so ive been putting together a small indoor track in my warehouse space and im trying to figure out gate spacing for a technical section. the space is roughly 20x40 meters and i want to run like 8-10 gates through it but im second guessing myself on how tight to push the chicane section near the back wall.

right now im sitting around 4 meters between the two chicane gates and it feels like maybe a frame width of margin on either side when i fly it at half throttle. planning to run 3 inch toothpicks mostly but we'll probably have some 5 inch guys show up to the sessions too so i dont want it to be completely unflyable for them.

anyone built a track with mixed class in mind? wondering if theres sort of a baseline spacing rule people use or if its just vibe based on the space you have

4 meters for a chicane on an indoor track is honestly pretty standard, maybe even a touch generous depending on how sharp the entry angle is. the real issue with mixed class isnt gate width its the turn radius between gates. a 5 inch running anything over like 45 degrees of pitch angle is gonna have a way wider arc than your toothpick guys and if your gate sequence forces a tight S you'll end up with the bigger quads just clipping the second gate every single time.

what i usually do when im setting up for mixed is just walk the line physically and imagine the widest natural arc someone would fly and then add maybe half a meter buffer to that. also flag placement matters a lot, if you can set your gates so the natural racing line doesnt put you in a corner pocket youre way better off than just adding spacing.

not super experienced with track building but i flew an indoor race last winter where the organizer had done exactly this mixed class setup and the chicane was basically miserable for the 5 inch guys. think they ended up just re-pegging two of the gates like 20 minutes before the race lol. probably worth having a few extra stakes or sandbags handy so you can adjust on the day