Switzerland's best drone pilots meet for the league's season opener in St.Gallen. Switzerland is still the only country in Europe that has a national drone league and it is popular: more and more Swiss people want to be part of it.
They are sitting on office chairs, holding a controller in their hands and wearing virtual reality goggles, their mouths half open, wrinkles forming on their foreheads. Pure concentration. That has to be the case. Drone pilots not only have to guide their athletes - a camera on a flying cross - through numerous obstacles, but they also have to be fast enough to leave the competing drones behind.
The best can go to the World Cup
The Swiss Drone League has been around for just under two years. There are currently around 65 active athletes, with 40 able to take part in a race at any one time. "There are five races a year," says co-founder Joris Zahnd. "These races form the league. Whoever wins the most races becomes the Swiss champion." Switzerland's top three are then allowed to go to China for the world championships. "Switzerland is the only country in Europe that has a national league.
The Swiss Drone League (SDL) will start its new season in April. Five locations across Switzerland have been found where the "Formula E of the skies" can present itself to a wide audience as a new sport between eSport, VR and physical racing.
With five high-profile tour stops in St. Gallen, Lugano, Lucerne, Bern and Zurich, the Swiss Drone League (SDL) is building on its previous success. The weekend of 18 and 19 April is the kick-off: There, at the Athletics Centre in St.Gallen, the drone pilots will compete against each other for the first time this year.
Every pilot has a pit lane
"The virtual reality goggles make the pilots feel like they are inside the drone. Anyone can take part in the championship: "We have participants who are 13, others are 53 years old, and women and men are not separated. According to Zahnd, the races are a bit like Formula 1 races: "It's all about speed and, like in Formula 1, each pilot has a pit lane where he can repair his drone if there's been a crash and there are many collisions at such races." That's why the spectators are also protected with 12-metre-high nets and barriers.
Drone flying is a marginal sport
A drone pilot doesn't earn much money: "It's often just enough to repair the drone if it breaks down. 20,000 Swiss francs are given out as prize money in the league. This is partly in the form of vouchers. The pilots cannot live from flying drones. Not yet: "In the USA and in the Far East, there are pilots who are very heavily sponsored." The league is currently still doing pioneering work, but that could all change in the coming years.
According to Zahnd, there are more and more pilots in Switzerland who are in the league, and there is also interest from other European countries: "We always have foreign pilots at our races, so they can't become Swiss champions, but they can compete with someone that way." The drone league races are currently still free. "We want people to get to know the sport."
Source: fm1today / swissdroneleague
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