Category Archives: News

April Update

Posted on by

Next Event

Less than a week now until we are racing down at Warrnambool. They’ll be a bit of preparation going on this week. Hope to see lots down there on the weekend.

Swan Hill Event is On

Andrew Davies has confirmed that the event at Swan Hill on September 14-15 is going ahead and the calender has been updated to reflect this.

It’s been quite a few years since we have raced there at Swan Hill so it would be good to promote this event and get as many competitor along as possible. In the last couple of years the club has experienced a real resurgence. The club has had a bit of a resurgence in the last couple of years and they are very keen to have us. There is a group of Swan Hill members that will probably camp at the site and they can also provide up to 8 helpers. They have free on-site camping, a hot shower and toilets and there is likely to be big brekky and lunch at very reasonable prices.

The strip is 50 metres from the pits and the runway is gypsum (no dust) and the club can mow a take-off square and roll it if necessary.

So lets try and make this a successful weekend. It would be great to see the guys from SA and the other eastern states there.

John Schmidli

March Update

Posted on by

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.

 

January 2013 Update

Posted on by

Happy New year and all the best for the 2013 pylon racing year. By now, most of us will have returned back to our usual work activities and thoughts are returning to pylon racing (if ever out of our minds!).

This year is another exciting time for the VMPRA with the AMPRA Champs being held in Victoria (Munro) on June 8, 9 & 10 plus the World F3D Championships being held in the Netherlands at the air force base Deelen from 23rd – 28th July 2013. The Australian team includes VMPRA members, Beau & Barry Murphy plus Matt Young who has a chance of attending as a junior if funds can be raised (Matt’s fund raising Facebook page). There are also a number of members travelling to Europe for this event to help and spectate.

Camperdown

Again for this year, Camperdown is the location for our 1st competition for 2013. This is a great location for racing and it’s always a pleasure to visit this town.

As usual, there are some access restrictions at times, which is important to note so as to ensure a good relationship with the turf club and continued use of this great venue into the future.

NOTE – On Saturday the “Trackwatch” turf club rep. will allow access to the flying site in-between horse movements until 10.00am when we are then actually ok to fly. We can set up inside prior to 10:00am but there is not to be any flying before then.
From 10.00 onwards it is obviously open entry. If anybody turns up on Friday, they MUST NOT ENTER the field before 11.00am. Anytime after that is fine.

On Sunday there is no horse activity.

Camping on site is ok if we keep a low profile – especially early Saturday morning.

LDMFA 50 Lap Endurance Race.

The LDMFA club is hosting a 50-lap race on Feb 17, 2013. This event is being supported by the VMPRA with members and equipment provided for running the day. The event is open to LDMFA & VMPRA members as well as members of other VMAA affiliated clubs.
There will be Quickie 500 and Sports classes. Sports will cover pretty much anything, but usually consists of 46 size trainers and other sports aircraft. Two compulsory landings are required during the 50 laps of the race.

This is a great opportunity to try pylon racing for the first time, get more experience flying around a pylon course or just have a fun day of racing.

Calendar Update

There has been a number of additional events added to the calendar so please add them to your diaries so you don’t miss out on any of the 2013 events. All of the events are confirmed except for Swan Hill which is still being discussed.

Thanks to Andrew Davies for putting in the hard work of contacting the clubs and organizing the events for us to go racing this year. Without this work, there would be no events.