Race safety rules: what each racing body and association requires.

The rules below are reported as requirements. Nets, safety lines, fail-safes and switches appear because the rules require them, not because any source shows how well they work; no peer-reviewed injury study specific to FPV racing was found for this site. Anyone hurt at a race needs medical care, and a fire needs the fire service.

FAI: F9U drone racing

Edition: the FAI Sporting Code, Section 4, Volume F9 Drone Sports, 2025 edition, effective 1 May 2025. A 2026 edition is listed by the FAI but could not be opened, and its effective date is reported two ways: 1 January 2026 on the FAI document's cover, as described in search results, and 1 June 2026 by Prism News. Neither was checked against the document, and its wording may differ from what follows. The volume's conditions say national air law takes precedence over sport rules where it applies.

The model (rule C.1)

• Every racing model must have a fail-safe device whose triggering stops the motors, and a pit mode that cuts the video transmitter's power.
• Pre-programmed manoeuvring, automatic positioning or path correction, and pre-programmed increases in video power are forbidden.
• Total weight including batteries is at most 1 kg, with all motor axes inside a 330 mm circle (C.1.1).
• Packs up to 6S, no cell above 4.25 V when fully charged; voltage is measured before each race, and the change log lists the cell-voltage limit among the changes effective 1 January 2020 and calls it a safety measure (C.1.2).
• Propellers up to 6 inches (15.2 cm), no full metal propellers (C.1.3). The 2025 change log records that the earlier ban on propeller protection devices, which the 2019 edition contained, was removed in changes effective 1 January 2020, stating there is no safety reason to prohibit them.
• Radio control frequencies and power must comply with the host country's rules, and 868 MHz or 915 MHz control modules run at the lower of 100 mW or the national limit (C.1.4). Video is in the 5.8 GHz band at no more than 25 mW, on the ground or in the air; switching on any 5.8 GHz video transmitter without authorisation can bring penalties up to disqualification, intended or not (C.1.5).

People at the race

• Helper: each pilot has exactly one helper beside them for the whole flight, who keeps the model in sight and tells the pilot about anything affecting safety. If the helper asks the pilot to land or cut the motors, the pilot must do so at once, and in an emergency the helper may switch off the pilot's transmitter to trigger the fail-safe (Section C introduction).
• Checks: the organiser may check each registered model's fail-safe and motor cut-off, battery voltage, and radio and video equipment (C.4).
• Stopping flights: officials may stop a flight if a model no longer meets acceptable safety standards, for example after damage in a crash or with a dangling battery, and the race director may stop the race and disqualify the competitor responsible for a serious safety issue (C.7.4).
• Restarts: a full race restart follows a critical safety incident such as a fire or an unauthorised person on the track (C.8.2).
• Disqualification from a race includes crossing the safety line, flying after removing the goggles even briefly, celebratory manoeuvres and hazardous piloting (C.9.1).

The course (Annex C.1)

• Circuits follow a "safety first" principle: any route back to the track after leaving it leads toward an area with no people.
• The flight zone is bounded by a safety line, a physical marker around the course and every area a model could reach after a crash or loss of control. No one crosses it without an official's authorisation.
• No one without adequate safety equipment, which the rules name as nets, cages or protection suits, may be in the flight area while any model is flying. Competitor, official and spectator areas are secured against uncontrolled models with nets, fences or transparent walls and a recommended minimum separation.
• Organisers should make reasonable efforts to use shock-absorbing materials for obstacles, and small gates are not recommended because of the risk of collision.
• The organiser prepares basic procedures for fire or first aid inside the safety line and briefs anyone before they cross it. Those procedures are not reproduced here.

MAAA: MOP066 section 9 (Australia)

The MAAA's FPV policy, MOP066 version D (revision 19 August 2019), sets racing rules for its affiliate members. They apply where a course has at least one gate and one flag, the video is low-latency, there is a designated area with a run-off area (a recommended minimum 30 m exclusion zone), and flying stays below 100 m (9.1).

