Canberra club race set as AU Nationals qualifier in open class FPV meet

Canberra’s open-class FPV scene will get tight fast at Kambah: Canberra Multirotor Racing Club’s Meet 6 will cap the field at 32 pilots, and the result will feed directly into the Australian Drone Nationals qualification chase. The race will run Saturday, June 13, from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM at Kambah District Playing Fields, and for pilots still chasing a spot on the national ladder, there is little room for a soft day.

The stakes are real because the AUFPV qualifying window runs only from March 1 to June 30, 2026, and Open Class qualification is limited to the top 96 pilots nationally. CMRC Meet 6 will sit inside that window as part of the club’s 10-event 2026 open-class racing season, which makes this more than a one-off Canberra meet. It is one of the local stops that can still move a pilot onto the national board before the cutoff.

AUFPV’s rules give club events added weight. Affiliated clubs can run as many qualifying events as they want during the qualifying period, and times must be verifiable through FPVTrackside, livestream or DVR review. The benchmark is not a single flashy lap, either. Qualification will be based on the best three consecutive laps, a format that rewards clean lines and repeat pace more than one lucky burst of speed.

The Kambah meet will also fit into a club structure that is already built for competition, not just casual flying. CMRC calls itself the ACT’s dedicated FPV drone racing club and a member of AUFPV, with regular outdoor events on the third Saturday of each month at Weston Archery Club and indoor sessions on the first Friday of each month at Holy Trinity Primary School in Curtin. Its 2026 open-class season will include A and B divisions, along with slight changes to finals scoring, adding another layer of pressure to a year already packed with qualifying implications.

The Canberra event will be held at Kambah District Playing Fields, 70 Chirnside Cct, Kambah ACT 2902, with member pricing set at $10 for under-18s and $20 for adult members. Non-member pricing will be higher. For pilots who make the cut, the path keeps climbing: AUFPV’s Nationals schedule puts Open Class qualifying on Thursday, October 1, bracket racing on Friday, October 2, and finals on Saturday, October 3 at Western Districts Rugby Football Club in Toowong, Queensland.

In a sport where a few clean laps can decide a season, Kambah will matter. Fourteen days and 32 pilot slots can reshape who stays on the road to Nationals and who falls off it.