=== Let's Drone Out — Episode 294 ===
Title: LDO 294 DCL Women's Cup
Recorded: 2021-04-15
Hosts: Andrew "Frank" Hyams, Klaudyna "Kaja" "BlueOwl" Wrochna, Jack "Brightontillifly" Nash, Wayne "CurryKitten" Andrews, Tony "TheTonstar1" Marchant
Guest(s): Jess, Ryan "Mako" Lessard
Total audience: 1,970
Platforms: YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQyWsAyQUho); SoundCloud (http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/feeds.soundcloud.com/stream/1031903428-letsdroneout-ldo-294-dcl-womens-cup.mp3)
=====================================

in which we're joined by Jess (from the Drone Champions League) and Mako Reactra to discuss the DCL Women's Cup and the future of women in FPV racing

https://dcl.aero/female-drone-pilots-in-the-global-spotlight-with-the-dcl-womens-cup/

https://linktr.ee/makoreactra

[0.0] Curry: Welcome to Let's Drone Out, the original and best drone theme podcast.
[5.0] Curry: We record the show live on the Thursday night on youtube.com forward slash Let's Drone Out
[9.8] Curry: and our lovely patrons help with the editing costs.
[12.2] (Patrons): These are Wacky Wes, Mikey Dred, Art Faulkner, Carlos Campos.
[19.0] (Patrons): Thank you!
[20.2] (Patrons): Hello, I'm a train recovery.
[21.4] (Patrons): Let's Drone Out now.
[22.6] Jess: Welcome everyone to the Let's Drone Out episode number.
[55.82] Jess: I don't know, I don't know what number it is.
[59.02] Jess: It is today.
[61.02] Jess: 294.
[63.02] Jess: 294.
[65.02] Jess: 294.
[67.02] Jess: Right, perfect.
[68.02] Jess: So today or tonight we're joined by very exciting guests.
[73.02] Jess: We have four girls.
[75.02] Jess: Oh, sorry, three girls on the show.
[79.02] Jess: What are you doing?
[80.02] Curry: It's Tony.
[81.02] Jess: Sorry, sorry.
[83.02] Jess: Oh, I'm such a girl.
[85.02] Jess: You are my wife.
[89.02] Jess: So I'm very excited to be finally not the only girl on the show because I'm joined by Jess.
[97.02] Jess: Hi, I'm Jess.
[99.02] Jess: I'm from DCL.
[101.02] Jess: And our second special guest is Mako Reactra.
[106.02] Jess: I hope I pronounced it right.
[108.02] Mako: Pretty much.
[109.02] Mako: Thanks for having me on again.
[111.02] Mako: I'm excited to be here.
[113.02] Jess: We have Andrew slash Frank with a new fancy background.
[117.02] Frank: Oh, we have Tony.
[119.02] Jess: My little Tony.
[121.02] Jack: My little Tony.
[123.02] Jack: I've sent you pictures.
[125.02] Tony: It's not that little.
[127.02] Tony: Come on.
[129.02] Tony: We have Jack.
[131.02] Tony: Hello.
[133.02] Jess: Hello.
[135.02] Jess: Everyone's favourite.
[137.02] Jess: Me.
[139.02] Jess: You're going to be true next time.
[141.02] Jess: Well done.
[143.02] Jess: That's very good.
[145.02] Jess: Yeah, that's very good.
[147.02] Jess: Because if you say Tony, you have to do it.
[149.02] Curry: He just disappears.
[151.02] Curry: I just literally switch off the camera.
[153.02] Tony: Goes to cry in a corner.
[155.02] Tony: Thanks.
[157.02] Jack: And a lovely and beautiful and talented blue owl.
[160.02] Jack: Thank you.
[162.02] Jess: Hello.
[164.02] Jess: Thanks for making me awkward.
[166.02] Jess: So what's going on today, blue owl?
[169.02] Jack: Oh my gosh.
[172.02] Jess: Oh my gosh, it's not over yet.
[174.02] Jess: He's over.
[176.02] Jack: Look, you've got this.
[178.02] Jess: Torture.
[180.02] Jess: You've got this.
[182.02] Jack: How's your week been, blue owl?
[184.02] Jack: Do you hate me?
[186.02] Jess: Always.
[188.02] Jack: That's good.
[190.02] Jack: I'm glad nothing's changed.
[192.02] Jess: Oh, we have some more girls on the chat.
[196.02] Mako: Oh yeah, hello.
[198.02] Jess: That's very good to see.
[200.02] Jess: Why are we being super good?
[202.02] Jess: How about you guys?
[204.02] Jack: I've slept through most of it.
[207.02] Jack: I don't know.
[209.02] Jack: It feels like.
[211.02] Jack: And yeah, Frank, you've moved.
[214.02] Jack: Where have you moved to?
[216.02] Frank: To the new secret place, from old secret place.
[219.02] Frank: Yeah.
[221.02] Frank: And there's at least three fields within about a 10-minute walk of here.
[225.02] Frank: And I went to new office for the first time.
[228.02] Frank: And they were like, so you do some drones.
[231.02] Frank: Can you bring a racing drone?
[233.02] Frank: Yes, I can bring a racing drone.
[235.02] Frank: Why and where?
[237.02] Frank: Well, we've got this forest out that way
[239.02] Frank: that we think should probably be good for flying through.
[242.02] Frank: And we've got a field out that way
[244.02] Frank: that would also probably be good for flying in.
[246.02] Frank: Do you want to come and try it?
[247.02] Frank: Yes, I will do that.
[249.02] Frank: So I'm going to be doing that at some point.
[252.02] Jack: Is your boy making me laugh?
[255.02] Jack: MKMELab, how are you doing?
[258.02] Jack: He's a Canadian.
[260.02] Jack: I was looking at your reflow oven review.
[263.02] Jack: And I'm not too sure about that.
[266.02] Jack: But I will catch up with you in your Discord
[270.02] Jack: if you're around after the show.
[273.02] Jack: Because I'm thinking about building a reflow oven
[275.02] Jack: because I've sent my boards off to get made.
[279.02] Jack: They're on their way.
[282.02] Tony: No one cares.
[283.02] Jack: Fantastic.
[284.02] Tony: I do, because I'm getting a green one.
[287.02] Jack: Yep.
[288.02] Curry: Kerry Hinton, how are you?
[291.02] Curry: I'm OK, but I'm also tired.
[294.02] Curry: And nothing much going on.
[296.02] Curry: You have flown, though.
[298.02] Curry: Coding some stuff.
[299.02] Curry: Well, I flew last week.
[301.02] Curry: I've got enough to do sort of three videos.
[304.02] Curry: But yeah, this week there's no fly.
[307.02] Curry: But some videos to come.
[309.02] Curry: I got to fly a proper quad after flying the Cinewoop,
[313.02] Curry: which is a bit like a sail in the wind.
[315.02] Curry: I forgot how quickly batteries go down.
[317.02] Curry: You just get sort of having fun.
[319.02] Curry: You're like, oh, it's time to land now,
[320.02] Curry: because the battery's gone.
[322.02] Curry: Never mind.
[324.02] Tony: Yeah, they are a bit like that.
[327.02] Tony: My darling, this is me, Frank.
[328.02] Curry: I was just going to ask how many people have been
[330.02] Curry: stamped outside so far.
[332.02] Frank: Yeah, compared to the previous place,
[335.02] Frank: 100% fewer shootings nearby.
[337.02] Frank: Absolutely.
[338.02] Frank: Good news.
[339.02] Jack: Good.
[341.02] Jack: Oh, fantastic.
[344.02] Jack: Mako, the lovely darling Mako, Reactra, how are you?
[350.02] Mako: I'm doing well because I just got out of work
[352.02] Mako: and I have the week off.
[354.02] Jack: Oh, fantastic.
[356.02] Mako: Lots of time to fly and get on DCL.
[360.02] Jack: Hey, have you played, like,
[365.02] Jack: because we're talking about potentially video games
[368.02] Jack: and simulators and stuff,
[369.02] Jack: have you played the, I'm talking for ages,
[372.02] Jack: but have you played the new Final Fantasy remaster?
[376.02] Mako: I have.
[377.02] Mako: What do you think of it?
[378.02] Mako: I am sadly, like, really close to beating it,
[381.02] Mako: but I just can't commit to doing it.
[383.02] Mako: I don't know if I just don't want to know the end.
[385.02] Mako: I know it's obviously not the end of the whole game,
[387.02] Mako: because it's episodes, but did you like it?
[391.02] Jack: I haven't played it, but I've watched it.
[393.02] Jack: I've watched Brianna White, who's the voice actress of Aerith,
[398.02] Jack: and I'm in love with her, and Curry Kittens played it.
[402.02] Mako: Oh, I can tell you that.
[404.02] Curry: I've played it completely,
[405.02] Curry: and I'm slightly in love with Tifa, I'm afraid,
[407.02] Curry: as sad as that is.
[409.02] Curry: More Aerith for me.
[410.02] Mako: It's got that rack, so it's hard to ignore.
