Weston park international model air show is absolutely-freaking-massive!!!!! I thought Wings’n’Wheels was big, but this is another level!
Driving into the stately home’s grounds you are greeted by, no exaggeration, THOUSANDS of caravans and motorhomes and tents all lined up neatly. Right next to the entrance with flags fluttering in front of a huge big top tent is the BDRA Drone Racing section where we will be based. Just down the hill is Heli-fest where the helicopter pilots have a huge field for their competitions and displays, and then all along the bottom is the mile long flight line for the wings and planes and fireworks. Facing this main airstrip there are a myriad of shops and stalls and model manufacturers. There is even a funfair! Being the first time I’ve attended, it blew me away so I’m very excited to be involved with bringing Tiny Whoops to the show.
This year, Birmingham Tiny Whoopers was volun-nominated to put on a Tiny Whoop race. The 5 inch FPV drones would be using the big top tent all day for the pilot pits, but in the evenings it was ours to take over and light up with all our crazy LED gates, music, timing gear and Tiny Whoops. Friday night we set up a huge tarp over the grass (to stop the props getting jammed) and laid out a funky track with some serious height changes, taking advantage of the big space.
As with all best laid plans, there were some set up issues getting the timing gear working, delaying us a little. But the incredible enthusiasm and knowledge of RCManiac and Rich got us up and flying with a fully working timing rig. This gave plenty of time for the pilots to show up after work, get their tents pitched and prepare for racing just as the evening light faded making the track look epic all lit up.
Qualifying progressed nicely for a few rounds, and people started finding their flow around the track. It had a few really interesting features that made it special, like the big top tent main pole elevating some gates 5m into the air and an inflatable dragon the whoops had to orbit – because why not! We even suspended a Gemfan cube gate in the middle of the track that was used in 2 directions, crossing the flight lines. This gave some peril that there would be mid air crashes, but i don’t think it happened even once haha! These whoops are so tough, they regularly get thrashed and bounced across the ground without damage. I’m not sure there is any other racing sport where this could be done?
About 5 rounds into qualifying, the rain, which had been on and off all day, really got into its stride and sent fat rain beating down on the tent. This time it was non-stop and started to threaten our electronics as water dribbled across the track, forming pools. Everyone launched into action unplugging the expensive parts or elevating the critical bits to protect them. But this meant timing could not continue. We let the pilots continue flying the track with the understanding that it was at your own risk of a soggy ending.
After some heavy rain, heavy drinking and some heavy hangovers, the whoopers had the whole day to enjoy wandering around the Air Show and watch the five inch qualifying.
It was great to have time to be able to enjoy the rest of the show and still have time in the evening to do plenty of flying – weather permitting! Luckily we had some beautiful sunshine between rain showers, which allowed us to dry the tarp ready for the evenings racing.
We laid out the same track and set the pilots off practising while RCManiac and Rich sorted out the timing system. Up and running, we then had another 2 rounds of qualifying to give us our finals schedule. The whoopers prefer back to back batteries to help get into a rhythm and fly their best. So we flew 3 flights in each group, working up thru the finals from D to C to B to A.
The Hann comfortably took 1st position in the D finals, smoothly floating his way to the 1st place podium with Les Cargo securing 2nd having spent the evening improving his flying to achieve 2 whole laps. Everyone cheered seeing Les Cargo fly into the crashgate. The whoop community is so supportive and open, we all enjoy celebrating all levels of flying.
In the C finals, ArchieFPV started strong and looked like he would cake-walk it home for the win, but in the 3rd race had some terrible luck and crashed badly multiple times ending with a 4th place finish. Unfortunately this pushed him off the top spot, ceding it to VikingFPV who had picked up 2nd, 2nd, and then 1st place putting him in 1st position by just 1 point over Archie! But battling for 3rd Thornberry and Norfolk’n’Good kept swapping results until Norfolk’n’Good picked up a 2nd place in the last race, buzzing her way into 3rd at her first big whoop event.
