high definition goggles with downlinks that cost between $700-$1,000. But there are still some hoops to jump through, Brown said.

That’s because goggles are still largely operated through analogue transmitters. Quality will break up and there is static and ghosting around trees, but when an analogue link breaks up it will still leave an image whereas when digital drops the screen goes completely black.

With quads flying through gates at between 60-120km/h and courses set on average for travel at 80km an hour, a blackout can spell the end or severe damage to a machine, though with their carbon fibre bodies and flexible propellers they are becoming more Durable.

Signals are sent to the goggles via a 5.8-gigahertz frequency with zero latency as there is no room for delays in video transmission.

“Even if you hit the ground you would have to replace propellers (there are four on each corner of the drone) but they cost only $5 each to replace,” said Brown.

“You would have to slam into a tree trunk or concrete floor to break the carbon fibre body.”

Some have been known to reach 200km/h on straight stretches so buffer zones between spectators, pilots and the craft are imperative.

“Crashing is part of the learning,” said Brown.

“Even after several years of crashing you are not learning if you don’t push yourself to the next level.

“It’s much like racing a car in a computer game or simulator. You push left or right on the stick through learned behaviour and memory.”

But in this case any viewer can tune in and watch using their own goggles or on a big screen.

There is talk of drone racing advancing by the end of the decade to a level where the racers will actually feel like they are flying in the drones, but with virtual effects superimposed over real terrain adding to the craziness of it all. It’s already got the addicts salivating.