Flight Before the Feast Arial Drone Competition

Welcome to the 2026–2027 Flight Before the Feast Aerial Drone Competition!

On behalf of the students, coaches, volunteers, and staff at The Gilbert School, we are excited to welcome you to the 2026–2027 Flight Before the Feast Aerial Drone Competition! Thank you for joining us and being part of what we hope will be an exciting day of competition, teamwork, and learning.

The Flight Before the Feast competition is designed to provide students with a fun, challenging, and high-quality competitive experience through the REC Foundation Aerial Drone Competition. Throughout the event, students will have opportunities to demonstrate their skills in drone piloting, programming, teamwork, communication, and strategic problem-solving.

Whether this is your team’s first competition of the season or one of many stops along the way, our goal is to provide a welcoming and well-organized event where every participant has the opportunity to learn, improve, and perform at their best. We encourage all teams to demonstrate good sportsmanship, compete with integrity, support one another, and embrace the challenges and successes that come with competition.

Thank you to all of the students, coaches, mentors, volunteers, families, and supporters who make events like this possible. The time and effort you put into preparing teams and supporting students are what make the Aerial Drone Competition program successful.

Please make sure that all required Participant Release Forms have been completed for team members prior to attending the event.

Good luck, fly safely, have fun, and we’ll see you on the field at the Flight Before the Feast Aerial Drone Competition!

Food will be available for purchase. Pit area will have access to outlets, but it is suggested that you bring your own extension cords & power strips

For questions regarding the event, please contact:

Craig Levesque
The Gilbert School
levesquec@gilbertschool.org

Agenda

Times Subject to Change

7:30 AM Doors Open, Team Check-In/Inspections Begin

8:00 AM Match Schedule Created (teams not checked in by this time will not be included in the Match schedule for the day)

8:00 AM Piloting Skills Matches Begin

8:45 AM Welcome and Flight Team Meeting

9:00 AM Qualification Matches Begin

9:00 AM Autonomous Flight Skills Matches Begin

1:00 PM End of Qualification and Autonomous Matches

1:15 PM Alliance Selection and Finals

2:00 PM Awards and Closing Ceremony

• Teams, coaches, volunteers, and guests may park in either parking lot on the sides of the school (off of Litchfield Ave or off of Williams Ave)

• Buses should park in the lot on Williams Ave and follow the sidewalk to the main entrance of the school 

• You may enter the building through either side of the main entrance lobby

• Drone teams will check-in in the gym lobby and then go to the cafeteria, which is the designated pit area.

• Volunteers will check-in in the gym.