CIRCUIT RULES

RULES AND REGULATIONS

Preface

FPV Racing Events and Today’s Race Director want to ensure a SAFE and Fun Experience. All participants and spectators must be aware of and adhere to the following regulations for RACEDAY.

ALL ATTENDEES

  1. Do Not Enter the Racing area (rope lines/chalk/cones/netting) until the Session/Heat/Race has expired!
  2. Course will only be open between heats for less than 5 minutes.
  3. Be Aware of All Restrooms and Fire Extinguishers.
  4. Do not fly or power-up any object to be controlled remotely without approval from the Race Director.  Hovering in the pits (with VTX Disconnected) must be done safely, and not exceeding a 5′ distance from the Pilot and 5′ distance from the ground.
  5. Do not enter the Flight Line unless it is your time to race, prepare to stage (mount equipment the race prior to yours) or spot.  Only registered pilots may enter the Flight Line during these timeframes.
  6. If you are injured, please immediately bring it to the attention of the Race Director.

RACE FORMAT

  1. Advertised/Posted Formats and schedules may be modified at the discretion of the Race Director.  To contribute to a “full program”, ensure that you are prompt and punctual before, during and after your heat(s), and aware of what race is on the track.
  2. RaceDay may consist of 1 practice round, a minimum of 1 qualifying round, and a championship main round.
  3. Practice Sessions will be 2/3 minutes in duration.  If utilized to seed the first Qualifier Round, each pilot’s fastest individual lap per class will be used.
  4. Qualifiers will be 2/3 minutes in duration.  If more than one Qualifying Round is offered, “Rocket Round” will be used to select each pilot’s fastest Qualifying Time (# of Laps recorded within the designated time period, i.e. 7 laps in 3:13.609)
  5. When more than one Championship Main is on the schedule, there should be transfer or bump-up positions.  These will be announced as final between qualifying and the mains. (i.e. Top 2 from the B-main instantly qualify for the A-main)
  6. RaceDay Programming is designed to afford as even of an amount of flight time per pilot as possible, regardless of skill.

CLASSIFICATION

  1. Micros – 4″ Props
  2. 5″ Props / 3S / 220mm Minimum Wheelspan
  3. 5″ Props / 4S / 220mm Minimum Wheelspan
  4. Open (Run What You Brung)
  5. Beginners (All MultiRotors Welcome)

