Help! Mentor For School Drone Project

[Rishay Jain]

Hi!

I'm an eighth grader in California. I have an 8 month long independent study project where I chose to build a delivery drone.

For the project, I need a mentor for advice on selecting drone parts, flight training, and future steps. Does anybody know anyone who could help? Ideally, would need 1 hour a week

I plan to build and learn how to fly a professional quad and use it to deliver small payloads (1-2lbs) via FPV. I will build a drone, design and build a release mechanism, design and create parachutes, and work on my flying skills.

Thanks,

 

[FDS]

You could use GPS to make the delivery runs for you, iNav is a drone programmer that will help you do this. You should look up some quad builds with GPS, there are many good ones on YouTube that will help guide your parts choice. Here’s an example build from Rotorbuilds to give you an idea of parts.
Another good place to look for help is local drone racing or flying groups, look and Facebook for those, get a parent to come with you to a meet and chat to local flyers. They might have good advice on learning as well.
You will need a decent Open TX radio for this project, so look up how those work too before you get in too deep.

 

[Syro]

8th Grade? First of all, that's an incredible opportunity for an 8th grade student. You are lucky!

Second, you are incredibly well spoken. Your post is easier to read than most adults.

I can't help you much from Tennessee, but good luck and have fun.

 

[Jared "Deadstick" Robbins]

If you plan on doing that, I would recommend looking into the legal side of it as well since it's a school project. The FAA and AMA have certain laws about altitude and range with certain drones. Personally I don't really support the FAA, as most hobbyist don't. but it's still an association we must listen to. This could also be VERY expensive if you have to buy all the parts yourself so you might want to do a cost analysis once you find the parts. I wish the best of luck to you sir. ~P.S. since you in CA try to use the website https://pyrodrone.com/ they have a coupon for CA that practically eliminates the cost of shipping.