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DCL #1 - Paris

In the days of May 31st, 2017 - June 4, 2017, Rotorama participated in the first event in the DCL series (Drone Champions League) in the season 2017 composed by Jan Mittner, Kubo Steiner, Kubo Toman and Lubo Sládek (the tall Slovak, author of the report).

Our journey started about 10:00 on Wednesday May 31, 2017 at the public toilets on the dial around Prague towards Germany. Airborne smells have suggested that it is high time to travel to Paris. On our 4 passengers, 12 Connex HD Copter with Accessories, 3x3 meter ground squad rotor, professional equipment for filming our quadruple Steven Spielberg aka. James Steiner, a couple of pieces of clothing, and some candles, used two passenger cars. The curiosity of Honza Mittner was a curiosity, with a remarkable balance of about 480,000 miles. The old man, however, did not fail and managed the whole way back and forth, and he only needed a little oil.

The way for the dialnic was monotonous, so we enjoyed it by the occasional overtaking of our vehicles with each other, waving and shooting each other between the crews. I (Lubo) created moving images for about 4 hours using the timelapse function on the GoPro camera, which at 25 minutes on the dashboard reached temperatures that were inconclusive to keep the camera with a bare hand.

As a supporter of healthy nutrition, we have been regularly attending a network of rational and balanced low-fat, McDonald's, fat and artificial food, and we have survived until the last floor and we literally fell in love with the products. A great curiosity from the inexhaustible well of my crazy ideas was to try out at a speed of 130km / h to pull one of the copters out of the window and blow up the engines with the air. Let us explore the physical discovery our group has reached. At high engine speeds, the engines generated over the power switches that the control board was able to turn on, as well as the LED strips to create a beautiful light shade full of colors and flickering effects. You do not even know how I finally liked when I was on the next day that the copter had nothing to do with this attempt and was able to fly.

The interest of our trip to Paris was also the need for the German police to check our vehicles that I recorded on the GoPro camera. I have to admit that our group must have been guilty of creating suspicions of unfair intentions, I think it was the "harsh" looking of Honza and the doubled Kubo Steiner. Another thing I did not notice was the offer of sexual aids on one of the German toilets I had to visit.

The road was running, miles grew and our fatigue and travel "joy" grew slowly. The first milestone of our journey was the first one with the inscription "Paris 424km". I was definitely excited by the pleasure of the face and the delightful feeling that our journey would end in about three hours.

After arriving at the hotel, we stayed, in a triple room we devoted one bed to our dome, which filled its capacity reliably and so we did not leave any place for visits. The visual appearance of the door lock in the Mittner / Steiner room, which resembled the alarm system, is worth mentioning.

Around 23:00 after a trouble-free trip, we finally took a break and we were looking forward to the first day of the DCL.

Thursday 1.6.2017

The day was rather dull, packed and ready to go to the incredible hotel ranges that contained quality 15 grams of marmalade of two flavors, 3 centimeters gross baggy wheels, butter made from recycled tires, some children's desserts that are dusted with milk, two flavors of juices And coffee and all for just 6 €. I have to recognize the morning champions of future champions.

After breakfast, we moved to the hotel, where all DCL team staff were. Registration was carried out, data was checked, fuses, technique, everything was set and for the first time we met the other competing with whom we welcomed, photographed and shaking hands. Once all the conditions and controls were met, we received pilot neck sleeves without which we were unable to enter the racetrack and our tent, and each received two GoPro cameras recorded each year during the competition. I felt like Christmas when I unwrapped them.

Since DCL is a very prestigious organization, it should not be avoided to create additional multimedia content such as professional profile photo and video pilots in branded team clothing and WEB spoons and interviews with some members of each team.

After completing this, we chose a simulated track on the grass full of grass, thistle and thistle in close proximity to the sports airport, where some ten flags and two inflatable gates could be seen from the dial. As we had a little more time, we decided to read in the "Fast Food", where the staff were able to prepare a round of PIZZA's fun for an impressive 30 minutes. Surprisingly at the airport, when we only had about 15 minutes until the start of the training, we some survived a very tasty lunch. It did not take long for us to know that the planned start of the training was slightly reluctant, it was a certain prelude to the fact that the German printed Excel tables with precise timetables for each cooperative and their operations such as preparation, transfer to start and flight where the base unit Was 30 seconds and everything was scheduled exactly a minute (e.g. Rotorama starts 13h36min30sec), after the first hour of delay, became a completely residual waste of the planet's wood reserves, followed by improvisation. However, it was explained by the organizer that it is a kind of practice and a test of time requirements and techniques as such before the grand race of CHAMPS-ELYSÉES (pronounce šanzelizé) in the Sunday. Thursday was significant for our team tent, which has taken its virgin first position. I have to admit that it is an excellent tent to its transport size, which is built in about 10 minutes and is beautifully covered with the inscriptions and logos of Rotorama. A tent could be considered a superhero, because it is also non-flammable to meet the organizer's safety requirements and could fly on a strong wind.

