Drone racers might seem like ideal combat pilots. But trainers say they have to relearn almost everything.

Piloting a drone in wartime requires going slow and hunting, very different skills from hobbyists who race drones.

Wolfgang Schwan/Anadolu via Getty Images

Pilots who fly small drones for sport are very capable at the controls. But that doesn't make them good operators for combat.Ukraine's fight against Russia's invasion shows that drone pilots do need to be able to quickly reach and aim at targets, but they also need to be able to move slowly, to bide their time, and to hunt.Viesturs Silenieks, chairman of the board of Drone Force — Europe, a Latvia-based group that teaches people to fly drones, including in combat situations, said that sports drone operators typically work at high speed in very different conditions.But when it came to getting people with that sports drone experience to fly in a military style, "They don't know how to fly it slowly." His group needs to "change their mindset," to the extent that they are "training again from zero, actually," he said, speaking at the Drone Summit in Latvia, a gathering of industry and military personnel attended by Business Insider.The two ways of flying are "totally different," he said.Taras Berezovets, the head of the military cooperation department of Ukraine's Territorial Defense Forces, said at the summit that being able to move slowly is absolutely key for a war drone pilot.Drone operators, he said, often have to be "the hunter. To be patient, to wait for a long time."