[413.02] Curry: She's got the whole package, let's face it.
[418.02] Mako: But I don't know.
[419.02] Mako: I'm not a huge fan of what I've played so far, honestly.
[422.02] Mako: I think you spend too much time doing mundane stuff.
[427.02] Jack: Yeah, and not saving the planet.
[429.02] Mako: Yeah, we should be doing that, not looking for kittens,
[432.02] Mako: and I don't know what else.
[434.02] Tony: That was my favorite bit.
[436.02] Tony: That's probably Jack's favorite bit.
[438.02] Jack: I like cats.
[440.02] Jack: Anyway, right.
[442.02] Jack: I had to get that out of the way.
[444.02] Jack: Yeah, but you've been doing good, though.
[447.02] Jack: You've been flying.
[448.02] Jack: You're missing the kids.
[450.02] Jack: You've been locked down.
[451.02] Jack: What's been going on?
[452.02] Mako: Oh, good question.
[453.02] Mako: We are in person.
[455.02] Mako: We're in person part-time and remote.
[457.02] Mako: So I have nine kids every day in the building.
[461.02] Mako: It's kind of hard to manage, so I'm exhausted.
[466.02] Jack: That's good.
[467.02] Jack: Right.
[468.02] Jack: Jess, no technical questions.
[470.02] Jack: Right.
[473.02] Jack: You're here to talk about your simulator.
[476.02] Jack: Is that right?
[477.02] Mako: I mean, yeah, kind.
[480.02] Mako: I mean, we can talk about Final Fantasy.
[482.02] Curry: Yeah.
[484.02] Curry: It was also somewhat about BCL and the girls league stuff,
[488.02] Curry: wasn't it?
[489.02] Curry: Yeah.
[490.02] Jess: Yeah, so the idea behind the Women's Cup,
[493.02] Jess: I mean, we know that in general, in sports,
[496.02] Jess: there is kind of an imbalance between men and women
[501.02] Jess: in terms of coverage, in terms of number of participants,
[504.02] Jess: et cetera.
[505.02] Jess: And in something like drone racing,
[507.02] Jess: there's no valid reason for it,
[509.02] Jess: because it's not like there's an athletic distinction
[513.02] Jess: between men and women for FPV racing.
[517.02] Jess: And so we kind of looked back on DCL,
[523.02] Jess: the kind of race series and the years,
[526.02] Jess: and realized that there weren't a lot of women
[529.02] Jess: who'd ever participated.
[530.02] Jess: I think we managed to find one.
[533.02] Jess: And looking at our followers as well on various channels,
[538.02] Jess: people playing DCL, the game, et cetera,
[540.02] Jess: it is just very male dominant.
[542.02] Jess: And we were aware of this.
[543.02] Jess: We've been aware of it for a while.
[545.02] Jess: It's relatively obvious.
[547.02] Jess: But we're kind of at a point right now
[549.02] Jess: where we can do something about it.
[552.02] Jess: And we kind of realized that there are no other leagues
[556.02] Jess: who are actively really trying to get women involved.
[559.02] Jess: And so we're like, well,
[562.02] Jess: this is also our chance to be a bit bolder and differenter
[569.02] Jess: to other lesser leagues who I shall not name.
[575.02] Jess: No, we love them, but we don't, but we do.
[579.02] Tony: You can tell the truth if you like.
[583.02] Mako: I think she does that.
[587.02] Jess: It's a relationship that is interesting.
[590.02] Jess: But, no, on the reels, we...
[594.02] Jess: I mean, I know it kind of looks on the surface
[597.02] Jess: like a lot of the female pilots know me
[600.02] Jess: because I was the one who contacted them directly
[602.02] Jess: about this project to see feedback,
[604.02] Jess: because it's one thing to have this great project to us at DCL
[609.02] Jess: and it's a whole other if no pilots that we want to recruit
[613.02] Jess: wants to actually take part,
[614.02] Jess: there's obviously no point in going forward with it.
[617.02] Jess: So we tried to get all the feedback we could get
[620.02] Jess: from different pilots.
[622.02] Jess: And we also talked to the teams, obviously,
[626.02] Jess: because they're the ones who are going to be recruiting these pilots
[629.02] Jess: in order to make sure that everyone was aligned on what was happening.
[632.02] Jess: And the feedback was so positive.
[635.02] Jess: I mean, initially, I hadn't planned a league.
[638.02] Jess: We had kind of come in with,
[641.02] Jess: oh, maybe we should have somehow a few female pilots
[645.02] Jess: try slide them in somewhere.
[647.02] Jess: And the teams were like, no, that's not enough.
[650.02] Jess: We think there is a massive future of women in the sport
[654.02] Jess: and let's do something more.
[656.02] Jess: So on the DCL side, we're like, okay, what can we do
[660.02] Jess: that's within our capacity in terms of the resources that we have
[665.02] Jess: and in terms of the time that we have to plan it
[668.02] Jess: because the championship starts in two months.
[671.02] Jess: So it is kind of cutting it short to do a whole massive league.
[677.02] Jess: So that's where we came up with the Women's Cup
[680.02] Jess: and refined the idea, obviously, internally
[683.02] Jess: and then was talking to the teams, was talking to different female pilots.
[687.02] Jess: So the idea is that the Women's Cup runs parallel to the main championship,
[691.02] Jess: but it is intertwined in the sense that it will be the same teams.
[697.02] Jess: So there are seven or eight teams that have representation
[701.02] Jess: in what we call the World Championship.
[703.02] Jess: That's the one that you guys already know that's on every year
[706.02] Jess: where all the teams have pilots racing and games, et cetera.
[709.02] Jess: That is live streamed on Twitch.
[712.02] Jess: There will be a few format changes to that this year, actually.
[715.02] Jess: So keep your eyes peeled for all the announcements on that.
[719.02] Jess: But between both of the sections of that,
[724.02] Jess: there will be a slot allocated for the Women's Cup
[727.02] Jess: where all eight teams have, or seven or eight,
[732.02] Jess: have a woman representing them in the Women's Cup
[735.02] Jess: who are flying together in a big heat.
[737.02] Jess: So all of them will be flying together at the same time
[740.02] Jess: because it's virtual, there is less of a risk of a crash.
[743.02] Jess: So you do finish because the fun thing with big heats in real life races
[749.02] Jess: is that everyone crashes into everyone.
[751.02] Jess: And I know that's not like super fun because drones break,
[754.02] Jess: but as a spectator, it's very entertaining.
[759.02] Jess: So the idea with the big heat is that we can get everyone to race at the same time
[765.02] Jess: because, like I said, we are short on time.
[768.02] Jess: So creating a whole new league with a lot of people
[771.02] Jess: to be able to race in 2v2, et cetera,
[774.02] Jess: that's just a lot of extra capacity that we don't necessarily have right now.
[781.02] Jess: So the Women's League is kind of parallel, but it's the only thing.
[787.34] Jess: The thing, though, is women can still keep getting this question.
[791.34] Jess: Of course, women can still take part in the World Championship.
[794.34] Jess: They always have been able to.
[796.34] Jess: And just to clarify as well, when I say the word women,
[800.34] Jess: I'm very well aware that there is not a gender binary,
[803.34] Jess: that there is an entire spectrum there.
[806.34] Jess: So women and other people on the gender spectrum that aren't men,
[811.34] Jess: but because that's very long, we just say women, it sounds catchy.
[817.13] Jess: Cool.
[818.13] Jess: Kind of that.
[819.13] Jess: And the hope is that in the future, we won't meet a women's cup.
[823.13] Jess: We'd love for everyone to be racing in the main championship.
[827.13] Jess: That's the ultimate dream.
[829.13] Jess: But integration and equality takes time,
[833.13] Jess: and it takes positive discrimination.
[836.13] Jess: You look at plenty of examples in sport all over the world.
[839.13] Jess: It started with kind of, I don't like to use the word force in women in,
[843.13] Jess: but giving them their own tournament, et cetera,
[845.13] Jess: where they are given a platform that they can race on every race.
[851.13] Jess: They will be able to race.
[852.13] Jess: They will be able to showcase their skills.
[854.13] Jess: They'll be able to be part of a team.
[856.13] Jess: There will be top pilots from around the world that they can learn from,
[859.13] Jess: that they can engage with,
[861.13] Jess: and all of that kind of combined together will hopefully mean that
[866.13] Jess: by the end of the year, we'll have female pilots who are on the same level
[870.13] Jess: as all of these top male pilots that are currently there
[874.13] Jess: and can be competing in the world championship and winning it.
[880.13] Jess: It's the goal, the aim.
[882.13] Tony: That sounds really good.
[883.13] Tony: Is it all online at the moment?
[886.13] Jess: So, there are six virtual races right now.
[889.13] Jess: DCL is doing a hybrid season.
[892.13] Jess: The first six races are virtual,
[894.13] Jess: so the Women's Cup will take place in the virtual setting.
[898.13] Jess: At the final race, so there's a real-life race in Mexico City,
[904.13] Jess: which is currently not planned to be part of the Women's Cup,
[909.13] Jess: but that can be changed.
