The UK’s Wing Racing League is a hobbyist sport being brought to FPV pilots based upon well-known and proven FPVWRA and similar leagues that are run every year in many other countries.
This page serves to outline the league rules, directions and designs to be utilised. As time moves on we aim to grow the sport and increase the number of races each year covering more regions and involving more pilots.
WRL-UK is a co-operative; hosting a UK wide league table and providing the race criteria whilst ensuring transparency. Each local or regional group is free to form their own race series and adopt the WRL-UK criteria and submit their series results for inclusion into the national leader board.
Use of the WRL-UK website for pilot registration and event organisation is open to all series/clubs.
INSURANCE:
- All pilots are required to be insured by a recognised body for all events. The current recognised bodies are BMFA or FPVUK. Some events stipulate BMFA only – please check before booking!
Proof of insurance MUST be brought to each event for validation during pilot briefings.
RACE EVENT FEES:
- League race (single day): To be announced per event
- League race (weekend): To be announced per event
WRL-UK CLASS:
- Race wing up to 40″ wingspan.
- Up to 2200KV motor.
- Up to 4 cell battery.
- Up to 2 control surfaces (e.g. elevons).
OPEN CLASS: * PERMITTED AT SPECIFIED EVENTS *
- Race wing up to 46″ wingspan.
- Up to 4 cell battery.
- Due to site limitations, the open class is not available at all events. Check the event specific page for details.
GENERAL:
- Pusher configuration only.
- Foam construction only e.g. EPP, Eps, EPO, Foamboard etc. carbon / fibreglass spars allowed.
- No carbon or fibreglass coverings.
- Vinyl or laminate covering only.
- Flight controllers are allowed, flight mode MUST be displayed on OSD.
- Race must be in MANUAL/Passthrough mode only.
- Pilot name displayed on OSD.
VIDEO TRANSMITTER:
- 5.8ghz ONLY.
- 25mw unless specifically permitted per race.
- Analogue, sharkbyte/HD Zero only. (DJI can be used in a dedicated heat but timing may not be reliable).
- All VTX’s will be verified for power output during pilot briefing and randomly during the race.
RADIO CONTROL:
- 868mhz up to 100mw.
- 433mhz up to 100mw.
- 2.4ghz up to 100mw.
FAILSAFE:
- All wings MUST feature a failsafe which will be tested during pilot briefing.
- Failsafe must include throttle cut.
PILOT BRIEFING:
Every race will include a pilot briefing which is mandatory for every pilot. All rules and any race specific restrictions/procedures will be discussed.
The race director is god, whatever the race director decides is final and must be followed, this is for safety of all participants/spectators as well as fair sport.
During briefing, each wing will be inspected to ensure it meets the requirements and tech such as FC/VTX are set correctly.
POINTS SYSTEM:
Points are assigned based upon pilot position.
- 1st place – 50 points.
- 2nd place – 46 points.
- 3rd place – 44 points.
- 4th place – 42 points.
- 5th place – 40 points.
- 6th place – 38 points.
- etc to 24th place – 2 points.
Each event will have a corresponding results page (unless otherwise specified by the event organiser).
RACE ETIQUETTE:
Each event will consist of multiple classes and each class will have multiple heats.
Each race is 2 minutes long with a 30 second finishing time. Winning positions are decided by the most laps completed. Ties are decided by fastest 3 consecutive laps from that event.
Pilots who attend 80% of races per season will be entered into a prize draw for the opportunity to win goodies at the final event.
The race director will assign pilots into heats and will assign VTX channels. It is important to ensure you only power up your VTX when there are NO active races, you will be sharing channels with other pilots!
Each pilot will also act as a spotter for the heat before theirs, it is the pilot’s responsibility to ensure they are present and ready to spot. Spotters are expected to launch wings in a safe and responsible manner.
It is the spotters responsibility to count the number of laps a pilot makes and note any missed flags/gates and tell their pilot in a calm and quiet manner to minimise disruption to other pilots.
Pilots will be given 10 seconds to orientate themselves and the race will begin with a series of beeps.
False Start: if a pilot begins the race before the beeps, they will be required to re-start the race.
Penalties: we will be operating a penalty scheme for any missed course obstacles to allow the pilots to carry on their heat in a safe manner and stop the need for dangerous ‘go arounds’ and reruns mid heat. A course cut will be decided between pilot spotters and race control and will be rated by severity.
A simple flag over fly or small cut will result in a black/white flag. Two black/white flags means a lap reduction to the final lap count at the end of the heat. A large cut like the start/finish gate or major cut of a chicane or large turn cut resulting in a major time advantage will result in that lap being dropped.
FLIGHT SAFETY:
- Flights will be limited to 400ft in height.
- 3 sounds of the whistle/air horn indicates an immediate race emergency and all pilots to land immediately wherever they are.
- A flight boundary will be established in which no pilot shall cross during the race.
- The track will be designed so that pilots racing will not make turns toward the flight boundary area without a significant safe distance.
- All racers must have control of their aircraft at all times.
- In the event of a video or control failure, the pilot will do their best to navigate the airplane to a safe landing zone away from pilots and spectators.
- The race director may at his or her discretion force an unsafe pilot to land their aircraft. Landing shall be done in the specified landing area which shall be away from the pilots and spectators.
- When the race is over, the pilots will land in the designated landing area.
- In the event of a fire, the race shall be cancelled immediately. All pilots shall either land or fly safely away from the fire so that emergency crews can put out the fire.
- Spotters will launch their pilots wing. You are permitted one failed launch per race provided your airplane needs no repairs and can be re-launched immediately.
- At NO time are pilots permitted to fly past the flight boundary.
- Each pilot is expected to present themselves in a respectful manner toward other pilots and spectators. Failure to do so may result in disqualification.
- Pilots MAY NOT power up their aircraft at any time during a race unless it has the strict approval of the race director.