Canberra club unveils 10-event 2026 drone racing calendar, Meet 5 set for May 16

Canberra Multirotor Racing Club is turning its 2026 season into a real pressure circuit, and Meet 5 may be the one that separates the contenders from the field. The round is set for Saturday, May 16, at Weston Archery Club in Weston Creek, with AU Regional Qualifier status, a 32-pilot cap and a long race-day window from 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. in a 10-event open-class calendar.

That matters because CMRC is not running casual fly-ins. The club has built a structured meeting where qualifying comes first, then finals, with the kind of format that rewards clean laps and repeatable pace. Qualifying will be based on the two fastest consecutive laps in any round, with up to eight qualifying rounds. Finals will be scored on the best three placings out of four final races, and heats will be set by qualifying rank, usually with six to eight pilots in each final group.

The day reads like a proper race meeting rather than an open practice. Setup runs from 8:30 to 10:00, qualifying follows from 10:00 to 12:40, lunch runs from 12:40 to 1:00, and the field gets another hour of qualifying before Pro Spec finals and a 1v1 battle from 2:00 to 2:30. Open Class finals follow from 2:30 to 3:30. CMRC’s broader 2026 stream also shows Open Class split into A and B divisions, with slightly changed finals scoring, while Pro Spec is being pushed to a Top 16 in seven races.

For Canberra, this is bigger than one club round. CMRC says it is the ACT’s dedicated FPV drone racing club and Canberra’s first dedicated FPV multirotor club, with 64 members and 56 events on its chapter page. That footprint gives the club unusual depth for a grassroots program, and it helps explain why its local races can feed into the wider Australian pathway rather than sit apart from it.

AUFPV, the national body for FPV drone racing in Australia, has already listed the 2026 Australian Drone Nationals qualifying series, with the qualifying track live on Velocidrone since April 20. Canberra also stays on the national map later in the year, with the Australian Tiny Whoop Championships scheduled for June 27 and 28 at Deakin Football Club. The city has hosted the Australian Drone Nationals before, in 2019 and 2022, when Canberra pilot Davey Newman, then 16, was among the competitors.

Weston Valley Archery Club gives the meet a familiar competitive home. The Archery Australia-affiliated venue sits at Dixon Drive and Streeton Drive in Holder and Weston Creek, with regular club days on Wednesday and Sunday and competition rounds on Sundays. For CMRC, that kind of setting is part of the point: a stable venue, a disciplined format and a 10-round season that could reshape the local order one fast lap at a time.