[912.13] Jess: It really depends.
[914.13] Jess: We all know with COVID right now that a lot of things
[917.13] Jess: are still in the hanging of, not sure,
[921.13] Jess: but right now, the Women's Cup is purely virtual.
[925.13] Jess: That's how it kind of...
[927.13] Mako: Yeah, I see it as a training to get me in.
[931.13] Mako: Before I heard about this, I only flew SIM on occasion,
[934.13] Mako: and as soon as I found out, I'm like,
[936.13] Mako: wow, there's an opportunity because I felt like I had no chance before.
[939.13] Mako: I just didn't have the stick time.
[941.13] Mako: And now, I'm grinding away,
[943.13] Mako: and there are other females out there who are freestylers
[946.13] Mako: who are interested in doing that too.
[948.13] Mako: So, it already has a huge interest.
[951.13] Mako: We have a Discord channel with like 80 women in there,
[955.13] Mako: and everyone's thrilled,
[956.13] Mako: and we're all encouraging each other to participate.
[959.13] UNKNOWN: Wow.
[960.13] Jess: Yeah.
[961.13] Jess: Are you going for it now?
[963.13] Jess: Sheeshia?
[964.13] Jess: Yeah, I was thinking about this because, you see,
[966.13] Jess: I really need this kind of a challenge to be motivated to fly,
[971.13] Jess: and we tried it before with Macorectra,
[974.13] Jess: and we organized a freestyle competition,
[977.13] Jess: and honestly, so I participated in this competition the year before,
[983.13] Jess: and I never ever felt...
[985.13] Jess: It's not even about winning, it's just about participating.
[988.13] Jess: It was so much fun.
[989.13] Jess: I really never felt more motivated to fly.
[993.13] Jess: So, I think if VCL proposes something like this,
[998.13] Jess: I see it only as a positive motivation for girls to get into it
[1003.13] Jess: because suddenly, you get this safe space in FPV
[1008.13] Jess: because let's be honest, FPV is not always a safe space for women.
[1013.13] Jess: It is not...
[1014.13] Jess: It shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone.
[1018.13] Curry: No.
[1019.13] Curry: I think these are good points to note
[1020.13] Curry: because I am seeing some comments flying back about
[1025.13] Curry: why do women need their own cup of thrall equal,
[1027.13] Curry: and this is more about infusing other girls to take part in this
[1032.13] Curry: and putting yourselves up as like,
[1034.13] Curry: look, we're doing this and this is going to get more minority
[1037.13] Curry: because at the moment, women are a tiny minority
[1040.13] Curry: in the sort of broad spectrum of FPV flyers,
[1042.13] Curry: so if you put a team together, fill it with the minority people,
[1045.13] Curry: then hopefully, you inspire people to take part,
[1048.13] Curry: and then there's an equal mix
[1051.13] Curry: and you don't ever need to have separate cups anymore.
[1054.13] Jess: That is the goal, and what's going to come of this as well
[1058.13] Jess: that we hope is a lot of the teams seem more keen on integrating women,
[1063.13] Jess: have expressively said, I can't name names unfortunately,
[1066.13] Jess: but that they would actually be looking at putting women
[1069.13] Jess: in their main team for the championship
[1072.13] Jess: and not just the women's cup
[1074.13] Jess: as a result of us having these conversations with them.
[1078.13] Jess: And now we have so many women taking part in the draft selection
[1082.13] Jess: that normally wouldn't have because they would have kind of said,
[1085.13] Jess: oh, you know what, I don't think I have a shot, et cetera,
[1088.13] Jess: and might be spotted by the teams as being also, you know,
[1091.13] Jess: on the level that they can take part in the championship.
[1094.13] Jess: So even though there is a women's cup that's kind of for them,
[1099.13] Jess: because now they feel like they have that extra incentive
[1102.13] Jess: of, you know, what I actually can get in,
[1104.13] Jess: they're going to try their chance,
[1106.13] Jess: and realize that they're actually that good
[1108.13] Jess: and be able to be racing in the main championships
[1111.13] Jess: that everyone wins really in this.
[1113.13] Jess: Yeah, I think it's important that there is nothing
[1117.13] Jess: that we take away from men, right, in this competition.
[1121.13] Jess: There are no losers, in fact.
[1123.13] Jess: And it's just about, like Kerry Kitten said,
[1126.13] Jess: it's just about inspiring other people
[1129.13] Jess: and highlighting these role models,
[1131.13] Jess: because, all right, we're getting,
[1133.13] Jess: I'm going to get very deep into this,
[1135.13] Jess: but I really believe that there is something wrong
[1139.13] Jess: with the society, and it starts very early on
[1143.13] Jess: when you, you know, talk to the kids
[1145.13] Jess: and the way you, the things you show the kids.
[1148.13] Jess: For example, if you go to a toy store, look at the toys.
[1152.13] Jess: Like, what is advertised for boys
[1155.13] Jess: and what is advertised for girls, you know?
[1158.13] Jess: There is such a huge difference between these two.
[1161.13] Jess: So the boys are always encouraged to take risk
[1164.13] Jess: and to be adventurous and all these kinds of things.
[1167.13] Jess: And then the girls' toys very often, not always,
[1170.13] Jess: but very often are about, let's be true here, cleaning,
[1174.13] Jess: taking care of kids, taking it home.
[1176.13] Jess: This is basically the message that we give women right now.
[1179.13] Jess: And I remember one story, so I don't, I'm not a racer.
[1184.13] Jess: I participated in a few races in my life,
[1186.13] Jess: and that was a disaster.
[1188.13] Jess: But I remember one story that just made me just melt
[1194.13] Jess: and it was during your race.
[1196.13] Jess: There was a woman who came to me.
[1197.13] Jess: I was literally at the bottom.
[1199.13] Jess: I think I scored as the last one during that race.
[1203.13] Jess: And there was still a woman who came to me
[1205.13] Jess: with her little girl.
[1207.13] Jess: It was, she was maybe two or three years old.
[1210.13] Jess: And she told her, look, there is a woman who flies.
[1213.13] Jess: I was the only one, the only female participant in that race.
[1216.13] Jess: And she said, look, you can do it too, you know?
[1219.13] Jess: And this is what it's all about,
[1221.13] Jess: basically giving you a little bit more spotlight
[1225.13] Jess: for the role models and showing people what's possible.
[1229.13] Mako: Yeah, I had a father message me in social media.
[1232.13] Mako: He has a couple daughters, and he took them
[1234.13] Mako: to a live race event for one of the professional leagues.
[1237.13] Mako: And it was all men, so they were really confused
[1241.13] Mako: and like, do women do this too, so they found me.
[1243.13] Mako: And I just think if they see themselves represented,
[1246.13] Mako: they'll feel like they can do it too, like you're saying.
[1251.13] Mako: So yeah, I'm a teacher though, so kind of get back
[1253.13] Mako: to your point, Kaya.
[1255.13] Mako: I've seen a shift with sort of what girls are exposed to.
[1260.13] Mako: There's definitely a lot more STEM in schools
[1262.13] Mako: and pushing them towards that science, tech,
[1265.13] Mako: engineering, and math.
[1266.13] Mako: And I know they love that I fly.
[1268.13] Mako: I've had students, girls, mostly actually,
[1272.13] Mako: come to some of my race events.
[1275.13] Mako: So I think showing them that there are people, you know,
[1279.13] Mako: like them doing it only helps.
[1282.13] Mako: Yeah.
[1283.13] Curry: I think one of the last videos I saw from you, Mako,
[1285.13] Curry: you seemed like you were flying at the children.
[1287.13] Curry: Maybe I thought you were just going to take your class size
[1290.13] Curry: down a bit.
[1291.13] Curry: It's like, let's get rid of some of the troublemakers here.
[1293.13] Curry: Oh, yeah.
[1294.13] Curry: They look like they're having great fun.
[1295.13] Curry: They were going after your quad in big ways.
[1298.13] Mako: That was a blast.
[1299.13] Mako: Oh, my gosh.
[1300.13] Mako: I think that clip is actually going to be
[1302.13] Mako: in the FPV documentary flow state.
[1304.13] Mako: I don't know if you heard of that.
[1305.13] Mako: So the kids are so excited.
[1307.13] Mako: They had to get permission to be in the documentary.
[1311.13] Mako: They're like, we're little superstars.
[1314.13] Tony: We have heard of it.
[1316.13] Tony: Hopefully, we get to see it.
[1318.13] Tony: Yeah, it's going to be great.
[1321.13] Frank: Yeah.
[1322.13] Frank: I mean, I have done a few, not necessarily FPV,
[1329.13] Frank: but other kind of steam events that have been kind of
[1333.13] Frank: aimed more at kids.
[1334.13] Frank: And you can definitely see that the younger groups,
[1337.13] Frank: there is definitely not that split of kind of gendered
[1341.13] Frank: activities.
[1343.13] Frank: And like everyone in those groups just sees everything
[1346.13] Frank: as something they can do.
