I got back to the whoop haus after setting up, later than planned. I think I got 5 hours in bed, but nerves and the intermittency of the van heater meant I got much less. The alarm went off 10 mins after I was awake, my internal clock anxious to get going.
I’d given myself an hour before anyone else was due to show up, but Eddy was right there with me being super supportive as usual. I was putting out papers on entrance, tech check, live stream desk etc, while he sorted the last things on the challenges. Then mum and dad showed up and I made sure they were logged in and could use the ticket app – which wouldn’t let them – so I had to solve that. Then the Italians turned up en mass and that hour had disappeared.
They arrived fully dressed up in onesies and costumes, full of smiles and hugs to make up for not having seen them in so long. Crazily, one of them had dressed up as Jesus! It’s a bold choice of character, but he pulled it off, complete with thorny crown and sunglasses. Grabbing a pilot lanyard and goodie bag mum and dad had built they encamped in the pits.
Cerb and Sam rocked up and started to get themselves ready. I have to admit they looked like they hadn’t had much sleep, like me, it must have been nerves.
This is the biggest BIRD we have ever put on and both Cerb and I were determined it was going to be the best. Not just because we had learnt from the last year’s, but we had more going on and, other than limited power, this was the most ideal venue ever with more people. More people doing well defined roles to spread the load across more shoulders, I hoped, would make the difference.
Cerb and I had spent quite a lot of time defining the roles, working out how they would communicate, and what each person was responsible for. I made sure that each volunteer had a role, rotated thru related positions and was not so heavily worked that it overwhelmed anyone. Except, of course, during the first qualifying everything took too long, was not quite working and we started to fall behind.
Everyone was doing their best, but everyone was doing this for the first time, FOR REALS™. There was no practice and so it took a while to get warmed up into it. This meant I was busy being available to advise and direct everyone, when needed, that they were doing the right thing in the right order. There were some immediate tweaks that needed to be made, but pretty soon it started to flow and we were only 40 mins behind.
This was caught up in the first break by clipping it a little short and getting cracking on the next group. At this point Adam, a more experienced race organiser, was standing on the pilot line. This, combined with a couple of tweaks and feeling warm from the last group meant we really got moving. Kai and M4tt got into their groove on race control and Eddy and Adam kept the pilots ticking thru so well that we actually made up to nearly being on time.
This was unheard of at a drone race and meant that suddenly I was able to step back and watch the machine run. It was a very strange and satisfying feeling to see it all work harmoniously. I was able to take small breaks from the other things that cropped up to just watch the race, chat with some pilots and generally hang out. Then I was able to choose to go and do something.
One of the roles that was less well defined and really required someone with my level of pilot knowledge, was choosing and arranging interviews. Kira, a Birmingham City Uni lecturer, who had kindly stepped up to help in so many ways, vollen-nominated her students to take video and photos for us. I would spot something interesting happening on track, and then arrange to grab the pilot for a chat about it.
The BCU students had a lighting rig and several cameras set up behind the live stream desk. I managed to interview a lot of different people there about their drones, why they were here, how the started in FPV and what they thought of the race. Once done, the students cut and edited the video together as quickly as possible and then dropped it off with Cerb to insert into the live stream at a convenient time. When I saw the quality of video and sound I was absolutely blown away. It was incredibly professional and offered a whole lot more to the live stream than endless 4x fpv feeds. I think this is the start of us meeting the benchmark wife test, where viewers don’t have to retreat to the office. They can put it on the big screen in the living room and it’s got enough interest to hold the attention of the wife (or whoever else lives there who is a non FPV nerd like us)
This was the goal of the event, to make FPV fun, accessible and inviting to as many people as possible. While the interviews were one way to do this, the other we pioneered was the expansion of the number of activities available for existing and new pilots. The idea was that anyone could turn up for free to have a look and see what was going on. Then if they enjoyed it and wanted more, they could pay a small amount to take part in a whole list of challenges, all presented on an app.
Bilaal designed it from the ground up and Kira populated it with graphics so that when someone logged in, they would see the BIRD graphic obscured by a number of pulsating bubbles. These bubbles hid challenges ranging from sponsor questions, to high-fiving volunteers to flying drones. It meant anyone could get their hands on and get involved in FPV at this event, which I thought was really cool. I wish we had more people come along and take part, but we are still growing and now we are known at the school, maybe next year after they see the videos and photos, we will get whole classes of students turn up to play! But those who did come along said they had a great time; building minifigs as test pilots to stick on a whoop and fly around some hoops, or wear FPV goggles to fly in the cockpit of a competing pilot taking on our race track, or get that first taste of FPV in the BMFA simulator. All the stands were a great success, if a little quiet…this year.
From time to time I would pop back to the live stream to check in on Cerb and Sam. Sitting still for so long they found another of the few limitations of the venue, heating. Its a huge echoey sports hall, in the middle of winter. There was heating, but it was limited and meant poor old Cerb and Sam needed big coats on and regularly topping up with hot drinks and food. I did my best to keep their spirits up, but I think nearing the end of the day, it was getting a bit testing, especially when the YouTube haters came out in force. Luckily, Jesse P was on hand to give Cerb a pick up so he could finish the day strong.
After qualifying the pilots filed out back to their hotels and the whoophaus. I managed the volunteers to do a few things like, collecting kit we didn’t want to leave overnight, fixing banners and tidying up. This was completed fairly quickly whereas ticking off the VAR requests was a much longer job. This took about an hour and a half in total meaning Cerb, Sam and I ( when I came back to the desk) had to chat and fill the time. This is where we spoke in some more detail about the sponsors, the pilots, our expectations of the racing tomorrow, the kit all came out. Alongside the great videos from the BCU students and the intro videos from our pilots.
Finally James, M4tt and Kai ticked off the last request and we had our qualifying positions list. Once this was read we snapped the computer shut and left as quickly as possible before we turned to icicles.
Id not really eaten properly all day, just snacking on cereal bars and carrying around my flask of tea, so now the pressure was off, I was famished. Mum, Dad, David, Cian, Eddy, Mike, and Phil and Rachel (who had come to see the event) all had gone to a carvery so Kai and I scooted off there to meet them. We arrived about 830pm, wayyyyyyyy earlier than I thought we would finish and plenty of time for a roast. It was glorious, and I wish I could have stayed longer to chat but I knew that following a big meal my eyes would start to close. So unfortunately I shipped out back to the whoophaus carpark leaving a lot of socialising still to do, but knowing an early ish night was needed so I would be ready for finals tomorrow.