Hey Guys,

This is probably the first official launch for India Drone Nationals. It will take everyones participation and help to achieve this dream. Hopefully we might even see India among the countries at the Drone Worlds if we take this forward on a bigger scale.Here is the launch video for IndiaDroneNationals

Please Share, Like the FB page to stay updated
https://www.facebook.com/IndiaDroneNationals/?fref=nf



There will be a google Doc form published on the page soon so that pilots into mini/plane FPV racing across India can register so that we can have a headcount of how many pilots are there.Also the plan for now is to nominate a person from each city across india where FPV racing Groups exist so that this person could be the point of contact to gather information, suggestions etc for holding the nationals. Also on a more broader level we would like to know how many such FPV groups are there across cities and how many members in each Group. Currently such a group exists in Bangalore which is 9 member strong and i am sure there are more.

So , looking forward to receiving suggestions etc from you guys regarding the same and if anyone has any specific ideas,wants to contribute,help organise/support feel free to PM.

Thanks
Devesh

Nice initiative but what bothers me is the WORD DRONE.  We are into a hobby that is called Aero Modelling of which Multirotor ( Drone ) is a part. Already the word drone has gained enough Negative Popularity in India.  Then why again use the same word.  Its my sincere request to change the title of the event to some other name.  Thanks n Regards.

@miginstruments thats old now. drone is now the accepted term. you cant change it. as with any new technology, attitudes are changing... such initiatives can only help increase the popularity. i'm all for it!  
looking forward to more updates!

Its still not legally accepted sir.  All i want to say is that because of this term the entire event shouldn't be stopped before it takes of.

@miginstruments - Multirotors with complete autonomous capabilities and FPV setups do not really fall under aeromodelling as such. Also like aniket said its about time people change their attitude towards this. Lets not have a debate about this as this is never ending. I do understand your concerns regarding this though and it will be a major challenge as we move ahead but there are ways around this so do not worry much  

Yup Multirotors that's what I wanted to say.

Well seeing the initiative to have the drone nationals in a country like us where the hobby is much less known to people is certainly
a great endeavor and it could potentially boost and promote the fpv and drone racing. I am flying fpv since a year and a half and watching
drone race videos in youtube, was the most i could do. being a part of the national event and being in the root of it will give many of us
a great privilege. Its just becoming mainstream and now its high time we should upfront this among our people. As exciting it is we may not know we could find a great deal of enthusiasm in the people.

This should be definitely implemented and yes we may have to face certain legal circumstances but when u wish to fly who can stop u. With the collaborative effort this can be made a huge success. Agreed with dunder93http://www.rcindia.org/profile/?u=4895 and ready for it.

Devesh, dude i am totally up for this, How about we build a official website first

I am in!

@sagnik you can be the official racegate sponsor  >: )

No worries, I will talk to dys about the race gates

Why race gates... PVc tube , a few elbows and led strip is all v need !

  One tiny crash, and it will break the shit out of those PVC tubes there's a reason why people manufacture and sell racegates

And guys who think its impossible to get permission and stuff, What if the event is organized in an indoor warehouse?

The main problem would be location. We are all scattered in India. I mean it won't be possible for me, staying in Mumbai to travel to Delhi or Banglore for the event and same lies for others. If we can organise different individual events in states having majority of flyers then.... But again cost is the issue here.

it will be pretty much impossible to organize races state-wise right now, coz it will just be a waste of both resources and money just like you said, i think its better to have a national meet, we will know and interact with every drone racers in India and have a great time , and Darshan you can always make some time for what you love

Nice to see the response   Guys venue shouldnt be a big issue. Indoor warehouse will be nice but one bad hit and if you dont have a backup quad you might be out Sagnik nice opportunity to get things sold  
Darshan, state wise races will be a solution going ahead but presently given we dont have that many flyers in each state it will be a waste of resources like sagnik said. But people from a common city need to start grouping together and you guys can just have some races amongst yourself, start setting up some Multi Gp UTT tracks and get some times on that. We can then have a cummulative lap time chart for flyers in India on the IDN page/website etc.
So it will be best to first hold a national meet, and i am sure if you are really into Mini/racing wing FPV you will make it   It will be most likely be a two day event spread across saturday and sunday with a lot of racing events/activities. First of its kind in India so like sagnik said its about getting everyone together and having a blast.
The idea is to hold a survey/registration soon and see what people would like/not like etc and build up the first idea of the event based on that.
I understand if you are still a student, you might have monetary constraints so we will try our best to take all factors into account.

