Winter Racing Season – 2021/2022

Last updated 3/13/2022

Hey racers and anyone who wants some indoor drone experiences this winter.  The time has come to move indoors.  We have been working to find indoor venues that would fit our requirements.  This is actually an extremely difficult thing to do because there are challenges with insurance, space, safety, location, and cost.  If we want to pay $300 an hour – yes there are a number of places to run events.  In order to reduce costs, we have tried to find bar/restaurants where we can contribute with food/drinks in leu of renting space.  That said, some of our venues will require a fee of $10-20 to fly to cover rental of the venue.  

Any questions please email info@chicagofpv.com

Type of quads needed:  

  • Whoops:  Quads of 75mm or smaller(mob6, mob7, etc).  
    • These are not the most ideal for racing but are a blast to fly, but will likely be used a lot this season because the are compatible with the more indoor venues
    • These have prop guard and will be used for most indoor venues
    • Advice:  If you are using ACRO mode – go into Betaflight CLI and enter “set crash_recovery = ON”  This way, if you bump into something, you have a chance of recovering and still staying off the ground.
    • Recommended Whoops:
      • Moblite 7: This should be your next whoop. Highly reviewed and the VTX seems to be well behaved. It can fly for over 10 minutes with a 660mah battery, or race with the best of them with a 350-450mah battery. Will need to put the mob6 canopy on it. If questions on this – ask in discord.
    • NOT Recommended Whoops
      • Current Mob or moblite with ELRS. There is something wrong with these and they are stuck on way too high of output for the VTX. This makes it hard to fly with others and causes delay in races.
      • Any other Whoop that has too high of VTX to fly with others
  • 2-3 inch props:  Talon, Tiny Trainer, etc
    • If we are able to get a larger indoor venue, then there is a *possibly* of using these.  There will likely be a $15-20 charge for this type of venue
  • 3.5-5 inch
    • The dream is to fly 5 inch indoor but unfortunately, the chances of that are slim.
    • We are working on some warehouses that may possibly allow us to use these.  

General Quad Requirements:

  • VTX:  Be ready to change to and band and channel because whoops don’t have the best VTXs, so sometimes you have to troubleshoot and try other channels.  
  • VTX:  use only 25mW for transmission power for your VTX
  • Pilots:  Be able to control your quads.  We will need to stay in our allotted areas and not go outside of it.  Practice in your own house or garage so you know how to control the quad in confined spaces.

What’s this going to cost me?

  • Highly dependent on Venue.  For the bar and restaurants, we are trying to make is so that we are trading food and drinks for admission.  So have a few while you are racing.
  • For other places there will likely be a $15-20 type of fee to cover rental of the space. This is often MUCH cheaper than food and drinks at the bar venues 😉

Venues

  • Playoffs 
    • Whoops only
    • 720 E North Ave, Carol Stream, IL 60188
  • Pinstripes 
  • River Forest Community center 
    • Whoops and possibly one step larger
    • 8020 Madison Street, River Forest, IL 60305
  • RexPlex: My Prospect Park district
    1. Whoops only
    2. This will be on weekends – Sundays
    3. 420 Dempster St, My Prospect, IL 60056
  • Play and Spin
  • Odeum Expo Center 
    • Whoops only……the main part of the Odeum is un-flyable due to interference, but they have a large conference room we can use with a bar 20 feet from the flying area.
    • https://odeumexpo.com
    • 1033 North Villa Ave, Villa Park, IL 60181
    • There will be a fee of $10-15 a pilot. All proceeds will go to the venue and if we have a little bit left over, would go towards buying more gates and timing/video equipment.
    • When you get to the Odeum, go in the front door – we are on the right on the second floor.
    • THERE IS A BAR 20 feet from the flying area!

Current Schedule

  • 11/3 Wednesday:  Playoffs 8pm-??
  • 11/9 Tuesday:  Pinstripes 6-9pm
  • 11/16 Tuesday:  Pinstripes 6-9pm
  • 11/23 Tuesday:  Pinstripes 6-9pm
  • 12/2 Thursday: Playoffs 8pm-?? Please be there by 7:30 this time to check in and have your quad tested
  • 12/10 Friday: Odeum 8-12 Racing starts at 8pm – come early for practice/setup
  • 12/17 Friday: Odeum 7:30-11:30 Cost will be $10 a pilot
  • Christmas Break: Fly around your tree at home
  • 01/07: Friday: Odeum 7:00-11:30 CANCELED due to covid
  • 01/09: Sunday: RexPlex CANCELED due to covid restrictions at the facility
  • 01/14: Friday: Odeum 7:00-11:30 CANCELED due to covid
  • 01/21: Friday:  Play and Spin 6-11 Racing starts as close to 6:00pm as possible – come early for practice/setup
  • 01/28: Friday: Odeum 7:00-11:30 Racing starts at 7:00pm – come early for practice/setup
  • 2/4: Friday: Play and spin open fly. 5-11pm
  • 2/5: Saturday: 12 noon-11pm: 12-5 would be open fly and swap meet. Racing would start at 7pm and go to 11. Come early for drinks and the great pizza there.
  • 2/11: Friday Play and Spin: 5-10:45pm.
  • 2/18: Friday Play and Spin: 5-10:45pm.
  • 2/25: Friday: Odeum 7:00-11:30 Racing starts at 7:00pm – come early for practice/setup
  • 3/4: Friday: Odeum 7:00-11:30 Racing starts at 7:00pm – come early for practice/setup
  • 3/11: Friday: Odeum 7:00-11:30 Racing starts at 7:00pm – come early for practice/setup
  • We will start to transition to 5 inch racing at this time depending on the weather