If you are interested in trying pylon racing this will be the an opportunity for competitors flying trainers or sports planes to compete along with the Q500 planes. Come along and give it a go. It will be great to see a large turn-out of Q500 flyers being as this event is close to Melbourne.

Q500s about to launch of the start line

Brian, James, Jim & Tom on the way out to the line - FA1 (Aust F3D)

After a break from racing of over a month, VMPRA members headed down to Warrnambool for a weekend of pylon racing. Members of the Warrnambool club turned out in force to help and to provide good food and refreshments for the weekend. The field was in great condition but the weather on Saturday was not so good with very strong wind and the rain starting to fall in the afternoon. Sunday really made up for it, with only a light breeze and scatter cloud cover.

On Saturday we flew 5 rounds of Q500 followed by another 5 rounds of F400. Once the rain started falling, FA1 was abandoned for the day.

FA1 (Aust F3D) about to launch

Sunday started with FA1 & Q500 alternating until 9 rounds of Q500 had been completed and then a further 4 rounds of FA1 was flown to complete the event.

All in all this was a very enjoyable weekend. As well as the on field action, we all went to the pub for dinner and a good chin wag on the Saturday night. It was a pity that entries for this event were down on the usual numbers but there was plenty of good racing to be had by all.

Results have been posted. See results >>>

Warrnambool Club House & Tony Axon

Brian Steel Launching James Hurley's Q500. David Axon's model is just in the air

Full gallery of photos from this event >>>

Check out this video taken at the event>>>

F400 was flown with 2 new competitors to this class (Barry Townsend & myself) and Q500 saw Matt Carter flying in his second event (1st being Camperdown) and Ian Rickard who usually helps in the pylon cage on these weekends, flew Q500 for the first time.

The result are now uploaded. You can find them here>>>

The next event is at Warrnambool on April 28 – 29. See you there!

View from the field of Mt Leura. David Axon in the forground.

What a fantastic start to the pylon racing year. Fine weather, great club and venue and a good turnout of competitors.

2 days of flying FA1, F400 & Q500 plus Beau Murphy & Rick Townsend flew their F5D planes as a demonstration event. These things really go. Beau’s 1st event of racing this plane saw him doing a 57.63 on the 10.5 lap cause. The best time with a FA1 was  59.20! I can see that this class has a good chance of gaining traction among the regular pylon racing fraternity plus bring in new pilots from the electric scene.

F400s being identified. Barry Murphy holding Beau's F5D

The results are now on-line, including lap times for the FA1 rounds. You can find the results via the “Results” menu button at the top of the page or follow this link.

Barry Townsend with his GoPro Camera

During this weekend, Barry Townsend took some video with his helmet mounted GoPro camera. It gives you a great view of the scene from the pilot area during a pylon race. It starts off with some Q500, then F400 & FA1 plus there is some vision of the F5Ds. It’s really well worth a look (especially at full scene as the video clip is HD).

Note the course restrictions and details of the VMPRA meeting.

There has been some minor changes to the calendar so make sure your diaries are all up to date so you don’t miss any of the action.

See you at Camperdown.

John, a member at LDMFA for many year, started pylon racing back in 1969, and was an active participant until recent years.

He was present at the formation of The Australian Miniature Pylon Racing Association (AMPRA) and was elected to the position of President. A position that he held for some 23 years. He was chairman of the MAAA pylon technical sub committee, was involved at the state level through (VMPRA) and had also been a contributor to the Australian Airborne Model Magazine for 15 years – writing a regular pylon articles.

Our thoughts go out to his family at this most difficult time.

Course Restrictions

As per usual with the Camperdown field being in the middle of a horse race course, there are some restrictions we need to be award of.

On Saturday the “Trackwatch” Turf club Rep. will allow access to the flying site in between horse movements until 10.00am from when we are OK to start flying.  We can set up inside the course prior to 10.00am but there is not to be any flying.

From 10.00am onwards it is obviously open entry. Also, if anybody turns up on Friday, they must NOT enter the field before 11.00am. Anytime after that will be ok.

There is no horse activity on Sunday.

VMPRA Meeting

There will be a VMPRA meeting at the Commercial Hotel, 115 Manifolf Street, Camperdown.  A room has been reserved.  Dinner from 1900.  Meeting starts at 2015.

Note: The event schedule will be followed for this weekend. Also there has been some minor changes made to the event calender.

Our thanks go out to Mick Kellett for coordinating with all the clubs and for putting all of this together.

Have a Merry Christmas and Safe Holidays and we look forward to another year full of pylon racing.

2012 Calendar >>>

Quickies on the line before going on time

This was our last event for the year. We had 8 x Q500 & 4 x Sports entries including an EF-1 flown Alan Swift and Andrew Davies bought down a new EF-1 for a test flight during the day.

Alan Swift & Andrew Davies with their EF1 models

Also in the sport class was the battle of the Boomerangs between Matt Young in his 2nd event & David Axon.

David Axon doing some last minute tuning

It was windy as usual, the rain stayed away & it was a good day of flying with Some good close battles.

Toni Axon carrying out the starter's duties

Results >>>

Thanks to Joe Finocchiaro for the photo taken on the day.