A few words to the "simulated" track. Imagine how well the open space in the meadow can mimic the real one surrounded by a network on a day of a fierce race, and also how to fix it with 4 sprinkled roxor rods that are 10cm of a grass tunnel imitation under CHAMPS-ELYSES. Trat was, however, almost a trusted copy of our vision, where there were only about 25% of the obstacles that were on the visualization of the line design.

A charming German organizer, with a long-time invalid time schedule, came to us after our watch and invited us to prepare. There was a big podium with racing seats for the pilots where, after starting our dredges, we settled comfortably in the sun exposed with an average temperature outside the shade of about 35 °. Fortunately, the sweat from our duties pleasantly sucks the FPV foam from DCL glasses, I do not want to know how much biological material has to go through the foam throughout the bottom of the standing pilots.

It's here, debuting and starting! The first flight to France for Rotorama. We were excited at a low speed one by one to go to the CHEMPS-ELYSES circuit imitations. With the increasing number of seconds of flight, I felt like I was starting to get more and more triaths of my hand, since there was nothing at all possible. The tremors were strong, but eventually it was able to complete all of our team without technical problems. Everything seemed to work (except for the organizer's scheduling). On this day, we've had a few more flights, and the track has been complemented by new obstacles that we did not like Fair Play, because we did not all have the same conditions during the training. On our question, if the organizer thinks it is OK, the answer was clear, "relax is nothing, this is just a test". Finally, after a day in the sunshine, we spent choosing the organizer's instructions, we chose to go back to the hotel to charge the batteries, wash their devastated body pounds and relax.

Friday 2.6.2017

As a quarter flight program was filled to about 50%, we were looking forward to training that continued on Friday. In Qualifying on the test track, we ended up as a quarter (4th) out of a total of nine (9) teams. After this pretty good result, however, the organizer decided again to qualify again and so our joy was not again the highest. Also, on Friday, we were a little bit more complicated when we were in the mornings in the afternoon, when we were stunning about the stormy clouds in the morning. Finally, we've all managed to get away with the qualification, and we've got a quarter-finals to choose from. Unfortunately, I do not remember how we ended up. However, the base was not in the 9th place because we would not go further into the scoring part of the competition, which is attended by just 8 teams.

But let's talk a few words about DCL's rules, last year was flying the system of individuals when the pilot himself fought on individual wheels through the KO system. For the year 2017, a completely new set of rules was set and the flight was rather team-oriented.

Qualification - is done by measuring the time of individual laps. Each four-person team has dedicated time on the track when all four pilots fly on the circuit and everyone is trying to hit the fastest lap. The final qualifying time is finally the sum of the three fastest lap times of the three pilots. So the rules help teams where one pilot fails, a bit overwhelming our expectations, that we will be more successful than some teams that we could fly when computing the time of all four pilots.

Quarterfinals-Semi-Finals - Out of the 8th Teams, the pair made their way against each other and try to get valuable points in the detour duels. Each pair of teams flies three times in each phase of the competition. The first two years (heats) are fought by one pilot from the first team and one from the other. It's a bit like a two-man hunter, where it's possible to get one point for each team according to who wins the shot. They flown a total of two rounds and the first one, the points were his, in the event of a collision or fall, it was determined who was on the track further. The only hook and an important strategic decision is the selection of the quarter-finals pilots, because if they crossed the semi-finals, they can no longer put the same pilots in these face-to-face races as they did in the quarterfinals. So it was also necessary to think about the question "What if ...?". But our tactics were clear, the fastest pilots were deployed in the quarterfinals, and if we were to get to the semifinals, we would leave it to the stakes, especially to get there. After two rounds of individuals, the so-called "Big Heat" followed, when all eight pilots joined the two teams together. I'll tell you, it was a rumble ... An unbelievable spectacle, when eight coppers literally stunned each other with track elements. Of course, there was also a hill of precipitation, which was statistically obvious at such a count of copters at the same time. Again, it was decided that the pilot completed the first two rounds and the team was awarded one point, but the result of "Big Heat" could have been three points if the first three pilots had successfully completed two rounds from one team but if My memory does not disappoint, this has not happened to anyone during the whole competition. Such a system was progressively continued until the number of teams had been reduced to two that competed in 1st and 2nd place.

