Governors Island hosted the 2016 U.S. National Drone Racing Championships last weekend.
BY COLIN MIXSON
It’s official — playing with radio-controlled toys is now a sport.
Governors Island played host to the 2016 U.S. National Drone Racing Championships last weekend, where competitors ranging from teens to mid-lifers dueled in the air with homemade aircraft that soared at speeds of more than 120 miles per hour.
Some devoted drone aficionados traveled from out-of-state to the island park for a chance to hobnob with the hobbyists turned athletes, while locals were enticed across the water by little more than the prospect of a thrilling show.
“It’s nuts how fast these things go,” said Joe Astill, who settled in the Downtown area a decade ago, and currently lives near the South Street Seaport.
The races featured two types of drones, including the common quad-rotor variety — which are stabilized by computer-controlled gyroscopes — with pilots guiding them at breakneck speeds through a course of padded hoops.
The quad-copters were joined by the flying aces of winged drones — larger, faster, and more challenging machines bearing a greater resemblance to traditional airplanes, and which lack the user-friendly, fly-by-wire qualities of their smaller, multi-rotor cousins.
Drone pilot Ian Jefferys flew out from Los Angeles to compete in the national championship and won the tournament’s winged-drone category.
Like the difference between an automatic and manual transmission in a car, wing pilots enjoy the more intimate connection between man and machine, according to Ian Jefferys, who flew out from Los Angeles to compete in — and ultimately win — the tournament’s winged category.
“The experience of flying a quad, it’s disconnected from the environment in a way that wings are not,” Jefferys said. “With the wings, every little bump in the air, you have to manually correct for that. They also fly faster, go further, and all that other stuff.”
Brand-name clothing and tech companies subsidized a few competitors, but most were self-funded hobbyists, who spent big money on their craft — and airfare, according to one pit guy.
“I know me, I paid for all my airfare and lodging and food,” said Adam Dube, a Nova Scotian drone enthusiast who supported Team Legit. “There were a few guys that were paid — the top team pilots from the larger manufactures — they paid for lodging for some of their pilots, but most people paid out of pocket.”
The sport combines knowledge of radio frequencies, engineering, and craftsmanship — most machines were handcrafted by their pilots — with prodigious flying skills, and it was the competitors with the best combination of those disciplines that came out on top, said drone pilot Wyll Soll.
“I would say the best competitors put in a lot of time practicing. They go out flying eight hours a day, seven days a week, but it does also have to do with technology,” said Soll. “If your tech lets you down, you don’t fly.”
The large crowds, numerous vendors, and the competition’s broadcast on ESPN 3 — all absent from last year’s tournament — along with the choice of Governors Island as the venue to host the latest championship struck some competitors as a validation of the hobby’s slow-but-sure recognition as a legitimate sport, according to Jefferys.
“It’s very cool to have this backdrop, you really feel like you’re at the center of something cultural, even if it’s a subculture of sorts,” the champ said. “It feels very validating. You don’t feel like you’re a couple of hobbyists dorking around in a field somewhere.”
Last weekend’s competition was put on by the Drone Sports Association, which sanctions races in 40 countries. The U.S. national winners will represent America in the inaugural World Drone Racing Championships in Hawaii in October.
Some competitors found the island setting more a hassle than a boon. Soll complained of strict regulations that delayed construction of the course, and ESPN’s wireless broadcast signal, which occasionally interfered with the connection between the pilots on the ground and their machines in the air.
“It honestly created a lot of issues,” Soll said.
But for a bunch of guys used to flying solo in an empty field, the roar of the crowd as their flying machines made a low pass over the stands was well worth the inconvenience.
“It’s really cool,” said Jefferys. “Usually, playing with RC toys doesn’t evoke that experience.”
