It might have been his first competition, but that didn't stop Heath Whibley from winning the freestyle championships at the 2019 Mission Foods Australian Drone Nationals last weekend.
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The nationals brought 97 of the best drone pilots from right across the country - as well as New Zealand - to Canberra to compete in racing and freestyle events from October 18 to 20.
Whibley, competing under the callsign 'Croble FPV', proved too strong and came away with a remarkable win.
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"I was over the moon," Whibley said.
"I started (drone flying) about five years ago. I've just been flying around the farm and just went down for my first event."
Whibley was one of 16 pilots to qualify for the freestyle event, with pilots selected based on a two minute video entry which is sent in prior to the event.
The pilots fly the drones through first person view (FPV). The drone has a low latency camera that sends live video to goggles that are worn by the pilot who uses a remote to control the drone.
The freestyle event pits pilots against each other in a one-on-one battle each round and the flight is judged on continuity and flow, technicality and difficulty, variety, style and originality, control and smoothness.
"They give you two minutes to do your best run, then there's three judges that judge you out of 50," Whibley said.
Whibley qualified for the quarter finals, finishing sixth with a total of 114 points, but got quite lucky to progress through to the semi finals.
"I crashed my main drone during my two minute flight but luckily had a backup drone ready to go but then had technical issues during the run with it and only just made it to the top four, scoring 89 points as my opponent crashed early on in his two minute run, scoring 80 points," he said.
Whibley's semi final run went much smoother, coming away with a great score of 131 against 126 from his opponent.
The final was going to take a great effort, as he was up against the FPV drone racing world champion Thomas Bitmatta, who scored 123 in his run.
"By now I was very confident with the track and knew what I could do to wow the judges," Whibley said.
"I was very happy with my flight and ended up scoring 130 points that won the freestyle event for the 2019 Australian Drone Nationals!"
Whibley was crowned champion and was also awarded with a $1,000 cheque for his efforts.
