On July 5, 2015, the VMPRA held a Q500 and Sports pylon race at Werribee. Despite some pretty ordinary weather leading up to this day, the Sunday turned out to be a clear, mostly sunny day. Some stronger winds picked up in the middle of the day but dropping off again towards the end.
The Werribee Model Aircraft Association members were very welcoming and did a great job of manning pylon #1 and the catering.
There was quite a good group of competitors assembled especially considering some regular Q500 pilots being over in the Czech Republic for the F3D world championships.
There were 9 Q500 pilots and 4 sports pilots. The sports planes were a mix of a Trainer, Stik, EF-1 Pogo and a sports Q500 model.
This was the last event for the 2014-2015 season championship for Q500.
The final standing are:
1st – John Schmidli 2nd – James Hurley
3rd – Jim Orenshaw
John Schmidli won this championship for the 3rd year running with team mate James Hurley slipping into 2nd place and with Jim Orenshaw being in the Czech Republic, he managed to hang onto 3rd Place. Congratulations to all the place gets.
Trophies will be presented at the AGM to be held on August 1, 2015 at the Marong (Bendigo) event. This event will be the 1st of the new season so it’s a big reset and the championship is open for all to participate in.
F3D World Championship – Czech Republic – July 7-11, 2015
There has been a huge build up and preparation for all the competitors for this year’s world championship for the F3D pylon racing class. A good size contingent of pilots, callers and support crews and family members where there for the Australian and New Zealand teams.
It was fascinating watching the live web cams, as we could see a little of what was going on and tanks to all who sent photos, reports and snippets of information back for us to enjoy.
Congratulations to all who participated. Although conditions looked to be tough, well done to the Australian team for their 2nd place.
Team NEW ZEALAND – TBC (unkown at time of publishing)
Individual Places
Chris Callow – 5th Place
Leigh Hocken – 8th Place
Tyler Mees – 12th Place
Bea Murphy – 14th Place
Daniel Arapakis – 3rd Place (Junior Competition) & 22nd – Senior Place
Tom Wetherill – 32nd
Next Event
Our next race event is at the Marong field near Bendigo on August 1-2, 2015. This will be the 1st event for the new 2015/2016 championship season and there will also be our AGM on the Saturday night which is usually held at the caravan park. More details will be posted closer to then.
Event Report – John Schmidli
Photos – John Schmidli
The written content in this post is accurate to the best of my/our 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.
Wow, what a great event. On the Queen’s birthday long weekend, VMPRA hosted the 2015 AMPRA Championships and F5D Australian team trials. This event was held in Munro at Barry Murphy’s superb purpose build pylon racing field.
Arriving at the field a few days early, it was obvious that a lot of hard work had gone into getting the field prepared including flags, banners and even a winner’s podium that was fitting of any high class event. Ian Rickard took his annual leave holidays to prepare the grounds for pilots, campers and spectators. Preparations of the field were spectacular!
Thursday night saw competitors starting to arrive with most participants from the four different states arriving during the Friday. After some fairly dubious weather earlier in the week, the weather Gods turned up on Friday and really turned it on for perfect conditions over the weekend in Gippsland one of Victoria’s famous regions for veggie growers and cattle. Friday consisted of setting up of aircraft and campsites and plenty of test flying. Most pilots camped for the long weekend enjoying a real country felt environment. After some pre sunset electric flying, we were treated to a fantastic dinner put together by Toni Axon and also contributions by Lydia Arapakis and her legendary meatballs and fed the 30 campers and visitors. Dessert consisted of plenty of cold beers and mash mellows around the camp fire.
The AMPRA Championships are a once a year national event that is held in different states where pylon racers from typically VIC, QLD, SA and NSW come together to compete. This year it was decided that this would be the F5D World Championships team selection. F5D is a pylon racing class that uses electric powered motor flying a very similar speeds to F3D. As it was a selection event, this class would take priority to ensure 8 rounds are flown.
After some early test flying and setting up the course and timing system, first up was 2 rounds of F5D. Early pace and consistency was set by Alex Davie, Barry Murphy and Bruce DeChastel.
Next up was F400 of which 3 rounds where run. With 14 entrants, it took a while to get through each round. Shaun Jacobsen set the bench mark with a (62.45) in the first round and consistency flew with great times all weekend and also recorded the fastest times on both days. With prefect conditions for flying with a 5km/h westerly and 18 degrees, saw more rounds of F5D and lunch to follow.
Lunch consisted of hamburgers and pasta carbonara also organized again by Toni Axon. Straight after lunch, there was another couple of rounds of F5D with all pilots on the money. Beau Murphy pulled out a ripper and flew the fastest time (57.53) of the event.
Next up was Q500. Lots of cuts for the 1st round but Caleb Chipendale putting in a nice fast clean time. with his PB of (98.08) and the fastest time of the round– truly a great effort as this was only his second pylon race event! The 2nd Round Jim Orenshaw recorded the fastest time for the weekend of 90.81 and he put in a nice fast time for the 3rd round. The sun was now setting so racing was stopped for the day. Surprise entrant Austin Omann (Curley) in his very first event was flying very tight circuits and positioned really well for the start of the weekend.
At 5:30, the AMPRA AGM and general meeting was held under the cover of a huge marquee, supplied along with tables and chairs by Marcus Guss which was a perfect set up for the weekend festivities. Once the official items for the night were completed, Andrew Arapakis put on one of his now legendary Greek style spit roast chicken and Lamb, Greek salad and butter and garlic potatoes. Dessert was one of Gary Davidson’s favorites being “World Famous Sticky Date Pudding” and cream which was impeccably made by Nerida Matthews. It was a terrific evening with all participants staying out at the field for the meeting followed by great food, great camaraderie spirit and certainly one for the history books.
