so ive been helping set up a local indoor series at a warehouse we rent out on weekends and the debate keeps coming up about gate spacing. some of the faster guys want tighter gaps and shorter distances between gates so it stays technical, but then the newer pilots just get wrecked every single lap and it kills the vibe of the whole event.

we're running 5inch quads mostly, couple people on 3inch, and the space is maybe 40x20 meters roughly. right now we have the gates about 8-10 meters apart which feels okay but honestly i dont know if thats a standard or if we just made it up. is there like an actual guideline for this or is it just whatever works for your space

also side question ? does anyone build their own gates or just buy the foldable ones. we've been using the cheap pvc pipe ones and they keep falling apart every session

the 8-10m spacing is pretty reasonable for 5inch indoors honestly, id say dont go below 6m unless youre intentionally doing a micro-focused event. the problem with tight spacing for mixed skill levels is exactly what you described ? slower pilots are still in the gate when faster ones are coming through and that just creates chaos and broken props for everyone.

what we do at our local league is have two different track layouts, one for practice days which is a bit more forgiving, and then the comp layout which tightens things up and adds elevation changes. gives newer people a chance to actually learn the track before they get eaten alive. also helps with the PVC situation because you move gates less often so they survive longer lol

for gates we switched to the MultiGP style collapsible ones, not the official ones just similar design from aliexpress, they handle crashes way better than rigid pvc. pvc is fine for markers but anything pilots are actually flying through should have some give to it

honestly the gate spacing thing varies so much between venues ive stopped trying to find a definitive answer. MultiGP has some guidelines in their rulebook pdf if you want something to point to when people argue, but even their official tracks look really different depending on who built them.

one thing that helped us was just letting the faster pilots fly the layout first and watching where they naturally wanted to cut or where the flow felt wrong, then adjusting from there. you kind of design around the space rather than forcing a specific distance