Drone racing has really 'taken off' in recent years, if you'll pardon the rather overused pun. You see it everywhere! A really easy way into racing with your friends is by using our brushless Gremlin micro-quads. They are an absolute ton of fun for racing, among other things. To show just a taste of what they're capable of, we went to a trampoline park and built a time trial course around it. Check it out.
The Current Gremlin Lineup
If you're wanting to do a bit of micro-quad racing yourself, you'll be needing an aircraft of your own. The Gremlin is a highly affordable, durable and fun option. It also is extremely customizable with you being able to pick any one of our specially designed frames. Here are some useful links for you to check out our Gremlin products on the FT store to get you started on that journey.
Full build Power Pack G with your choice of frame.
Carbon Frames
Delrin Frames
All of our Gremlin products can be found in our store at this link.
If you're completely new to the Gremlin, you may want to watch our feature video which shows you what this little machine is really capable of!
What went down in the challenge
Josh and Josh were on site to commentate on the proceedings. By the way, if you want to get your hands on one of these Gremlin shirts, they're available on our store.
This challenge saw the first use of one of new Red Tail Gremlin frame in one of our challenges. This design will be available soon in different colour combinations.
The frame was inspired by the Alabama Red Tail squadron that we got to visit recently on an episode. Episode link here!
The course featured some interesting obstacles, like this Alex infested foam pit.
LED gate hoops were included to add a bit more of a challenge around the course. One wrong move could see the daring pilots collide with the gate and be take down and out (unless they have the new turtle mode feature onboard - build video coming soon).
The pilots got to have a comfortable seat while flying on the premises of the trampoline park. Josh and Josh weren't so lucky.
The last round consisted of an actual head-to-head race. It featured a novel frame design from one of our community members!
This is the view from one of the onboard FPV cameras. As you can see, the picture quality remained uninterrupted by static around the long course with the FPV patch antennas.
Some gates were mounted to the roof to spice up the hurdles.
Some of the course was below the trampolines. The lights and sense of speed evoke the feeling of the tunnel at the legendary Monaco F1 race circuit. Now that would be a cool place to build a quad racing track!
Tips for setting out your own quad racecourses!
To maximise the amount of fun you have whilst racing your micro-quads, you're going to need to know how to best use the space around you for flying in. The thing about the size of Gremlins and other drones of their class is that that you can race around really tight areas. It doesn't have to be a trampoline park, all you need is some room where there are no people and plenty of interesting features. Here are five tips.
1) Use physical buildings and structures as obstacles, checkpoints and race corridors. Check out this pic from one of Charpu's videos that we featured in an episode a while back. It makes sense to race a quad down here! Almost like skateboarding and other freestyle sports, you can use the environment to sculpt a playground for yourself to play in.
2) Use trees as natural track limiters. Branches and leaves mean you have to fly beneath them. Also, leaves are not so solid when you hit them which means that you often can get away with nasty crashes with little damage - unless you fall a great distance to the floor or instead hit a substantial branch or tree trunk.
3) Light up gates are useful to have around. You can plonk them down and move them around easily to set checkpoints. What makes them perfect is that they're easy to see in FPV goggles. As a cheaper alternative, you can make homemade gates with PVC pipe. Otherwise, you can even just grab some wooden sticks and push them into the ground.
4) Keep it simple at first. Make sure you have nice flowing corners and that the track isn't too long. You'll be burning a lot of calories to pick up your stranded quad if it's happening every ten minutes! Start off slow and simple and work your way up to epic race courses with multiple difficult sections.
5) Keep it safe. It's obvious, but it's also necessary to highlight it. If you're outside, make sure you're in a quiet place where there are no people walking near to the course where they could get injured. Always ensure you have permission to fly where you do. This way, we keep the hobby in a good light and everyone happy!
Tips for upping your flying game
Here is some expert advice from one of the big names in the race quad community - Charpu.
Let us know how you get on with racing your own gremlins by making articles like this one and posting in the forums. We're super looking forward to reading all about it! Thanks for being part of the community.
Article written by James Whomsley
FliteTest.com Editor
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