Sunday Morning, dawned with beautiful clear conditions yet again. Racing started a little earlier as there was no resetting of the course required. First up again was round 7 of the F5D selection races. This time Daniel Arapakis was also racing giving him an opportunity to be selected as a junior representative. In this round, Beau really hit his stride, with another sub 60. Unfortunately for Allan Swift, he managed to hit the #3 pylon during this race which ended his racing for the day prematurely. The ever reliable Barry Murphy yet again on his game with our friends from QLD Tony and Bruce flying great with only a few seconds apart between them.
Next up was the final round (round 8). Beau again recorded a fast time of 57.56, only 3/100s off the fastest time he recorded the day before and pipped Baz finishing in top spot and only 5 seconds separating the next three places. Dannmann also flew his PB ripper in round 8 with a (60.15).
Next we went straight into FA1 racing with a view completing all 8 rounds that day.
To start off, the 1st round saw half the field record DNS’s including Daniel Arapakis who uncharacteristically recorded 2 DNS’s for rounds 1 &2. After 4 rounds had been completed, lunch was called. The ever reliable Glenn Matthew started the event really well and great to see Frenchy having a go!
Before lunch was ready, we had a trophy presentation for the F5D event as the QLD competitors needed to leave that afternoon to catch flights back. Well done guys and big efforts recognized by all…..
The places where:
1st place: Beau Murphy, Caller – Barry Murphy
2nd place: Barry Murphy, Caller – Beau Murphy
3rd place: Tony Singleton, Caller – Bruce de Chastel
Place getters received a very nice glass trophy and both pilots and callers received AMPRA mugs with the appropriate and place and position. The podium really made a great feeing of an official presentation and memorable pictures for the album.
After lunch FA1 was up again. Round 6 saw Beau Murphy, record a fastest time for this class for the weekend of 58.82sec. This rounds also saw an unfortunate post race collision betweenGary Davidsonand Brian Steele. Andrew Davies struck some bad luck as well destroying a new piston and withdrawing from the event. Tom Jacobsen flew his best time of the event with a (62.33) but found the ground in the last round tearing a cannon in Bazza’s bowling green. So the last race of the day saw Beau and Dannmann. Both pilots flew their WC models neck and neck which was truly a spectacle to watch as neither pilot gave an inch. Both Dad’s obviously nervous but very proud to watch their sons on top of their game and Beau’s unquestionable character mentoring Dan with final World F3D Championships preparations. Both pilots pushing hard resulted in cuts and show time thankfully was over, never the less both pilots and callers had a ripper time and high fives all round with both planes safe on the ground.
Daniel Arapakis and Austin Omann
Next up was Q500 and racing continued till dark. James Hurley and John Schmidli recording a string of sub 100’s placing them in top positions. It was also becoming evident that a young first time racer, Daniel Arapakis’s best mate and protégé, Austin Omann has been practicing behind the scenes at Munro going really fast even though he had recorded a cut in most rounds. Dark horse Jimmy cut himself out of the event after the first 6 rounds scores were posted. Consistency of Ian Rickard also positioned well after 6 rounds and flying really well. Great to see all pilots having a go and Matt Young also back flying.
After another great night and now into the left over’s saw plenty of laughs and beer around the camp fire and a reasonably quiet night, the morning kicked off starting with F400 (round 4). It was in the 1st heat that John Schmidli and Jim Oreshaw had a mid-air (link to Youtube clip) putting them both out of the competition for the rest of the day. The rest of the F400 races went without incident and there was some very good and fast flying. Shaun recorded the fastest time for the class in the 7th round and ended up securing 1st place. Great to watch the Jabobsen crew from the side line as all three guys had a great weekend flying!
As the F400 race drew to a close, the wind had really picked up which had been expected. Q500 had only 2 rounds to be completed but Glenn Matthews, the contest director, declared it too windy so Q500 was to only be the 6 round already flown.
Great call as the weekend ending with a BBQ lunch. The field equipment was then packed up and then trophies presented at the contest podium (see results below) which drew what can only be classed as an absolutely awesome weekend’s flying to an close.
In closure, the weekend was one for the history books with contributions by all pilots, spectators, visitors and helpers being truly outstanding. Special mention to the Munro ground crew and the interstate visitors who made great efforts to travel significant distances to participate in this year’s event!
Back in January this year, the VMPRA was involve at Sandown Race Way as part of the Sandown F1 R/C Air Race. As part of this, we had a Great Planes Viper Q500 racer kindly donated by Dawn Trading (http://www.dawntrading.com.au) along with a Thunder Tiger engine (TT 46 PRO), also kindly donated by R/C Headquarters – Werribee (http://www.rcheadquarters.com.au/). This aircraft was used by the VMPRA for flying demonstrations at that event.
The VMPRA committee decided that this donated aircraft should be awarded to someone that would benefit from the use of such a model in the pursuit of getting started in pylon racing.
It was with great pleasure that the VMPRA awarded the prize of the Great Planes Viper and Thunder Tiger TT466PRO to first time Q500 competitor, Austin Omann. Austin has been going flying and practicing pylon racing under the encouragement and guidance of Daniel and Andrew Arapakis and was flying using their aircraft. By awarding this aircraft to Austin, we feel that it will assist him in his Pylon Racing ambitions. Congratulation Austin and we look forward to seeing you at future events.
Season Championship
For 2 out of the 3 classes, the championship has finished for the 2014/2015 season.
FA1
Final Positions:
1st – Daniel Arapakis
2nd – Glenn Matthews
3rd – Barry Murphy
A big congratulations must go out to Daniel for clenching this championship at the age of 14 and only 3 years after coming long to his first pylon race armed with a Boomerang Trainer. This not only has happened as a result of a huge effort and commitment from Daniel but also by his caller and dad, Andrew and coaches and mentors, Barry and Beau Murphy.
Congratulations also goes out to Glenn Matthews for coming in 2nd place and also last year’s champion, Barry Murphy sneaking into 3rd place in the last event for the season.
F400
Final Positions:
1st – Andrew Davies
2nd – Glenn Matthews
3rd – Brian Steele
A big congratulations goes out to Andrew Davies for gaining the winning position at the last event for the season displacing last year’s winner, Glenn Matthews who has come in 2nd place and then Brian Steele has come in 3rd place.
