Are you fed up with fabulous flying footage from your drone?
Tired of taking terrifically stunning aerial photographs with your drone?
Is your drone decimated by dust somewhere in your basement like mine?
Well then, maybe it’s time you gave FPV drone racing a try.
“FPV stands for first-person view,” said Colton Stowell of the Okanagan FPV Racing club.
The drone that Stowell races is not made for taking pictures or video.
“This drone is built for racing and to go fast,” Stowell said.
Definitely not your father’s drone, so to speak, but Stowell says his father-in-law does have one.
“My father-in-law introduced me to drones and I was hooked,” Stowell said.
The key to FPV drone racing is the goggles that the pilot wears.
The goggles allow the wearer to see what the drone’s camera sees.
FPV drone racing isn’t new, but it has really taken off of late.
FPV drone racing started in Australia about six years ago. The sport even has its own world championship, held recently in South Korea.
And now it’s landing in Kelowna with a group called Okanagan FPV Racing, which is organizing a race for this Friday.
“The event is taking place on October 25th, at the Central Sports Club, from 9 p.m. to midnight,” Stowell said.
The drones race around a track made up of pylons and/or gates.
“We try and keep it pretty simple, like maybe a figure of eight, but, again, the sky is the limit,” Stowell said.
The sky may be the limit but they keep the drones pretty close to the ground, so crashing isn’t too much of problem.
So if you are even remotely interested, then race down to the Central Sports Club (1155 Ellis St.) on Friday night and get your own “first-person view” of FPV drone racing
Because the great thing about these hobby sports are the people, who are more than willing to share their passion with you.