Official FPV rules - Model Drome

Official FPV rules Rev. 1.5 EN - 17/03/2017 General rules: 1) It’s forbidden to switch on the vTX if not called on the starting grid or if it’s not requested by the staff. In any other case, the pilot will be disqualified from the whole event. 2) It’s allowed to power up the drone only if the vTX is off (or in “pitmode”) and by first removing all propellers. For hovering or video transmission tests the pilot must request a permission to the event staff and wait for an authorization. 3) Flying inside or in proximity of the safe pilot (and eventually visitors) area is strictly prohibited. 4) A correct failsafe setting (immediate zero throttle on signal loss) is mandatory. The transmission power of the vTX will have to be set as stated in the daily event rules. Both will be checked by our tech staff before the race. 5) It’s mandatory to have the vTX mounted in an accessible place on your drone to allow checking and changing all the parameters (channel, band and eventually transmission power) as requested for the event. 6) In case of any doubt please contact a staff member. 7) A respectful and quiet behavior with other pilots, staff and spectators is kindly requested. 8) It’s mandatory to insert your nick or name for the FPV cams of all your drones. You may find this link useful for setup: https://youtu.be/udNZTtdjvq4

____________________________________________________________________________ Model Drome - Via Walter Tobagi 8/1 - Peschiera Borromeo (MI) - Italy - www.modeldrome.it

Pilot Area rules: 1) Only Staff members, current heat pilots and their spotters are admitted in the Pilot Area. Everybody else should stay at the first floor (Tiny Whoop area). 2) Please don’t disturb the pilots in this area: ● Kids and animals should be kept out of this area at all times (for safety reason and to allow best conditions for the concentration of the pilots). ● Voice volume should be kept as low as possible to avoid disturbance to pilots and spotters. 3) Pilots and spotters must bring all the necessary gear (drones, transmitters and goggles) for their heat. If for any reason the pilot is not ready for the flight, he/she will lose the chance to fly the current heat to avoid waste of time and make sure that heats carry on as quickly as possible (maximizing the number of flights).

Race rules: IMPORTANT NOTICE: pilots will be divided in heats for the various phases of the event (free practice/qualifying/finals). Every heat will be formed by 5 pilots, who will have to finish a determined amount of laps (depending on the track layout). The heat will be over when all pilots have landed. 1) All pilots not in the current heat will have to respect the race rules even while waiting for their turn. 2) Every pilot will have his own spotter. The current heat’s spotter will be the pilot with the same video frequency of the next heat. 3) The spotter’s assignments are: ● When called, proceed to the spotter’s area with drone, TX and FPV goggles ready, as he will be part of the very next heat. If a spotter is not ready with all of the above, he/she will be not admitted to his/her next heat. ● Follow with attention the assigned pilot’s flight using the provided monitor. ● Indicate promptly to a staff member if the pilot didn’t follow the track layout correctly (i.e. jumping a gate, a flag or similar).


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In case of a crash, give all possible indications to the pilot and staff members to speed up the recovery of the crashed drone. Give information about the current heat to the spotted pilot if he/she requests any. Do not disturb the pilot with useless information and/or if he/she requests silence.

4) Pilots of the current heat will position the drones on the starting grid together. 5) Do not access the track before the end of the current heat. In case of a crash, the pilot can recover his drone: ● Waiting the end of the current heat, when assured no one is still in flight. ● In case of a very important crash (causing a LiPo fire, for example) the pilot will be able to request an emergency recovery to the staff, to avoid further damage to his drone and the surrounding environment. In this case, if ordered by the staff, all the other pilots still in flight will have to land or move out of the track immediately. 6) All pilots of the current heat will recover together their own drones only at the end of the session, when no one is in flight. 7) Once completed the current heat, all pilots will have to leave the track and seats free for the next session as soon as possible. 8) When the completed heat recovery operations are finished (the track is free from pilots and/or staff members and all pilots are in the safe area), the next heat will be started.

Event rules: IMPORTANT NOTICE: pilots not observing the rules will get a first warning. At the second warning the pilot will be disqualified from the event. The event will be divided in 3 phases: 1) Free practice 2) Qualifying 3) Finals


Before any phase, the staff will communicate video band and frequency to all pilots. Those values will be fixed throughout the duration of each phase and the organization will try to request as little changes as possible. Free practice During free practice, pilots will be randomly assigned to the various heats. The best single lap obtained in any practice heat will be used to sort the qualifying heats. Qualifying In this phase, the best time from the sum of the total requested laps will be recorded and used to determine the order of access to the final heats. Only the best single heat will be taken into account for the finals’ heat sorting. Finals The finals will be divided in three heats rounds for each group (A, B, C, etc. …) where a number of points will be assigned for every round. Only the best two heats will be taken into account to sort the final results. In case two pilots finish the three rounds with the same points, the total time (sum of all lap times in a heat) of the best heat will be used to decide the order in the final results. The points for each final heat will be assigned as follows: ● ● ● ● ●

1st in the heat: 2nd in the heat: 3rd in the heat: 4th in the heat: 5th in the heat:

10 points 7 points 5 points 3 points 2 points

Example simulation: Final A - Heat 1 ● Mario Rossi ● Luca Bianchi ● Maco Verdi ● Andrea Brambilla ● Stefano Fumagalli

1st = 10 points (total time 48,8”) 2nd = 7 points (total time 51,3”) 3rd = 5 points (total time 52,2”) 4th = 3 points (total time 55,6”) 5th = 2 points (total time 58,1”)

