Behind The FPV Goggles: GETPROPSMAN

Drone Racing and FPV Freestyle are some of the fastest growing sports in the world. Meet the men and women behind the goggles,who are changing the way we see our planet. Frank Lee, who's better know as GETPROPSMAN, welcomed us to his custom course at his family's warehouse in San Francisco. Frank gets his pilot name from his prop building company. He came up with the idea after seeing and hearing that pilots wanted more colors to chose from for quad propellers. He's an adrenaline junkie with a history in Formula 1 and bike racing, which he thinks could give him a bit of an advantage in his FPV racing. Frank correlates the transition from drone racing to freestyle to that of learning a new language; tricky but very rewarding once you get the hang of it. The best part of flying FPV for Frank? Spacial freedom, meaning if he wants to go into a space and observe it but can't physically get there he can with his quad. Thanks for taking the time to fly with us, Frank!

To hear from all of your favorite FPV pilots, visit www.airvuz.com/user/BehindTheGoggles. VIDEO TRANSCRIPT: Speaker 1: Drone racing and FPV freestyle are some of fastest growing sports in the world. Meet the men and women behind the goggles who are changing the way we see our planet. Frank Lee, who is better known as Getpropsman, welcome us to his custom course at his family's [00:00:30] warehouse in San Francisco. Frank: A lot of people come up to me and say, "Hey, you're the props man." And I'm like, "Well, yes." But what I actually set out to do wasn't really to create a persona or character. Propsman was actually a pun, sort of like props, man. Speaker 1: It's a fitting name. Frank is getting a lot of props for making the world of flying a lot more colorful. More on that in a minute. This story starts more than 6,000 miles away in Taiwan, where he immigrated from as a child [00:01:00] with his family. Frank: I also did live in Taiwan and Hong Kong for a period of time, as well, Taiwan for four years and Hong Kong for one. I'm bilingual, so that really helps. Speaker 1: Frank has always been an adrenaline junkie. Eventually, his need for speed on two or four wheels took flight. What's your favorite, between the three? FPV, bike, car? First, second, third. Frank: I would have to say bike, car, FPV. Speaker 1: Yeah. Frank: Yeah. I'm a big [00:01:30] motorcycle fan. We talk about F1 a lot, and that's a bond that my brother and I have, so, I think... Speaker 1: Makes it special. Frank: Yeah. So the relationship just with him in terms of the car aspect of that, you know. I really like it. But FPV, definitely close third to car, close second to F1. The adrenaline rush is there. I'm actually doing it, instead of being a spectator. Speaker 1: Do you think being used to seeing things wiz by you like that gives you an advantage [00:02:00] in drone racing? Frank: Yeah. That definitely does. Once you get used to going a certain speed, you know, then you know the sort of reaction time you need. You start to understand the timing. So yeah, going fast in a car, I guess can correlate to drone racing. But in a sense, I would say it's different because you're working with a third axis now you're working with up and down instead of left and right and forward and back. Speaker 1: Right. Frank: So that's [00:02:30] what is the most difficult to sort of overcome. Speaker 1: So do you really prefer freestyle, or you more of a racing guy. Frank: Personally, I kind of have found a new love for freestyle. At first, it was all about racing. It's sort of like learning a new language. It's fun to learn your personal style. You know, some people like to do a lot of continuous flips and tricks, while others I think, Schizo, you know, likes to stay close to a lot of natural [00:03:00] elements like skim the trees, and dive down buildings, and stuff like that. So yeah, it's really cool, once you start paying to the style of free styling, you know. And you have a new appreciation for it. Speaker 1: Tell me a little bit about your business. Not everybody in this community has a business. Frank: I realized oh you know, props at that time really only came in three colors, green, orange, and black. Speaker 1: Yeah. Frank: And I was like, why is that? Speaker 1: Lame. Frank: Yeah, why is that? So I just [00:03:30] found one of the manufacturers, and again, you know, being bilingual, I was like, "hey, what's up", in Chinese. Speaker 1: In Chinese, it's casual. Frank: Yeah. "Hey, what's up." You know, how...anyways, just get some black, some orange, and some green to fulfill, sort of, you know the market, and then the Schizo Blue and Mr. Steel Red would be the highlight of my business, you know. You can get the new pellers here. Speaker 1: When you're flying, [00:04:00] what's the coolest part about it to you? Frank: The coolest part is the spatial freedom, and I guess what I mean by that is literally if you want to go to a space and observe it, you can just go there. You go around, and you have this freedom of just doing something that you can't physically do. Speaker 1: Where do you think this sport is going? Frank: I would say it has the potential to be what computer gaming is, in terms of the eSport community right now. I would hope with all the support, [00:04:30] and all the sort of fanfare right now, and the enthusiasm behind it, that we can take this sport or hobby, whatever you want to call it, to the next level.