ok so i signed up for a local race like 3 weeks ago thinking id have time to properly get ready and now its this saturday and i feel completely underprepared. ive been flying freestyle for about a year and a half on a 5inch but racing is just different and i know it

running a diatone roma f5 with a stack ive had issues with before (aux uart stuff, dont even ask) and im now second guessing everything. should i even bother trying new pid tunes this week or just lock in what i have and fly it. also have no idea how many packs to bring, what the protocol is for impound if theres even impound at a club race this size

its not like a big sanctioned event, maybe 20 pilots, but i still dont wanna show up looking like i have no idea how racing works which... i kind of dont

do not touch your pids this week. seriously. whatever youre flying now fly that. the number of people who show up to their first race on a fresh tune that they havent dialed in is way too high and you will absolutely notice every weird oscillation or delay in a race context that you never noticed in a field. fly what you know

for packs id bring at minimum 6, most club races have heats with a few minutes between so you can usually charge on site but dont count on it, bring a parallel board or a good charger that can do multiple packs. and yeah even small club races usually have some version of impound, its just a table where you leave your quad before the heat so nobody is swapping props or doing anything sketchy. just ask someone when you get there, everyone at that level remembers being new and will just tell you

honestly the biggest thing i wish someone had told me before my first race is that your lap times in a race will be like 20-30% slower than your casual flying for the first couple events just because the pressure messes with your head. you start overflying gates, second guessing your lines, all of it. so dont go in expecting to hit the numbers youve been doing in practice

also check your vtx output is legal for the event, some clubs are strict about 25mw vs 200mw indoors vs outdoors and if youre on a channel thats bleeding into someone elses feed youll hear about it fast lol