Central Texas drone club turns runway into first FPV pylon race

GamaRc Georgetown turned a familiar flying field into something FPV racers do not see every weekend: a 600-foot runway ringed by five 20-foot pylon towers, built for a run-what-you-brung time trial that the club billed as its first-ever FPV pylon race. The May 16 meet at 655 Co Rd 141 in Georgetown was listed as a custom, unranked event with no racer limit, and sign-ups began at 10:00 a.m. after the day opened at 8:00 a.m.

That format mattered as much as the venue. Standard tight-gate FPV racing rewards knife-edge precision through short, unforgiving turns. A pylon course changes the equation. Pilots had open runway, bigger sight lines, and enough space to stretch the airframe instead of threading it through a slalom. In model aviation, pylon racing is an established discipline around marked pylons, and the Academy of Model Aeronautics says some pylon models can reach nearly 200 mph. Georgetown’s version adapted that old-school speed test to FPV, which made the event feel less like a bracketed qualifier and more like a raw test of pace, spacing, and nerve.

The entry list already showed a workable field before race day wrapped up: DesertRat, WesRihn32, 2theMAX, FPV IzLoCo, and Clanker were on the page. With no racer cap and the option to request up to four-person heats, the format favored pilots who wanted laps, room, and flexibility over a rigid ladder. That is exactly why the setup could draw interest beyond the usual gate-racing crowd. It lowered the barrier to entry without lowering the challenge.

Central Texas Drone Racing is not a brand-new outfit trying to invent a scene from scratch. Its crew page lists the Georgetown-based group at 18 members and 26 races on the platform, which gives this pylon experiment a real local backbone. Gama itself is an AMA-chartered R/C flying club north of Georgetown near Walburg, and its gallery already includes categories for Drones & Quads and Combat Pylon Racing. A prior Gama flyer also promoted ride-along FPV flights, 1:1 FPV training, freestyle competition, and a pylon race at the same field, all of which points to a club that has been leaning into mixed-format flying for a while.

For Central Texas club racing, that is the bigger story. A runway, a safety margin, and a creative format gave pilots a different kind of proof-of-speed event, and Gama’s field may have just shown how local FPV days can expand without waiting on a full series or championship calendar.