Racing in the sky: an interview with a professional drone pilot

From 11 to 13 May, the X International Navigation Forum was held at Expocentre. In one of the pavilions there were two race tracks for drone racing organized by GLONASS NP in partnership with Yota. Here multicopters pilots competed with each other, guiding their vehicles through a series of obstacles: rings, jumps, gates, bridges and tunnels.

Amateurs and professionals competed separately from each other. Newbies could try their luck on the track during the three days of the forum, according to the results of each day, the winner was awarded a valuable prize - a quadcopter. Professional pilots fought for the title of the best on May 12. Applications for participation in the race were submitted by 32 athletes, after the qualifying rounds 17 people reached the final. One of the conditions of the race professionals was the use of virtual reality helmets to control the drone.


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We talked with the winner of the competition, Vladimir Meshcheryakov, about racing drones, his impressions of the competitions and about how the world of professional drone racing lives today.



He first tried to fly a drone just a year ago, and now he already has a bronze medal at the World Championships in Dubai - World Drone Prix 2016 .

Final WDP 2016, recording from the camera of the drone Vladimir:

What is a racing drone

“Most professional pilots fly on self-assembled copters, making a good racing model costs an average of $ 200- $ 300 ,” says Vladimir.

Today, thanks to the active development of both the drones themselves and this sport, good production models are emerging, and many athletes are already using them in races. To do this, they do not need to tune: they are able to equal with the "homemade" drones. One of the best professional drones is produced by Team Black Sheep (TBS), the most popular model is Vendetta . Also very widely used drone Vortex PRO from the company Immersion. Vladimir usually flies on the drone of his own assembly, but he also has the Vendetta (in the photo on the right).


Photos from the personal archive of Vladimir

What is the difference between "racing" drone from the "usual"? Racing as easy as possible. It does not have any extra elements: GPS sensors, security systems and some nice additions. There is also no automatic return function to the base if the connection with the operator is lost. Racing drone requires only maximum speed and maneuverability, the motors are installed more powerful. But you have to pay for power - the flight time of racing drones is very small and averages 3-5 minutes.

In professional races there is a limit on the size of drones: the distance between the rotors of diametrically opposite motors should not exceed 330 mm. The most commonly used drones from 210 to 250 mm, on larger machines, almost none of the professionals do not fly. But at the competitions there are absolutely tiny devices of 130 mm each. The number of engines is usually not regulated, but almost all pilots fly quadcopters - this is the best option in terms of power, weight and aerodynamic drag.

What is the drone? “First of all, this is the frame on which all the equipment is mounted. It is usually made of carbon fiber. The power plant, as a rule, consists of four motors and four controllers that control the motors. Next comes the battery and flight controller . ”

For review, the FPV - First Person View system is used. It consists of a camera and a video transmitter. Analog video cameras are installed on racing drones, transmitting the signal to PAL or NTSC. Such conservatism is due to the low latency, which is still unattainable for digital FPV systems. The video signal is transmitted at a frequency of 5.8 GHz and is displayed on the display of points. To control, use a special remote control that operates at a frequency of 2.4 GHz. The glasses display information OSD (on-screen display), which allows you to control the battery charge level. If there is a GPS sensor on the drone, then data from it can also be displayed. With the increase in the number of transmitted video signals, interference begins to occur, so now in some races no more than eight drones can participate simultaneously (more often four).

In professional racing drones, auxiliary correction algorithms are not applied, stabilization and alignment are not performed. Drone precisely fulfills all movements of controls. As mentioned above, no security systems are used to reduce the weight on professional copters, so if you lose communication with the operator, the drone immediately turns off, falls and can break.

Professional racing

Unlike, for example, Formula 1 cars, drones do not play a special role in competitions. “Their size is small, flying and maneuvering vehicles very quickly, so pilots usually express their individuality with the help of LED backlighting. On racing drones, there is only one course camera aimed forward. The backlight is located in the back of the drone, so that it can be seen by rivals flying after it. This avoids collisions. ”

For his drones, Vladimir chooses flickering blue LEDs. However, in some races, athletes are forced to use the color that the organizers indicate. For example, at the World Championships in Dubai, four drones participated in each flight: with white, green, red, and blue lights. Professionals usually leave themselves the opportunity to customize the color. By the way, Vladimir installed only blue LEDs, so before each race we had to rewire the backlight to meet the requirements of the jury.

Athlete's Weekdays

Like any athlete, drone raiders need to constantly train so as not to lose the skill. The most venerable athletes train every day for several hours. Vladimir can not afford to devote so much time, he has a main job and a family. Therefore, workouts usually take place a couple of times a week for 2-3 hours in the evenings. “When the children are laid to sleep, we are going to the deserted free parking of the shopping center and arrange flights. At night, parking is empty. It happens that the guard is interested in what is happening, and usually the issue is resolved peacefully: we honestly tell and show what we do, and continue to train. The guards are watching with interest, sometimes asking to try to “drive”. ”

“Naturally, the drone is a fragile thing. The racing drone flies fast, maneuvers very actively, flies close to obstacles and has neither active nor passive security tools. Therefore, breakdowns occur regularly, all the time you have to change something: blades, frames, engines. ” Vladimir rides to the competition with three drones at once, in order to use a spare one in which case. And by the way, our interlocutor is an ardent supporter of the use of drones in everyday life.

By the way, in September last year, Yota for the first time in the telecom market conducted an experiment on the delivery of SIM-cards by drones . It is hoped that in the near future multikopter can be widely used to solve all sorts of business problems. But this requires the popularization of this technology, both among businessmen and among consumers.

Also, one of the ways to popularize the use of drones could be the appearance of the official Russian league of drone-racing. And if the "Formula 1" is very far from the traditional vehicles, the race drones, by contrast, perfectly demonstrate the possibilities that can be used in many areas of life: speed, maneuverability, the ability to quickly reach hard-to-reach places. Multicopters are developing rapidly, becoming more reliable, all sorts of security systems are flying longer, improving. And although now the market for services to use drones is still small, in the coming years it will grow rapidly.