What does it take to learn how to fly a drone? It’s a popular sport and a sought-after job

One of the dreams of mankind is to fly like birds. Scientists and design bureaus have long been developing various devices to turn fantasies into reality. And although we can not personally rise above the ground, but to look at it from a height, and especially at high speed – quite. And drones help in this.

Dmitry Malyshko

drone racing organizer and commentator

I have been involved in radio-controlled models since I was six years old. And by radio-controlled models I mean cars, boats, airplanes and copters. I can build and fly them myself.

Dmitry Malyshko

I come from a dynasty of modelers

My dad is a champion of Moscow during the Soviet Union in corded airplanes and one of the first people in our country who started to get interested in radio-controlled airplanes. My brother is a multiple champion in radio-controlled cars and also knows how to fly airplanes and helicopters. But he went more into business, but I got deeper into this hobby.

Six years ago I managed to open my own gaming club in Odintsovo. A club for those interested in modeling. We built tracks for cars there, we had our own cafe, technical area and a small store. It just so happened that at that time drones started to appear.

We put up a net in the clubhouse and started organizing drone races. From that moment on, I also became interested in organizing such races, and then everything “spun up”.

For several years in a row I have been organizing drone races as part of the Sky Festival.

We do a “drone biathlon” as part of the Army Forum, and this is probably one of the coolest shows with quadrocopters in our country. If we talk about drone races, they are for the enthusiasts, but the biathlon is a show at the intersection of computer games and technical creativity. The drones themselves explode, airplanes explode with their help, everything is on fire and there are a lot of flames around. The whole show lasts for an hour and you can watch it from the beginning to the end. What can’t be said about classic drone races, which last 12 hours.

The story of the first drone flights

It all started with some enthusiastic guys from Australia, somewhere in 2012. They assembled simple quadrocopters, taking for each four airplane engines, four propellers, cross-shaped frame, on which they installed a camera, and began to try to fly. The maximum simple construction of 300-400 mm diagonally, which flew not very fast, but fun.

The Australians immediately posted a video on the net – it went viral. There are still a lot of views. They were flying through the forest to the music from Star Wars.

Because of the diodes on their drones it felt like a real space race.

In general, the idea to take airplanes with cameras appeared about 20 years ago. I first assembled such a thing for oligarch Sergei Polonsky.

Sometime in 2013, drones reached Russia. There were some guys in Moscow who became interested in this and started to build their own drones.

In 2016, the first world championship in drone racing took place in Dubai. The prize fund was $ 1 million. Then the first place was taken by Luke Bannister from England, winning $ 250 thousand, and the third place was won by Vova Meshcheryakov, receiving $ 50 thousand.

Why were there such high prize money? Sheikhs have a peculiarity: if they are passionate about something, they are ready to spend big money on it.

Drone racing in Russia

The very first competitions in Moscow were held in the parking lots of shopping malls. Guys would come at night, give a “kosar” to the security guard not to touch it, and that was it.

The guys flew in empty parking lots between the poles, making up their own courses and negotiating the rules.

At that time, drones would break and fall apart when they fell, and you had to fix them right away. Now the constructions are stronger and more reliable. Sometimes, of course, they break, but this is sport.

Today, pilots build not just one drone, but three or five machines at a time, often exactly the same. They are configured as one and also fly, although there are, of course, minor errors.

One machine has better motors – it’s a drone for the finals, another will be suitable for training, and the third is qualification.

A couple of years ago, national competitions appeared, which are held under the flag of the Russian Aviation Sports Federation. In the discipline of drone racing they give the title of “master of sports”, pilots get a discharge and can go to the European Championship. There are also two commercial leagues: Drone Sport Global and Russian Drone Racing.

Drone Sport Global is Rostec’s league, they hold competitions in Moscow, Sochi, Kazan and St. Petersburg.

Russian Drone Racing is a league made by real geeks. They try to unite all enthusiastic pilots in our country. They make a detailed calendar of all competitions – commercial, club, private. You can monitor the whole country and choose the races that suit you.

There are a lot of competitions in Russia. Large races are definitely held once a month. Simple club gatherings or hangouts – almost every week.

