Detroit Drone Fans Meet for Races at Dorais Velodrome


Drones, or quads as they’re commonly referred by insiders, tilted their propellers into the blustery fall wind and buzzed through the sky above the infield of Detroit’s Dorais Velodrome Saturday. 

Wearing a neon green coat and knit hat, Harry Arnold, the founder of the Detroit Drone meetup and a professional drone videographer, called drone pilots to the starting gate, the cracked concrete of the 1969-constructed bicycling track, also the site of the on-hiatus Thunderdrome.

Phantoms, they’re called.

Some of the drones, or quad-copters as insiders prefer they be called (they say the word “drone” elicits images of Predator Drones used in war), are smaller, quicker; they fly at upwards of 35 mph and are able to do tricks like barrel rolls. Owners put them together using kits and can spend hundreds purchasing add-ons.

Phantoms are larger, more stable but clunky, used often for video recording. They travel up to 25 mph, can hover stably and come out of the package ready to fly. Phantoms are a bit pricier, upwards of $1,000.

Majorovic, a relative rookie, said you can get into the hobby for as little as $20, if you but one of the small drones that can “land in the palm of your hand.” Generally people spend a few hundred dollars for their first, he said.

“Everybody place their bets,” Arnold joked, and paused, then added, “On which ones going to crash first.”

Most of the pilots pulled high-tech looking “FPV goggles,” over their eyes and grabbed their RC controllers. The “FPV” stands for first-person view. The pilots wearing these fly based on the images fed into the glasses from the camera mounted to the drones.

“I know you’re to my left, because I can hear your voice, but you really lose what’s going on around you when you’re inside,” said Steve Howard of Wyandotte who was attending his first Detroit Drone meet up event Saturday.

Howard said he didn’t want to reveal how much he’d invested in the hobby, stating it might anger his wife if she knew. His quick quad flashed low around the aerial course. Howard did reveal he recently sold a hexa-copter he owned to a friend for $2,500.

Gary Maynard, who said kite flying is his primary hobby, bought his Phantom from a friend for about $700 and said it can fly up to a quarter mile away before losing its signal.

He’s having trouble getting his phantom to link up to the GPS satellite. The lights under the base, supposed to be green, are instead red. He says with the satellite connection, the drone can self-pilot itself back to where it originally took off from if connection is lost, useful if your copter ever goes out of sight.

The group formed in March and grown quickly to include about 130 members.

It meets monthly in Allen Park to talk drones and has had about seven flying events, the last three at the Dorais Velodrome.

The group on Saturday was mostly middle-aged men, and a son of one of the members, though Arnold said he’d invited a “beautiful” female drone enthusiast who didn’t attend.

“We still have a space open for Miss Drone,” he said.

Arnold, calling members “droniacs,” said the purpose is just to have fun and help each other learn. Regarding the big picture, he hopes it garners the interest of kids and young people who can then apply the knowledge they gain to robotics and improving society.

With the rapid growth in private drone technology, there has been some backlash, says Arnold. Drones can now fly further distances and the camera technology has significantly improved over the last several years. Because of concerns that they could be used maliciously or to invade citizens’ privacy, Arnold said the government is trying to sort out guidelines expected to be issued by the Federal Transit Administration in 2015.

Some of the negative response toward private drone ownership is also economic, said Arnold. If people, say a fire department, realize they can get all the same drone capabilities and spend less than $1,000, they’re not going to buy one for $25,000 from companies like Lockheed Matin, said Arnold.

Arnold, who works professionally shooting aerial video, says he’s even received spiteful messages from helicopter pilots who say he’s stealing their business.

With winter approaching, Arnold says the group is looking for some donated space, like a warehouse or parking garage, where the group can meet occasionally for flight sessions until spring.

The group activities are free and open to anyone. Arnold, who made news in August when a punk rock bassist knocked his drone out of the air with a projectile during a skateboarding even he was hired to film in Detroitt, said anyone interested may join the online meet-up for notification on all events.

Source: Michigan Live

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