Uploaded October 2015 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
This is a rambling video which came out even more boring than I expected, so apologies for that.
I wanted to record my thoughts after running FPV racing sessions this year so I can look back at this in a few years, starting in February we ran 9 monthly meetings through till October, trying to establish local group and spreading the word and our idea's and methods for other groups to mimic.
My 3 goals for the year were:
- Design a cheap course anyone could copy
- setup monthly racing sessions which were self managing, so I could fly, and a format which maximised everyones flying time
- proof of concept for a cheap fun spec class for FPV racing to show if this was possible
I feel the first one was achieved, the pvc pipe course is cheap and easy to make with no tools, and works really well both for visibility and robustness, we crashed into them literally hundreds of times, and they are incredibly robust, and just fall over or apart on big hits, and can then be stuck back up.
We held 5 open monhtly events but then got derailed losing our field, and last 4 had to be invitation only due to restricted venues, so I'd call that a half.
Spec racing I feel we've proven the concept was sound, but there still isn't any sign of a spec class emerging, or much appetite for one amongst the early racers, who clearly have the budget and time to chase performance, when I feel the mass appeal will only take off once this settles down.
Re commercial aspects, all the racing events we've run have been completely free to enter, I paid for all the equipment myself, and we've been fortunate to find venues who didn't ask for money, so I'm pleased with that.
All the details of airgates, frequency tags etc are on this helifreak thread helifreak.com/showthread.php?t=687056
Our monthly racing videos are here youtube.com/watch?v=JuiUf3HKyik&list=PL7eKbXhE9KT6vGQKy5SdCX3ggxr6u8FrD
Hopefully next year FPV racing will get a lot more established, and rules/specs will develop and spread, my concern is every club/league/organisation will have different idea's/rules/classes/format, which will delay a tree or ladder forming from small local groups, up to clubs, then regional, national events, and commercial aspects such as selling timing and race course equipment and motor/frame manufacturers pushing spec/prices up will hinder progress in getting cheap fun racing established in every area, so hopefully I'll be proven wrong!
I forgot to mention I also am keen on minimum 1300 mah lipo size, to allow cheap/low C packs, and avoid people running tiny 800mah or smaller packs for 2 blistering fast laps which then go in the bin as they are puffed from overloading, 1300-1500 packs are perfect size for 5-7min flights which mean you can do a days racing with not many packs even if power isn't available for charging.
Any positive comments please comment below, anything negative will get deleted so please don't waste your typing fingers trolling ;)
This is a rambling video which came out even more boring than I expected, so apologies for that.
I wanted to record my thoughts after running FPV racing sessions this year so I can look back at this in a few years, starting in February we ran 9 monthly meetings through till October, trying to establish local group and spreading the word and our idea's and methods for other groups to mimic.
My 3 goals for the year were:
- Design a cheap course anyone could copy
- setup monthly racing sessions which were self managing, so I could fly, and a format which maximised everyones flying time
- proof of concept for a cheap fun spec class for FPV racing to show if this was possible
I feel the first one was achieved, the pvc pipe course is cheap and easy to make with no tools, and works really well both for visibility and robustness, we crashed into them literally hundreds of times, and they are incredibly robust, and just fall over or apart on big hits, and can then be stuck back up.
We held 5 open monhtly events but then got derailed losing our field, and last 4 had to be invitation only due to restricted venues, so I'd call that a half.
Spec racing I feel we've proven the concept was sound, but there still isn't any sign of a spec class emerging, or much appetite for one amongst the early racers, who clearly have the budget and time to chase performance, when I feel the mass appeal will only take off once this settles down.
Re commercial aspects, all the racing events we've run have been completely free to enter, I paid for all the equipment myself, and we've been fortunate to find venues who didn't ask for money, so I'm pleased with that.
All the details of airgates, frequency tags etc are on this helifreak thread helifreak.com/showthread.php?t=687056
Our monthly racing videos are here youtube.com/watch?v=JuiUf3HKyik&list=PL7eKbXhE9KT6vGQKy5SdCX3ggxr6u8FrD
Hopefully next year FPV racing will get a lot more established, and rules/specs will develop and spread, my concern is every club/league/organisation will have different idea's/rules/classes/format, which will delay a tree or ladder forming from small local groups, up to clubs, then regional, national events, and commercial aspects such as selling timing and race course equipment and motor/frame manufacturers pushing spec/prices up will hinder progress in getting cheap fun racing established in every area, so hopefully I'll be proven wrong!
I forgot to mention I also am keen on minimum 1300 mah lipo size, to allow cheap/low C packs, and avoid people running tiny 800mah or smaller packs for 2 blistering fast laps which then go in the bin as they are puffed from overloading, 1300-1500 packs are perfect size for 5-7min flights which mean you can do a days racing with not many packs even if power isn't available for charging.
Any positive comments please comment below, anything negative will get deleted so please don't waste your typing fingers trolling ;)
