UADR Drone Nationals Ukraine 2016, selection for the DroneWorlds 2016 World Championship

In the last retrospective article we remembered the very first Ukrainian drone racing championship. Today we want to go back to 2016 again and remember other significant events of that season.

After the first Ukrainian F3U FPV Drone Racing Cup of Ukraine 2016, six of the best pilots, thanks to the support of Ukrainian drone racing organizations UADR, RotorGP and FAI, went to the ERSA European Cup 2016 on the island of Ibiza. Even before the trip to Ibiza, the UADR and RotorGP organizations had a lot of disagreements even on the most insignificant details. The dispute about who will take the pilots to the European Championship gradually grew into an ongoing conflict and from that moment both organizations started to hold their own competitions. Ukrainian FAI took the side of RotorGP and immediately announced the joint Dnepr Drone Race 2016 event. In its turn UADR made a reciprocal move and announced the UADR Drone Nationals Ukraine 2016 in Kiev, where 5 best pilots will be selected to participate in the Ukrainian national team at the DroneWorlds 2016 World Drone Racing Championship in Hawaii, USA.

UADR (Ukrainian Association of Drone Racing) held the championship on September 3rd, 2016 at the Spartak Stadium in Kiev. Commentators of the races were Maxim Podzigun - the voice of Formula 1 in Ukraine, Mikhail Noga - the voice of RC Drift, as well as a live broadcast on Lanet TV - all 3 components have become the hallmark of the competition from UADR.

Now, of course, the conditions of participation look very outdated, but it is interesting to see as a comparison with current times:

• Maximum propeller diameter 152 millimeters
• 3 and 4 blade propellers are allowed
• Maximum distance from motor to motor is 330 millimeters. Anything less (210, 180, etc.) is allowed on a general basis. Anything larger is not
• 3, 4 or 6 motors are allowed.
• Maximum battery is 4S LiPo, 4.2V per battery cell.
• On each drone, it is mandatory to provide space and a 5V power output, to install a transponder (diode on the left side) for the automatic lap timing system

Timing of the event:

07:00 - 10:00 - Registration of participants
08:00 - 11:30 - Free practice sessions
11:30 - 12:00 - Briefing for pilots, marshals and judges
12:00 - 14:00 - Qualification (pair flights)
14:30 - 19:00 - Race (pair flights)

In 2016 the experience of organizing FPV championships in Ukraine was still in its infancy, the testing of the system of serifs and transponders to determine the finish of the lap was just beginning, so in the first competitions flew a maximum of two pilots on the track.

High-speed FPV flight by Victor Dzenzel (FPV champion of Ukraine 2016).

Full broadcast of the competition:

Full playlist with individual videos of each competition flight can be viewed here >>

In total 33 pilots took part in the competition:

1. Aleshin Alexander
2. Babushkin Vladislav
3. Sergey Gavris
4. Gang Alexander
5. Gordienko Vyacheslav
6. Victor Dzenzel
7. Dimkin Dmitry
8. Vladimir Evsyukov
9. Alexander Zhuravlevlev
10. Ivanenko Andrey
11. Grigory Kanevets
12. Kukharenko Evgeniy
13. Lukashchuk Ilya
14. Michael Noga
15. Olishevskiy Igor
16. Parandiy Vitaliy
17. Pelipenko Alexander
18. Podakov Maxim
19. Podakov Nikolay
20. Artem Polikarpov
21. Polishchuk Andrey
22. Alexander Raskladka
23. Rubtsov Alexander
24. Sadovsky Alexander
25. Samozvon Andrey
26. Starostin Dmitry
27. Stretovich Vitaly
28. Terenik Aleksey
29. Franchuk Dmitry
30. Vasily Khomenko
31. Michail Chichkov
32. Shemyakov Alexander
33. Yatsenko Dmitry

Qualification and tournament flights were held according to the Olympic system until the first flight. Later this tournament system was replaced by a more loyal "Double Elimination" (up to two losses), as drone racing is very unpredictable and any mistake can lead to a crash, so the use of the second chance was a necessity for drone racing competitions.

The winners of UADR Drone Nationals Ukraine 2016 were:

• 1st place: Mykola Podakov (Air's Crew, Zaporozhye)
• 2nd place: Vyacheslav Gordienko (Air's Crew, Zaporizhzhya)
• 3rd place: Victor Dzenzel (QuadRAT team, Kiev).

The design of the cups deserves special attention. The cups were carbon fiber propeller blades one meter high.

Video of UADR Drone Nationals 2016 awarding ceremony

Video from the competition by Air's Crew

According to the results of the national selection, 5 pilots got the right to compete as part of Team Ukraine at the DroneWorlds World Championship in the USA, Hawaii, October 17-22, 2016.

1. Mykola Podakov
2. Vyacheslav Gordienko
3. Viktor Dzenzel
4. Eugene Kukharenko
5. Ilya Lukashchuk

With this national selection UADR set a new bar in organizing and conducting drone racing competitions, and the opportunity to travel to the world championship in Hawaii is still one of the most expensive prizes in the history of Ukrainian drone racing.

Read about the participation of the Ukrainian national team at DroneWorlds 2016 in the next article.

Official video of UADR Drone Nationals Ukraine 2016

Photo by: Andrey Usenko, Oleksandr Bodnar, Ruslan Absurdov, Oleksandr Rubtsov, Mykola Podakov

Video: UADR, Lanet.TV, Air's Crew, Victor Dzenzel

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