[1348.13] Frank: And then you do kind of see the girls sort of start stepping
[1356.13] Frank: away in the older group, start stepping away from the kind
[1359.13] Frank: of steam subjects and seeing it as not so much for them.
[1362.13] Frank: And that is quite sad to see.
[1365.13] Frank: But then, like you say, when there is some visibility of
[1370.13] Frank: women in those groups, then all of a sudden that kind of
[1373.13] Frank: barrier is taken away.
[1376.13] Frank: I think that is important that that is there.
[1380.13] Frank: There's that first step of having women visibly in that
[1384.13] Frank: group, then that kind of removes one of the barriers to
[1388.13] Frank: entry for other women to get involved.
[1392.13] Frank: I think we have, obviously, you've got a discord of 80
[1399.13] Frank: women there that you've got there.
[1402.13] Frank: There's obviously women in the FPV community, but I think
[1406.13] Frank: we've seen women come in, get sort of a lot of attention,
[1411.13] Frank: a lot of high profile, and then have to, after a little
[1415.13] Frank: while, step away from it because of all that attention.
[1420.13] Frank: So I'm wondering, is there anything, either with the
[1426.13] Frank: DCL or maybe, like someone in the chat was asking earlier,
[1429.13] Frank: anything that we can kind of do as a community that we can
[1433.13] Frank: maybe make that a bit more of a sustained thing and a bit
[1436.13] Frank: more of a kind of, you know, maybe try and reduce that
[1442.13] Frank: kind of turnover?
[1444.13] Jess: Not make sexist comments.
[1447.13] Frank: That would help.
[1449.13] Jess: That one goes a long way.
[1452.13] Jess: I mean, I'm not a pilot myself, but I've seen what the
[1459.13] Jess: kind of comments that the different women, like FPV
[1463.13] Jess: women get, and I can understand why someone would not
[1469.13] Jess: necessarily want to be in the spotlight when you get
[1472.13] Jess: those kinds of things thrown at you.
[1474.13] Jess: So if as a community, and this is something that I actually
[1477.13] Jess: really like about the DCL community, is we announced it
[1482.13] Jess: last Friday that we were doing the Women's Cup.
[1485.13] Jess: So you always have a few skeptical people being like,
[1487.13] Jess: oh, but why do women need their own cup?
[1490.13] Jess: The usual questions.
[1492.13] Jess: And it was the men in the DCL community that were defending
[1496.13] Jess: it and saying, no, this is really important.
[1499.13] Jess: Women aren't represented, and we do want more women in the
[1503.13] Jess: FPV community and giving them their space to race and to
[1507.13] Jess: get better, et cetera, is a great thing.
[1509.13] Jess: And it was quite funny because they'd convert the doubting
[1513.13] Jess: men, and then a new person would come in the chat.
[1516.13] Jess: This was happening in Discord saying, oh, why does this
[1519.13] Jess: need to happen?
[1520.13] Jess: And so the person who used to be skeptical of the whole
[1522.13] Jess: thing would then be, no, actually, it doesn't need to
[1524.13] Jess: happen.
[1525.13] Jess: It's a great thing.
[1526.13] Jess: So the community itself has been really supportive.
[1530.13] Jess: And I honestly am not going to notice this.
[1534.13] Jess: I was petrified when the press release went down.
[1538.13] Mako: I was too.
[1539.13] Jess: Because it's a DCL team effort, of course.
[1543.13] Jess: I'm not alone in the company to have spearheaded this.
[1547.13] Jess: But I did kind of self-appoint myself as project manager
[1550.13] Jess: because it's something that I am quite passionate about.
[1554.13] Jess: I'm quite a strong feminist.
[1556.13] Jess: So it's like my thing to fight for women being given
[1561.13] Jess: equal opportunities in all domains, really.
[1564.13] Jess: And so I was really worried about any pushback it might
[1568.13] Jess: get because I've seen this happen in so many other
[1571.13] Jess: communities when they announce that they're going to do
[1574.13] Jess: separate women's events.
[1575.13] Jess: And actually, the support has been really, really great.
[1579.13] Jess: I mean, of course, there are some people who are still
[1581.13] Jess: skeptical about the whole thing.
[1582.13] Jess: And there are some good questions as well.
[1585.13] Jess: I mean, like I said, the main one that keeps getting
[1587.13] Jess: asked is, oh, but they'll have their own thing.
[1590.13] Jess: And what about the main championship?
[1592.13] Jess: And like I said, they can still compete in the main
[1594.13] Jess: championship.
[1595.13] Jess: That's never been off the table.
[1597.13] Jess: So it's been really good.
[1600.13] Jess: And it made me even more excited about the whole project.
[1604.13] Jess: And next week is the draft selection is starting
[1608.13] Jess: in DCL the game.
[1609.13] Jess: So anyone who wants to be a DCL pilot, you need to get
[1613.13] Jess: DCL the game right now.
[1614.13] Jess: Because from next week, you have three weeks of flying
[1617.13] Jess: your very best within the game in order to be part of
[1621.13] Jess: the draft selection and picked by one of the teams
[1624.13] Jess: to race.
[1625.13] Tony: So how would somebody take part in it?
[1630.13] Curry: Is it literally a case of flying in, committing a time
[1634.13] Curry: or something?
[1635.13] Curry: Yeah.
[1636.13] Jess: So it's I don't know if any of you have played DCL the
[1639.13] Jess: game before.
[1640.13] Jess: It's a drone racing simulator.
[1643.13] Curry: I fly over simulators.
[1645.13] Curry: I can't remember them.
[1648.13] Jess: We won't name the other.
[1652.13] Jess: I mean, it's a drone simulator where you go through
[1658.13] Jess: loops and cones and things.
[1660.13] Jess: And so there's a special track for the draft qualification.
[1665.13] Jess: I can see you, Teager.
[1666.13] Jess: Sorry.
[1667.13] Jess: My cat is being a cat.
[1669.13] Frank: Nice to see your cat.
[1672.13] Frank: Waiting for Jack to start begging.
[1675.13] Frank: I'm a very big fan of her.
[1678.13] Jack: Oh, my God.
[1679.13] Jack: Wait a second.
[1680.13] Jess: Teager, come say hi.
[1682.13] Jack: Is he Ginger?
[1684.13] Jess: No, she's a tabby.
[1687.13] Jack: She's a mancoon.
[1690.13] Tony: No, she's a dead cat.
[1692.13] Tony: She's not running away.
[1694.13] Tony: This is Teager.
[1695.13] Jess: Oh, my God.
[1696.13] Tony: It's bigger than my dog.
[1698.13] Tony: Oh, no, Teager is tiny.
[1701.13] Jess: She is absolutely tiny.
[1704.13] Jess: She was a forever kitten.
[1706.13] Jess: She never grew, basically.
[1711.13] Tony: Look at Kat.
[1713.13] Tony: Sorry, look at Jack.
[1716.13] Tony: Look at Jack.
[1717.13] Jack: He's like, please feed her dreamies
[1719.13] Jack: and tell her that I love her.
[1721.13] Jess: I will do that.
[1723.13] Jess: This is probably the most spoiled cat you've ever met,
[1726.13] Jess: so don't worry.
[1727.13] Jack: There's no such thing.
[1728.13] Jack: You can't support the cat enough unless they go round.
[1730.13] Jack: That's true.
[1731.13] Jack: That's true.
[1733.13] Frank: This episode was recorded in front of a live online audience,
[1736.13] Frank: downloaded and edited to make sense when it played audio only,
[1739.13] Frank: censored to please the iTunes people, hosted on the internet,
[1742.13] Frank: forwarded through to your podcast provider,
[1744.13] Frank: downloaded, playing on your device,
[1746.13] Frank: and is now playing in your ears.
[1748.13] Frank: All thanks to our Patreons.
[1750.13] Frank: Consider joining them and you'll also get other online benefits.
[1753.13] Frank: Find out more at patreon.com forward slash let's drone out.
[1758.13] Jess: The back to women.
[1762.13] Curry: Yes.
[1763.13] Curry: How do you take part in the competition?
[1767.13] Curry: We were talking about, is it a case of racing this track
[1770.13] Curry: and you submit your time essentially?
[1772.13] Curry: Yes.
[1773.13] Jess: So basically the draft selection will be,
[1776.13] Jess: to the best of my knowledge, will be on one track, the qualification.
[1780.13] Jess: It lasts three weeks within DCL the game.
[1783.13] Jess: It's on all three platforms.
[1785.13] Jess: So that's Steam, which is PC Mac, PS4 and Xbox.
[1790.13] Jess: And you can race the track.
[1793.13] Jess: It should automatically sync your time with everyone else,
[1797.13] Jess: like every weekly trial essentially.
[1801.13] Jess: You have to try to be the fastest.
[1805.13] Jess: That's about it.
[1806.13] Jess: So you can grind as many hours as you need to try
[1809.13] Jess: and put in the best time you possibly can within those three weeks.
[1812.13] Jess: It's not about grinding the most.
[1814.13] Jess: It's just about being the fastest.
[1816.13] Jess: So some people only need 10 hours and then they've got it
[1819.13] Jess: and some people need 100 hours.
