Thrust-UAV Professional Pilots

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.</p>
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.

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.

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.

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.

Kris was active duty Air Force vet (6 years as an F­16 crew chief). He was in multiple tours in Germany, Jordan, South Carolina as well as two tours in Iraq. Kris currently is the co-­owner of a classic car dealership in Boise with my father and serves part­-time in the Idaho ANG as an A­10 Crew Chief.

Kris’s interest in FPV drone racing first started when he saw a YouTube video of France guys racing quadcopters through a course in the woods in 2014. After seeing this video, Kris knew I had to get into this sport.

Kris started building his first drone which was a gigantic DJI Flame Wheel 450 with a KK2.1 flight controller. He flew it several times in a local park but it just wasn’t doing the trick. Then one day his sister texted him that a bunch of guys were flying drones in a school park near her house so he hopped in his truck and drove over. At the park, Kris, talked to local Boise FPV member, Chris Haskins, and a couple weeks later (November 2015) he was ­flying his first 250 size quad.

Kris currently races in the Boise FPV Intermediate class monthly points races. He competed at a Drone Nationals qualifier in Bend, Oregon where he placed 12th overall. Kris can’t believe how much drone racing has grown in such a short time and is excited to shape the future of the sport.