Q500
This class has still got one more event to go before places will be confirmed. Current placings are:
1st – John Schmidli
2nd – Jim Orenshaw
3rd – James Hurley
In actual fact, the winner can’t change as John Schmidli is 25 points ahead with a maximum of only 10 points available to the winner of the next race.
Between 6-11 July, 2015, there is the FAI F3D world championship being held in the Czech Republic. We wish all the Australian team and defending world champ, Chris Callow, all the best. In particular, our fellow VMPRA members, Beau Murphy and Caller Barry Murphy, Leigh Hocken and caller Vern Gibson and Junior representative, Daniel Arapakis and caller Andrew Arapakis. We wish you all the best.
Also we wish our Team New Zealand represents, Tom Wetherill and his caller Jim Orenshaw, all the best too.
To all supporters and family travelling over for the event, have a great trip and a good time at the world champs.
Next Event
As mentioned in the Season Championship section, we have a Q500 and Sports pylon race on at the Werribee Club Field on July 5, 2015. Hope to see many there and anybody keen to try pylon racing, you are welcome to come along with a sport or trainer plane.
After that, there is a full 3 class pylon race at the Marong field near Bendigo on August 1-2, 2015. This will be the 1st event for the new 2015/2016 championship season and there will also be our AGM on the Saturday night which is usually held at the caravan park. More details will be posted closer to then.
Event Report – John Schmidli and Andrew Arapakis
Photos – John Schmidli and Andrew Arapakis
The written content in this post is accurate to the best of my/our 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.
Flying at Cohuna located near the Vic boarder close to Echuca and our famous Murray River yet again proved a fantastic event. All who participated had a ripper weekend enjoying great camaraderie, great hospitality by the host club, great racing and perfect weather.
Friday saw several modelers preparing and fine-tuning in perfect conditions and we all found it very hard to believe the weather forecast for the weekend was 20 & 21 degrees with light winds. Well the weather Gods rolled up and proved that Willy Weather was spot on the money!
Almost zero degrees at sunrise saw a few dusty pilots and callers after several beers and Shiraz at the local pub. Racing commenced around 10:00am with 4 rounds of F400 and John Schmidli’s maiden flight racing his new El Bandito in his infamous striking green artwork. Probably the most significant point noting here is that this new model was actually drawn up by John and I’m sure a very proud moment upon take off and also only a few seconds off the fastest times of the weekend.
Racing was tight and the usual dynamic duo of Brian Steele and Andrew Davies also commonly recognized as Laurel and Hardy, flying hard all morning producing great times. As usual the ever reliable Glenn and Gary flew great with Glenn posting the quickest time of the day with 68.86 seconds. Again John’s third flight was on the money and only a few seconds behind. Great to see George Angelov returning back to racing who will be picking up the pace over the coming events. Jimmy donated engine parts to Steeley who reportedly put a liner back in with a hammer and test flying till dark– on ya Brian!
Q500 was next with a variety of pilot experience. Again numbers were down as the regulars struggled to attend due to work commitments. Jimmy was in fine form posting the quickest time of the day of 97.60 seconds closely followed by John. Andrew posted his PB of 104.49 seconds and showed a few signs of some improvement after a grilling from Dannmann “pull it in Dad pull it in– where the hell are you going”.
Great to see Alan Swift at the event giving F5D a go, a few minor technical improvements will see Alan in the mix at AMPRA.
The club hosted a great BBQ lunch as always and a few pilots took the opportunity throughout the afternoon basking in the sun on the take off mats whilst waiting for take offs’ and landing by real size aircraft at the nearby aerodrome. Great to see James Hurley and his wonderful family visiting for a few hours as spectators enjoyed the great weather and flying!
F3D followed the lunch break with T-shirt’s on and light winds. With 6 pilots in the mix, the Minute Masters powered by the ever reliable Murphy combo of prop’s, set-up and tuning saw Daniel recording his PB and fastest time of the day of 58.96 seconds and Baz in second place. Dan has packed his favourite 3 models away for the WC but raced his number 4. Looks like the Murphy fuz and the Big Bruce wing are a great match! Lots of fun and friendly rivalry also reported on the line with Andrew D, Steeley and Baz all in fine form!
The day ended with a few cold beers followed by a great meal in the local pub.
Day 2, the sunrise was spectacular on the field and a great pic posted by John as the fresh scent of Kransky’s, rashes of bacon, eggs and toast drifted through a few lucky pit areas.
F400 kicked off the racing day in perfect weather conditions with Andrew Davies in the lead posting very consistent sub 70’s times. Glenn yet again flew the best time of the day of 66.85 seconds also recording the fastest time of the weekend. Unfortunately Gary lost his new model GR7 due to technical issues.
The F400 event ended with great racing all weekend as final results for the top 3 were only 2.5 seconds apart after 8 rounds. Subsequently Glenn holds a strong position in 1st place for the season championships with only one event remaining in the VMPRA calendar.
Q500 was up next with Jimmy and John posting great times in round 5. Round 6 saw Jimmy posting 95.51 seconds being the fastest time of the weekend then moving into a win. John cruised into second place with Andrew posting his PB in round 8 and holding onto a solid 3rd place.
After lunch saw F3D flying in great sunny conditions. Cohuna members and modelers alike clearly were enjoying the afternoon racing and all judges doing a fine job the whole weekend.
Unfortunately in round 5 and first heat of the afternoon both Glenn and Brian had a thumping mid air after flying around #1 destroying both models leaving only 4 pilots for the last 3 rounds. Baz propped up and pulled it in around one and recorded great times firming up second place for the weekend as Andrew stepped up the pace in his Dannmann Veyron. Daniel posted the best time of the day with 59.89 seconds on his last flight of the day and resulting in his first win in F3D.
The day concluded with presentation time and lots of fun had by all. Baz also had great words at the wrap up, with great wishes and fine words of encouragement for Dannmann as the journey, practice and preparations are all now paying off. Well done Baz as your 1st Class commitment to F3D and your contributions have produced 1st Class results! Dannmann responded with a heart felt smile thanking Uncle Baz for all his hard work done in the background to produce success. The VMPRA season champs are almost over for the year and now Daniel extends his F3D lead by 4 points with one more race to go at his favourite field!
