The Ultimate Drone Racing Guide

If you want to learn about drone racing or flying FPV quadcopters, you are at the right place!  Our Drone Racing Guide is the ultimate miniquad resource for all skill levels!

As we’re sure you already know, or are soon to find out, there is a lot of learning involved in flying these amazing machines. When we got into this hobby, we were flabbergasted by the lack of cohesive knowledge regarding building and flying miniquads. Don’t get us wrong, all of the information you need to know is out there, it’s just spread out across several forums, hundreds of blog posts, and tons of YouTube videos.

Our goal is to organize all the information you need in one place.  This comprehensive guide will get you through the entire process of learning to fly, researching and buying parts, building your quadcopter, and finally flying it. Think of it as your “Drone 101” learning guide. Our articles also serve as extensions of this guide, providing even more references to valuable blogs, videos, and forums you can review for even more information.

To summarize, the goal of the drone racing guide is to:

1. Provide a neatly-organized directory of articles and videos that can get a newbie with absolutely no experience in the hobby flying.
2. Keep this directory up to date so that the miniquad you build will have the most up to date hardware and software.  This means you spend less money avoiding making the same purchasing mistakes we, and others in the hobby, made.

Having said that, let’s get into it!

If you are totally new to the hobby, we highly suggest you start from section one.  Reading as much as you can from sections one and two could save you a ton of money or prevent a dumb accident like cutting up your fingers or burning down your house.

If you’re experienced with RC aircraft, be it quadcopters, planes, or other multicopter devices, you can probably skip around a bit. You can use the section titles to direct your research to topics you are interested in.

 

Section 1: Radio Control, FPV, and miniquad basics (learn to fly)

This section documents the basics on drones / quadcopters / multicopters / etc.  This is a great place to start if you want to learn the basics, refresh on terminology, or want to start training without actually buying anything too expensive.  If you are looking for information on how to start flying quadcopters, simulators for training, and introductory knowledge, this is definitely the section for you!

1. Types of drones – toys, racers, and more!
2. What you need to know before getting into the hobby
3. How much does it cost?
4. Starting FPV Racing FAQ
5. Common terms and acronyms in the hobby
6. FPV Racing Simulators: the ultimate list of FPV simulators!
7. Learning to fly using a micro quad – the ultimate beginners guide to flying.
   1. Selecting your first micro quad
   2. Planning and prep for training
   3. Locations – where to fly
   4. Training exercises – flying and training exercises
8. Starting with drone simulators: The most effective way to train with an FPV simulator
9. Setting up your Taranis to be used as a simulator controller
10. Drone Racing Simulators (and reviews)

 

Section 2: Advanced Learning & Research

So you’ve decided you want to build a quadcopter. The articles in this section will help you understand what decisions you need to make before buying parts, what the parts do, how to pick the best one, and where to buy it from. It also touches on some of the legal issues in the hobby as well as some important safety topics you should be aware of.

1. Decisions you will need to make before purchasing anything
2. Anatomy of an FPV miniquad
3. Buying options: build from Kit vs RTF vs parts
4. Quadcopter wireless antenna theory
5. Where to buy stuff
   1. Choosing a retailer
   2. Propwashed miniquad vendors listing
6. Legality
   1. Drone regulation FAQ
   2. Do you need to register your drone with the FAA?
   3. Do you need an amateur radio operators (HAM) license?
7. Safety
   1. General drone safety: How to protect yourself from your flying blender.
   2. LiPo Battery Safety
   3. How to pick a flying site.
   4. Interacting with the public while flying
   5. How to build a smoke stopper

 

Section 3: Drone Racing Buyers Guides

Our buyers guides are so much than just a list of products you should buy – each guide consists of a long article explaining exactly what the component being discussed is, how it works, what you should look for and who the reputable sellers for that component are. These articles are “must-read”s for piecing together your first drone or figuring out replacement parts.

1. Main buyers guide page
2. Gear buyers guides
   1. Radio Systems – RC Transmitters and Receivers
   2. Video Goggles
   3. HD Action Cameras
   4. Battery Charger Link
3. Miniquad parts buyers guides
   1. ESCs
   2. Motors
   3. Flight controllers
   4. PDBs
   5. Frames
   6. FPV Video Transmitters
   7. Propellers
   8. FPV Antennas
   9. FPV Cameras
   10. Spare parts: extra quadcopter components for finishing your build and repairs

 

Section 4: Equipment and Tools

Having the right tools available will make your life a lot easier when it comes to building your quad. In this section, we go over all of the one-time-purchase equipment you will need. We also discuss nice-to-haves and explain why you may want to buy them. Finally, we link some tutorials for some of the common things you may want to do with this equipment.