[1821.13] Jess: So take the time that you need for that.
[1824.13] Tony: You get to see other people's times or is it just...
[1827.13] Jess: Yeah, there's a leaderboard within the game,
[1830.13] Jess: but you can also go see the leaderboard on the website,
[1832.13] Jess: which is constantly, it should be live updated.
[1836.13] Tony: What position are you, Mako?
[1838.13] Mako: I haven't flown the event track,
[1840.13] Mako: but the last track I flew, I was 40 something?
[1845.13] Mako: No, not bad.
[1846.13] Mako: I think 48.
[1848.13] Mako: Are you on PC?
[1850.13] Mako: I am on PC and I'm getting a new monitor to help with Sim.
[1854.13] Mako: Got to get that 240 Hertz going.
[1857.13] Tony: Go, Gil.
[1859.13] Mako: Well, it's...
[1861.13] Mako: I'll cut a few seconds down with that.
[1863.13] Curry: A little fast for people using the console versions
[1866.13] Curry: if they can only use like a console joystick
[1869.13] Curry: because it's not quite got the same sensitivity
[1871.13] Curry: that you're going to have on a PC.
[1873.13] Jess: So on PS4, you can use transmitters.
[1876.13] Jess: Not all of them are available, but the vast majority.
[1881.13] Jess: On Discord and on our website,
[1884.13] Jess: there's a list of the ones which are and are not compatible.
[1888.13] Jess: And then on Xbox,
[1891.13] Jess: Microsoft doesn't allow you to connect a transmitter,
[1896.13] Jess: but there are people in our community
[1898.13] Jess: who have found workarounds of the whole thing.
[1902.13] Jess: So if you're on the DCL Discord,
[1905.13] Jess: just ask how do I connect my transmitter to an Xbox
[1908.13] Jess: and someone in the community will answer.
[1910.13] Jess: Officially, we're not allowed to say
[1912.13] Jess: that there is a real solution
[1913.13] Jess: because it's not Microsoft approved,
[1915.13] Jess: but someone made a video.
[1918.13] Curry: I may not exist.
[1927.13] Curry: Luelle, in order to do this race,
[1929.13] Curry: are you going to have to lower your camera angle
[1931.13] Curry: from the normal 65 degrees?
[1933.13] Jess: Honestly, yeah, that's the first step.
[1935.13] Jess: Not too much, though.
[1937.13] Jess: Then I think I'm going to put like a fake name
[1941.13] Jess: and go undercover because I'm really not good at racing.
[1948.13] Mako: After you play a few hours of DCL, you'll be surprised.
[1951.13] Jess: I may try. I'm really tempted now.
[1955.13] Jack: My alias is Tony's mum.
[1957.13] Jack: Feel free to borrow it.
[1960.13] Mako: We'll have to get the girls on in the Discord and we'll fly.
[1965.13] Jess: You can do multiplayer lobbies in the game
[1969.13] Jess: but if you're on the same platform,
[1971.13] Jess: you can race against each other just for fun.
[1976.13] Frank: I don't know who did that up there.
[1979.13] Frank: Who selected that comment, Kerry?
[1981.13] Frank: Can't imagine.
[1982.13] Frank: Caroline saying that her computer can run the Kerry hidden simulator
[1987.13] Frank: but not quite the DCL one.
[1989.13] Tony: Yeah, people's potatoes can run that.
[1992.13] Curry: Something to be said for lesser graphics
[1994.13] Curry: but I'm sure it's a very good sim.
[1999.34] Jack: I found out old Digby, but Dan, an old listener,
[2002.34] Jack: he's been playing DCL on his PlayStation
[2007.34] Jack: and his little son's been playing it as well.
[2011.34] Jess: Oh, bless.
[2012.34] Jack: Yeah, just so you know.
[2014.34] Jack: Now, I didn't know about the transmitter thing,
[2017.34] Jack: so I will tell him now.
[2019.34] Jess: Yes.
[2021.34] Jess: It makes a whole world of a difference
[2023.34] Jess: when you can play with the transmitter.
[2026.34] Jess: It increases obviously the realism of it
[2029.34] Jess: because you do really feel like you're flying a drum
[2032.34] Jess: because you have the transmitter there
[2034.34] Jess: and it helps you practice for real life.
[2036.34] Jess: Essentially, the sim was conceived
[2041.34] Jess: at the very, very, very early stages of it.
[2044.34] Jess: I mean, this is years ago.
[2046.34] Jess: To practice the tracks were practiced in advance.
[2050.34] Jess: So before being able to go onto a real life track
[2053.34] Jess: in order to practice it,
[2055.34] Jess: they would use the sim to do that.
[2058.34] Jess: And it kind of got better
[2061.34] Jess: and we decided to release it mainstream
[2064.34] Jess: in order to make it like an actual
[2066.34] Jess: you seal the game simulator.
[2068.34] Jess: But it's quite close to reality.
[2072.34] Jess: I've heard different people say things
[2074.34] Jess: about the physics of it,
[2076.34] Jess: but what you have to remember is the physics
[2079.34] Jess: are depending on the DCL 19 quad,
[2082.34] Jess: the kind of standard model.
[2084.34] Jess: Well, we have certain guidelines
[2088.34] Jess: for the quads that can fly in our races.
[2091.34] Jess: And so it is fitting that rather than just any random one
[2095.34] Jess: that you can have of different sizes and weights and things.
[2099.34] Jess: So that's why it might feel off
[2101.34] Jess: compared to what people are used to flying
[2103.34] Jess: in their own backyard
[2104.34] Jess: because they won't necessarily have the same dimensions.
[2109.34] Tony: That's good because we used to just turn up
[2111.34] Tony: at a racetrack, have a quick walk around,
[2114.34] Tony: and that was it.
[2115.34] Tony: That was right.
[2116.34] Tony: You've got to go.
[2117.34] Tony: That's it.
[2118.34] Tony: But yeah, if you can fly a few days, weeks before
[2122.34] Tony: and get to learn the track, that's awesome.
[2127.34] Curry: What you were saying, Jess, earlier
[2129.34] Curry: about your experience of playing it,
[2130.34] Curry: I feel like there should be a special keyboard championship
[2133.34] Curry: where you're only an athlete.
[2135.34] Curry: That would be amazing to watch.
[2137.34] Jess: That seems so hard.
[2138.34] Jess: Yeah.
[2140.34] Jess: Do you know what I would love, though,
[2141.34] Jess: is if the devs would actually play publicly.
[2145.34] Jess: I'm not a dev, so I don't.
[2147.34] Jess: But the devs who know kind of the game really well
[2151.34] Jess: and know, I wouldn't call them cheats,
[2153.34] Jess: but all the shortcuts and things like that.
[2157.34] Jess: And I would just really love a livestream,
[2160.34] Jess: especially Filippo, of him playing.
[2163.34] Jess: But Filippo has way too many things to do
[2167.34] Jess: and does not have time to livestream himself playing.
[2171.34] Tony: Are you telling him off right now?
[2173.34] Tony: He doesn't.
[2174.34] Jess: He can't see this.
[2175.34] Jess: That's him.
[2176.34] Jess: He's off at the moment.
[2178.34] Jess: Personal reasons that I shall not dive into,
[2180.34] Jess: but it's, yeah, he won't be watching this, so it's fine.
[2187.34] Mako: Lexi and Lil had two really good points about the sim.
[2192.34] Mako: Basically, you full throttle through the tracks,
[2194.34] Mako: which isn't realistic to what we do in 5N tracing, at least me.
[2199.34] Mako: And then Lil said, momentum's the name of the game.
[2202.34] Mako: And I feel that as soon as you lose momentum, you're down.
[2205.34] Mako: A little bit of DCL stuff.
[2211.48] Curry: So is the DCL?
[2212.48] Mako: For none of you who's 5DCL.
[2215.48] Curry: If you run out of steam, it just sort of drops really quick, does it?
[2218.48] Mako: Well, it's hard to recover, I guess you could say.
[2222.48] Curry: Ah, okay.
[2223.48] Curry: But super fun.
[2225.48] Mako: I love the production value of DCL, because it's just like no other.
[2228.48] Mako: The tracks, the video animation in the beginning, super fun.
[2233.48] Mako: I'm a gamer.
[2234.48] Mako: You know I'm a gamer, so that's why I appreciate it.
[2238.48] Frank: The other side of things is the actual streams
[2242.48] Frank: and the sort of show that's made of the actual racing after the draft.
[2251.48] Frank: Where can people watch that and see that?
[2254.48] Jess: Twitch.
[2258.48] Jess: We honestly had so much fun last year with the virtual shows
[2262.48] Jess: because it was the first time that any of us had done it.
[2265.48] Jess: COVID happened.
[2267.48] Jess: No one had planned it.
[2268.48] Jess: And we were like, okay, well, what do we do now that we can't do live races?
[2273.48] Jess: So we have a sim.
[2274.48] Jess: How do we make this into a thing?