Well done to all pilots, callers, members, helpers and to the famous Cohuna club who made the effort to attend, as the weekend was definitely one to remember!
Event Report Writer – Anonymous
ED – Thanks to Anonymous for a great event report. I’m always looking for additional help with reports, photos other items for addition to the website
FA1 So we are down to only 1 event left for FA1 for the 2014-2015 seasons championship which is to be a big event all round at Munro. No change in the order with the top 3 positions but Daniel has firmed up his position at the top with the only threat to him being Glenn only 4 points behind.
1 – Daniel Arapakis
2 – Glenn Matthews
3 – Andrew Davies
F400 – Results Again, no change at the top 3 positions but all of them have a mathematical chance of wining the F400 season championship with only the Munro AMPRA event to go.
1 – Glenn Matthews 2 – Andrew Davies
3 – Brian Steele
For Q500, there are still 2 more events to go being AMPRA at Munro and then a 1 day event at Werribee in July. John Schmidli is now 17 points ahead but both Tom Wetherill and Jim Orenshaw are still in the hunt. James Hurley has now dropped from 3rd to 4th position after missed a couple of events.
1 – John Schmidli 2 – Tom Wetherill
3 – Jim Orenshaw
It’s not long to go and it’s a big one with the next event being the AMPRA Champs and also an F5D World Championship selection event. It will also be the last time we’ll see some if not all of the F3D World Championship team before they head off to the Czech Republic for the F3D World Champs. So this will be the event to be at with what should be a good gathering of local and interstate flyers at the best field on our calendar. Andrew Arapakis will also be putting on one of his renowned feeds on the Saturday night at the field but numbers will be limited. An email will be going around to get numbers for this so stay tuned.
Event Report – Anonymous.
Additional content – John Schmidli
Photos – John Schmidli
The written content in this post is accurate to the best of my/our 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.
The annual VMPRA race was held at the Warrnambool Club’s field on the weekend of 28 – 29 March 2015. The event has been on the VMPRA calendar for well over a decade and the club has been very supportive of pylon racing.
Warrnambool is located on the Southern Ocean, and historically this has meant cool and windy conditions…and fast times. This year a storm front passed through the area on the Thursday prior to the event giving the area and the flying field a good watering. The weather then improved throughout the weekend.
Pilots that arrived on Friday were treated to sandwiches and tea/coffee and sweets – the hospitality was provided by Toni Axon. It was a very civilised way to start the weekend and there was plenty of time for practice flights. Late in the afternoon, Tom Jacobsen and the dedicated group from South Australia arrived. These guys are truly passionate about their pylon racing and they helped bolster the numbers as a number of the VMPRA regulars had family and business commitments.
Saturday dawned overcast and cold, with occasional rain showers. The course was set up and racing got underway by mid-morning. The schedule was to follow the usual VMPRA plan – VIC F400, Q500 Sport and FA1, with the target of completing eight rounds for each class. As usual VMPRA procedure, racing was over 10 ½ laps.
VIC F400 was first up and this class attracted eight entries. Four rounds were flown on Saturday and Shaun Jacobsen set the early pace, ending up with a best time of 64.88 for his DKT powered AR-6. Shaun was chased all the way, wing tip-to-wing-tip, by an inspired Jim Orenshaw. Jim had found a new prop that gave more speed and he finished the day with his best time of 65.51.
Four rounds of Q500 Sport was the next class to see action and this class attracted seven entries. John Schmidli set the early pace in the first round, however, he was not able to maintain consistency. John’s regular team-mate, James Hurley, had other commitments this weekend and Gary Davidson stepped in to help out. James York was debuting an impressive new Banshee and John Yanni also had a new model. David Axon had recruited Barry Murphy (apparently bribed by offers of sandwiches and tea) as a mentor and caller for the weekend – in the absence of Brian Steele. George Angelov was back in action as well with help from Gary. However, their efforts were in vain, as Tom Wetherill bagged some good scores in the 94 second range to finish ahead at the end of the day.
FA1 was the next class to be run and this class also attracted seven entries. Leigh Hocken, a member of the host club, member of the Australian F3D 2015 Team and local hero, set the pace on the first day with a string of 59 second times. His best time coming in Round 5 with a brand new model. At the end of the day, Tom Wetherill was second with best times in the 61 second range and Daniel Arapakis was third with a best time in the 62 second range.
On Sunday, the weather continues to clear and beanies were replaced with sun screen. The first event was to complete the final four rounds of VIC F400. Shaun Jacobsen continued to show the way and finished first overall with a score of 394.4. Another win for SA! Glenn Matthews finished second with a score of 421.2. He was followed 0.5 seconds behind by Jim Orenshaw. Cuts incurred during chasing Shaun caused him to drop back in the results. Times on Sunday were slower than the previous day.
The remaining four rounds of Q500 Sport were flown next. There was plenty of very close racing as well as some bumping and sharing paint in flight – fortunately no loss of models occurred. Although the times were also slightly slower than the prior day, Tom Wetherill finished in first place with a score of 578.9. John Schmidli was second with a score of 610.0 and James York, who had started to dial in his new model, finished third with a score of 668.8.
The last event for the weekend was to complete the final three rounds of FA1. Leigh ran a new model in preparation for the 2015 World Championships and blitzed the field with a best time of 57.44 for 10 ½ laps. He ended the weekend in first place with a score of 354.9. Daniel Arapakis stepped up the pace and posted a personal best of 59.2. He finished second with a score of 369.9. Tom Wetherill was third with a score of 377.6.
Attrition during the weekend was low overall. However, Gary Davidson bore the brunt of any misfortune. He had an impressive engine blow-up, creating a new ventilation system for his MB, as well as losing an F400 model.
