Drones: Incredible teamwork at exciting competition in Arkansas.

Updated 6/3/24

As one of Pitsco’s educational consultants, I work with the Midwest region of the US and help with different educational initiatives in schools. One of the best parts of my job is visiting schools or attending events – meeting with students and educators.

One such event, gave me the privilege of attending a high school drone competition in Fort Smith, Arkansas. I road-tripped with the Pitsco team to Southside High School, which is only about three hours away from our home campus in Pittsburg, Kansas.

Ultimately, our goal was to provide support and help facilitate the competition, meet team members, and ensure everything went smoothly. There was a lot to observe during the couple days we were there, but what stood out to me the most was the teamwork and communication. Oh yeah, the drone flying was impressive as well. 😊

Teamwork Makes the Dream Work

Teamwork showed these students knew how to collaborate. Teams of two students had to complete four tasks total in the competition. In one task, each team displayed their flying skills in a contained drone arena with different field elements and obstacles. One team member, the pilot, was seated and facing away from the drone arena. They looked through their video device while flying but could not view the arena directly.

The other team member, the spotter, verbally gave the pilot directions as to where they needed to fly and what obstacles they needed to complete. As you can imagine from this task, communication was key, and collaboration was vital – both very important in preparing for the future workforce.

Two things that were important for this task:

The spotter had to communicate clearly and effectively to the pilot.
The pilot had to listen intently, follow directions, and trust the spotter’s advice.

If neither team member did their job effectively, they were doomed. On the other hand, if each team member did their job effectively, the results were awesome. It was important because teams were evaluated and scored on how well they communicated and collaborated.

Kudos to the Flying

While the teamwork was impressive, the flying really stood out! The speed and confidence with which the pilots flew was incredible.

The pilots had three flying scenarios during this competition:

Fly to one of the obstacles, locate a specific colored tape (red, blue, or green), take a picture of the tape, and then land on the corresponding colored landing pad. The scenario was completed when all pictures were taken, and the drone was landed on the final pad.
Knock down the golf balls. There were yellow and blue golf balls. Students had to use the drone to knock down all of the yellow golf balls and then move on to knocking down all the blue golf balls.
Landing the drone on landing pads at four different heights. Students had to fly and land their drone on all four landing pads before the scenario was completed.

I was impressed by the crazy good skills shown, and I am glad we were able to capture some videos of the teams in action as well.

It’s Not All About Flying

By now, you are probably thinking this competition was only about flying a drone in an arena. However, that couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact, in addition to the hands-on flying task, there were three other tasks that didn’t require flying.

An exam was given and students worked individually on a multiple-choice test about the ins and outs regarding the FAA Part 107 standards – The FAA knowledge exam.
Students showed their knowledge about maintenance and troubleshooting by keeping their drone working correctly throughout the competition..
Students designed and mapped a flight based on a scenario.

Seeing the students compete and collaborate was amazing!

Now it’s your turn! If you ever need any information about how to implement drones and curriculum in your classroom, don’t hesitate to reach out to your Pitsco education advisor. We are more than happy to help.

For more information on a competition very similar to this one, please check out information on the brand-new SkillsUSA^® Commercial sUAS (Drone) Competition.

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