[2277.48] Jess: So we are working with Twitch
[2280.48] Jess: and we'll be live streaming all of the races on Twitch.
[2285.48] Jess: This year it will be only one day
[2287.48] Jess: because last year we would do all of the races over two days.
[2290.48] Jess: And so the races will just be on a Sunday.
[2295.48] Jess: It goes for about six hours, roughly,
[2298.48] Jess: where all the teams will be racing against each other
[2301.48] Jess: and then there'll be a small final and a big final.
[2304.48] Jess: But you guys don't know that yet.
[2305.48] Frank: So can I put you on the spot and ask what the Twitch handle is?
[2309.48] Jess: Drone Champions League won the award.
[2313.48] Jess: I know our handles.
[2315.48] Jess: That was my job.
[2318.48] Frank: So it will be twitch.tv slash drone champions.
[2322.48] Jess: Drone Champions League.
[2324.48] Frank: Drone Champions League, there we go.
[2327.48] Jess: It's the same social media handle for every single social channel
[2331.48] Jess: except Twitter, which is Drone Champions L.
[2335.48] Jess: Because on Twitter you don't have a handle,
[2337.48] Jess: but it's like wonder.
[2339.48] Tony: Get practice in Mako and Bluel.
[2343.48] Mako: I'm on vacation.
[2345.48] Mako: Perfect time to be on vacation.
[2347.48] Mako: Exactly.
[2348.48] Mako: The week of the chat comes out.
[2351.48] Curry: I'm slightly unfamiliar with the way DCL works
[2354.48] Curry: in terms of if it's team racing.
[2356.48] Curry: Is it individual?
[2358.48] Curry: Does everybody go out at once
[2359.48] Curry: or is it like a couple of people from each team in each heat
[2361.48] Curry: or something like that?
[2362.48] Jess: So it depends between virtual and live events.
[2366.48] Jess: It changes.
[2367.48] Jess: So I'm going to answer that for the virtual events
[2370.48] Jess: because live is another thing.
[2374.48] Jess: It's two versus two of each team.
[2377.48] Jess: So you have two pilots from team A
[2380.48] Jess: racing two pilots from team B for a certain amount of heats
[2384.48] Jess: and then they switch and it will be the other two
[2386.48] Jess: versus the other two.
[2389.48] Curry: And is it like a points thing about who wins
[2391.48] Curry: or is it time added up?
[2393.48] Jess: So it's who wins.
[2396.48] Jess: And the live races, for qualifications it's a time thing,
[2400.48] Jess: but for the actual live races it's a point system.
[2406.48] Jess: The point system is changing this year,
[2408.48] Jess: but because that's not public I'm just going to say
[2410.48] Jess: what happened last year.
[2413.48] Jess: That if you finish number one for your team you get one point
[2417.48] Jess: and if you finish one and two then you get two points.
[2422.48] Jess: But this year it will be depending.
[2425.48] Jess: You get points for position.
[2427.48] Jess: So I don't know how many points exactly it will be,
[2430.48] Jess: but number one will get X amount of points,
[2432.48] Jess: number two will get X amount of points for the team, etc.
[2434.48] Jess: And at the end of the race if there's still a tie
[2439.48] Jess: then there will be a big heat,
[2441.48] Jess: which is one of my favorite things.
[2444.48] Jess: All eight pilots race at the same time
[2446.48] Jess: because it's four people per team.
[2448.48] Jess: Sorry, yeah, four people per team.
[2450.48] Jess: You may not know that part.
[2453.48] Curry: I got it now.
[2455.48] Curry: And can you still crash into each other on the sim?
[2458.48] Curry: No.
[2460.48] Jess: That would be fun.
[2462.48] Curry: We should get the devs on that one because that would be great.
[2465.48] Jess: You know what, we've talked about it internally
[2469.48] Jess: and decided maybe not.
[2474.79] Jess: I'll submit it back as a possible thing we can work on.
[2479.79] Frank: I do know in the real life racing
[2481.79] Frank: there's a whole other meta level of racing
[2485.79] Frank: when you can crash into each other
[2487.79] Frank: because obviously it's been real life.
[2490.79] Frank: When you're off the starting point
[2493.79] Frank: do you go flat out or do you just let
[2496.79] Frank: maybe some other people go ahead of you
[2498.79] Frank: who you think are going to crash at the first gate?
[2500.79] Jess: Especially if you do a big heat
[2503.79] Jess: that's eight pilots racing at the same time.
[2506.79] Jess: That's like eight drones going 130 kilometers an hour
[2509.79] Jess: at the same time.
[2511.79] Jess: So they crash into things,
[2513.79] Jess: but yeah, they do crash into each other a lot.
[2516.79] Jess: Which is the spectator.
[2519.79] Jess: It's great entertainment value.
[2522.79] Frank: A lot of the comments in the chat
[2524.79] Frank: are saying that they enjoyed watching the live events.
[2528.79] Frank: Good reviews there.
[2531.79] Jess: Yeah, we do miss them.
[2533.79] Curry: I was just going to say my one experience of racing,
[2535.79] Curry: Frank, that exact thing happened to me
[2537.79] Curry: when I'm the first go.
[2538.79] Curry: It's like go and I'm going along
[2540.79] Curry: and I didn't even make it to the first gate
[2542.79] Curry: when I got hit by two other people from behind.
[2545.79] Curry: And then since that time it's like let them go,
[2548.79] Curry: go past them later or crash on your own accord
[2551.79] Curry: but not get hit by everybody else.
[2553.79] Curry: That's much better.
[2554.79] Tony: That's the thing when you're live racing
[2557.79] Tony: and you've got so many things to think about.
[2560.79] Tony: You've got distractions, people talking when you're there.
[2564.79] Tony: Being at home would actually be quite a nice racing online
[2568.79] Tony: because you've got the quiet.
[2570.79] Tony: You can set your mood lighting like Frank's done.
[2573.79] Tony: You can have a glass of wine.
[2575.79] Tony: You can have it quiet
[2578.79] Tony: and you don't have that chitter chatter
[2580.79] Tony: of people talking when you're racing
[2582.79] Tony: and someone's crashed and then you hear people go,
[2584.79] Tony: ooh, look at that.
[2586.79] Mako: So long.
[2588.79] Mako: You can hit the restart button.
[2590.79] Jess: I mean, to be fair, you do have,
[2592.79] Jess: I think it was through team speak
[2594.79] Jess: that the teams would be connected with each other.
[2596.79] Jess: All of the pilots of the same team
[2598.79] Jess: would have each other.
[2600.79] Curry: Take the mute button.
[2602.79] Jess: Go and hear your racers.
[2604.79] Jess: Yeah, but it was more of an encouragement type situation
[2607.79] Jess: and all of them were saying that they were
[2609.79] Jess: hearing all the pilots that weren't racing
[2611.79] Jess: and go, go, go.
[2612.79] Jess: You're doing amazing.
[2613.79] Jess: Like it was a really positive chat
[2615.79] Jess: and obviously speaking as well with the team captain,
[2617.79] Jess: team manager.
[2618.79] Jess: And so thinking of different strategies.
[2621.79] Jess: I mean, there's noise there.
[2624.79] Jess: But yeah, it was quite cool though
[2626.79] Jess: because we got to see the setup of different people
[2629.79] Jess: and there was like an unspoken competition
[2631.79] Jess: of who has the coolest setup at home.
[2633.79] Jess: I'm pretty sure Jordy Peake wins.
[2635.79] Jess: That was my personal favorite.
[2637.79] Jess: He had like the mood lighting at the back in blue
[2640.79] Jess: with all the drone canopies.
[2641.79] Jess: It was awesome.
[2642.79] Tony: Yeah.
[2643.79] Mako: I'm working on mine.
[2645.79] Jess: Yeah.
[2646.79] Jess: I didn't see that.
[2647.79] Jess: It looks cool.
[2648.79] Tony: I'll have my dog on my lap.
[2650.79] Tony: A bee sitting next to me.
[2652.79] Tony: All the lights turn off.
[2654.79] Tony: Everything on mute.
[2656.79] Tony: That'll be me.
[2657.79] Tony: That'll be all right.
[2660.79] Tony: That's usually in an armchair anyway.
[2662.79] Frank: So I'm surprised it makes too much of a difference, don't it?
[2665.79] Tony: I know.
[2666.79] Tony: You got to sit down and relax when you're racing probably.
[2670.79] Tony: I just didn't like the chitter chatter
[2672.79] Tony: of the people talking around you.
[2674.79] Tony: You know, like if I worked in an office
[2676.79] Tony: and someone was on the phone over there,
[2679.79] Tony: I'd be more inclined to listen to them,
[2681.79] Tony: to the person that I was on the phone to.
[2683.79] Tony: That's just, that's how I work.
[2686.79] Tony: So when I used to, when I raced,
[2689.79] Tony: I haven't raced for about a year now.
[2692.79] Tony: I would literally put my hood up and put my goggles down
[2696.79] Tony: and just like go away everyone.
[2698.79] Tony: I don't like to talk.
[2700.79] Tony: I'm trying to concentrate.