During the second qualifying, we were again placed in a better place than the 9th place and so we got to the quarterfinals. As the first opponents, we received the Swiss, which made us very happy because we felt we could beat them. Eventually it happened and we moved to the semifinals, where we encountered one of the fastest teams in German Conrad. We were fighting out of the full force, but it was not enough to do it, but we were happy.

Interestingly, there were some X-Blades watching this one. You certainly know the names like Luke Bannister (who did not attend the school duties due to Paris), Gary Kent, Mac Poschwald, Bret Collis, The novelty was how they changed their name from X-Blades to Nexx-Bades after gaining a sponsor in the financial services business called Nexx. But what fate did it was that these two teams got into the fight against each other in the quarterfinals and it was clear that in the fight for the placement in the first four places there was only one of them and it was even the less favored whose part was The well-known freestyle pilot Johnny_FPV, whose Nexx-Blades got into his circles. The ImmersionRC, which was composed by Shaun Taylor, Ummagawd, Chad Nowak, and Juli FPV (the only DCL pilot!), The boys were still inexpressibly entertaining, they all lived with joy and humorous behavior and comments, but they did not fail To break the pitch and position the 9th place for the cause and the fact that it looked like their Connex 700gram quads are seeing and piloting completely for the first time. Definitely worth mentioning is my "rearming experience" when about three seconds at the far end of the track after the impact of the flag the video fell for about three seconds, somehow I subconsciously piloted, then I said it's worthless, I disarmed it and it grew up I have the video in phase as I fly off my head. So I re-arm the upsidedown mid air, get oriented and get back on the track.

Full video:

Finally, we did not get wet, we packed the sticks and chose to postpone things to the hotel and went on to "a social program" in the form of a common catering and bowling session. At the beginning of the evening, we were drinking a bunch of drinks and monods, and time before the game, we broke the debate with each other. Interesting was our technical conversation with a guy named Idan Pearl of Israel, who was present as a technician of all Connex ProSight problems for HD FPV transmission. After I explained to him what the boredom is in the desert in Israel, and that, for that reason, the developments in the field of technology are well ahead of us, answering all the questions we had enough. The conclusion of our discussion was also the question of how to prepare for a smaller Connex where nothing else was told, except that all the information was mistaken, and Connex had not yet given the only information that he was preparing such a system, but it would not turn around. But he told us about the newly-developed Connex ProSight camera that should allow the system to work with high quality HQ (HighQuality) mode with latency and HP High Performance mode, which would open the door to a completely new dimension of FPV racing! The mood did not come out of course, and during the bowling goulash fights it did. After finishing the game, we chose the hotel with satisfaction and as I met in the elevator by the ImmersionRC, I gave them a selfie session with them.


Saturday 3.6.2017

Saturday, for many, it was a loose bottom, the organizer chose from each team a statistician who devoted all the Saturday to the activities related to the shooting of humorous contributions, where various questions were asked by the pilot and they answered in the interview. Questions such as "What a crap you did with a FPV dock?" and so on. Then there were some funny contests, The pilots stood together, their mouths full of water, looking at each other, trying to scream, and the one who laughed first, so the rival patritically refreshed with a dose of water from his mouth. Behind this Rotorama, this was the most exciting "FPV veteran" ever, Jakub Steiner.

As Kubo enjoyed her celebrity performance, we watched others as he showed him with that big black microphone at his mouth and wandered alongside the runway.

However, Saturday was another crucial moment for us to test the Connex system in a road tunnel under CHAMPS-ELYSÉES. Each team could send one pilot to test flying. The role of the Rotoram himself was mastered by the maestro and team manager Honza Mittner. The test flight planned for 12:00, of course, started sometime after 14:00.

With just a few video outages, Connex seemed to be working well, even with a lot of pilots, and the tunnel could be cool. The video problems were mostly applied by the organizer that Connexe did not install the antennas in the manner recommended by the manufacturer.

In addition to the enthusiasm of the first flight, we have spent time watching pilots and ...

After the testing, which seemed to be successful, we were waiting for about two hours to wait for the planned tunnel briefing, which started about another hour later.

The briefing once again highlighted how we should behave, when and where to go. We looked around a couple of times as we look forward to being able to jump to such a prestigious place and also to show everyone interested in organizing this not very simple event. She followed the way and the hotel, food, packing for morning and sleep.

It did not fall with a big "R" like Racing !!!! 06/04/2017

Collapsed, beautiful, smile and full of anticipation, we set off for a train that we were transported to the center of Paris, as the car would be a great complication that day. This is how the champions travel to the most prestigious event in Europe.

