Our Journey In Drone Racing - Chapter 2

Hi, this is Seán again. So it has been a while since the first post of our journey in drone racing and a lot has happened since then. The national competition will be on the 15th of May (only 5 days away from when I'm writing this. Yikes!). So let's get right down to it.

Why are we competing in Drone Racing?

As explained in the first chapter of this series:

Drone Racing (FPV) involves a mini camera mounted on your drone streaming live video, giving the pilot first person view of the action! This competition involves designing and assembling your own FPV Drones. Using hi spec goggles and a mini camera on top of your drone, whizz around obstacles, LED gates and other competitors as you hurtle towards the finish line! Not only will you learn how to design and build your own drone but you will also master controlling it at speeds of up to 185 Km/h!

By entering the Syndic8 competition, we'll learn about team management, sponsorship research and negotiation, designing and manufacturing our aircraft, documentation writing and presenting, and of course drone racing!

Where are we now?

In the previous post, we had only just ordered our equipment but now, they have arrived. Me and two others have been extremely busy these past few days, pulling the circuit together with the motor kit and cameras. We have been working tirelessly over the weekend and staying up late to make sure our drone will be perfect. While the three of us have been working on the circuits, our designer has been working even harder to finish and polish off the final design for our drone frames to be 3D printed as soon as possible.

What have we left to do before the Syndic8 competition?

We're relieved and proud to only have very little left. The frames have yet to be 3D printed but we are sure we will have them ready soon. We are currently finishing up our portfolio that we will print off soon. Once our drones are put together, we will hopefully be putting it through a series of tests both to check for any possible problems (hopefully very few) and to determine who our flyers will be. We're confident our prototypes will be amazing from the start.

Have we encountered any issues?

Unfortunately, yes. Our biggest issues at the moment are our First Person View (FPV) goggles. Due to an unexpected issue with the suppliers, we probably won't be able to have our goggles in time for the competition. Luckily, Syndic8 (the entity hosting the competition) have told us that, just in case, they will have some for us. Our next biggest issue is relatively minor. We have yet to figure out how we will be traveling to the competition. Because the competition will be held on a working day, we need a way to get to the competition and we also have yet to talk to our year head so that we may miss school. Luckily, those are our only problems. And they should be easy to tackle. That's all for now and next time, I will be talking about our experience at the competition and hopefully, how we won in a blaze of glory [Keep reading - Our Journey in Drone Racing Final Chapter]