• All pilots obey the flight line director; aircraft stay within the safety zone with at least a 30 m buffer from spectators and uninvolved people; no pilots are on the field while other aircraft fly (9.2).
• Racing aircraft need a switch-based arm switch that stops all motors when disarmed, and a radio failsafe that stops all motors immediately on loss of signal; MOP066 says no two-stage failsafe is allowed, and the event coordinator or flight line director checks failsafe settings before racing (9.2).
• All flying stops if anyone enters the exclusion or track zones, and Return to Home is banned on racing aircraft, which MOP066 links to extra safety concerns on smaller tracks (9.2).
• MOP066 calls immediate disarming of the motors, as directed by the observer, the key safety control in racing (6.5).
• Carbon fibre and metal propellers are banned in racing multirotors (9.6).
• Each participant must meet national requirements, including authorisation to fly FPV, pilot qualification, insurance and radio equipment (9.3), and switching on a video transmitter on a channel a racing competitor is using may get the offender excluded from the event (9.4).

BMFA: racing under its Article 16 authorisation (UK)

Section 3.1 of the BMFA's guide to its CAA authorisation (updated 21 December 2021) says FPV drone racing must take place in a sterile area: a cordoned-off, closed area from which uninvolved people are kept out. Racing is capped at 160 ft (50 m) above the surface and flown under the event's procedures and the race director's instructions, including an instruction to end the race and land immediately. Observers must be briefed, including on watching for people or aircraft entering the sterile area, and individual racing pilots do not need their own competent observer under this provision. The BMFA's page on its current authorisation, Issue 8 of December 2025, describes the same sterile-area, 50 m and no-individual-observer terms.

AMA: the 2016 racing recommendation (US)

The AMA's "FPV Multi-Rotor Club Sport Racing Recommendations", dated 16 June 2016, is the latest AMA racing document found. It may have been superseded, so it is not confirmed as current.

• Micro class (up to 150 mm): 25 ft from pilot to flight area and 25 ft from pilot to spectator area. 250 mm class: 50 ft and 25 ft.
• Where approved safety netting stands at least 4 ft in front of them, pilots and spotters may be set back 10 ft and spectators 25 ft.
• Each pilot has a spotter; a race course monitor disqualifies any racer going higher than 100 ft above the ground; the course is designed so the racing aircraft's energy is not directed toward spectators, or netting shields them; and batteries are limited to 4S LiPo or LiFe packs.

MultiGP (US organiser)

MultiGP's organiser site lists a rule book (labelled "Rule Book 2025" on the page read) with its rules for pilots and chapter organisers. Its text could not be read for this site, so MultiGP's current safety rules are not known here. Two older items were found. MultiGP added a Mega Class safety section to its 2019 rules for drones of 800 to 1050 mm, which it said carried added risk, covering a greater distance from track to pilot line, track design and control of access to the course. A 2019 MultiGP time-trial manual, seen only as a search summary, required each pilot to have a spotter who counts laps and warns of safety issues; whether current rules keep this is unconfirmed.

Spectators and distances: no common figure

The bodies do not agree on how far spectators should be from racing aircraft, and each figure applies only within its own framework.

Propeller rules differ too: MOP066 bans carbon fibre and metal propellers in racing, while F9U forbids only full metal ones.

Where the law comes in

The FAI's rule book says national air law takes precedence where it applies. Two examples of what the law says about races: in the EU, EASA says a race outside a club with no spectators falls in the Open category's A3 subcategory, that spectators are not allowed in the Open category, and that a race with spectators should be run in the Specific category or under a club's Article 16 authorisation. In Canada, Transport Canada's Aeronautical Information Manual (effective 19 March 2026) says flying less than 100 ft from the boundaries of an advertised event, defined to include outdoor sporting events advertised to the public, needs a Special Flight Operations Certificate. The rules for each jurisdiction are on flying near people and the Learn law pages, such as the law in the EU.