From a simple toy to a prestigious job

Drone racing is a computer game in reality, while there are real laws of physics and innovative technologies. There is no Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V, only a real drone in your hands and technical thought. Many training courses have formed that help put the brain in place.

Flying theory and practice teach how to assemble, control, fix drones, and also quickly navigate in space.

You can choose a career path: go into sports and participate in races, immerse yourself in science, engaged in development and design, or devote yourself to creativity, becoming a photographer and videographer.

There are many first-class pilots in our country, for example, Platon Maximov is one of the strongest drone videographers. He shoots music videos for LJ and Morgenstern. There’s also Volodya, who filmed the Russian Drift Series. There are guys who learned how to build drones perfectly and are now working in Kronstadt, making drones for the defense sector. By the way, there are vacancies for a drone operator to hang buoys on the iceberg.

The ability to professionally operate a quadrocopter is a very popular profession.

Everyone can become a pilot

The first thing we do is go to Aliexpress, look for a simple drone there and buy it. Kits with everything necessary for flights there are for 15-20 thousand rubles. For this money it will be good and meet all the competition rules. Further you start flying at home, having made a couple of figures, rings and tunnels. When you “put your hands” at home – go to the race.

If you suddenly you began to be captured with the head, buy everything in parts. I’ll tell you at once – it will be more expensive, but of higher quality.

When buying a “ready” drone, you can fully realize whether you like this idea or not. If you don’t like it, you won’t regret the money. Just put it up for sale and that’s it. The money will come back, and you’ll enjoy it too. Or you already realize that you fly well, you start to want more, to overtake your rivals, that is, you start to think about it – then the remote control will become cooler, and the drone too.

We always joke among ourselves that any electronics works on “blue” smoke. As long as it doesn’t come out of the electronics – everything works, and if the smoke is out – dry the oars. That’s a constant story in drones. Something burns in them on a regular basis.

Cool pilots also win races by knowing how to properly coat drones with protective varnish.

Drones have a great advantage – they can be operated by absolutely everyone, even people with health limitations. In March this year in Turkey there was a women’s championship, where our girl Natasha took second place.

And the winner was a girl with cerebral palsy from Italy. She is on a wheelchair and not very mobile, but she flies drones just chuma.

Three simple and important rules

The first rule is safety. If you come to a site where other pilots are flying, don’t turn on your drone and take off immediately. You may interrupt someone else’s signal, which can be a serious problem for those around you. Find out where and which channel is free, or better yet, wait until everyone is seated.

Be respectful of other pilots.

The second thing is to have a button that turns off the rpm of the engines. If another pilot has turned on a channel and you start to see a picture of him on the screen or in your goggles, it means you have switched and your machine is out of control. If the signal is lost, your drone will continue to fly at insane speeds in an unclear direction, and this is already dangerous.

A racing drone weighs 350 grams and at a speed of 100 km/h per hour, that’s about 350 kilograms of impact power.

The third thing is proper charging of batteries. If charging at home, use a pack for lithium-ion batteries. If in a car, don’t charge batteries in the heat and when you can’t see what’s going on. I know of cases where hobby aviation modelers have had their cars burn up. They left their helicopters charging in the trunk and the batteries started to burn.

The air is not unlimited

There are bans, of course. All professional drones and those that weigh more than 150 grams must be registered, there are no problems with this, and all the information can be found on the website of Rosaviatsia. If a helicopter falls or is lost, it will be found, identified and returned to you.

In administrative areas – Red Square, Victory Park, airport areas, etc. – flying is forbidden.

There are signs everywhere. If a drone falls on people or hits an airplane, it won’t be funny at all.

If we talk about organizing competitions, here you have to request air. It’s quite a complicated process that all organizers get caught on. The simplest thing is to make a race course covered with a net on top. In this case the track will be considered “closed” and nobody will disturb you. The main thing is that pilots should not fly near this territory. In the case of the Nebo Festival, the air permit has been obtained and “corridors” (a certain order of take-offs and landings of each unit of aircraft according to safety rules) have been organized.