Final A - Heat 2 ● Maco Verdi ● Stefano Fumagalli ● Andrea Brambilla ● Mario Rossi ● Luca Bianchi



Final A - Heat 3 ● Luca Bianchi ● Mario Rossi ● Maco Verdi ● Stefano Fumagalli ● Andrea Brambilla


FINAL A FINAL RESULTS ●

1st Mario Rossi with 17 points and best total time 48,8” 10p. Heat 1 + 7p. Heat 3, heat 2 ignored

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2nd Luca Bianchi with 17 points and best total time 49,6” 10p. Heat 3 + 7p. Heat 1, heat 2 ignored

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3rd Marco Verdi with 15 points 10p. Heat 2 + 5p. Heat 1, heat 3 ignored

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4th Stefano Fumagalli with 10 points 7p. Heat 2 + 3p. Heat 3, heat 1 ignored

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5th Andrea Brambilla with 8 points 5p. Heat 2 + 3p. Heat 1, heat 3 ignored

Every pilot will join the three rounds of final heats made out of “N” pilots, depending on his position in the qualifying chart. Example: if the event is made of 30 pilots divided in heats made of 5 participants each, there will be 6 distinct finals: A, B, C, D, E, F. Who will finish last in the A final, for example, will be #5 in the global event results; who finishes first in the B final will be #6 and so on. This system guarantees to everybody maximum fun and maximizes the number of total flights per pilot. During Free practice: 1) Free practice heats will last a maximum of 4 minutes (there’s no max or min number of laps). ____________________________________________________________________________ Model Drome - Via Walter Tobagi 8/1 - Peschiera Borromeo (MI) - Italy - www.modeldrome.it

2) During free practice it’s not mandatory to fly through all the gates. In case of a missed gate (even only 1 gate in the whole track) the time for that particular lap will not be considered valid. However it’s good practice for the pilots to get used to returning to the missed gate/gates considering that gates cannot be missed in the next parts of the competition. 3) It’s not mandatory to take off all together at the start of the heat, but we strongly suggest to take off within the first 10 seconds approximately in order to avoid hindering other pilots during their flight. During qualifications and finals: 1) Gates must not be missed, and it’s mandatory to fly through gates/flags correctly, in the right order and direction. If for instance the pilot misses a gate, he/she must return to that gate and fly through it correctly, or the whole heat will not be considered valid. 2) Pilots must take off together at the start of the heat. 3) All the requested laps must be correctly completed in order to qualify. 4) The pilot that has completed his/her laps must land without obstructing other pilots still flying. 5) In case of a jump start, the pilot must land immediately and wait for his/her next heat (the other pilots of the heat may continue flying). 6) If for any reason a pilot experiences technical problems to his/her drone that doesn’t allow to take off, the pilot must wait the end of the current heat and his/her next turn to fly. In case of video problems (not dependent on his gear), he/she may ask to the staff a technical check. IMPORTANT: every pilot will be able to choose between a video receiver provided by the organization or his own personal receiver. In case the pilot is using his personal vRX and a video problem occurs (also strong enough to make him crash during free practice, qualifying or finals), his spotter will be asked to confirm the same artifact happened also on the monitor connected to the organization’s receiver. In case the spotter didn’t notice any problem, an eventual request by the pilot to repeat the heat will be ignored. 7) In case of wrong placement of the propellers, the pilot must wait the end of the current heat and his/her next turn to fly.


8) If for instance a pilot remains alone during the heat (for example the other pilots experience a problem with their drone), the pilot will fly alone. 9) If a drone crashes, the pilot must wait the end of the heat in order to retrieve his/her drone and must wait for the next heat to be able to fly again, unless the pilot is able to restart without any external help/aid. In particular cases the staff may oblige the pilot to land and not take off again for that heat. 10) Pilots and spotters of the current heat must show up and take place as fast and rapidly as possible from the moment they’ve been called by the staff for their turn. An excessive delay will result in missing the current heat for the pilot and the current and the next heat for the spotter (the spotter loses two heats).

Technical Limitations: ● ● ● ●

Motors: max. 4 LiPo: 4s max. (no High Voltage) Prop: 3”, 4” and 5” (all in a single category) vTX: 25mW mandatory


Transponder For the event the iLap system will be used (no clones as Seriously Pro, etc.) ●

Who owns a personal iLap must place it on the RIGHT SIDE of his drone before the event. Who didn’t specify his personal transponder code during registration must send it to the address [email protected] ASAP.

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Who doesn’t own a personal iLap transponder will be able to borrow one from the organization. A personal valid ID document will be requested as guarantee, and it will be given back at the end of the event, when the transponder will be given back. In case of loss or damage to the transponder, a 50€ fee will have to be paid to the organization.

The transponder requires a regulated 5v power source with servo-type female connector. Who already owns this kind of connector is asked to solder it to a PDB 5v outlet of his drone. The transponder will have be mounted on the RIGHT side of your drone once you get it. The organization have some spare connectors. In case it will have to be quickly soldered on the drone before the event begins.


Tiny Whoop Rules The Tiny Whoop Category will be divided in two subcategories with the following limitations: Tiny Whoop: ● ● ● ●

65mm frame Original “ducted” props 6mm brushed coreless motors Free choice of FC as long as it fits inside the original frame

Micro Outlaw: ● ● ● ● ●

95mm frame max Free porps that must be protected Free choice of motors (brushed coreless and brushless allowed) Free choice of FC Max weight at take off of: 65g (battery included)

Race rules The rules for the Tiny Whoop category will decided on race day, depending on the number of registered pilots.
