North Texas Drone User Group Search and Rescue Challenge I

North Texas Drone User Group Search and Rescue Challenge I

After two months of planning NTDUG was able to pool together 45 people that all shared a love of drones. Nine teams entered, 7 teams competed. We had teams that lasted 2 seconds to those that not only crashed but won anyways! The full spectrum of hobby level operators was represented. We had three fixed wing (Bixler 1.0, Penguin and a twin engine experimental) as well as three multi-rotors from 3DR and a few from DJI.

Teams flew in groups of 3 on the first wave, 2 on second and 2 on the third wave. Each team had one hour of prep time, one hour of flight time and one hour of post processing time. The field was about 75 acres of early sprouting wheat. All along the edges of this field were creeks, trees, fences, ponds, decrepit buildings and the occasional rabbit hole. Twenty two objects were planted in various places including mannequin parts that floated in the pond, clothing hung on fences and tossed into trees and shoes staked to the ground out in the open. The object was to accumulate as many points as you could by identifying the object, its color and indicating the object's location on a Google map. Extra points went to identifying any animals or tracks or other non-manmade objects. For a complete listing of the rule set used you can visit our site directly at

Temperatures ranged from 34 degrees at the 8 AM prep time on up to the high 50's during the afternoon. Four layers of clothing was about the average. Wind speed was 2-10 mph, ceiling was 400' AGL, floor was 20' AGL. There were no restrictions on sensor equipment but no team could have more than one drone.

We also had Jim Blanchard fly down from UAS Academy. Jim offered to any team interested to put a camera and sensor package on their drone so as to record how we used and handled the drones for purposes of Search and Rescue. This data package was then used at the "show and tell us" phaseat the local IHOP restaurant. It was a real crowd pleaser to see the video and photos shot from each team as interpreted by the team members themselves.

The winners were:

Team Major Tom: OctaCopter from DJI - Won and APM 2.6, GPS/Magnetometer sensor and Power Module

Team UTA: Penguin using APM 2.6 - Won $75 gift card

Team Ender's Game: DJI Quad - Won $25 gift card

I'd also like to thank the volunteers, including Josh who took it upon himself to feed us with biscuits and cinnamon rolls!

There were some really neat asides going on at the contest as well. Jeffery built his quad in a school closet with the help of his high school's Engineering club sponsor. She picked him up and was on his team when he used auto take off and auto landing (the only multi-rotor team to do so!).

Another cool thing was that Nolan Henley had finished his hand built (with no plans) fixed wing twin engine aircraft the night before and offered us a very exciting take off! He actually came in fourth and had a very nice array of photos to show off!

We had members drive up from San Antonio after finding us online the day before, as well as the South Texas Drone User Group founder Mike Ender coming up from Houston (who took third place and donated his prize back to NTDUG).

Some interesting statistics. Failure rates were around 20%. Even the best teams did not find any more than 40% of the objects placed. There were more false positives from objects that were already there that were spotted rather than the brightly colored fresh objects that were placed the day before. Not all teams found the largest object (a 5 foot tall white manikin body) that was placed not more than 50 yards from the take off point!

We all had a very good time. In fact, we wish to do this again come September time frame. I already have members giving input for some interesting twists so stay tuned for an upcoming discussion/panel on what we should try next!