In summary, a great weekend of racing and special thanks go out from VMPRA to the host Warrnambool club for use of their facilities, their hospitality and for their members who worked the course and served in the canteen. Thanks also to Glenn and Nerida Matthews for running the timing system, to Toni and David Axon for working as starters, and the VMPRA members who worked the course during the weekend when they were not racing.
Event Report – Tom Wetherill.
Additional content – John Schmidli
Photos – John Schmidli and Tom Wetherill
The written content in this post is accurate to the best of my/our 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.
L-R: Tom Wetherill, Daniel Arapakis, Barry Murphy & Jim Orenshaw
The John Hughan Trophy event was held at Barry Murphy’s field in Munro, VIC on the weekend of 28 February – 1 March 2015. John was one of the founding members of VMPRA who had a great passion for pylon racing.
The dedicated pylon racing field was in excellent condition as usual. Many competitors arrived on Friday to set up camp and to get some practice. A number of friends of the competitors attended as well and helped out as course workers. This support was greatly appreciated as regulars David and Toni Axon were attending the Avalon Airshow and Nerida Matthews was recovering from the flu.
The program for the weekend was to run eight rounds of F400 VIC, Q500 Sport and Formula Australia One (FA1), with 4 rounds being flown each day. The FA1 rules allow use of both muffled and un-muffled pipes. As per usual VMPRA practice, racing was over 10 ½ laps of the FAI course.
Saturday dawned warm and clear and the temperature and humidity were expected to be high. After some test flying, the course was set up and racing got underway by mid-morning.
F400 VIC was the first event to be run and this class attracted a modest five entries. There was close racing, but times were not very fast due to the calm and muggy weather conditions. At the end of Saturday, Brian Steele was in first place and had posted the fastest time of 69.61 seconds. Brian held a nine second lead over Glenn Matthews, who was followed closely by Andrew Davies.
Q500 Sport was the next class to be run and this event attracted an impressive 10 entries. The entry list included two father-son teams – David and Caleb Chippindall and Gary and Alan Whitbourn. John Schmidli set the early pace with a time of 96.35, but at the end of four rounds he was in second place – 0.6 seconds behind Tom Wetherill. A bit further back, Andrew Arapakis posted a personal best time of 107.86. The Chippendall and Whitbourn families had their hands full running all their planes, but were enjoying the challenge.
In the afternoon FA1 was run and this class attracted nine entries. Some of the regulars were away due to family commitments and saving gear for the World Championships. The conditions were not conducive for fast times as the weather was hot, humid and there was no wind. After four rounds, Barry Murphy was in the lead – approximately four seconds clear of Glenn Matthews. Daniel Arapakis was 0.5 seconds behind in third and had posted the fastest time of 64.82.
The calm weather was interrupted during the night as a major storm front passed through the area – making an interesting time for the camping contingent. The following morning was cool and the gusty winds required that the course be reset before racing could begin.
The racing program was a repeat of the prior day, with F400 up first. Brian Steele continued his form and finished first with a score of 425.1. Glenn Matthews was second with a score of 436.2, closely followed by Andrew Davies with a score of 436.8.
In Q500, Tom Wetherill continued to post consistent times and finished first with a score of 587.7. The Q500’s were getting blown about in the wind and John Schmidli’s effort was compromised by two heats with cuts. He finished second with a score of 600.1. Jim Orenshaw was third with a score of 627.2. The family battles were won by David Chippindall and Alan Whitbourn, respectively.
The wind picked up throughout the day and the FA1’s seemed to run much better in these conditions. There was very exciting and close wing-tip to wing-tip racing. In the end host, Barry Murphy finished in first place with a score of 385.3. He was followed very closely by Daniel Arapakis in second place with a score of 385.9 – all the practice at this field for the upcoming World Championships was paying off. Glenn Matthews was a close third with a score of 387.0.
The times improved significantly over the prior day – with Barry Murphy posting the fast time of 60.89. Notable FA1 performances were also put in by Gary Davidson flying an Evo NXT and Andrew Davies flying the ex-Arapakis Veyron. The Veyron proved to be very competitive in its debut with Andrew at the helm, just edging Daniel for a 2nd faster time.
At the end of the day, the course was packed up and a prize-giving ceremony was held. VMPRA expresses its appreciation to Barry Murphy for making the field available and for hosting the competition. The VMPRA committee apologises for not having trophies available in time for handing out at this event.
As we start the 2nd half of the season championship, the following is how the top 3 positions sit.
FA1
Glenn Matthews remains in 1st place but Daniel Arapakis displaced Andrew Davies in 2nd place. Big mover, Barry Murphy jumped from 10th to 6th position with his win of this event.
1 – Glenn Matthews
2 – Daniel Arapakis
3 – Andrew Davies
F400 – Results
Similar movements in the order as for FA1, Andrew Davies remains in 1st position and Brian Steele displaced Glenn Matthews for 2nd place.
1 – Andrew Davies
2 – Brian Steele
3 – Glenn Matthews
Event Report – Tom Wetherill.
Additional content – John Schmidli
Photos – John Schmidli and Andrew Arapakis
The written content in this post is accurate to the best of my/our 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.
The VMPRA 2015 season got underway on the weekend of 7 – 8 February at the Corangamite Model Aircraft Club in Camperdown, VIC. The event is a favourite amongst the VMPRA members and the host club members were out in force to help out with working the course and supplying great food and refreshments over the weekend. The flying field, which is located in the centre of a horse racing course, was in good condition due to recent summer rainfall.
There was a good turnout on Friday as pilots wanted to get some practice after the summer break. However, a hot northerly wind was blowing and the temperature at the field pushed past 40 degrees during the afternoon…so most chose to adjourn early, opting for glider flying at the nearby volcanic crater, rest and cool refreshments.
On Saturday morning, the course was set up during the curfew period while the horse training was underway. The northerly wind continued but the temperature was in the low to mid 30’s – slightly cooler than the previous day. The plan for the weekend was to run eight rounds of each class – F400, Q500 and FA1 – with the two worst scores to be dropped. Racing was over 10 ½ laps per usual VMPRA practice as this reduces the number of workers required to run the event.
