ARARAT and Stawell students have been helping to design a new drone course for teenagers.
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Central Grampians Local Learning and Employment Network (CGLLEN) hopes to use the cutting-edge, remote-controlled flying robots to get young people interested in training and leadership.
Marian College’s Cale Manly, age 15 from Stawell, and Nathaniel Kuchel, age 16 from Ararat, have spend their work experience time this week at CGLLEN.
The pair have built their own racing drones from separate parts and on Wednesday brought them out for testing.
The lightweight devices are built for high speeds and rapid changes in direction, with carbon fibre frames to withstand crashes.
CGLLEN youth project officer Brendan van den Clarke said the students had been helping to create a course for other people to learn how to build and fly their own drones.
“They’ll be helping us to put together a course for interested members of the community who want to get into droning,” Mr van den Clarke said.
Cale and Nathaniel chose to build their drones based on the type used for competitive racing.
Nathaniel said he first got into drones by watching the races on YouTube.
“That really sparked a passion. I was like ‘wow, that’s the closest thing you can do to actually flying.’
Cale said he got interested in drones when Nathaniel brought one of his models to school.
“I thought it looked good. I wanted one so bad,” Cale said.
The students’ racing drones use remote controls and virtual reality headsets to allow them to experience racing from a first-person perspective.
Nathaniel said he got motion sickness the first time he used a headset to fly a drone but he was used to it now.
Cale and Nathaniel are precise enough with their drones to fly circles around themselves and weave in and out of trees.
CGLLEN executive officer James Skene said he wanted to give new opportunities the region’s youth in the fast-expanding drone industry.
Mr Skene said drone building also helped foster youth leadership and project management skills.
“We run a number of different programs in engaging youth in education and training; this fitted in quite nicely,” he said.
“We have been exploring for about a year on how we could engage young people with drones.”
Mr Skene said there were commercial, emergency services and military applications for drones.
“At the higher end, the Australian Defence Force has created a drone program for cadets,” he said.