KUALA LUMPUR, July 16 — It is their international first tournament since the Covid-19 movement control order came into effect in 2020.
And the Team Malaysia drone racing team is prepared to take on the heat at Seoul’s Sky Dome Stadium in Korea, this weekend.
Their participation is in conjunction with the 2022 FAI Korea Drone Race World Cup where 60 professional drone pilots from 10 countries including Malaysia, will be competing for the US$10,000 (RM44,490) grand prize.
Three professional drone pilots will be representing Team Malaysia, along with two managers assisting them at the tournament.
The pilots are Amiruddin Mohamad Khairi, 20, Ryan Shadrach Dev, 23 as well as the 15-time drone racing tournament champion (domestic and international competitions) Muhammad Adam Mohd Khuzairi, 21.
Team Malaysia was formed under the collaboration between two local drone associations which are MYDrone and Drone Racing Association Malaysia (DRAM).
The team is managed by DRAM’s president Mohd Fitri Reza as well as MYDrone’s vice president, Muhammad Azinudin Aizal.
“Thursday is practice day, qualifying will be on Friday and Saturday morning, while the Knockout rounds will begin on Saturday evening.
“And Sunday will be the final,” Fitri told Malay Mail.
Although the tournament invites just came in last month, according to Fitri, the team has been utilising every hour with training since receiving the invite.
“We’ve prepared a simple track for the team to train on. We’ve been doing our training at an open space in Putra Heights.
“They’ve been training on that track for the last month. We also managed to get a rough layout of what could be the track (in Seoul), so we’ve been training based on the layout to get a sense of familiarity,” he said.
Adam and the other pilots remain in high spirits.
“Our hope is to reach the finals. We’ve been training for this, even before we got the invite, we train together every other weekend as per usual.
“We’ve been training more frequently once we get the invite and we also put in extra hours in our training.
“It is certainly our hope to reach the finals,” Adam said, adding that they’re both nervous and excited at the same time.
Aside from Malaysia, the 2022 FAI Korea Drone Race World Cup will also host drone pilots from around the world including France, Japan, Taiwan as well as Singapore and Thailand.
“That’s the thing about international competitions, the nervousness, it hits differently. Unlike any local tournaments.
“We might still be able to keep calm when participating in local events but when it comes to international; we’ll get to see other talented pilots from other countries, we’ll meet a lot of people from different generations coming together.
“The young and even the old timers, we can also learn a lot from each other,” Azinudin said, adding that international events also open the opportunity for networking to further grow the local drone industry.
Azinudin who’s also involved with Team Malaysia’s training shared that they would often do some experiments during their training session.
This includes making the best out of their drone’s battery power.
“The battery is where pilots usually get their precision piloting. Even if you have the fastest drone, it doesn’t mean you’re secured for victory in that race.
“There are still obstacles on the track that you’ll need to face along with sharp turnings. If you have a lot of power on your drone or quad, you’re going to have to make a bigger turn than usual. It’s easier to turn when you’re using a low-power battery.
“That’s how we try to improvise; by trying to get the best setup and pushing the drone to go faster,” he said, adding that he hopes for the best for Team Malaysia this weekend.
