Drone Group Visits the FGRR

During the AMA Expo 2018 held at Fairplex on November 1-3, the Garden Railroad was visited by a group of young drone pilots asking if they could fly their palm-sized drones around our layout. Because the drones are so small ( they fit in the palm of your hand) they are categorized as toys and are exempt from the regulations applied to larger drones. Each drone had a built in video camera and the group shared their virtual reality goggles with us so we could see what they were recording as they flew around our layout.

Their spokesperson, Alejandro Bancalari describes their group:

“We’re both part of 415FPV, based out of San Francisco. We build/fly/race drones anywhere from the smallest (like these) all the way up to 5″ class (like what you see on ESPN).

The class of drone we’re flying here is “Tiny Whoop” which is 65mm “motor2motor” distance with brushed motors. It’s all analog video on 5GHz and low power so that’s really the main limitation. Tinywhoop.com is the page for the original guy who came up with this class and his shop sells everything.” – Alejandro Bancalari

More video will be available from Alex. These young men were very courteous and went to great lengths to respect our exhibit. We thank them for sharing this fun look at our layout!