How to play
You fly a small racing quadcopter seen through its own camera, the way drone racers fly with video goggles. Each track is a loop of numbered gates. Take off, fly through gate 1 to start the clock, then through every gate in order: the next gate glows orange and the one after it is blue. A lap ends when you pass gate 1 again, and a race lasts one, three or five laps.
If you fly past the next gate instead of through it, it stays the next gate – turn back and fly through it. A gate passed out of order does not count. Hit the ground, a tree or a wall too hard and the drone crashes: a moment later it waits just past the last gate you passed, and the clock keeps running. Easy has the biggest gates, the gentlest crash limit and the least tilt; Hard has the smallest gates.
Your best lap for each track, flight mode and level is saved in this browser together with a recording of it. In the next race that recording flies along as a see-through ghost drone, and at every gate the view shows how many seconds you are ahead of or behind your best lap.
Controls
- Mouse: the cursor is the tilt stick. Its distance from the centre of the view tilts the drone (Stabilised) or sets how fast it rotates (Acro); up means nose down, so the drone flies forward. A and D turn, W and S or the wheel climb (or set the throttle in Acro). In Settings you can capture the mouse instead: mouse movement then moves the stick and a click centres it.
- Keyboard: arrow keys tilt, W and S climb or set the throttle, A and D turn, a tap on Space levels the drone in Acro (hold it to stay level), R takes you back to the last gate, P or Esc pauses, F switches full screen.
- Touch: the left stick climbs (or sets the throttle, which stays where you leave it) and turns; the right stick tilts. The sticks appear where your thumbs touch.
- Gamepad: A starts the race, left stick climbs and turns, right stick tilts, right trigger is the throttle in Acro, holding B levels the drone in Acro, Y returns to the last gate and Start pauses.
How it works
A quadcopter has one force it can steer: the thrust of its four propellers, which always points along the drone’s up axis. To move sideways it has to tilt. With the height held, the vertical part of the thrust balances gravity and the horizontal part pushes the drone along, so the acceleration at a tilt angle θ is
At 40° that is 8.2 m/s². Air drag grows with speed, adrag = c v + 0.0085 v², so the drone stops speeding up where drag equals the push. The levels differ in the largest tilt and in c: Easy 35° and 0.7 (top speed about 32 km/h), Normal 42° and 0.45 (55 km/h), Hard 50° and 0.32 (82 km/h). The motors can lift four times the drone’s weight, so a quarter of full throttle hovers. The flight model is worked out 240 times a second.
The two flight modes are two ways a flight controller reads the stick. In Stabilised (angle mode) the stick sets the tilt angle; let go and the controller levels the drone, and with height hold on, W and S mean “climb” and “sink”. In Acro (rate mode) the stick sets the rotation speed, up to 450° a second at the default rates. Centre the stick and the drone keeps whatever angle it has – it never levels itself – and the throttle is yours. Racing pilots fly acro because it allows any angle, flips and steep banked turns.
At speed a racing drone flies nose-down, so its camera is mounted tilted up. With an uptilt of 30° the camera looks at the horizon while the drone leans 30° forward.
Tips
- Start in the Stadium on Easy and Stabilised; switch to Acro when every gate feels easy.
- Let go early: the drone levels at once but keeps sliding, so brake by tilting back before a sharp turn.
- Aim for the outer side of a gate when the following gate is around a corner, then turn as you pass it.
- In Acro, raise the camera uptilt to 25–35° and keep the throttle just above the hover mark on the throttle bar.
- Lost? Press R to go back to the last gate.
Frequently asked questions
Why does the drone keep moving after I let go?
Levelling takes about a quarter of a second and removes the push, but only air drag slows the drone down: from top speed on Normal it glides about 29 m. Tilting back stops it within about 10 m.
Does a crash end the race?
No. After a crash the drone waits 0.8 seconds just past the last gate you passed, then flies on. The lost time is the only penalty.
Which mode do real racing pilots use?
Almost always acro. Stabilised mode is a good way to learn the tracks first.
Can I use a gamepad?
Yes, in browsers that support gamepads. Connect it and press A (the bottom button on the right) to start the race; A also presses the buttons of the menus.