Gemfan sweeps F9U podium at Yangtze River Delta Drone Open

Gemfan turned the Yangtze River Delta Drone Open into a pointed equipment trial and came away with a result that mattered far beyond a sponsor banner. At the Zhejiang stop in Shaoxing’s Donghu Subdistrict on April 12, the company said its pilots swept the top four places in the F9U class after two days of racing, with Zhao Zihang winning, Wang Maojie second and Hu Liangrui third, all on the YUKI 5129 propeller.

That kind of dominance mattered because the field was not small. Gemfan said more than 300 pilots from across the region entered the Shaoxing round, giving the podium sweep real competitive weight. The course cut through blooming rapeseed fields, and that scenery hid a race built on split-second throttle input, stable handling and clean lines through gates and turns. In a setting like that, prop choice is not a footnote. It is part of the racecraft.

The YUKI 5129 is a 5-inch, 3-blade propeller with a 2.9-inch pitch, 129.7 mm diameter, 6.1 mm center thickness, a 5 mm bore and a 4.5 g weight. Gemfan said it was designed in response to pilot feedback, which makes the Shaoxing result especially useful as a performance signal. On a tight, variable-air course under internationally recognized FPV rules, a propeller that can deliver speed without giving up control can separate a podium run from an average one. The sweep suggested the YUKI 5129 hit that balance in this specific race environment.

The setting also showed how drone racing is being woven into Shaoxing’s broader low-altitude economy push. Zhejiang designated Yuecheng District as one of 11 provincial pilot zones for low-altitude economy development in April 2025, and Shaoxing has been building infrastructure around that strategy, from the city’s first drone 4S store in Shangyu District to trial operations for its first approved low-altitude food delivery route in January 2026. The ancient city area has already shown its draw, with a temple fair there pulling 412,000 visits over four days earlier this year.

Framed as part of the 2026 Shaoxing Ancient City Youth Season cultural, commercial and tourism festival, the drone open worked on two levels at once: it was a race where equipment mattered, and a public demonstration that Shaoxing wants to be seen as a serious testbed for drone sports and low-altitude commerce. For pilots watching the results, the message was clear. On a course like this, propellers still decide who gets to fly at the front.