[2702.79] Tony: So online would be cool
[2705.79] Tony: because you could just have it how you want it.
[2708.79] Jess: Well, you should join us then, Tony.
[2711.79] Tony: I don't know, maybe.
[2713.79] Tony: I haven't raced for,
[2715.79] Tony: I haven't raced five inch for about two years.
[2717.79] Tony: The last race was ex class in Texas.
[2722.79] Jess: I mean, those are people who joined last year though.
[2725.79] Jess: It was their first year ever
[2727.79] Jess: and they did amazingly.
[2729.79] Jess: They'd just gotten the SIM and they were just grinding at it
[2732.79] Jess: and ended up doing really, really well in the live races.
[2735.79] Jess: So you never know unless you try.
[2738.79] Tony: I know.
[2739.79] Tony: Maybe it's a try again.
[2742.79] Tony: I do.
[2745.79] Jess: Okay, apart that.
[2749.79] Tony: It's, you know, it's not always the winning, Tony.
[2752.79] Tony: No, no, it's a taking part.
[2755.79] Jess: Being part of a team, enjoying the time to get there,
[2759.79] Jess: all of that part.
[2760.79] Tony: I do miss, I do miss that bit of it,
[2763.79] Tony: meeting up with people and all that part.
[2766.79] Tony: But yeah, the driving around the country was annoying.
[2771.79] Tony: I didn't like that either.
[2773.79] Tony: So online.
[2774.79] Frank: And yet you flew over to Texas.
[2777.79] Tony: I know.
[2778.79] Tony: That was a nice holiday slash flying.
[2782.79] Curry: I just like that you could, you could race,
[2784.79] Curry: but don't have to change out of your pajamas.
[2786.79] Curry: I think that's a great day.
[2789.79] Jess: I mean, you do have to wear your team's shirt.
[2791.79] Jess: So you at least have to change your t-shirt.
[2794.79] Curry: Okay.
[2795.79] Jess: You know, I've got my pajamas on now,
[2797.79] Curry: but you can't tell because I've got a regular t-shirt.
[2800.79] Curry: This is all part of the disguise.
[2802.79] Jess: So for me, whenever I was racing in real life, obviously,
[2808.71] Jess: the biggest distraction for me was that I was usually the only girl
[2814.71] Jess: or one of like just a few, maybe two or three.
[2817.71] Jess: And it was just, you know, I know it was in my head,
[2820.71] Jess: but I was always thinking about how everyone kind of gives me
[2825.71] Jess: a bit more attention and probably looking at my screen
[2828.71] Jess: just because I'm a girl and they're curious
[2830.71] Jess: because I would be curious myself, you know?
[2832.71] Jess: And if we had a 50-50 split
[2835.71] Jess: or if it was a fully competition only for girls,
[2840.71] Jess: I think that would make it a lot easier.
[2843.71] Jess: It would give me this piece of, you know?
[2845.71] Jess: It's funny you say that because I felt the same way,
[2848.71] Mako: Kaya, going to my first races.
[2850.71] Mako: Like, everyone's looking at me. I'm the only woman.
[2852.71] Mako: Like, as soon as I started flying, I saw people tuning in.
[2856.71] Mako: Yeah.
[2857.71] Mako: It makes me nervous, but now I'm over it.
[2859.71] Mako: Okay.
[2860.71] Mako: It's more time, I guess.
[2861.71] Mako: And I'm used to being the only female
[2863.71] Mako: at pretty much every event I attend.
[2866.71] Tony: And a good one.
[2868.71] Mako: Now I've just gotten more crass over my years
[2871.71] Mako: because I'm hanging out with so many of these male drone pilots.
[2874.71] Mako: I'm just... I've got to watch my filter more.
[2877.71] Jess: You just got better at flying, you know?
[2880.71] Tony: Mako is great at everything, though.
[2882.71] Tony: Freestyle, Sydney stuff.
[2884.71] Tony: You're just an all-rounder, racing.
[2887.71] Mako: Yeah, I like to do it all. It's never boring.
[2890.71] Tony: No, I like it.
[2892.71] Mako: I might have to focus more on racing with this DCL competition.
[2897.71] Frank: Yeah, man.
[2898.71] Frank: I think that all highlights kind of a good point
[2902.71] Frank: for anyone who's still a skeptic and listening.
[2908.71] Frank: There's...
[2909.71] Frank: Even though the actual race itself,
[2914.71] Frank: there's nothing inherently that would cause any gender split.
[2919.71] Frank: It's everything outside of the race that still goes into it.
[2924.71] Frank: Everything at an event, everything in a community like that
[2932.71] Frank: that is involved there that's still going to have an effect
[2936.71] Frank: on how intimidating it is or how enjoyable it is
[2939.71] Frank: for someone to get involved and to race.
[2942.71] Frank: And hopefully things like this will get it to the same point
[2950.71] Frank: as driving a car where it's not a surprise
[2953.71] Frank: that there's a woman driving a car.
[2956.71] Frank: You know, hopefully we get to that point
[2959.71] Frank: where there doesn't need to be any separation
[2963.71] Frank: and it's just normal and accepted and it's not unusual.
[2967.71] Frank: But at the moment, we're not any...
[2970.71] Frank: We haven't even barely started towards that direction.
[2974.71] Frank: So hopefully this is one of the things
[2976.71] Frank: that will help progress the community
[2979.71] Frank: to something a bit more diverse and inclusive.
[2984.71] Jess: This is what we were hoping.
[2986.71] Jess: It's...
[2987.71] Jess: And one of the things that we're also saying
[2990.71] Jess: with the Women's Cup as DCL is that, you know,
[2994.71] Jess: as an organization, we have your back
[2996.71] Jess: because we know that all these women do deal with regular abuse
[3002.71] Jess: from unfortunate, I won't even say words,
[3006.71] Jess: but, you know, those types of people.
[3008.71] Jess: And we are here to support these women
[3013.71] Jess: that they feel safe, you know, racing for DCL.
[3019.71] Jess: I mean, for the competition, obviously for teams,
[3022.71] Jess: but within DCL, the organization,
[3024.71] Jess: they will be supported by us and by these teams
[3028.71] Jess: that will have their backs
[3030.71] Jess: and we'll...
[3031.71] Jess: I mean, we can't, you know, stop trolls on the internet
[3035.71] Jess: from saying things, unfortunately.
[3037.71] Jess: That's not how it works,
[3039.71] Jess: but we also won't just kind of let it happen.
[3045.71] Jess: And we...
[3047.71] Jess: That's one thing that we want to be very clear on
[3051.71] Jess: is that we will not tolerate within DCL
[3054.71] Jess: any kind of ism of any kind of bigotry,
[3058.71] Jess: of any kind is absolutely untolerated.
[3062.71] Jess: And so women can look forward to having a place
[3067.71] Jess: where they will be defended
[3069.71] Jess: if ever sexist comments come their way.
[3072.71] Jess: And I mean, I say this for women,
[3074.71] Jess: but this is applicable for really all the kinds of bigotry
[3078.71] Jess: that there are because every now and then
[3080.71] Jess: I do see unfortunate homophobic and transphobic slurs
[3085.71] Jess: and it irks me and it's something that we as DCL
[3090.71] Jess: also just find unacceptable as language.
[3094.71] Jess: So this is something where, yeah,
[3097.71] Jess: just so you guys know, we got your back.
[3101.71] Mako: The great thing is it's such a minor,
[3103.71] Mako: like such a small population of people that,
[3106.71] Mako: and there are so many, I feel like,
[3108.71] Mako: have you seen the bell curve?
[3110.71] Mako: I feel like you're either loved or hate,
[3112.71] Mako: you're adored or abhorred.
[3114.71] Mako: There's no middle ground as a female pilot.
[3117.71] Jess: Yeah.
[3118.71] Jess: Yeah.
[3119.71] Jess: I get why people find it unfair that these competitions,
[3124.71] Jess: you know, they are split into like our freestyle contest
[3127.71] Jess: that we organized.
[3129.71] Jess: It was only for women.
[3131.71] Jess: And I get why people find it, you know,
[3134.71] Jess: not fair towards men,
[3136.71] Jess: but also what people don't realize is that,
[3139.71] Jess: of course, everybody knows,
[3141.71] Jess: everybody sees that being a female in FPV comes with
[3144.71] Jess: a lot of benefits.
[3145.71] Jess: You get a lot more attention.
[3147.71] Jess: You know, you may get sponsors easier
[3149.71] Jess: just because there are so few of us.
[3152.71] Jess: It's definitely easier to get subscribers
[3155.71] Jess: if that's what you're after.
[3157.71] Jess: But all of these benefits,
[3159.71] Jess: these come with a very high cost that people don't see,
[3165.71] Jess: you know, the things we have to struggle with on a daily basis.
[3169.71] Jess: So, yeah, just keep that in mind, I guess.
[3175.71] Tony: Good point.
[3176.71] Jess: Just one more thing to add to this.
[3179.71] Jess: We get also a lot of attention that we don't ask for
[3182.71] Jess: and we don't necessarily want to get as well.
