What you will need to be a drone racer

So you want to be a drone racer? Here is a quick breakdown on what you will need.

First is a drone. Racing drones aren't like regular aerial photography drones, but are ones built for speed and agility. Hence, don't expect a fancy casing - it is basically four propellers and motors at the ends of an x-shaped carbon fiber frame.

Frames measure 300mm diagonally from motor to motor.

Stacked in the center are flight controllers, electronic speed controllers, video and radio transmission modules and first-person view (FPV) cameras. To keep things as lightweight as possible, batteries are of a smaller capacity. As such, flight times for a racing drone at full thrust are around two to three minutes.

When it comes to racing, the most important thing is to get a favourable power to weight ratio.

It is the racers' job to tweak their setup to see how much power they can get out of the drone, while having as little weight as possible. Racing drones typically weigh between 350g and 400g, while some can go up to 800g.

You aso need a remote controller and FPV goggles. The latter are akin to virtual reality goggles and put your eyes in the drone. Some racers, though, opt for a screen attached to their controller instead of using goggles.

Depending on how quickly you take to the sport, and how often you crash, drone racers in Singapore spend an estimated three to five thousand dollars a year on their hobby.

One last thing: get a cool-sounding name. Like real pilots, drone racers have individual callsigns, such as "Radikal FPV".