On April 20th and 21st, the VMPRA held a pylon racing event at the Hamilton Model Aero Club for the first time in many years. It was a great weekend, with fantastic weather and flying conditions, and the club really made us feel welcome.
It was great to see David and Tony Axon back. It’s been quite a while since we last saw them. Tony took on some of the starter duties for the weekend, which she performed with her usual expertise.
We also had Tony’s daughter, Amy Eichstadt, return to run the timing system for the whole weekend, and she did an absolutely fantastic job. Wendy Dean was there and she received some expert starter training from Tony Axon. So Wendy will be well-equipped to perform the starter duties at future events. It was fabulous to see the ladies out in force this weekend.
It was also great to see Daniel Arapakis back. Due to conflicts with work schedules, he’s not been to many events recently, and it was really good to see him back and flying fast.
We had enough people there to have all the helpers we needed to run the events and man all the pylons, which was absolutely fantastic.
The F3Ds didn’t do as many rounds. We encountered a fuel problem on Saturday, so we scrubbed three of the rounds and started again on Sunday, hence only completing 5 rounds.
Overall, it was a fantastic weekend and it would be great to return to Hamilton again next year. Our next event for the VMPRA is Newbridge on May 18th and 19th.
Look forward to seeing you there.
Results
Class – FA1
Places:
1st Andrew Davies
2nd Tom Wetherill
3rd Daniel Arapakis
Fastest Time (Red Box): 59.37 Daniel Arapakis.
No. of competitors: 5
Class – F3T
Places:
1st Brian Steele
2nd Andrew Davies
3rd Jim Orenshaw
Fastest Time (Red Box): 65.13 Andrew Davies.
No. of competitors: 8
Class – Q500
Places:
1st Tom Wetherill
2nd John Schmidli
3rd Tony Eichstadt
Fastest Time (Red Box): 92.58 John Schmidli
No. of competitors: 9
Season Championship
FA1
Andrew Davies has jumped up to the top stop from 3rd, leaving Brian Steele in 2nd and Anthony Thurgood has moved up one spot to 3rd place.
1st – Andrew Davies
2nd – Brian Steele
3rd – Anthony Thurgood
F3T
Brian Steele has remained in first place, with Andrew Davies moving up to second place, displacing Jim Orenshaw down into third.
1st – Brian Steele
2nd – Andrew Davies
3rd – Jim Orenshaw
Q500
No change the top two places but Tony Eichstadt has moved up a place into 3rd place..
1st – John Schmidli
2nd – Jim Orenshaw
3rd – Tony Eichstadt
Next Class Race – Newbridge 18th – 19th May.
Report – John Schmidli.
Photos – John Schmidli.
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