Drones are starting to populate the skies. This is not the sign of impending armageddon, but of the ever-expanding hobby of racing drones. A few Prep students have joined in on this trend.

“I saw some videos online of some people from Omaha doing it. They were racing them, so I reached out to one of them on Facebook and they added me to one of their Facebook groups that race regularly and so that got me hooked and I bit the bullet and spent a little money online,” said junior Peter Owens.

Before flying his newly bought drone, Peter decided it would be wise to hone his drone-flying abilities, so he would not break it during his first flight.

“I got a simulator program to help me learn how to actually fly, so that got me good enough so that I wouldn’t crash the first time, but I still did,” Peter said.

Many racers actually construct their own drones. This is because the drone can be easily modified and repaired, as new parts can be found online.

“You usually have three basic parts in a drone: you have a power unit, a battery, a receiver and a flight controller,” said freshman Jack Moore.

Peter’s brother, freshman Paul Owens, has also expressed an interest in drones.

“Factory drones will have a camera on the front and the battery in the back and a lot of the time the weight is not balanced at all,” said Paul.

As far as competitively racing drones goes, there are local leagues, with most of them incorporating headsets that allow the racers to see from the perspective of the drone. In these first-person view (FPV) races, racers guide their drones through a preset course as fast as they can.

“There’s the Nebraska Drone Racing, where most of the races are out of Lincoln, then there’s Prowler FPV, with races in Carter Lake and Bellevue, so most of them are within a reasonable distance,” said Peter of a few of the organized local drone racing competitions.

Overall, Peter has had a hugely positive experience with drone racing.

“Drone racing is an exhilarating hobby that has helped me meet a lot of interesting people. I would recommend it to anybody with an interest in aeronautics and robotics,” said Peter.