Bacchus Marsh, March 2014 – Event Report

Not sure how many people we would get to this event, the good weather and an location that is close to Melbourne, brought out a good number of people. We ended up with 12 Q500, 4 sports and 2 EF-1 pilots. There was a couple of Scanner pilots there but it is a little surprising that with the popularity of this model and the scanner racing program, that there wouldn’t be more interest in going racing more often and trying out flying the international recognized FAI pylon course. Theoretically, I believe the Scanner actually conforms to the Q500 rules, so could be flown as a Q500. A good way to start.

We ran 4 rounds of each class before lunch and another 3 rounds after lunch. There was no helpers for the event so, we took it in turns with Pylon#1 and being starter. I think all who attended had a good time.

Check out the event photo gallery>>>

Results:

Q500

Daniel was blitzing the field again with some fast time.  Unforntuneately, a model that Barry Townsend and Tony Curzon were sharing was written off in the first race.

Places:
1st – Daniel Arapakis
2nd – Tom Wetherill
3rd – James Hurley

Fastest Time: 90.37 – Daniel Arapakis
No. of competitors: 12
Course – 10.5 Lap

Sports

There was a bit of a mix of planes in this class, but all where able to work on improving their times. Tony Curzon’s Nemesis was flying very nicely and looked the part going around the course.

Places:
1st – Tony Curzon
2nd – Brian Steele
3rd – Matt Young

Fastest Time: 117.11 – Tony Curzon
No. of competitors: 4
Course – 10.5 Lap

EF-1

Unfortunately Walter Muller’s plane was damages during a take-off incident, so Alan Swift flew 4 round on his own.

Check out the full results>>>

2013-2014 Season Championship

With only 2 races left for the championship, the battle at the top has seen Daniel Arapakis catch up to John Schmidli (myself) on equal points with only accumulated times leaving me at the top (for now)!

Full Championship Results>>>

Next Event

The next full FA1, F400 & Q500 2 day event is at Bazza’s paddock down at Munro on March 22-23, 2014. Sure to be a good turn out as this is a great venue for pylon racing. As this is a private flying field, if you are interested in attending this event and don’t know the location, can contact the committee for the address.

John Schmidli

The written content in this post is accurate to the best of my knowledge at the time of publishing. It is written from my perspective and reflects how I have experienced this event.
Photos published as feature images are selected purely for their quality, general interest or topicality. They are chosen from a pool of photos taken by myself and others when time permits.
If a perspective is not being represented, I am more than happy to publish any written content or photos that are supplied to me provided it is fair and reasonable.

Quick Reference

Event Result
Photo Gallery
Season Championship
Event Calender

Event Report – Bacchus Marsh 2013

Bacchus Marsh – Q500, EF1 & Sports Pylon Race.

March 10, 2013

On yet another very warm day, we headed off to the Bacchus Marsh model aircraft club to race the introductory classes of Q500, EF-1 & Sports. The intention of this event is to give people a chance to try pylon racing for a first time or to encourage those new to pylon racing to improve their skills.

James Hurley and I where first to arrive at the club and were given a friendly welcome by  a group of local club members already there with BBQs setup and chewing the fat.

Due to an over-site when the event calendar was put together, this event was scheduled for the Sunday of the Labour Day long weekend (in Victoria). As a result there were pretty low numbers and no new comers to give pylon a go. There was still a group of 8 flyers there plus David & Toni Axon along with some Bacchus Marsh members, there to help run the event.  We decided to go ahead and get 5 rounds complete, have lunch, presentations and pack up early to escape the hottest part of the day. Funnily enough, I was last to leave and it had started raining as I drove out of the club. Who expected that!

Out of the 8 flyers, 5 of us flew Q500 models and this would contributed to the season championship. The other 3 were a variety of models. Alan Swift with a (legal) EF-1 model, Terry O’Connor had an electric converted Quarter Midget model (very similar dimensions to the EF-1) and Tom Wetherill flew a composite/pylon style IC model.

I think we all had a good time. I certainly know I did and any chance to fly around the course is another chance to improve your flying.

Results: Q500

1st Place – John Schmidli
2nd Place – James Hurley only 0.6 sec behind the lead.
3rd Place – Gary Davidson. Only 4.0 sec of the pace.

Check out the full results >>>

Note that the course was not measured out so times are not indicative of our usual results.

 Next Event:

Bazza’s paddock at Munro on March 23-24.
All 3 classes (FA1, F400 & Q500)

The championship table has been updated and there is also a photo gallery from this event.

I didn’t manage to get many photo on the day due to there being only 3 heats per round. Anybody interested in contributing to this website, It would be great if you would like to:
1. Take photos of the event,
2. Write an event report.

Any help would be appreciated. Let me know if you would like to help out in any way.

John Schmidli

 

March Update

We have a couple of events lined up for March. First off is on March 10 at Bacchus Marsh club for a Q500 & EF1 racing day. So it’ll be a good chance to brush off the Q500 models and come along for a day of close racing. Even bring along a friend and introduce them to the excitement of pylon racing.

On March 23-24, we are off to Bazza’s paddock for a weekend of Q500, F400 & FA1 racing. We’ll be following the usual format of Q500 & F400 in the morning or there abouts and FA1 in the afternoons. It seem ages since Camperdown, so it’ll be good to catch up and enjoy some racing again.

The LDMFA ran the 50 lap endurance race during February and there is a report on the LDMFA site if you are interested finding out more.

Lastly, there has been a video posted on the web of the “Basin Q40 Classic” race in the USA that is really well produced and worth a watch.

 

Bacchus Marsh Results, Nov 20, 2011

Quickies on the line before going on time

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.