PS: there will definitey be a night track like the FPV lightrax one 

I am just a beginner at flying. Just got my FPV setup last month and I am unable to fly lately due to rains. Also, I don't have any good wide field to fly. I have a place in mind but the rains are again a pain. Mastering FPV will atleast take me 2 months minimum.
@dunder93 Yup monetary issues and time availability issues are the current problems

Most are getting into the hobby lately, but unlike before you guys have an advantage of having LHS shops carry almost everything you need for flying FPV mini quads and at awesome prices, Last year i sat idle for 4 months just cause i couldnt import ESC's to get my quad flying  and then when i finally got a job, no time to fly  till i met pravesh  anyways my point being each one of us will have to make some sacrifice or another if we want such an event to happen and well that is the risk you take when you enter this FPV hobby 
Just get as much stick time as you can in the meanwhile till the event.
Once again the aim of the first event isnt to be really competitive but to get everyone together on the same track and then take this forward collectively

When and Where are you deciding to organize this event?

Like i said that is yet to be announced/decided and will happen once we have everyones view regarding when and where through a survey that is coming soon (end of this week or so), which will updated here and the Fb page (and the website when its ready).

hi guys i am from punjab i have 2 more guys from punjab we will in to India drone national..... thanks
https://www.facebook.com/250quads/
here is propkillers fb page hit like if u r a propkiller
any contribute to grow this hobby pm me

Its a good start. I have my first FPV racer ready but yet to fly it because of the rains. I guess it will take a lot of time for me to master FPV flying, if it survives the likely crashes No issues with calling it a drone national as the whole world is using the term. It won't make a difference if we call it something else.

One thing that works as a relief is that small racers are not readily recognised by others as "drone" and not likely to be perceived as a threat, inspite of the capability. An indoor stadium would be a great place for a small scale start. It would also enable us to bypass the DGCA issue because indoor flying will not come under its purview.

Kudos for the extremely good video. Hope to fly like that some day.

The venue will be judged and selected after a small survey of all the possible places in India and it will be held on our website where all fpv racers will post some pictures of some cool spots where the event can be held, without issues, and the website will be fully functional within a week I guess. BTW I have already bought the domain- indiadronenationals.com, working on the website now, and we will make this real

Thanks Sagink sir. I am sure that this will be a great event. We are grateful for your contribution.

I am super excited this is happening!

If we can plan an event a few months in advance, I'm sure we can all make adjustments and do something. If LHS get involved too(Sagnik is very active, which is awesome), it will be even bigger.

I'm sure there are plenty of large indoor warehouses in most cities. Most of these warehouses have very high ceilings so there will be plenty of room to fly. Of course, the floor will probably be concrete, so that sucks.

In Mumbai itself, there is one place called Richardson and Cruddas and another large warehouse that belongs to Piramal. I don't know how expensive it would be to rent it for a day, though.

We can also fly at a farmhouse if someone has one. Or some field in the outskirts of a city like the video at the start of this thread.

Looking forward to see what comes of this!

@Gulzaar, really nice suggestions regarding the warehouse. Just checked richardson, looks awesome for some indoor flying 
Farmhouse is also a very nice alternative or a stadium though not sure if that will be cheap.
We will soon form a small group of flyers from each state and hopefully each member will be able to locate some nice spots with costs/availability etc and then we can sit down and decide a location together.
Yup LHS participation can make a night and day difference when hosting such an event so hopefully looking at sp4mm3r, RChyper etc chiming in 

maybe you can get students studying in colleges to hold some sort of event? like on campus? they generally have a lot of space...

@aniket, yeah i do have this option in mind. Only if i didnt graduate last year would have definitely held it in my college itself  . Pretty awesome locations inside the campus (Delhi Technological University and since there is a popular UAV team there any major tech society would have gotten funds for it). Will still see what i can do but i think if someone here knows people in IIT Bombay, then it can be a huge event as well given iit Bombays fests are good and popular   and they have plenty of space in their campus. If anyone knows someone there who would be willing to host such an event do see if its feasible and update here or PM  

PM'd pls check

Replied as well 

Ashwin Gohte
Event manager for t e c h f e s t 2016
9004516905
ashwin@t e c h f e s t.org

Thanks Himadri 

IIT B is cool! 15 mins away from my house. I had gone there for the Tech fest event and they have a huge ground(full of grass, well maintained) where the competition Phoenix was held. People were actually flying deltas at full power and fpving around. It was a pleasure to watch. It would be great if we can hold an event there

Hi Guys! Would love to participate in such event. Currently I fly mini quad in East Delhi. IF there is anyone flying fpv near around Delhi, please catch up so we can fly together (Y)

Great initiative guys.IIT-B would be cool theyve got good space not sure if we can get the permissions though. There is an abandoned factory in front of my society thats a good place as well to fly, though we may require permission from authorities for an event.