1. Purchasing Tools
   1. What order should equipment by purchased in?
   2. Tools needed for building a quadcopter
2. Using your tools
   1. Soldering 101
   2. How to use a multimeter
3. Advanced video receivers (diversity / ground stations / etc)
4. Battery charging guide
   1. Battery safety
   2. Charging multiple batteries using the same charger (parallel charging)

 

Section 5: Building your miniquad

So you have all your equipment and parts and you’re ready to build your miniquad. This section covers the basics of miniquad assembly.

1. How to build a racing drone
   1. Frame Assembly
   2. ESC Installation
   3. Flight Controller Wiring‘
   4. Finalizing your build
   5. FPV System Assembly
   6. Finalizing your build: cleanup and testing
2. Software Setup Guide
   1. Configuring your RC Transmitter (Taranis/Spektrum/FlySky)
   2. Flashing firmware
   3. Configuring BLHeli ESCs
   4. Configuring Betaflight
   5. Advanced software setup tips (filters, srates, etc)
3. Build tips to improve durability
4.  PIDs
   1. Basic guide Link (Oscarliang)
   2. Advanced guide Link (iflyquad) Link (Joshua Bardwell)

 

Section 6: Flying

This section focuses on learning to fly and advice on how to improve your aerial skills.

1. Tips for your first flight
2. Beginner tips for becoming a better pilot
3. Getting into rate mode
4. Moving from intermediate advanced flying.
5. Learning to race: moving from advanced to competitive flying
   1. Advanced Racing: Introduction
   2. Advanced Racing: Tighten Your Corners
   3. Advanced Racing: Hitting the Apex
   4. Advanced Racing: Prioritize Exit Speed
   5. Advanced Racing: Plan Your Line
   6. Advanced Racing: Applied Cornering

 

Section 7: Troubleshooting and FAQs

1. How to diagnose and fix RC receiver problems with Betaflight
2. Diagnosing and fixing a stutter in your motors

 

Section 8: Guides for Advanced Pilots

1. Advanced Flight Controller Set-up
   1. Betaflight OSD Set-up Guide
   2. Tuning PIDs the easy way using in-flight adjustments
   3. Betaflight Serial VTX (Tramp) Set-up Guide
   4. Taranis Telemetry Guide
   5. Betaflight Blackbox Set-up Guide
      1. Using Blackbox Explorer to view logs
      2. How to diagnose common problems with Blackbox
   6. Automatic FPV Camera Tilt
      1. FPV Camera Tilt Part 1
      2. FPV Camera Tilt Part 2
   7. Betaflight Filters Guide
      1. Notch Filter Set-up Guide
2. Equipment Set-up Guides
   1. CCD FPV Camera Configuration Guide
   2. How to use various RC systems with Betaflight
      1. How to bind Spektrum receivers with Betaflight
      2. How to enable RSSI on (some) Spektrum receivers
      3. How to use FlySky systems with Betaflight
   3. Understanding DSHOT / DSHOT set-up guide
   4. How to use a multi-meter to diagnose electrical problems
   5. Configuring the Tramp HV to communicate with your flight controller
   6. Adding lights to your quadcopter (LEDs)
3. Advanced Equipment / Tools
   1. Heat gun introduction and buyers guide
   2. 3D Printing
      1. Using 3D printing for drones and quadcopters
      2. Drone Print – 3D printed parts and gear for your drone!
      3. Creating your own quadcopter parts using SketchUp
4. Understanding equipment and flight concepts
   1. How props affect speed
   2. Quadcopter electrical connector guide
   3. Weather Forecasting with Windy
5. Racing Quadcopters and Real Life
   1. How to fly commercial with your racing quad
   2. Starting a flying club
      1. Video frequency management: keeping multiple quadcopters in the air
      2. Course design: Building a challenging and interesting drone racing circuit
      3. Organizing your first drone race: a complete guide to drone race event management!

 

Section 9: Community and Drone Racing

This section will cover the community and hopefully help you find other like minded individuals interested in flying!

1. Quadcopter YouTube channels to check out
2. Active miniquad blogs and community sites
3. Drone racing
   1. Finding a local club to fly with
   2. Things to bring to your first drone race: a complete list
   3. Getting past the local race scene
   4. Drone racing organizations and leagues:
      1. Drone Racing League
      2. MultiGP
      3. IDRA – International Drone Racing Association
      4. Drone Racers – Racing events and news
      5. DR1 Racing
      6. F3Expo
      7. Pro Aerial League

Section 10: Opinion Pieces

1. Digital FPV video (Connex ProSight)
2. Motor kV selection (2300kV vs 2600kV on 5″)
3. Open source software

 

Anything missing?

Do you have any links that you think would fit well into the framework above? We are always willing to link to good content, send us an e-mail:

community@propwashed.com