Nationals 2026 Preview

The 2026 Australian Drone Nationals take off at Memorial Park, Toowong, in Brisbane with racing kicking off on the 1st of October 2026.. With the entry list locked in, we went through the data to see who's coming, where they're from, how old they are, and who's likely to be fighting it out on the final day.

The field

81 pilots are entered in Open Class and 37 in Pro Spec. Every Pro Spec pilot is also racing Open Class, so almost half the field (46%) will be busy all week flying two classes.

165 pilots set an approved Open Class qualifying time this year, the biggest qualifying field since the 2019 pre-COVID peak, and 53 qualified for Pro Spec. Pilots kept chipping away all season too: 76 qualifying times were replaced with faster ones before qualifying closed.

The front of the field is stacked. Nine of the top ten Open Class qualifiers are entered, as are 17 of the top 20. Eleven pilots qualified under 30 seconds. The fastest was flowerpig with a 25.38, a full second clear of IQ0 (26.39) and BMSThomas (26.43).

Pro Spec qualifying was even tighter. Wubbz took top spot on 43.38, just one hundredth of a second ahead of clubmate Fizz (43.39), with IQ0 third on 43.68. The top three were covered by 0.3 seconds.

A national championship with a global flavour

This year's field is genuinely international. Nine pilots from four countries outside Australia are entered, making five nations on the grid: six from New Zealand, and one each from South Korea, the United States and Taiwan.

They aren't here to make up the numbers. flowerpig from South Korea is the fastest qualifier in the country. Screecher from the USA is the reigning Pro Spec national champion and finished second in Open Class last year, he's also coming in to the event having qualified 5th in the world on MultiGP's Global Qualifier. New Zealand's Sloogus, one of the youngest pilots at the business end of the competition, having qualified 6th after finishing 6th at last years event.

Where they're from

Every Australian state and territory is represented. Queensland leads the home-state count with 19 pilots, ahead of New South Wales (17), the ACT (14), Victoria (13) and South Australia (5), with one pilot each from Western Australia, the Northern Territory and Tasmania.

The clubs

Ten clubs are sending pilots, and ten entrants are flying without a club affiliation (mostly our international visitors).

The Ages

The youngest pilot at this year's Nationals is 10 and the oldest is 65, a 55-year spread across the whole field. The age profile has two peaks. There's a big wave of teenagers and pilots in their early twenties (48% of the field is 24 or younger) and a second cluster in their 40s (22%). The years in between are comparatively quiet, which follows trends we have seen over years past.

Pro Spec skews older. Nobody in Pro Spec is under 17, and 15 of the 22 pilots aged 40 and over are racing it. The pilots racing Open Class only are the youngest group, with an average age just under 26.

Old hands and new faces

Around two thirds of the field (56 pilots) have raced at a previous Nationals, and around 25 will be lining up at their first.

The Nationals veterans are led by BMSThomas, who has won Open Class five times (2016, 2017, 2019, 2022 and 2023) and qualified 3rd this year. Heepsy, Bones and timmytron have each raced seven Nationals. Heepsy has finished inside the top eight at every one of them since 2017.

There's also a big change at the top: two-time defending Open Class champion Wilf isn't on the entry list. There will be a new Open Class champion in 2026. The contenders include:

• Screecher: reigning Pro Spec champion and 2025 Open Class runner-up
• IQ0: 2022 Open Class runner-up, fresh from winning the MultiGP Australian Regional Final, and 2nd-fastest qualifier in Open Class
• Red2rotor: 2024 runner-up and 4th in 2025
• Fizz: 3rd in Open Class last year and 2nd in Pro Spec qualifying
• BMSThomas: chasing a record-extending sixth title
• flowerpig: the fastest qualifier, making their Nationals debut

Tech on the grid

Digital video has taken over. 71% of the Open Class field is flying HDZero, against 29% on analog. Almost half the field (37 pilots) can also run Low Band, which gives the race directors much more room to spread channels across heats.

Racing in the community

The Nationals run on volunteer help, and pilots have stepped up. 38 of the entered pilots have offered to help run the event, from marshalling to race directing and everything in between. Thank you: the event doesn't happen without you.

Follow along

Every heat will be on live timing, with a full leaderboard, lap times and 3D replays. Keep an eye on the live dashboard from Wednesday. See you in Brisbane!

Thank you to our sponsors

A national championship doesn't happen without the businesses that back it. A huge thank you to everyone supporting the 2026 Australian Drone Nationals.

Title sponsor: Mission Foods

Gold sponsors: Mantis FPV, Foxeer and Prusa Research

FPV industry sponsors: Next FPV, Phaser FPV, Gemfan, HQ PROP, VCI, HGLRC, Blitz Bunny and Schwifty Long Range Packs

Please support the businesses that support our sport. See you in Brisbane!