ALL PILOTS

  1. Pit Preference is awarded on a first-come, first serve basis
  2. ANY VTX OFF THE TRACK FROM THE START OF REGISTRATION UNTIL PODIUM AWARDS IS NOT PERMITTED.
  3. ANY DAMAGE CAUSED TO A “LOST” CRAFT OR CAUSED BY THAT CRAFT WILL BE THE LIABILITY OF THE PERSON NOT ADHERING TO THE ABOVE RULE.  (ALL CRAFT ARE TO USE ASSIGNED CHANNELS ONLY, AT THE SCHEDULED TIME/HEAT.)
  4. Intermittent opportunities between sessions/heats/mains may be available for rapid testing of your VTX.  This is to be requested of the Flight Line Director, who will provide a test VTX and permission, once the Race Director has been notified.
  5. Ensure that your failsafe mode is “down”, not “hover”.
  6. Be Knowledgeable and READY!  Be next to the Flight Line the race BEFORE YOURS for VTX/Transponder mounting.  Once your race is called to the grid, you will forfeit your heat if you are not ready.
  7. As the race before yours is staging and running, place the VTX and Transponder on your craft.
  8. Be gentle with all provided equipment (VTX/Transponder).  Damage results in liability for replacement.
  9. You will be assigned a NUMBER before your session/heat/race.  This correlates to VTX Channel and Transponder provided by Race Management.
  10. You may be directed to carry your craft through the Finish Gate to check-in transponder.  This will be as your heat is called to the Grid.
  11. DO NOT POWER UP VIDEO UNTIL DIRECTED BY FLIGHT LINE DIRECTOR OR RACE DIRECTOR.  THIS WILL BE IMMEDIATELY BEFORE YOUR RACE.
  12. Place your craft on the take-off zone when directed. Power up video on the take-off zone only.  Go to assigned position in Flight Line.
  13. Tone starts will be in place.
  14. Do Not Do Extra Laps.  Do not “freestyle” above spectators or other pilots.
  15. Do not fly your craft anywhere but on the race track or designated line of site flying areas.
  16. A 60′ Ceiling is in place.  Do not exceed it.  Failure to do so will result in Disqualification.
  17. Keep your LiPo in a LiPo Sack if under cover or indoors.  Failure to do so will result in Disqualification.
  18. Missed gates result in 10-second penalties.
  19. Do not enter the raceway following the start of the race, unless approved by the Flight Line Director or Race Director.
  20. Once you are done racing and the race is over, retrieve your craft, gently remove VTX/Transponder, and return to your assigned seat to spot the next race.  You will have 3 minutes or less to return to your seat.  All Pilots are required to Spot.  Failure to do so will result in penalties.
  21. Important Commands:
    1. “On the tone in less than 5” – command prior to a tone start.
    2. “3, 2, 1, Go” – in lieu of a tone start
    3. “Stop, Drop or Hover” – immediately cease forward direction.  Save your craft as best as possible.
  22. Proper sportsmanship and conduct is to be exemplified.  Examples of poor conduct would include, but are not limited to: affecting another Pilot’s Race or Equipment by speech or any sort of tampering or aggressive behaviour.
  23. Penalties – First Time May Be a Warning unless stated otherwise, 2nd: Lose your fastest qualifier / podium placing, 3rd: Exit
  24. No harassment of officials, pilots, sponsors or spectators will be tolerated.

ALL SPOTTERS

  1. Every Pilot is required to spot.  Each pilot will spot the same Grid/Channel/Transponder assignment they ran on, the heat following (i.e. Run on Channel #2, Spot on Channel #2).
  2. It is every Pilot’s responsibility to ensure that their spotting responsibility is covered.  If you are unable to spot, provide a spotter in your place.  If the Race Officials have to supply a spotter in your absence, you WILL be penalized.
  3. Spotters will count missed gates (via tally) for their assigned pilot.
  4. Following the heat, the Spotter will inform the Racer and the Flight Line Director of any penalties.
  5. Any grievances will be settled by the Flight Line Director and/or Race Director.
    1. If a DVR Video Replay system is supplied by management, the Racer may request a Video Review via the Video Review Process.
    2. The Racer will notify the Flight Line Director and/or Race Director of his request, and provide a $50 Video Review Fee.
    3. The Race Director will inform the Racer of the time the Video Review will take place.
    4. The Flight Line Director and/or Race Director will review the race, and inform the Racer of their decision.
    5. If the Video Review is deemed in the Racers Favour, the $50 Video Review Fee is returned to the Racer.
  6. Any discrepancy regarding the printed results are to be brought to the Race Director’s attention via written claim.
  7. Results will be deemed final following 30 minutes of posting.

TIMING AND SCORING

  1. A Transponder System will be in place where available.  Alternatively a Hand Scored Spotter System (via RC Scoring Pro) will be used, as an additional responsibility of the spotter.
  2. Racers may use their own Transponder.  This number must be provided to the Race Director at Registration.  Race Management is not responsible for any malfunction of a Pilot’s personal transponders.
  3. Spotters are to track missed gates, to be recorded as 10 second penalties before results are final.

RE-RACES, RE-STARTS

  1. If a Racer is fouled due to reasons outside of their control (lost video, crashed into at the start of a race, major scoring discrepancy, etc.) the Flight Line Director and/or Race Director may offer a Re-Race.
  2. If a race is started and was not deemed clean or fair (i.e. lost video for a number of racers, object on the track, etc.), a Re-Start may be called by the Race Director.
  3. Re-Starts will either happen right away, only following a majority vote of the racers in that heat, or as late as possible in the program (i.e. the end of the round, or immediately before the next-higher main).
  4. Re-Races will be run at the end of the round.  In Practice or Qualifying, these may be all classes combined.  