[3186.71] Jess: I never feel comfortable.
[3188.71] Jess: As you all know, I never feel comfortable being able to get attention.
[3192.71] Jess: No one always tries to put me in there.
[3194.71] Jess: But, yeah, I don't really care about the number of subscribers.
[3198.71] Jess: All I want to do is just fly drones and have fun.
[3202.71] Jess: That's all I care about.
[3205.71] Jack: I view you as highly capable and I just want you,
[3209.71] Jack: I want one day for you to take over LDO
[3215.71] Jack: and host a show with just women.
[3219.71] Jack: I'm down for that.
[3223.71] Jack: You know, mid genders.
[3226.71] Jack: I believe in you, Bluel.
[3228.71] Jack: And as much as I kick you into the deep end and you hate it,
[3235.71] Jack: I put you on the spot.
[3237.71] Jack: I'd like to point out that Frank now A, talks B, arranges things
[3242.71] Jack: and C, answers back.
[3244.71] Jack: And I feel that I have a look at that little raccoon tail.
[3249.71] Jack: Like, you know, as much as Frank fought me on it,
[3257.71] Jack: I now think we have a much more rich and value for Frank.
[3263.71] Jack: And I'm proud of who he's become.
[3266.71] Jack: Thank you.
[3268.71] Tony: So he's beard.
[3270.71] Jack: Yeah.
[3272.71] Jack: That's also down to Jack.
[3275.71] Jack: Yeah.
[3276.71] Jack: I remember like people like, you know, why is Frank here?
[3279.71] Jack: He doesn't say anything.
[3280.71] Jack: And I have seen angry Frank and it comes to this slogan
[3284.71] Jack: and angry Frank is a dangerous Frank.
[3286.71] Jack: And there's been things that would have never have got done without Frank
[3290.71] Jack: mini air show certain guests that, you know, like there's loads of
[3296.71] Jess: spreadsheets.
[3298.71] Jack: Oh, this is amazing.
[3304.71] Frank: Yeah.
[3305.71] Frank: I mean, the mini air show is kind of an interesting kind of
[3309.71] Frank: relevant one in that, like, you know, that's with mini air show.
[3314.71] Frank: I've been, you know, trying to make that a space that women are
[3320.71] Frank: comfortable with coming along and flying to.
[3322.71] Frank: And, you know, it's it is very hard to make that kind of space
[3327.71] Frank: starting from a position where you've basically got 100% male
[3333.71] Frank: attendance, you know, and, you know, there is that kind of that
[3338.71] Frank: barrier first.
[3339.71] Frank: So like, you know, even like being like, I will forget ticket prices
[3348.71] Frank: if, you know, you can just come along, but it still makes it quite
[3354.71] Frank: hard because it is an intimidating space for women to come to.
[3360.71] Frank: And, you know, we've particularly on the racing side, you know,
[3365.71] Frank: we've had women come along and fly generally.
[3367.71] Frank: But then to get into the racing, I don't know whether that's a case
[3372.71] Frank: of kind of because it is more competitive and it's whether like you
[3376.71] Frank: say it because there's kind of a bit more attention and people tuning
[3380.71] Frank: into your flying or kind of what happens there.
[3384.71] Frank: But, you know, I would, you know, I'm keeping an eye in anything that
[3391.71] Frank: I can hear about, you know, initiatives to encourage more women into
[3395.71] Frank: flying and participating in these kinds of events because, you know,
[3400.71] Frank: I think it is it's crazy that there isn't something there that should
[3405.71] Frank: be gendered.
[3406.71] Frank: You know, we've got if you look at, like I said, like you look at driving
[3410.71] Frank: in the U.S., there's more women drivers than there are men drivers.
[3413.71] Frank: If you look at gaming, we're almost at the point where we've almost got
[3416.71] Frank: parity of women to men in gaming.
[3419.71] Frank: And if you look in FPV, it's just it's just crazy how it that isn't,
[3425.71] Frank: you know, even starting to come true.
[3428.71] Frank: So, you know, I'm interested to see how this goes and kind of how things
[3433.71] Frank: progress.
[3434.71] Frank: And hopefully, you know, more visibility in DCL will also kind of maybe
[3439.71] Frank: encourage more women to approach local kind of grassroots clubs.
[3445.71] Frank: And maybe we can kind of get things in there as well, because as soon as
[3449.71] Frank: you've got some women in there, then it will, I'm sure, help kind of make
[3454.71] Frank: that a less intimidating space for women to go to as well.
[3459.71] Frank: So, yeah, I really hope this is kind of is one of those first steps towards
[3465.71] Frank: kind of making that change.
[3468.71] Jess: It's definitely what we're trying to do.
[3472.71] Jess: Obviously, it's one of those you see someone who looks like you're doing
[3476.71] Jess: something, you think, you know what, I can do it, too.
[3480.71] Jess: That's usually how that kind of thing works.
[3483.71] Jess: And so by giving women a space where they will be showcased to a live
[3487.71] Jess: audience on a regular basis, we're also saying to a whole bunch of other
[3493.71] Jess: people, you know what, look, these are women, they can do it, so can you.
[3497.71] Jess: Because FPV is a really expensive hobby.
[3501.71] Jess: So, it has to be something that you're sure you want to do if you're going
[3505.71] Jess: to start getting into it.
[3508.71] Jess: And so by showing them, you know, there is potential.
[3511.71] Jess: If you do this, you can be part of team, you can enter competitions.
[3516.71] Jess: That immediately also gives incentive to, I mean, you can buy simulators.
[3521.71] Jess: Those are obviously a lot cheaper than getting a drone itself.
[3524.71] Jess: But it's already a start that you go on the simulator, you realize you enjoy it,
[3529.71] Jess: you see that there are women flying, you see that they're doing really well,
[3533.71] Jess: winning things, et cetera.
[3535.71] Jess: And that kind of, like you said, influences a whole new generation of girls
[3541.71] Jess: and women to join.
[3543.71] Jess: Hopefully, we can get to the point where there's parity.
[3546.71] Jack: Thank you.
[3547.71] Jack: Bill, do you want to call us out?
[3549.71] Jack: We have been joined by...
[3551.71] Jack: I thought we were letting Blue Owl do the outro.
[3553.71] Tony: No, no, no, no, no.
[3556.71] Curry: Such a cracking job of the intros.
[3558.71] Tony: We've got to let her do the outro, too.
[3561.71] Tony: I'll give you a start, boy.
[3563.71] Jack: You've been listening to Let's Drone Out.
[3565.71] Jack: Thank you all.
[3566.71] Jack: Thank you for listening to Let's Drone Out.
[3568.71] Jack: Don't forget to thank your Patreons.
[3570.71] Jack: Go, Blue Owl.
[3571.71] Jack: Go.
[3572.71] Jack: Oh, God.
[3573.71] Jack: I'm so sorry for putting you on the spot, but it's good for you.
[3575.71] Jess: Oh, you're not, though.
[3576.71] Jess: You're not.
[3577.71] Jess: One day, you'll be telling me what to do.
[3582.71] Jess: All right.
[3583.71] Jess: I guess I just don't have a choice, so it's going to be awkward.
[3588.71] Jack: We've got a dropship in zero, so it's fine.
[3591.71] Jess: All right.
[3592.71] Jess: So we were joined by...
[3593.71] Jess: Who would I start with?
[3594.71] Jess: Craig Kitten.
[3596.71] Jack: Goodbye.
[3597.71] Jess: Jack.
[3598.71] Jess: Good night.
[3600.71] Jess: Tony.
[3601.71] Jess: Sorry, our little Tony.
[3603.71] Tony: Bonjour.
[3604.71] Jess: Bonjour, Tony.
[3606.71] Jess: Andy slash Frank.
[3608.71] Jess: Hi.
[3609.71] Jess: And our two very, very special guests.
[3612.71] Jess: Jess.
[3613.71] Jess: Hi, guys.
[3620.77] Mako: And.
[3621.77] Curry: And?
[3622.77] Curry: And?
[3623.77] Curry: Up there above Tony, look.
[3624.77] Mako: Did she freeze?
[3626.77] Curry: Yeah, I think she did.
[3629.77] Mako: I think she did something to her computer intentionally.
[3633.77] Mako: Just yank the Wi-Fi at the mall.
[3636.77] Mako: Did you have fun while I was away?
[3639.77] Jess: I think my Wi-Fi is on my side, you know?
[3646.77] Mako: What did I win?
[3647.77] Mako: She's just saying goodbye to my co-reactor.
[3650.77] Mako: That's okay.
[3651.77] Mako: Thank you for having me again.
[3653.77] Jack: Don't forget.
[3654.77] Mako: Oh.
[3655.77] Mako: Bye-bye, Pat.
[3658.77] Curry: I've also been.
[3660.77] Jess: Is there a private chat?
[3661.77] Curry: We can text her there, too.
[3664.77] Mako: Just read it from there.
[3667.77] UNKNOWN: Hit the stop button.
[3669.77] Mako: Bye.
[3670.77] Mako: Telemetry loss.