Racing got underway late morning and three rounds of F400 were flown. This class attracted eight entries and but this was reduced after a mid-air during round two. Brian Steele took an early lead and had posted the best time of 70.77. Times were not spectacular, due to the heat.
Next up was Q500 and this class attracted six entries and three rounds were also flown. There was some close racing and unfortunately the field in this class was also depleted due to another mid-air. After three rounds Tom Wetherill was in the lead with the best time of 96.80. Andrew Arapakis has been improving under the guidance of son Daniel and he posted a personal best time of 108.83.
The main event – FA1 attracted a good turnout with 10 entries. Five rounds were flown to complete racing for the day. The cut judges were kept very busy during the first two rounds and some pilots were still tuning for the conditions. As a result, there were many 200’s on the board. At the end of the afternoon, Leigh Hocken was in the lead and had the best time of 60.78.
During the evening a storm front came through (this is Victoria!) and on Sunday there was a cool breeze from the south. This required that the course be changed and after this was done the remaining five rounds of F400 were flown. At the completion of eight rounds, Brian Steele was in first place with a score of 414.3 and the best time of 64.79. The cooler conditions helped and he was more than 5 seconds quicker than the previous day. Team mate Andrew Davies was second with a score of 430.7 and Gary Davidson was third with a score of 433.5. Andrew and Gary also improved their times by about 5 seconds from the Saturday.
The remaining five rounds of Q500 were flown next and the close racing continued. In the end, Tom Wetherill was in first place with a score of 580.3 and had the fast time of 94.73. James Hurley was second with a score of 620.1 – just edging out arch rival and team mate John Schmidli, who was third with a score of 623.6.
The last event was the completion of the final rounds of FA1 and Leigh Hocken put in some very impressive and aggressive flying to finish in first place with a score of 367.5. Glenn Matthews was a distant second with a score of 407.7. He was followed closely by Barry Murphy with a score of 412.6. Beau Murphy posted the fastest time of 58.43. Daniel Arapakis was flying very impressively against the veterans, but unfortunately lost a model trying to keep up with Leigh.
A prize giving ceremony was held following completion of racing and VMPRA thanked Foster Taylor and the Corangamite club for hosting the event and for providing great food over the weekend. Special thanks were also given to the club members for helping work the event, as well as to Toni Axon for starting, David Axon for serving as a cut judge (and awarding the most cuts) and to Nerida Matthews for running the computer system and taking care of the administrative side of the event.
As we start the 2nd half of the season championship, the following is how the top 3 positions sit.
FA1
Glenn Matthews bumped Andrew Davies from the top position and Daniel has jumped up from 5th to 3rd position.
1 – Glenn Matthews
2 – Andrew Davies
3 – Daniel Arapakis
F400 – Results
The opposite to FA1, Andrew Davies has bumped Glenn Matthews from the top position down to 2nd place and like Daniel in FA1, Brian Steele has jumped from 5th to 3rd place.
1 – Andrew Davies
2 – Glenn Matthews
3 – Brian Steele
Event Report – Tom Wetherill.
Additional content – John Schmidli
Photos – John Schmidli and Andrew Arapakis
The written content in this post is accurate to the best of my/our 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.
The New Zealand Nationals were held at the Waharoa Airfield near Matamata in early January 2015 and four pylon classes flown on Monday 5 January at the RC1 flying area. There has been a resurgence of interest in pylon racing in New Zealand recently and this event attracted a very good number of entries. There were many “old hands” present as well as many newcomers.
The racing consisted of flying 10 laps of the triangular FAI course – with up to three planes in each heat. Five rounds were flown, with one score being dropped.
In the morning Q500 Sport and Q500 Expert classes were flown. The Sport class attracted an impressive 17 entries and there was plenty of close racing. The most popular model was the Viper and there were also a number of airframes. The most popular engines were OS 46 AX and Thunder Tiger Pro 46. The class was won by Tom Wetherill with a score of 399.7. Paul Clausen was second with a score of 413.6 and Ron Stone was third with a score of 421.7.
The Expert class attracted six entries and featured some exciting racing. The most popular model was the V-Gun, powered by a Nelson long-stroke engine. John Danks had stiff competition from Frazer Briggs and finished first with a score of 293.0. Frazer was second with a score of 300.0 and Paul Clausen was third with a score of 335.2.
In the afternoon, Sportsman and F3D were flown. Sportsman attracted eight entries and a variety of aircraft types. Paul Clausen finished in first place with a score of 375.7. Jarrod Briggs was second with a score of 407.3 and Andrew Palmer was third with a score of 424.5.
The last and fastest class was F3D, which attracted three entries. An engine failure meant that only two models were able to compete. Tom Wetherill flew a new Veyron and finished first with a score of 258.1 and John Danks flew a VooDoo and was second with a score of 265.9.
At the end of the day trophies were handed out to all the placegetters. Special thanks go out to John Danks for CD’ing the event, to Adam Buther and Noeline Craighead for working as starters, Mike Briggs and the and his fellow club members in the Matamata-Piako MAC for all their work preparing the fields and to everyone else who helped with running the event by working as timers and cut judges.
The written content in this post is accurate to the best of my/our 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.
After the Christmas new year break, our minds are now turning back to pylon racing again (as if it wasn’t before!). I hope everybody had a good break and feel recharged for the year ahead.
Sandown F1 R/C Air Race – Jan 11, 2015
This is what we think of Pylon Racing - No.1
There were a group of us from the VMPRA who attended this event to man a static display of various pylon racers, talk to interested people and hand out information about the VMPRA. There were a lot of familiar faces and it was good to see quite a few VMPRA members had also come along to have a look.
Chris & Kevin Callow
Part of the flying displays that a good size crowd gathered in the grandstand to watch, was Chris Callow flying an F3D model (Veyron) who along with his dad, Kevin, had come down from Queensland. Together they put on a stunning display which from my perspective (and a good percentage of the crowd) thought were the highlights of the day.
