Video: World Cup XC Racer Vlad Dascalu Chases a Racing Drone

 Exactly. It's absurd how fast some of these drones are with good pilots behind them. You wouldn't think a tiny little quad with all kinds of weird weighting, virtually no assistance (ie no gyro), and delays between video and control feeds could be so incredibly controlled, but the reflexes of pilots (if only just between their eyes and thumbs) are on another level.

 Or more accurately, "racing drone taking a video of a racing drone taking a video of professional cyclist." All the video footage that shows the drone and the cyclist at the same time has to be taken by a second drone, correct? The guy must feel like he is cycling just behind a swarm of bees.

 @dcaf: what is this, inception?

 thats why he's a pro

 Looks like a great place to ride!

 It would be really cool if you program it to fly a certain route at a given speed/pace. Then you don't need someone else piloting it. Turn it loose and then chase your rabbit-goal.
If you beat the drone to the end of the course you just bump up the drone's speed a bit for the next session.

 @Augustus-G: if you went faster than it, and it was going on the exact course that you were... then u might find yourself a drone without propellers: ie. it you crashed into it

 Also video for Friday Fails

 @lyalltheweebeastie: Yes, you'd have to program in altitude as well. Of course you'd have to know the route very well to program the drone to fly around/over obstacles too. Which leads me to the question as to if you can record a flight and then have it "fly-back" using that path and elevation data? You'd go out and manually fly the course and record it. Use that recording to create a custom flight plan from a known start point and elevation. Then you could adjust the velocity numbers.... I don't know enough about the capabilities of these drones but it does sound logical to me.

 @Augustus-G: Software-wise, this should in theory be possible, but what with trees etc, the accuracy of gps could cause a crash especially seeing as the signal would be weak under tree cover. On an open course, this would totally work if the drone had a control board that was capable of doing this, but I'm not an expert to be able to say whether there are many control boards that can do this
Good idea though

 More fun for the rider and trainer.

 I was thinking the same thing. Is that a new Top Fuel, or an older 100mm travel frame?

 @AnodizeErrthing: New Top Fuel- Fixed lower shock, not floating like old one.

 Did you watch the whole thing? Theres a guy sitting in the tent with a remote control and some vr googles on so id say hes in control.

 @drfunsocks: Thanks, completely missed that.

 the drivers have headsets so they can see the view from the drone

 @drfunsocks: Not VR. It's an analog video feed (FPV) from the drone to the goggles. Low latency allows them to control the drone in 'real time'.

 @netposer: Some companies have started releasing digital ones too now (which is pretty cool imo), but you're right that analog is still used by almost everyone.

 Remind me off the movie "Cocoon"

 www.trailforks.com/trails/oncesti-releu-enduro-trail