After lots of hard work by the committee we are pleased to officially announce that we will be hosting a FAI F9U World Cup in conjunction with the BMFA at their Nationals event on the 24th-25th August 2019 in Barkston Heath, Grantham. This is a great opportunity for drone racing pilots to qualify for the FAI World Championship that is being hosted in China at the end of the year. One of, if not the biggest event on the UK drone racing calendar for 2019 so be sure to keep on eye on registration details which will be announced on here and on our facebook page.

The committee would like to wish you all a ‘Happy New Year’, and we look forward to making the 2019 race season the best the UK has ever seen. You can sign up or renew your BDRA membership here.

The migration over to the new site was a slow process but is finally complete, you can find all the committee’s new email address’ on the committee page.

You may have seen a post that the association has purchased an ImmersionRC LapRF system for clubs to borrow. The committee hopes this will improve the standard of races in the UK for clubs that don’t have a LapRF, and those clubs already using LapRF can borrow the timer to add in split timings for their events if they wish to.

As part of our ongoing efforts to promote drone racing in the UK, Lee Robinson (BDRA Treasurer) wrote an article for DroneUser Magazine. Online copies of the magazine can be found at droneuser.co.uk and a printed version will be available in all good newsagents from Feb 7^th 2019.

The recent applications for both ‘National’ and ‘Regional Qualifying Events’ have been reviewed and approved, so check out the calendar to see all the events being put on for you in 2019. We have never had so many events planned this far in advance.

Plans are starting to be made for the 2019 British Championship, with a date near the end of September currently penciled in. This means we will need to cut off qualifying near the end of August to give us time to form the pilot list and send out invites. This date may change if we can find a suitable indoor location to hold the Championship. If anyone has any suggestions, then please let a member of the committee know.

Again, we hope you all have a happy new year, and look forward to seeing you at an event soon.

BDRA Members, your Menace RC discount code has been emailed to you, as we have changed website address and email addresses there is a good chance this email has been directed to your junk/spam folder so please check and add the email address as a trusted sender.

Menace RC have awarded BDRA members a 10% discount code for use when purchasing any products from the Menace website https://menacerc.co.uk/

If you are not already a BDRA member then you can sign up here

Not only will you be eligible for discounted entry to BDRA sanctioned ‘British Championship Qualifying Events’ at both National & Regional level but you will also be entitled to discounts and promotions with our partners. Once a member you will also be able to earn points on the official national and regional leaderboards which hopefully will earn you an invite to participate in the end of year championship race.

The BDRA ‘LapRF 8-Way’ has arrived! A good timing system is imperative to having a successful race. We have invested in this equipment purely to loan out to affiliated clubs who are hosting race events that have been sanctioned by us as a ‘British Championship’ qualifier, whether that be as a part of the new ‘Regional’ series or  a ‘Qualifying Event’ or ‘QE’. If you are a race organiser hosting a qualifier and want to borrow the LapRF then please just get in touch with Will Annison to arrange.

The BDRA values both its members and its supporters, without both we wouldn’t be able to put on events like Weston Park, the British Championship and the upcoming FAI F9U World Cup

We believe that the future of the BDRA is in providing benefits to our members at the same time as enhancing strategic partnerships with current supporters of drone racing in the UK.

One of the manufacturers/retailers that has been supporting the association for several years is Greg Spencer from Menace and we appreciate everything he has done for the association in the past and his sponsorship is truly valued. 

The committee would like to say a huge thank you to all our members that attended the EGM last month. There was an overwhelming majority vote to accept the proposed changes to the constitution and we are now officially the British Drone Racing Association (BDRA). Thank you all for your continued support.

The associations Facebook page has already had its name changed, and we have purchased a new domain name. There will be a small transition period as we transfer the website over to the new domain and make a few improvements.

Work has started on the Club Map, to bring it up to date and make it easier for people to find and contact existing clubs. If you are already on the club map, then please check your emails and confirm we have the correct contact information for your club. If you would like to have your club added to the map, then please get in touch with Matthew at membership@bfpvra.org

It has been decided there will be no increase in membership fees, keeping them at £10 for the year. We will be accepting 2019 memberships from December 1^st and are working on systems to make it clearer to members whether they have already renewed or not. The option for auto renewal will also be reintroduced for those that want to use it.

Along side keeping the fees the same, the committee is also working on adding more value to the membership by working with some of the leading commercial entities for exclusive member discounts. We are already in discussion with some of the UKs best to bring our members the top deals for 2019. If you are a retailer and would like to work with the BDRA then please get in touch. Members will also receive a discount at all BC qualifying events and regional series, as well as any events ran by the BDRA.

Thank you to all the race organisers that have applied to host qualifying events and regional series for the 2019 British Championship. They have now all been reviewed, and emails have been sent out to you. So please check your mail box and get in touch if you need anything. There are still more spaces available so please get in touch if you would like to host a qualifier this season.

Finally, we have applied to hold our very own FAI F9U World Cup event as a part of the BMFA Nationals in August next year. If accepted this will give a great opportunity to UK pilots to qualify at home and be a part of the 2019 FAI F9U World Championship Finale to be held once again in China. Whilst we wait for the application to be processed by the FAI our Technical Standards Director (Eric LI-Koo) is busy finalising the team selection process wording which will become a part of the BMFA handbook. As soon as we have more news on this, we will let you know. Fingers crossed that team GB will be represented on the world stage in 2019.

We have updated our events page to include the current list of ‘National’ and ‘Regional’ race events which you could participate in during the 2019 season. Please head over by clicking here.

If you wish to hold a ‘Regional Series’ or ‘National Qualifying Event’ then please complete the relevant application form on the event page (linked above).  As more events are confirmed we will update the list.

Please remember you need to be a BDRA member prior to taking part in any of the events if you wish to accumulate points towards your British Championship qualification. You can sign up to become a BDRA member here.

I personally wanted to thank all the members who participated in the EGM last night at 8pm.

For those that didn’t attend the vote was in favour of the proposed changes and the new constitution has been accepted. You can find a copy of the new constitution here. One of the main constitutional changes was the name change and from this point forward the British FPV Racing Association will be now know as the British Drone Racing Association or the BDRA. We will be changing the web address shortly and will keep you informed when that happens.

We also discussed and answered questions on the proposed rules changes, if there are any objections, suggestion or comments on any of the proposals regarding regions, points and or any other changes then please get in touch as in early December we will be officially publishing the rules for the 2019 season.