Droning Road Trip

There was a drone race down near Boston and N wanted to go down and give it a go, for which I give him a lot of credit. It's not easy entering into something for the first time, especially when you're not sure where you stand in the hierarchy. I think it helped that he went to a race and just watched to get some perspective. Coming away from that he told me that he thought he could hang with the big boys. Plus, he was able to set up his own makeshift course at home and practice on his own time.

Now getting to this race was going to be the tricky part. In the past, when situations like this arose, he would sleep over at his buddy's house, who is a drone race extraordinaire, and they would head down together. The problem was that there were complications that made this not entirely plausible, so we decided that we'd take him down ourselves. This, of course, meant that yours truly was going to do the driving. Since we've been driving down that way a lot for surfing, it wasn't such a stretch to drive another half hour past Boston and go to the race, and I was curious to see what an actual race was like. The one big bummer, however, was that I worked the night before and got home late. I went straight to bed but had to wake up around 5:00AM to get there on time. I figured that since I wasn't surfing fatigue wouldn't be a huge issue, which wasn't entirely accurate, but more on this later.

We headed down and got there with plenty of time to spare. They spent the first hour setting up the track and the actual race got started a little late. N had pre-registered so they were expecting him, and they did a quick walk-through to familiarize themselves with the course. It was interesting to see range of people racing, from kids to grandparents. N was on the younger side, and I think I identified one kid who was definitely younger, but everyone else was the same age or older. Sometimes much older, and I'm talking grandpa aged. One other thing I noticed was the absence of girls or women, but maybe that's to be expected.

Regardless of the age, all the racers were very cool and supportive. They chatted together and gave each other tips, and offered their equipment or gear when needed. I didn't sense a lot of overt animosity, though the goal was clearly to win. The whole scenario reminded me of a high school track meet, with heats and rankings and then an eventual final. The timing is similar, too, taking up most of the day, much to my dismay. I figured we would get there at 9:00AM (that's why we left at 6:00AM) and they'd race a few times and we go home at noon. Boy was I wrong. They race heat after heat, with warm ups, practice heats, qualifying heats, and then the actual racing heats. So many damn heats. I was chatting with SMA's dad, JA, who has been to a countless number of these races, and he said he bring several projects along with him to occupy his mind. He said they often go well into the evening, but I wasn't having any of that. I guess the hardcore drone pilots will find just about any excuse to fly.

One thing interesting to note is that these guys are at the forefront of a fairly nascent sport. They are literally pioneers, and one interesting aspect of this is that they all make their own drones and modify them to enhance performance. There are all sorts of things they can do to make them faster, lighter, or more maneuverable. At first glance you'd think that the faster the better, but that's not always the case. Since they have to maneuver through a course, too much speed can be detrimental. It's all about finding the right balance, and that's where the art of racing comes in. Pretty cool, if you ask me.

N was ready to rock and roll and he did fine, struggling a little in the first warm-up heat, but completing the course the second time around. Judging from the other racers, just finishing the course in one piece is an accomplishment. After warm up they got pizza and drinks, and then came qualifiers. Then the actual races. N finished around the middle of the pack, which is pretty darn fine when you consider that this was his first race. The I'm not sure what the future holds but I think he should do more races, especially since he's got a dad who's willing to cart him to farthest reaches of New England. Outside of that, I'm not so sure.

The race actually ended sooner than I was led to believe, which meant around 3:00. That's still a long day, from 9:00 (6:00 if you include travel time) to 3:00. I was tired and hungry, but couldn't eat too much because I had to drive home. Even still I drank a large ice coffee on the ride home but still felt the irresistible tug of drowsiness. We stopped at the toll in Concord to get him some dinner, and actually ran into two friends, one of whom is our neighbor. I got N a chicken wrap that wasn't (surprisingly) too expensive.

We got home in the late afternoon and I felt like I could finally eat some food, whereby I proceeded to engorge myself and then take a “phat nap.” This, in addition to all that coffee I drank, didn't seem to affect me that evening as I slept just fine. Funny how that works.

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Until the next time, thanks for reading, and thanks to Bashir Naimy for the pic.