September 23-24, 2017 marked not only the traditional Copter Race powered by Max Polyakov’s Noosphere, but also a stage of FAI Drone Racing World Cup in F3U class held for the first time in Dnipro. The sports complex Meteor turned into a battlefield for drone pilots of different skill levels: professionals and amateurs. The night show drone races, a great novelty of 2017 program, were the icing on the cake for both competitors and visitors.
Copter Race, annual drone-racing competitions, is the brainchild of Association Noosphere, founded by Max Polyakov. Dnipro hosted the first Copter Race in 2015 and has since held 5 competitions by Noosphere as well. The event reached the international level in 2017 by hosting a stage of FAI Drone Racing World Cup, welcoming 40 pilots from 4 countries (Poland, Switzerland, Germany, and Ukraine). In like manner, Dnipro joined the other 15 cities across the world to organize an FAI World Cup stage.
Max Polyakov referred to drone racing as an immature discipline. Since its official certification in 2016, the rules and regulations haven’t been fully formulated. Since becoming the official technical partner, Noosphere has assisted the FAI in settling many important issues. For instance, a new solution for a sports event, eNavigator, was presented as a tool which helps manage the organizational moments of any sports event, such as creating a landing page and facilitating scoring.
On September 23, pilots focused on obtaining official competition qualifications. They relied on two experienced judges, a national judge from Ukraine, Dmytro Franchuk and an official FAI representative from Italy, Oscar Chinello. Along with official qualifications, beginners and experts of all ages fought to become the fastest pilot, since each and every one could participate in the Fan Сopter League and Free Style to demonstrate spectacular stunts. Thanks to the organizational support of Max Polyakov’s Noosphere, the night show-race, arranged for the first time in Ukraine, was a memorable point of the first competition day.
The next day, professional drone pilots went in for the final race. It goes without saying that they did their best. These were 3 winners, who tasted victory in the long run:
Andy Hahn, a professional racer from Germany – 1st place
Dario Neuenschwander, a Swiss competitor – 2nd place
Victor Dzenzel from Ukraine – 3rd place
For most of the pilots who took part, those two days were about the intensity of the emotions, achievement and having fun. Visitors took use of workshop on flying drones and enjoyed breathtaking flights. Max Polyakov, the founder of Noosphere, is eager to support one of the fastest growing air sports disciplines and foster the immense community spirit among pilots.