FPV racing in Kiev UADR Challenge 2018 Stage 3: CHAIKA

The season of the Ukrainian drone racing championship UADR Challenge 2018 started rapidly with the May stage in Kherson, where FPV pilot Modest Ach (Zipper Team) won. Then the competition continued on May 19-20 in the city of Kharkiv at the Art Factory Mechanic, in the workshops of the former steam locomotive factory. The winner of the stage was Vyacheslav Gordienko (Air's Crew).

After Kharkov competition, FPV pilots of Ukraine were waiting for new stages in Lvov and Odessa, but due to unforeseen circumstances the earlier announced dates of the stages were canceled. To have time to determine the winners before the Drone Sports International (DSI) Championship in South Korea on September 15-16, the Ukrainian Association of Drone Racing (UADR) decided to reduce the number of stages from 5 to 4, as well as to move the last two stages to Kiev.

The third stage of UADR Challenge 2018 Stage 3: CHAIKA, as you can guess from the name, was held on July 28-29 at the Chaika airfield, which is located 10 km from Kiev.

Stage 3 was held in a more chamber form, but despite the lack of major sponsors and special media support, the stage was attended by44 pilots from different cities of Ukraine (Kiev, Boryspil, Dnipro, Zaporozhye, Lviv, Odessa, Kharkiv, Rivne, Sumy, Vishnevoye, Cherkassy) and 12 full FPV teams (QuadRat, Air's Crew, Rigid-FPV, FlyMod, Zipper, DRS, Chedrr, Curved Props, Dronius, MadCats, NUBZZ Squad, QuadRaptor).

Qualifying stretched throughout Saturday, July 28 from 10:00 to 19:00. Unlike the last stages, training flights were allowed now, and they were conducted not chaotically, but in an orderly manner, according to the list of groups published in advance, 4 pilots in each. Qualification was held in a relaxed format, even pilots who were late for qualification were given 3 or even 4 attempts to show their best lap.

Table of FPV pilots who passed to TOP-32

The second day of the UADR Challenge 2018 Stage 3: CHAIKA on July 29 started again with training flights, during which Lanet.TV gradually adjusted the broadcast, thanks to which many drone racing fans could watch the competition online.

The main TOP-32 competition was held according to the standard for UADR tournament system with elimination after two defeats (Double Elimination), but there were some nice changes in the order of the races. Now all stages of flights on the upper tournament grid were held first, up to the determination of the two finalists, after which all FPV pilots who got into the lower grid of the competition started flying. Such orderliness reduced unnecessary turmoil and also gave some advantages to those pilots who went all the way to the finals on the upper grid, as they had enough time for preparation or rest while waiting for the finals.

The same changes were made to the selection of Raceband channels. Earlier the channels were distributed among the pilots as follows: 1, 3, 5, 7. Now 1, 2, 7, 8 were used for the races. In general there were minimal complaints about problems with the video signal, and the graunde steichens were hardly used by the pilots. The combination of a well chosen location, unified power of 25mW, no dipole antennas and proper channel selection made this stage almost perfect in terms of video signal quality. Thanks to this, there were no significant hiccups and re-flags, even the finals went ahead without contesting the results.

The results of the UADR Challenge 2018 Stage 3 were totally unexpected for many. Many FPV pilots who are favorites in the overall standings, such as Igor Butseroga, Victor Dzenzel, Maxim Podakov, dropped out of the competition long before the final. Many were saved by the popular Turtle Mode, which is able to return the inverted drone to the combat state, but even this did not help to fight the tension from the strong competition. Flymod Squad reached the second TOP-16 of the lower grid, but unfortunately none of our FPV pilots reached TOP-4.

Already traditional starting gate of Red Bull for the first time fell under the onslaught of FPV pilots. Nikita Stadnichenko (Curved props) pierced through the gate, which slowed down the pace of the competition for a while.

The only significant disadvantage of the stage was the complete absence of independent judges. Each 4 pilots who flew their stage became judges for the next 4 pilots, and so on in turn. Although the disputable moments were minimal, still pilots often could not accurately track what was happening on the track, in some situations pilots could fly an extra lap, because on the last day the timing worked not quite accurately.

Nikita Stadnichenko won unconditional victory in the third stage, with what we congratulate him. Places in the final were distributed in such a way:

• 1st place - Nikita Stadnichenko (Curved Props)
• 2nd place - Ivan Oleynik
• 3rd place - Vyacheslav Gordienko (Airs Crew)
• 4th place - Modest Ach (Zipper Team)

Top and bottom grid of TOP-32

Without spectator excitement, media support, big sponsors and unique location, UADR managed to hold a practical ideal stage of the Ukrainian Drone Racing Championship, really according to the slogan "Everything for pilots".

Photo and text: Vyacheslav Tregubov

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