Drills FOR A RACE

How to practice for your race

As with anything, the best way to learn something is to practice. Get time on the sticks and fly as many packs as you can. Simulators are great, but they are limited in how things work in the real world and can give you a false sense of confidence. So fly you must! But, flying over treas and around goal posts are all well and good, but does it really help for your racing wants / needs? If you are flying with purpose and setting goals it can. This blog is designed to help you set those goals and sharpen your skills.

A quote that was given to me to think about was this via Manny Acera
"Practice does not make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect." - Vince Lombardi

GET COMFORTABLE
Above all, you must be comfortable with your flying skills. Taking that time to flip around trees, and fly around goal posts can go a long way toward making you feel more confident and in control before you try hitting small gates or getting close to flags. So, even though it might not help in the long run with finite controls in racing, it can help develop your basic flying understanding and comfort which will, make you a better pilot.

TAKE NOTES
The different sanctioning bodies like, IDRA, MultiGP, and others tend to release their track layouts long before the races ever take place. Have you watched any of them to see if there are similar techniques that span the different tracks? If so, then those are the techniques you had better learn and practice. Simply setting up an analogue (make-shift) of the real thing can be very effective in training. You don't need full flags or gates, anything that you can see and that you can vary the height of can work to serve as a gate. A flag can be a tree, post, or just a pool noodle on a vertical stick. Whatever you can see through your FPV clearly should be good enough to train. But HOW you set those things up will be according to the track layout challenges. Here's an example.

This was taken from a MutliGP site of a race has already taken place. If you notice I've put some letters to define some maneuvers that seem to repeat over and over in the track. Simply put, there are basically two moves for this track. (A) going through a gate, and (B) flying around a flag. There are a couple of different ways in which this is done, but the concept is pretty straight forward. This means your practice would be relatively easy in setting up. 

One or two gates that are offset to force you to turn plus a couple of poles for you to fly like a slalom would be about all you would need. In many cases, this is actually sufficient overall. The ability to fly through an elevated gate could be as simple as flying very close to the top of one of your gates, or setting up another horizontal obstacle to force you to fly through an elevated gate.

Taking a little time, money, and effort to make simple PVC gates is encouraged. Again, thick enough to see (I'd recommend 1" or bigger PVC and pool noodles for easier visual acquirement in your FPV) and cheap enough to repair if needed. But you don't need to spend hundreds on flags and gates. 

DRILLS
Okay, so this is what you're here for. These are some videos taken from different pilots practicing for races. Take note of how things are set up and any details you can pick up visually on how to set up your own training area.

@ArkNabbit was kind enough to give me a few thoughts the drills he runs his competitive pilots in San Diego through. Below is a combination of some of his favorite drills and a couple of mine!
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"You can fly as many packs as you want but if you are practicing bad habits, you'll stagnate and never get better." - Ark

Practice day:
Pilot: "TheMadScientist" (AKA Me.)
Just because you can't have an entire track set up doesn't mean you can't practice the moves you need! Here's some examples of a simple set up to run drills!

Pilot: "Jeff Calidrone"
Jeff Calidrone is someone who uses an entire area as a drill. Chasing around trees, trying to get as fast as he can, as smooth as he can can turn any given park into a great training field. His suggestion, "Start slowly flying in controlled spaces to practice throttle control and slowly build your speed to the edge of your comfort level." - Jeff Calidrone

So, if you're wondering what some of these moves are that can be set up, here are some simple illustrations to break it down.

Through the Gate
Needed: 1 Gate (Or substitute)
Drill:
Simply fly through the gate and gradually pick up speed

Over and Through
Needed: 1 Gate (Or substitute)
​Drill:
Fly over the gate, turn, and then fly back through the gate as quickly as possible

Through Up and Over 2 Gates
Needed: 1-2 Gates (Or substitutes)
Drill:
Fly through the first gate. Immediately turn, go up and over the second gate, and then through the second gate as quickly as possible.

Hair Pin Turn
Needed: 1 Flag (Or substitute)
Drill: 
Head toward the gate and see how quickly you can fly around the gate and back to where you started. Try to keep your turns tight around the flag. 

Figure 8 (Flags or gates)
Needed: 2 or more flags (Or substitutes)
Drill:
​Going in a figure 8 around 2 flags, see how tight you can get to the flags when making turns.

 Slalom (Flags or gates)
Needed: 2 or more flags (Or substitutes)
Drill:
Fly smooth and try to stay as level as possible.  A quad tends to gain altitude when making lots of successive corners so throttle control is very important here.  Try to stay level and be smooth with your movements.  If you are ballooning in altitude, you will have to lower your throttle to drop back down to gate height.  The time you spend off the throttle is better spent accelerating towards the next gate. ​- Ark Nabbit

 Slalom Variation
Needed: 4 or more flags (Or substitutes)
Drill: The key to the slalom is to be as smooth as possible.  If your vision in the goggles is smooth, then you can locate the next flag faster, accelerate sooner, and prepare earlier for the next flag​ - Ark Nabbit​

Gate Slalom
Needed: 4 or more flags (Or substitutes)
Drill: ​The key to the slalom is to be as smooth as possible.  If your vision in the goggles is smooth, then you can locate the next flag faster, accelerate sooner, and prepare earlier for the next flag.   ​- Ark Nabbit

 Slalom 2
Needed: 4 or more flags (Or substitutes) 2 or more gates (Or substitutes)
Drill​
Straight Slalom with Gates  – This is a combination drill that combines a straight slalom with a gate on the return.  If you follow the path, the slalom entry will switch from left to right so it’s a great drill to work your weak turning side. 
 
Try not to go higher than the flags and work on a smooth exit out of the slalom to the gate.  Start slow and weave smoothly through the flags. - Ark Nabbit

Here are some more thoughts from the same coach. You can see them on this blog with NewBeeDrone! Great guys!

Tips for becoming a better FPV drone racer