The Park drone team competed in the Youth Drone Sports Championships at Benilde March 8. According to Senior Will Schwietering, the event highlighted how unique drone racing is as a sport. 

“Drone racing is unlike any other sport, it’s like robotics but everybody gets to build their own part of their robot, and then everybody gets to be the driver,” Schwietering said. “You fly in a first person view so it’s a lot like playing a video game but in real life.”

According to mentor Adeeb Missaghi, drone racing is exciting because it’s an advanced sport where you have to be able to adapt.

“It’s fun because there’s so many different aspects of the hobby that you’re forced to learn, such as building them, flying them, repairing them and maintaining them,” Missaghi said. “The culmination of all of these just makes for a very exciting sport.”

Junior Clayton Horstman Olson said, his personal goals for the competition included getting faster times and trying not to crash.

“I was going into it wanting to get really good lap times and preventing a crash because i’m trying to get better at flying under pressure,” Horstman Olson said.

Schwietering said the team learned how to work together as a team, and what they can do to make their connection even better.

“We found the chemistry between our teammates and how we work together as well as the best things that we can do to improve as a team,” Schwietering said. “We always look back at our footage to see where we can improve in certain elements.”

According to Horstman Olson, the team was determined to beat Apple Valley regardless of how hard it was. 

 “The team really wanted to beat Apple Valley. They are our biggest competition because it’s the last race before state, so we wanted to show up and do really well,” Horstman Olson said.

Horstman Olson said improving takes practice, along with advice from peers on how to improve flying skills.

“Getting good just takes a lot of time and putting in effort, but we meet up after school to practice together and we give each other tips on how to get through gates faster and find better lines to fly,” Horstman Olson said.

Missaghi said the team is really good at piloting their drones, but they need to improve how they care for the drones.

“They could work on the technical stuff, so keeping the gear operating effectively because they’re already on top of their game in terms of finding the right line and not crashing,” Missaghi said.