Thrust-UAV

Thrust-UAV Professional Pilots

Meet the Thrust-UAV Professional Drone Racing Team!

Conrad Miller, aka “Furadi”

Furadi started competing in drone racing in September 2015 although he was involved in the sport for a year prior. His very first race was the Las Vegas Underground put on by Adam Negron and MultiGP. He was the favorite going into the race and took the win due to his year of experience practicing in a low ceiling parking garage.

He’s since competed in 3 International Drone Racing Association (IDRA) races, 2 Drone Racing League (DRL) races and a Drone Nationals qualifier where he took 2nd place. He was also one of 32 pilots invited to Dubai all expenses paid for the World Drone Prix.Furadi is the founder of the Facebook group, “Boise FPV” which he uses to promote drone racing in Boise ID and gathers pilots to hold drone races in the local area.

Furadi is well known in the drone industry for being very active on social media and being a source for people seeking information or unbiased data on new equipment that hits the market. Due to his social media presence and speed on the race track Furadi is considered one of the top drone racing pilots in the world.Conrad joined Thrust UAV in June 2016 in a Drone Tech Support role and Race Team Member. Together they plan to launch the RIOT 250 Pro to the masses as a viable turn-key racer.

Pilot name: Furadi
Position: Racer Team Leader/ Drone Technology Support
furadi-zero
Furadi (right) standing with his second place trophy at Pacific Northwest Qualifiers 2016 (Left is Thrust-UAV team pilot “Zero”, his son.)
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Filed Under: Team Pilots

Sorell Miller aka “Zero”

The son of Furadi. Sorell got his start in September 2015 under the guidance of his father. With a strict training regimen and plenty of support from sponsors Zero quickly got up to pro level speed on a race course.

Zero has been invited to both level one and level two DRL races as a VIP guest. At level one he actually got to fly on the course with his dad and Steve Zoumas. Zero regularly races at home in Boise and spends a fair amount of time beating Furadi head to head. His first official race was the Pacific Northwest Drone Nationals qualifier in Bend OR. Not only did Zero get top 5 and a spot at Drone Nationals, but he won the whole event – all at the age of 12. This kid has a bright future in drone racing.

Pilot name: Zero
Age: 12
Position: Racer/6th Grader
furadi-zero
Zero (on left with the BIG trophy) standing next to his father “Furadi” at Pacific Northwest Qualifiers 2016
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Filed Under: Team Pilots

EJ Duarte, aka “Amped Out”

In 2007 Ernest Duarte (E.J.) found a forum about multirotor aircraft while looking for some information about is traditional radio controlled Helicopter. In this forum there were 3 other people talking about building a controller using fixed pitch props and using brushless electric motors to stabilize a 4 motor helicopter. After about a year E.J. built and tested his first copter. After a few years of tinkering with multirotor flight he started a company named Thrust-UAV in 2012 which became a legal entity in 2013. During this time he designed and manufactured multirotor helicopters and sold on online line stores like Ebay, Amazon and directly from his own website Thrust-UAV.com.

In early 2013 he attended his first small FPV competition in Tempe Arizona with 6 others from around the US. And this is when he realized that the racing was going to grow and become something huge. He then started to become part of many social media groups and help get the word out about racing these small copters first person. Within the first year of attending a drone FPV race, E.J. traveled to Texas, California and Florida to compete in drone competitions. During this time he met with many other people that wanted to help promote racing.

In 2014 E.J. starting to develop a smaller compact drone. He then manufactured and sold a couple lighter faster drones that could be raced. This early success developing his own drones lead to E.J. turned his focus to racing and development of better racing platforms than were available on the market. As demand grew for his drones, E.J. started to sponsor other up and coming racing pilots as he wanted to help others grow his brand and didn’t have as much time to compete.

In 2015 E.J. focused on growing his business but he still managed to compete in races throughout the US at locations like Ohio, Utah, Idaho, California. In the beginning of 2016 he sold his company to PCS Edventures. With the support of PCS , Thrust UAV has been able to build more complex drones and grow the brand as the top drone company in the FPV racing market.

Pilot name: Amped Out
Position: Racer, Founder of Thrust UAV and Director of R&D Team

EJ-profile

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Filed Under: Team Pilots

Chris Haskins, aka “Hazak”

Hazak began his racing career in October 2014. He won his first race at the Utah cup 2015, 2nd place at MultiGP Covington “Cave Race” in 2016 and is a featured Pilot with DRL. Chris has participated in 3 races with the top pilots in the world to earn season points. The pilots with most points qualify for the World Championship race, where it’s winner-take-all. So far Chris has completed Level 1 “Miami lights,” Level 2 “LA apocalypse” and Level 3 “Project Manhattan.”Chris and his 13 year old daughter Cadence, “KrazyK”, challenge each other weekly at the Boise FPV races. She is an up and coming pilot on the JV racing team and hoping soon to challenge Sorell for a chance on the varsity race team.

Chris joined Thrust UAV in March of 2016 as the Production Manager and has a strong technical background in information systems and computer science. Working in the Thrust UAV R&D department, Chris is excited to release the Riot 250R Pro which he believes will become the number one high performance racing drone on the market.

Pilot name: Hazak
Position: Racer/Production Manager
Hazak, bringin' in the dough...
Hazak, bringin’ in the dough…
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Filed Under: Team Pilots