AV News: Drafts and Drones with MAV Meetup at BauHaus Brew Labs

Tyler Mason reports from the Bauhaus Brew Labs in Minneapolis, Minnesota where the MAV Meetup group held an events called "Drafts and Drones." The event was a huge success, educating many people about drones and even giving them some hands on experience with an FPV simulator! See how websites like meetup.com are helping the community organize and get together to further advance the positive public perception of drones!

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“If you’re a drone pilot, you’ve probably tried to

find fun places to fly, whether it’s a park in your

neighborhood, or maybe a beach. We talked to a

group here in Minneapolis who found another

cool place to fly: a brewery.”
What began just a couple years ago as a way to

bring drone pilots together has blossomed into

something much bigger. The Minnesota

Autonomous Vehicle – or MAV – Meetup group in

the Twin Cities has seen its membership skyrocket

since its humble beginnings.
“Now in the Twin Cities, we have 540 members,

and we focus on drone education, safety and

outreach events like this tonight.”

We caught up with the group at a local social

gathering at Bauhaus Brew Labs in Minneapolis,

where they enjoyed sharing their story at an

event they called “Drafts and Drones.”“It started 3 years ago in a basement, building

drones, flying drones, crashing drones, and then

we figured, ‘Hey, this is pretty fun. We should

make a group.’
The MAV Meetup group is just one example of

how drone pilots find one another online to

connect in person. On Meetup.com, you can find

dozens of drone-related groups and clubs from

New York to Florida to Texas to Alaska, and just

about everywhere in between.
It’s not just the United States, either, as Australia,

India, Dubai and England all boast drone groups

on Meetup. As more and more people get into

flying drones, groups like these seem to make

perfect sense.
“There’s a lot of really cool groups like that. One

of the exciting things about especially drones is

they bring together a really unique group of

people. You have the traditional RC enthusiasts.

You have the tech guys. You have the complete

off the deep end engineers that are interested in

this new technology for what they can use it for.”
Bruce Christianson was one of the 20 or so drone

pilots at the recent event in Minneapolis. While

many of the group’s members have an

engineering background, Christianson got into

drones for the photography.
“It was all new to me. I knew nothing about RC. All

I knew was photography, and that’s what I

wanted to do. All the RC guys came up to me and

says, ‘Oh you’re a photographer? I’ve got a lot of

questions for you.’ And I go, ‘Well I’ve got a lot of

questions for you!’ It was pretty cool.”
Duane Olson is an electrical engineer by trade, but

a drone pilot in his free time. He’s newer to the

group than Christianson but still enjoys the

benefits that come with Meetups such as this one.
“I just Googled Minnesota and drones, and this

place popped up. I said, ‘Well, I can go try it and

see what it’s like.’ I’ve been to most of the

meeting since then.”
The Twin Cities-based MAV Meetup holds regular

fly days where members get together and fly

drones. They also host drone-related speakers

and have participated in volunteer events.
The bottom line of groups like this is to have fun

flying drones while educating others about the

positives of the ever-evolving technology.
“I think that community groups like this are

invaluable when it comes to creating a positive

perception for unmanned systems. We won’t

change policy, and we understand that. But one of

the exciting things is that we can change

individuals’ perceptions. Doing events like this

goes way further than we realize at this time.”
At AirVuz News, I’m Tyler Mason.