The weather conditions, although not the rain that had been forecast earlier in the week, was sunny but very windy. To make things difficult, pilots flying the displays had to take-off and land on the Pit-Straight bitumen surface with a strong cross-wind. There were quite a few incidents as a result of the cross-wind.
There was also a demonstration of a Great Planes Viper that was kindly donated by Dawn Trading (http://www.dawntrading.com.au) along with an engine that was also kindly donated by R/C Headquarters – Werribee (http://www.rcheadquarters.com.au/). Unfortunately the Viper was one of those victims of the strong wind conditions and was only flown once by our president, Glenn Matthews.
The event was conceived and put together by Steve Green and a whole team of helpers. It was for the promotion of Remote Control hobbies in general and featured more than it’s fair share of R/C aeromodeling. The ground floor of the grandstand was packed with retailer and special interest group displays. There really was a good crowd. Outside there were flying displays and the main attraction was the large scale F1 air racing. With the strong winds and a mishap with a seagull, the F1 planes were decreasing in numbers throughout the day. When you see how many people where in the stand watching them race, I can only imagine the crowd’s reaction to seeing 4 F3Ds racing in front of them. Now that would be something.
At the VMPRA stand, we talked to a lot of people and quite a few were showing interest. I think being involved in this event was very worthwhile and it was a great opportunity to promote R/C aeromodeling and specifically, Pylon Racing.
The next event is Camperdown on Feb 7-8, 2015 which at time of publishing is less than 3 weeks away. This one isn’t to far from Melbourne and is alway a good first event for the calender year. Looks like people are mainly staying at the Motel or the camping group which is a prime location for some slope soaring after the day’s racing. See you there.
The week after Camperdown, there is a Q500/Sports pylon race at the Lilydale Club, (LDMFA). Although not a VMPRA season championship event, it is a perfect chance to try pylon racing for the first time or improve your skills at flying around the pylon course.
So if you want to have a go, bring along a sport model, trainer or the like and join in the fun. Racing will begin at 10am but allow plenty of time to setup and test fly your aircraft.
Report – John Schmidli
Photos – John Schmidli and Andrew Arapakis
Editing/Proof reading – Caroline Schmidli
The written content in this post is accurate to the best of my/our 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.
With the much anticipated Cohuna pylon event, came an influx of competitors from interstate. Starting with Queenslanders, Chris Callow, Steve Turna, Tyler and Warren Mees arriving in Melbourne and making their way up to Cohuna on the Thursday. Friday saw the majority of other competitors arriving with much F3D testing done during the day. Later on Friday, South Australians, John Yianni, Tom, Shaun and Jarrod Jacobsen Arrived. Regular competitor, Ranjit Phelan from New South Wales also attended.
This event was shaping up to be a very exciting one with this being the final of the Australian F3D World Championship team selection trials where at the end of the weekend, positions on the team would be confirmed. Already confirmed was Daniel Arapakis as junior representative and of course, Chris Callow as defending World Champion.
The weather for the weekend was shaping up to be perfect with fine, warm and light wind conditions.
As the team selection was the most important part of the weekend, F3D was to take priority. Saturday started with 3 rounds of Q500 to be used as a settling in phase for the pylon and lap judges. Refueling out on the line, meant that 3 rounds was completed fairly quickly. Then it was on to the main event. After 5 rounds of F3D, Saturday was finished off with 3 rounds of F400.
Sunday started with the final 4 rounds of F3D and a presentation of trophies. The rest of the event consisted of 4 rounds each of Q500 and F400.
It must be said that this event would not have been run so successfully if it wasn’t for the efforts of a large number of Cohuna members helping. The 10 lap course needed 4 people timing, 4 #1 pylon judges and 1 judge each on the #2 and #3 pylons.
The final event to select the team that will represent Australia at the 2015 F3D World Championships was held on the weekend of 4 – 5 October 2014. The event was held at the Cohuna Model Flying Club’s field in Cohuna, Victoria. Cohuna has been the “home” of pylon racing in Australia for approximately 30 years and the club turned out in full force to provide their support by working the course and serving up hot meals all weekend.
Three Australian “team” positions were up for grabs. Selection of the team is based on the average scores from the best two (of three) designated Team Trial events. This year the designated events included AMPRA, the Queensland or the Victorian State Championships and the Cohuna Team Trial. Chris Callow had already earned a position as returning World Champion and Daniel Arapakis had earned a position as Junior.
AMPRA and the respective State Championships had already been held and based on the results for the first two events the people that were almost certainly assured to be on the team were Beau Murphy and Tyler Mees. The pilots in contention for the remaining position on the team were Ranjit Phelan, Leigh Hocken and Steve Turna.
Nine rounds were to be flown over two days – with five rounds planned for Saturday and four rounds on Sunday. Most of the competitors arrived a day early to tune for the conditions. Chris Callow attended the event to help Leigh and Steve (but did not fly).
During Friday practice – it was apparent that some contestants were having difficulty tuning for the conditions. Winter was over and temperatures were increasing – so it was time for sunscreen instead of jackets and beanies.
On race day, Q500 was run in the morning to make sure that the course workers and timing system was working properly. F3D did not start until mid-day and when the racing began – Beau got off to a very good start, seemingly cruising to get reasonable scores. However, it became apparent that the conditions were not good for very fast times. Ranjit and Steve had problems, with both pilots getting 200’s in the first two rounds.
By the end of the first day – Beau and Tyler were both running well, but Ranjit, Leigh and Steve had their backs against the wall with 2 x 200’s and they could not afford to make any errors.
On the second day, the final four rounds were flown in the morning. Once racing began – Tyler, Leigh and Ranjit really stepped up their performance. Leigh posted a very impressive time of 55.44!
In Round 7, Beau Murphy had a problem with takeoff and hit the ground. The next round his model was unstable – but he still managed a 57. In the last round – he had difficulty controlling the model and shut down. This gave him 3 x 200’s.
Tyler had increased his pace – posting 2 x 57 second times. Ranjit also posted some good scores, but was just edged out by Leigh who had made a very strong finish. The final results for the event were – Tyler 420.5, Leigh 421.5 and Ranjit 425.0.
