NEW YORK, Aug. 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ — Today, the Drone Racing League (DRL) announced the launch of a critical new safety program for UAV and quadcopter racing events. Announced in collaboration with The White House Office of Science and Technology (OSTP) Workshop on Drones and the Future of Aviation event, DroneRacingSafety.org is an initiative dedicated to developing, standardizing, and sharing drone racing safety protocols.
“Innovative commercial and government platforms and applications for UAS are helping to solve problems, save money, conserve critical resources, and even save lives,” said U.S. Chief Technology Officer Megan Smith. “The Administration will continue collaborating with public and private sector entities to further understand and explore safe and beneficial application of this emergent technology.”
Drone racing is a new sport, exploding in popularity around the globe and is rapidly on track to become one of the most common recreational uses for drones. Despite the global popularity, there has been very limited information on how to organize drone races in a safe, consistent manner that appropriately mitigates the potential risks involved in the sport. A first of its kind resource, DroneRacingSafety.org provides pilots, event organizers, and hobbyists with a practical, easily accessible guide to drone racing safety.
“As the popularity of FPV flight grows globally, it has become more and more necessary to establish best-in-class protocols to ensure racing events are held in a safe manner. We believe it’s important to use DRL’s leadership in the FPV industry to provide extensive information on racing safety, freely available to all pilots and event organizers, based on our deep investment in developing and codifying robust safety standards,” said DRL Founder/CEO Nicholas Horbaczewski.
DroneRacingSafety.org offers best-in-class protocols for event organizers based on DRL’s extensive experience and research in the field of drone racing safety and event production. Further, the site will ultimately serve as a forum for discussions on technology, safety and educational materials for event organizers around the world. The site will grow to include expert advice on personal drone safety, interviews with industry leaders, and research reports on drone parts and safety equipment performance. Key features of the site include:
A practical guide to safely organize a drone race;
Best practices for drone handling; &
Event safety checklist.
DRL implemented these safety guidelines starting with their first race of the 2016 season, and will bring the method to multiple international competitions in 2017 and beyond. The company launched in January 2016 as the premier international drone racing league for elite pilots, with custom built racing drones traveling in speeds above 80 MPH through the most insane three dimensional courses ever created outside of a video game. The DRL launch video can be found here: The Sport of the Future | DRL.
ABOUT DRL
DRL is the premier drone racing league. A sports and media company, DRL combines world-class flight skill and proprietary technology to create engaging drone racing content with mass appeal. In 2016 DRL will launch a global events series culminating in a World Championship. Founded by Nicholas Horbaczewski in 2015, DRL is a privately held company headquartered in NYC. For more information on the 2016 race season, visit www.drl.io. To join the conversation, follow DRL on Facebook at facebook.com/thedroneracingleague, on Twitter @DroneRaceLeague, and on Instagram @thedroneracingleague.
CONTACT INFO
Ben Johnson, Head of Communications, DRL
[email protected]
It’s good that they brought out these safety guidelines as they are pretty important and worthwhile to this sport 🙂