The world’s best drone racer

Hi, I’m Rudi Browning, I’m 15 years old, and I’m a professional drone racer from Brisbane.

Drone racing is essentially racing and building drones. I’ve got a soldering iron and a workshop at home. I’ve also got a local park near me which I’m often training and building and fixing and racing, so, yeah, it’s heaps of fun and I really enjoy it.

I qualified for the FAI World Championships in Shenzhen, based on an event that I went to in Sydney. I placed highly in that event, qualifying me for the, er, the race in China.

We’ve got the yellow drone of Australia out in front. The red drone of Latvia in second place. Through the bridge ...

The race in China had over 127 competitors from 34 different countries, so there was some brutal competition and, er yeah, I’m super happy to have, er, taken away the win.

The 2018 championship is for the taking. And he does take it, ladies and gentlemen. Australia!

When I crossed the line in first place, I was just so overwhelmed and so happy. Um, so much work and dedication has gone into this racing. I’ve had a lot of bad luck and er, I feel like that bad luck has made this win even sweeter.

Rudi Browning, the champion …

Back home, er, my parents and a bunch of other friends were watching the livestream on a big TV and apparently it was pretty intense, so, yeah, everyone is super, super happy and, er yeah, a really good result.

Drone racing is great for kids, um, from all ages. It’s good for like, it’s a good family environment, it’s a good community and it’s really fun.

In order to start drone racing, you need a controller, that’s what’s you, that’s what’s got the two joysticks, and that’s how you control it. You also need a pair of virtual reality goggles, also known as FPV goggles for ‘first person view’. That way you can see the camera and what’s happening on the drone live and pretty much zero latency, which is amazing.

There’s heaps of Facebook forums and groups and lots of YouTube videos on how to get into it, and, er yeah, it’s really accessible, ’cause, um, the internet’s got heaps of information, and, yeah, people are always welcome to help you out.

Team Australia step forward ...

So, er, Team Australia also came first in the team racing event. Korea was some fierce competition; er, I knew it would be close. I’m just so, so happy to have won and I’m so happy it ended the way it did.

There’s a series called DCL – the Drone Championships League. Um, there’s 16 races in eight different countries all around the world, starting in Switzerland, so that’s very exciting. Er, Team FPVR and Australia will be representing. It should be really exciting next year and I can’t wait to continue with it and see what the future has to hold.

© ABC