I wrote about the new sport – and yeah, it’s a sport – of drone racing for Slate. I headed to World Makerfaire in Queens at the end of September, which was definitely the first time I’ve ever been out to Queens. (It takes a long time when you’re heading in from Brooklyn, as it turns out, though I’m glad the NYC subway has a flat fare).

Drone racing was a huge hit at World MakerFaire 2015, and it was fascinating to watch the public reception, considering that I’d only just become aware of the sports existence a year ago. Here’s hoping we’ll soon be able to bet on high-tech drone races in Macau and Monaco in the not so distant future. Check out the Aerial Sports League for more information.

Some bonus photographs from the event, which didn’t make it onto Slate:

 

Kenneth Loo on the field. FPV goggles are at least semi-cool, if you ask me.

Eli attaching a baseball to a Hiro battle drone,  since,  duh, what else are you going to do?

Jason fixing a drone before getting back into the race.

Reiner is having some sort of strong opinion here but I can’t remember what it was.

In which I experiment with action photography settings on my D600.