Stephen Turna also recovered well and posted some good scores on the second day to finish fourth with a score of 426.0. Following behind was a group that included Daniel Arapakis, Bryan Steele, Tom Wetherill and Glenn Matthews.
The Australian Team will be as follows:
Chris Callow (returning World Champion) Kevin Callow – Caller
Tyler Mees, Warren Mees – Caller (average 58.89)
Beau Murphy, Barry Murphy – Caller (average 58.96)
(L-R) Tyler & Warren Mees, Leigh Hocken, Vern Gibson & Barry and Beau Murphy
The Australian 2015 F3D World Champs Team Qualifiers with their Callers.
Tyler & Warren Mees, Leigh Hocken & Vern Gibson, Beau & Barry Murphy.
This was a hard-fought set of team trials. Congratulations to these guys!
Andrew & Daniel Arapakis
Daniel Arapakis with his father Andrew will represent Australia
at the 2015 World Champs as a junior. Look out F3D World…..
F3D Results – Cohuna
Places:
1st Tyler Mees
2nd Leigh Hocken
3rd Ranjit Phelan
Fastest Time: 55.44 – Leigh Hocken
No. of competitors: 14
Course – 10 Laps
F400 report
This class was hotly contested with SA visitors, Shaun and Jarrod Jacobsen and their very nicely turned out AR-6 models. Lilydale’s pairing of Gary Davidson and Jim Orenshaw were both relieved of having to take home one of their models each. Tom Jacobsen was also lucky having sustained some damage when involved in a post-racing incident with both wing and tail damage possibly having clipped James Hurley’s undercarriage. No one actually saw this happen but there was some evidence of this on James’s model.
F400 results
Places:
1st Andrew Davies
2nd Shaun Jacobsen
3rd Ranjit Phelan
Fastest Time: 63.81 – Andrew Davies
No. of competitors: 13
Course – 10 Laps
Q500 report
We had a new addition to the ranks of Q500 pylon with Andrew Arrapkis flying in this class for the first time this weekend. He had his son Daniel calling for him which is a bit of a role reversal. He also improved his time considerably over the weekend having started with a 128.77 and the last race on Sunday he got a very respectable 106.55 and came 5th out of 10 competitors. Well done Andrew!
Q500 results
Places:
1st Jim Orenshaw
2nd John Schmidli
3rd Tom Wetherill
Fastest Time: 93.78 – Jim Orenshaw
No. of competitors: 10
Course – 10 Laps
Things have tightened at the top with James Hurley and John Schmidli drawing with 34 points each. There are some big changes further down with John Yianni moving from position 12 up to 6, Les Spaltman going from position 10 to 7 and David Axon moved from position 18 to 9.
1 – James Hurley
2 – John Schmidli
3 – Tom Wetherill
A much overdue refurbishment of our pylon racing trial was carried out prior to the event. A huge thanks must go out to Andrew Arapakis for taking this upon himself and organising this work. It was looking great at Cohuna and has now got a new lease on life. Thanks Andrew!
Next Event
The next event and the last for the year is November 15-16 at Hamilton.
Also, if anybody is interested, the Nationals are on in April 2015 up in Brisbane.
Event Report & photos: John Schmidli & F3D report by Tom Wetherill.
Editing : Caroline Schmidli
The written content in this post is accurate to the best of my/our 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.
Back on August 24, VMPRA held its regular Q500 event at the Werribee Club. The day started off with brilliant sunshine while the early risers waited for the club gates to open. Soon a club member opened up and over the next hour, competitors tricked in and started setting up planes ready for the end of the noise curfew at 9am to end.
Test flights were undertaken and then the course was setup. This included mowing a patch for the take-off area, especially because the sports planes do sometimes actually need a runway.
Les Spaltman and his Viper
This event was for the Q500 class plus a sports and the EF-1 class. Some of the more recent regulars weren’t in attendance but the numbers were boosted by a couple of first timers and a second timer and a recent returnee to pylon racing. It was great to see Andrew Arapakis finally race and complete an event flying a his trainer. Looking at his times, he made really good improvements in times as the day went on . The Arapakis’s brought along a fellow club member in Nathan Ranson who ended up flying Andrews trainer also, breaking the age old VMPRA curse where a shared plane always is destroyed in the first round that it is flown. Nathan took to the course quite quickly and was flying the trainer tightly around the pylons. Les Spaltman flew his second event in both Q500 & Sportsman as did George Angelov who is a recent returnee to pylon after a spell away from it.
Andrew Arapakis about to race the trainer
Q500 was hotly contested as usual with a return of the recently retire Daniel Arapakis. This class 6is just a lot of fun to fly and now that we have good numbers at each event, it is looking very health. It is worth mentioning that it was at Werribee 2 years earlier that our next junior representative at the 2015 F3D world championships, Daniel Arapakis, raced a trainer for the first time. He quickly started flying Q500 and along with his father’s dedication, the awesome mentoring of the Murphy’s and the progression into faster classes he is now a very competitive flyer amongst the seniors. This is a great example of what someone can do with the right guidance and support.
George Angelov
Thanks to the Werribee club for hosting this event, providing food and refreshments and for supplying helpers for the number 1 pylon cage.
There’s a bit of a break over September and then we have Cohuna on October 4-5. This is the last of the 2015 World Championship team trials for F3D class so this is sure to be an exciting event.
The Cohuna club has let us know that there will be breakfast and lunch available on the Saturday and Sunday. There will also be camping available out at the field.
The written content in this post is accurate to the best of my/our 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.
There was quite a good group of competitors assembled especially considering some regular Q500 pilots being over in the Czech Republic for the F3D world championships.
RESULTS – Q500
This was the last event for the 2014-2015 season championship for Q500.
There has been a huge build up and preparation for all the competitors for this year’s world championship for the F3D pylon racing class. A good size contingent of pilots, callers and support crews and family members where there for the Australian and New Zealand teams.