Heating up, this was the most hotly fought racing of the night. The B finals saw 3 pilots all achieve 1st place. Always fast, Rich took 1st then fighting back Jaggers capitalised with a win in the next race where Rich had a terrible run. And in the last race, MikeFPV, who had gotten better with each race took the win. All the while, 222FPV had been quietly racking up points. The three races were all so tight there we had to have a race off between Rich and 222FPV, where Rich narrowly sneaked past on the last lap to pip 222FPV to the crash gate. With only 3 points separating all the pilots, we ended with Jaggers taking 1st, MikeFPV taking 2nd and Rich taking 3rd.
Lastly, the A finals were upon us and I was honestly shocked to find myself, Minirollsrule, among the pilots. Always considering myself to be a mid table pilot, the regular Whoop fun flys at Birmingham Tiny Whoopers in Solihul, bust have really paid off, because I was up against some stiff competition; The ever-rapid InfinityFPV of Hanworth Park Drones, the up and coming Minus_One who did so well at BIRD 2024 and the spaceship-quick Lightsail of Killakwads. It was really tight racing, especially between InfinityFPV and Minirollsrule as we went back and forth. Chasing and crashing repeatedly, the nerves got to me as I wanted to do well, I had to keep reminding myself to calm down. Slow is smooth and smooth is fast needs to be my mantra. At least I was consistent, achieving 3rd place in all 3 races and securing 3rd position over all. But the battle for 1st was a hot one. Infinity stood a good chance until a few mistakes let Minus_One and Lightsail past who both flew incredibly. Part of me wished I could have watched them battle for the win. After a furious battle, Lightsail was just a little more consistent and took 1st position in all 3 races. The top half of the pilots were all managing 20-ish second laps but Lightsail, in the finals pulled out a sub 15 second lap!. Blowing everyone’s mind this justifiably cemented his reputation as the fastest whoop pilot of Weston Park Whoop Race 2024.
As we finished the racing we dished out the prizes from our wonderful sponsors and I gave the worst presentation ceremony ever live streamed! Urgh! With all the set up, rain and technical challenges we had, I managed to mess it up. But powering thru, everyone walked away with a bundle of goodies courtesy of our wonderful sponsors.
———— 5G One4HDD ———— 
www.uktin.net/5GONE4HDD
————- VCI Motors ————- 
www.vcihobby.com/
————– Gemfan ————— 
www.gemfanhobby.com/
—————– Orqa —————- 
www.orqafpv.com/
————— BetaFPV ————– 
www.betafpv.com/
————- HappyModel ———– 
www.happymodel.cn/
—————- Foxeer ————— 
www.foxeer.com/
—————- HGLRC ————— 
www.hglrc.com/
——— FPV Racing Solutions ——-
www.youtube.com/@FPVRacingSolutions
—– Birmingham Tiny Whoopers — 
https://www.facebook.com/groups/birminghamtinywhoopers
Gooddies in hand, and rain pelting the tent again, the whoopers took off into the night, under brollys to watch the incredible Weston Park Fireworks and aerial pyro display. Even with Noah floating past in his ark, spirits weren’t dampened and everyone came back saying it was the best display they had ever seen. I’ve certainly never seen anything like it anywhere else. Not only are there choreographed fireworks, but gliders shooting fireworks at each other, planes covered in LEDs lighting up the sky and huge fireballs exploding all over the place. It was amazing!
Sunday brought the FPV 5 inch finals which was hotly fought all the way to the end and their award ceremony were the BDRA celebrated another successful event before packing down their kit. This left us whoopers free to take over the tent one last time for some team racing. With so much space, 222FPV created a great new track. But continuing their long running team racing streak of wins, the DRC boys took the title back to Cornwall again! Will anyone be able to beat this power house of FPV teamwork?? Maybe we will find out at their upcoming race in mid September. Check out Drone Racing Cornwall facebook page for more info.
And so that concluded the first ever Tiny Whoop Race at Weston Park. With boxes of muddy kit piled in the back of my van, we left early Monday morning thoroughly whooped out and buzzing from another great long weekend of FPV flying. This hobby is great and full of characters that are happy to help pull together and put on a great event, but especially it couldn’t have been done without RCManiac and Rich, so thank you guys. You are ambassadors for the FPV sport and I hope to see you again soon!
