Tampa Bay's Premier Drone Club
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TBDC History
HISTORY OF TAMPA BAY DRONE CLUB
Foundation
In January 2015, Tampa Drones Meetup Group Was Formed. A Former Veteran at the USAF decided that there was no informal meetup group for hobbyists to gather and fly together. The Meetup group "Tampa Drones" Was Formed. During this time, most of the community wass online only and no-in person meetups were happening.
Tampa Drones was a Meetup group in the Tampa Bay area that meet every month for collaboration, training and fun flying. Our group of knowledgeable enthusiasts enjoyed being able to meet with other like minded individuals to talk tech, help each other with their current projects and tech one another with lessons learned.
Feb - 2016
MEETUP GROUP FORMS & WEEKLY EVENTS
June - 2020
TAMPA SERVICE CENTER
Tampa Drones Service Center Opened In Clearwater Florida With an in-person drone shop and repair location. The Shop had a select inventory for FPV Pilots to repair drones, and purchase parts from different member's.
Nov - 2020
FIRST MOVE TO ST PETERSBURG
Dec - 2020
UNIVERSITY MALL LOCATION
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Tampa Drones Service Center Moves Into University Mall AMRoC FabLab and becomes the drone education partner.
Feb - 2021
AMRoCFabLab Build A Drone In Person Class
Tampa Drones Service Center Opened In Downtown St Petersburg. No In person Storefront was open during this time and online only. Our Clearwater store was closed when we moved to downtown.
May - 2022
University Mall Departure & AMRoCFabLab Courses
Tampa Drones Service Center Closes University Mall Location For Repairs. AMRoCFabLab Continues To Host Build, And Fly Drone Events on a monthly basis even today...
JAN 2019
Brandon Drone Club Is Founded.
APR 2021
START OF
SIMULATOR NIGHTS
JAN 2023
BRANDON DRONE CLUB FIRST SURVEY.
Jan - 2023
TRANSITION TO WEBSITE
During this time, we started to transition to our current website (TampaBayDroneClub.com) and schedule events on our own platform.
Member accounts were created and all events were merged from Tampa Drones Group & Brandon Drone Club.
Feb - 2023
TAMPA DRONE CLUB MERGES WITH TB DRONE CLUB
During this time, another meetup group (Tampa Drones) group was officially merged with Tampa bay drone club.
Previously our current club (TB Drone Club) was known as "Brandon Drone Meetup" and changed names to "Tampa Bay Drone Club" To Better Reflect the geographic location.
Jan - 2024
5 YEAR MERGING ANNVERSARY
Tampa Bay Drone Club's 5 Year Merging Anniversary. Night flights and daytime racing events, were offered during this time.
Feb - 2024
OUR FIRST FUN-FLY RACING EVENT
We hosted our first timed FPV Drone racing event. We built a custom rotor hazard lap timer and began to time laps.
Unlike other drone racing groups, we were one of the first to fly/race with digital drones (such as DJI & Walksnail) with analog alongside. Swag Points was given to winner for future items.
Oct - 2024
MAJOR WEBSITE UPGRADE
Our Website was upgraded to include multiple safety and quality of life improvements:
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Flying Community Map;
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SWAG Store;
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Forums;
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TFR & SMS Texting Alerts;
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Search & Rescue Forums;
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Online Content;
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Marketplace;
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"Member's Only" Dashboard.
Jan - 2025
TINY WHOOP NIGHTS
Thursday Night Tiny Whoop Nights Were Hosted.
Tampa Bay was the first to host thursday night whoop-nights...
Whoops are under 250g and typically ducted to prevent injury or major incidents.
Lap times are recorded and posted on our website. Winner typically receives swag points to redeem for credits and gear.
Dec - 2025
MINI Drone Day
First Ever Mini Drone Day Was Hosted By TBDC. Pilots were required to have drones under 5" and were able to fly through gates, and around flags.