Race Management Supplied Transponder Installation and Use:

An iLaps Drone Model Transponder will be supplied by Race Management.  Please mount it in a safe place on your craft, and attach it to an open 5V Channel.  Alternatively, if you do not have an open 5V Channel, attaching to a second LiPo and using spare pins (Pin-to-Pin) is acceptable.

Pilot Supplied VTX:

The April event will be outdoors, so we will be allowing pilot supplied video transmitters. You will not be required to change out your video transmitter. Most of our events will follow this requirement, however any indoor events, may require a Drone Wars provided transmitter
Transponder
The only equipment you should need to add is a transponder, which keeps track of laps. We have loaners you may borrow for an event or you may purchase your own transponder. They cost about $38.00

Race setup

There will be a total of 8 flying stations. During the test races we might decide to roll less than 8 pilots in a race to allow better frequency separation in case we detect issues with interferences or certain frequencies not performing well. The 8 flight stations will be set up before the race, the pilots can bring their own goggles to connect it to the diversity receivers at each flight station.Each of the 8 stations will have its own frequency allocated and should not be changed throughout the race. The frequencies will be as follows:

Station Station 1 – 5658MHz RH

Station 2 – 5695MHz LH
Station 3 – 5732Mhz RH
Station 4 – 5769Mhz LH
Station 5 – 5806MHz RH
Station 6 – 5843MHz LH
Station 7 – 5880MHz RH
Station 8 – 5917MHz LH
For best performance, the transmission polarity will be alternated from one station to the next. These frequencies will be used exclusively for racing at this event.

Goggle Requirements

Please note at this time we do not know if we will be able to provide goggles or not at every station. Our recommendation is that everybody will need to bring and use their own goggles for racing. The video feed provided will be through a standard Fatshark/Immersion AV cable terminated in a 4 position 3.5mm jack. If your goggles receive a composite (yellow video, red audio left, white audio right) input, please provide your own cable, as the Immersion RC Raceband Station also offers a Female Composite Out.

Transmitter Pinout Requirements:

To attach the transmitter provided by the VTX director to your racing quad, standard ImmersionRC type 5 position Molex type connectors will be used. The cable connector set is composed of 2 different connectors. One is a 2 position Molex connector supplying power to the video transmitter (VTX). The Black is ground (battery negative) and the red is the positive voltage coming from your battery, up to 16V. The second is a 5 position connector and the signal pins are as follows: RED – +5V out from the transmitter, supplying power to the camera, BLACK – ground connection, YELLOW – Video signal coming from the camera, WHITE – Audio left, GREEN – Audio right. Depending on what type of camera you are using the schematic of connecting the camera will change.

For 5V Cameras:

If you use 5V cameras from Fatshark – or with cables compatible with them, you can just simply plug those in to the transmitter. In this case your camera already comes with a connector matching the transmitter. For any other 5V cameras, if you do not have one, you can purchase an Immersion RC wIre-set from here and wire it up yo your camera as the signal lines describe below: From the 5 Pin connector: You will need the RED – 5V to power your camera, BLACK – ground to the camera, YELLOW – video signal from your camera. You can ignore the audio signals if you do not have them. From the 2 Pin connector: You will need to wire up the RED to your battery positive lead and the BLACK to your battery ground lead – with this supplying battery power to the VTX.

TRADITIONAL 4-UP SIGNAL ASSIGNMENT

In an occasion that calls for traditional signal assignment, the following Signal Assignments will be used:   If you have any further questions about the race regulation, equipment setup, camera, VTX and/or other requirements.

The rules and regulations are courtesy of Joe Scully and the FPV Racing Events Team.
www.FPVracingevents.com