Upon arrival, we set up our hilarious Rotorama team tent and waited for the first instructions of the organizer.

We most prayed, let us not be the first one on the track, what finally came out and we were scheduled somewhere around the 5th position in the training. Still have to mention interesting information from the Saturday night's brífing. Training due to traffic constraints around the square will be divided into two parts; first, only the CHAMPS-ELYSES tunnel will fly. The following are the chips on the champs directly to CHAMPS-ELYSES and the overall track will unfortunately fly as a qualification. For illustration only, the track was linked as two independent parts by a common overhead tunnel. You know how to imagine those feelings of pilots who have had to deal with this reality. Well, well, we are professionals, and such a smallness does not matter to us. So we set out to wait for our first flight. I have chatted with Connex a receptionist who can also receive a foreign video in Fixed Frequency mode if it is set correctly. In this way, at least I was able to glimpse a bit of what we are waiting for. After a few video breaks and RC control over TBS Crossfire, we were getting a little nervous. After the first two years, the original 100mW of the TBS Crossfire went up to 500mW. Crossfire antennas have been solved using extension cables that have been stretched from the track to about 15-20 meters to antennas on statues in the middle of the track. Each pilot had to screw his antenna module before each flight. We packed our first tunnel training, we had safe crossings and circulated in the tunnels. I forgot to mention that the flight started again one hour later than the plan, which ultimately resulted in the absence of training on the upper part of the track, so that the first flight on the whole track was a qualification. With the boys we agreed that at any cost it is necessary to complete one round and it is not the case in which we managed in the first round and we were quite satisfied. Due to video loss and RC control we had corrective flights ja, Honza and Kubo Toman. After qualifying we were in the perfect fourth place. It was very gratifying that we did not get Cierny Petra in the 9th non-stop position and this situation was very satisfactory to us and to the Rotorama as we knew we would get into the TV broadcasting spree from the competition. Comedy and a bit of a sad moment during the qualification, Kedsme already sat on the pilots' chairs and comfortably settled with a smile on his face. Kubo Toman did not know yet that he was surprised by the set of HQ (HighQuality) mode on his Connexe, the airport in this mode of racing is about to be rubbed with a rubber hand ... Oh yeah, that preparation. The funny moment came also in the moment before our preparation for the start, Kubo Toman prepared a no batterry strap for him even better to run into the tent, but it was not all yet. I tried to be accountable, all prepared, flashlights marked with green endings, everything in the last thing fixed to the dome and checked and suddenly I picked one of my machines, that I look at it and fall propelled me to the ground. I kiss like a puck, how can this happen to me, I've controlled it ... It would be a shot if I had a rifle and a peripheral just seeing its propeller as she traveled from quad ... Well, just Kubo Steiner, ahaaa, we got you the engine nut because we thought the machine was not flying.

It was a quarter final, and our smile froze to find out that we were again rewarded by the German Conrad. It is unbelievable that we have come across this opponent by combining tactics and certain doses of happiness. The time for the end of the event began to curtail, and it was no longer possible to repeat or repair anything despite some technical problems with video and RC control. We did not meet the organizer, who had to put a great deal of pressure and attention as spectators, as well as competing in full time stress.

In the semifinal, we re-started against the team from Switzerland, just like in training at the sports airport. Unfortunately, our pilots collided at the entrance to the tunnel, where both Kubovia collided. Despite the fact that Honza was all the time with a look ahead of his rival, he also managed to collide with the last obstacle on the track and I as iron fuse at the end of the whole peloton I have no longer the possibility to influence the result in the fight to advance to the final.

We saw the finals in the cloud from the perspective of the spectators and we could only congratulate Kiss FlyDuino for the first place and the boys from Switzerland to the second cross. Time has passed and there was no space for the third and fourth place to fight with the less favored team NexxBlades (Tornado X-Blades). I suddenly think Honza says, boys, we're third! We ask how like that? And finally she decided to qualify, we were better than the NexxBejdi. It was a great pleasure for us and it was a nice patch for some sad feelings after the semifinals with the Swiss.

The sale of prizes took place at the stage of the winners in front of the main stage and was in the applause of crowds of crowds who gathered in a very large audience. Those moments were amazing, waving our hands and enjoying the champagne.

After all things were packed, the beautiful championship trip from the center of Paris to the hotel was followed by a train. Most of all, Kubo Steiner, had a tent structure built on his shoulder:

The end.

More videos

Video from Jakub Steiner
Video from Jakub Toman

(Translated by Google)