Location

This is the park where I fly my quads. The park is closed from 10am to 3.30pm for the public. We can use this to our advantage. If we get the permission from the Municipal Commissioner to hold the racing event when the park is closed..we would have zero problem from the people(common people) interfering or worrying about any safety issues. Also the park's terrain is ideal for setting up a race track. If many people are willing to come here we could talk and make this happen! 

I have mailed the MultiGP guys, waiting to see if they show any interest!

Himadri, that's a great looking place, but what about the 200ft rule??

This area does fall in the route of the planes, but the airport is 40km away from this place, and the planes generally don't come below 3000-3500ft. So it should be good!

Great idea! I can come down for a weekend. Though I live in Delhi, but if really happening am ready to show up

Hey Himadri,

I checked on the map - the place is actually 15 km from the airport if you measure in a straight line, but it's still fine. We're not going to fly higher than 200 feet in a race(or even in Acro for that matter). That giant light post looks tempting to dive around!

I do not know who is behind this ?
http://droneracingindia.com/

On that note, is the site up? indiadronenationals.com as sagnik sir said would be the site but I think it's displaying something else. Is this the right site?

The site is under development so you may see lots of inappropriate stuff ,it will be functional after two days

So I had messaged multi GP guys about helping us out in conducting the drone nationals... Good news they are more than willing to help. All they want from us is to form a chapter on multigp.com 

@Himadri That's awesome news! Lets do it....

Oh sorry didnt see your previous msg , yeah manjunath has also talked to chris in the past as well. Cool will register a chapter on MultiGp then as India Drone Nationals. But Himadri i recommend you start a Mumbai chapter also on MultiGp. Will Start a Bangalore Chapter later. So that whenever you guys have a local event in the future its easier to keep people informed.

Yup regional chapters could be a good idea we would get track of how many miniquad FPV flyers are there in the area

How many Mini Quads Pilot are from Delhi.. Ping Back...

@himadri, exactly chapters are city or state specific, So cant really have a chapter for India Drone Nationals. So its best that we make State Wise Chapters or city, make a FB page.
@iayan, do you know shubham? he sent a msg earlier that he is trying to build a community there in Delhi as well. so get in touch with him if possible

@dunder93 sure. I'll find and DM him.

Hey Guys,
Pre Registration for IDN is out now. Please use the Form Below to register yourself.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc0DANZINIm3HtUMRIEgplhocw4sbAjRTXN6DT8fO9FenKRnQ/viewform

Note: This is not the main registration for the event. That will happen when the event details are finalised and will happen on the website.
This is to get a Pilot headcount and gather information to layout the first draft for the event and also to create a common group so that racers across India can interact with each other (will be a whatsapp group to begin with)

So please share this with racers whom you know and lets get this rolling.

 

The Link will not open

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc0DANZINIm3HtUMRIEgplhocw4sbAjRTXN6DT8fO9FenKRnQ/viewform

Have changed the link in previous Post as well. Try now

I have recently built my first quadcopter (an XY500 reptile). While looking for components and such for my quadcopter, I came across 250mm race quads. I ended up researching drone racing and was completely blown away by what I found. I got into watching fpv  videos on youtube and started researching about it. Now, i am planning to build a RoboCat 270 racing quad. I've ordered the initial components. I am a 2nd year Mechanical student at Manipal Institute of Technology, Manipal. Since i need to manage college work along with this hobby I expect my build to be completed in the next month and a half or so. Anyway, I feel like colleges and schools are a great place to really spread the hobby by conducting workshops and such.Also, colleges and schools will have grounds which are conducive to quad racing(in manipal, we have this area called end point which has a HUGE ground and is vehicle-free). Students will be instantly mesmerised by the adrenaline and awesomeness associated with drone racing and i believe that colleges will be the place to look for aspiring drone pilots.

Any follow up to this topic?

hey all Me and Sagnik will help with race gates and flags ..!!! and final the place with survey thanks