How did I end up with a unicorn on my head? After my first real taste of FPV, and learning to rebuild my pile of broken parts multiple times I turned my eyes upward.
Thats when I founded hexinair, a website dedicated to promoting FPV in the local area, with a section at the time dedicated to local flying spots... where I'd go to different locations, fly them, and then put up a video showcasing them.
On one of those videos a local pilot commented and invited me to fly with their group of fixed wing pilots and drone noobs.
For the first time I saw an FPV craft flown by another person, and it blew my mind all over again. Not only that, I had found a flock of people that enjoyed flying, and got the same amazing feelings I did from it. I found kinship.
I pushed my skills forward, trying to keep up with the local pilots in skill and largely playing catch up with them... That's when I heard about the first AMA race coming to town... and knew I wanted to compete.
Hyped up on French 'Star Wars' drone racing videos I spent a solid month in Fortytheives, the local metal Danny spot covered in trees to dodge. That became my training ground. If I could dodge trees continuously while flying, racing seamed easy. 'If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball' Yeah. I'm not classically trained athlete, but I watched Dodgeball, Talladega Nights and played enough grand turismo and star wars episode 1: Racer.... I had been secretly training for this moment my whole life.
The Drone X Data conference held their race at a local high school track. When I arrived the stands they were actually filled with drone industry experts/enthusiasts from the conference... with a course laid out using flags, couple gates, and soccer cones for a line on the ground to follow for the track.
Every other pilot had a quad, and here I was rocking a 290 hexacopter with high camera tilt. I brought a bazooka to a knife fight.
I remember the feeling of adrenaline kicking as I put my goggles down for the first heat. My hands shaking with anticipation. The announcer, in a thick French accent counting down the start. 3. 2. 1.
#tobecontinued #drone #stories
