Here’s another one to put in your diary. Should be a lot of fun and another chance to encourage new pilots to pylon racing.
Also included is Saturday practice and BBQ dinner and camping at the field ready for racing on the Sunday. Check the below flyer for details.
Gippsland as a region is famous for its agricultural development and has become Melbourne’s largest supplying region of dairy and vegetables.
Munro pylon field has also grown to what most racers would consider one of the best fields of its kind in the country.
As always, the grounds were meticulously prepared by a local fishing tackle sales rep, Ian Rickard who devotes nearly every weekend at the strip working on a list of odd jobs and manicuring the bowling green run way!
Race preparation began on Friday where several pilots took to the course for fine tuning in preparation of the last pylon event for the calendar year.
The day saw Master Murphy’s and Dannmann with their Minute Master’s out circulating in the 20 knotter and Beau rippen into his new Miss Dara F400 running in a fresh motor. The Miss Dara model was designed by Dan Kane who also designed the Polecat and Loki both also being extraordinary models.
Ranjit and Tricky Ricky test flew Ricks Veyron and all went well. Rick due to extended family commitments with the safe arrival of baby boy #2 Albert couldn’t stay for the weekend show down. Unfortunately Phelans’ new V Tail models came to grief with more development required.
The day ended with good spirits and plenty of Crownies with many pilots arriving setting up camp with a feast prepared by the Axons.
The fist race day plan was for 4 rounds of F400, Q500 then followed by F3D.
Willy Weather forecast for the weekend was for fine weather and Saturday morning was perfect for racing start at 9:45am of the F400 class. 10 entrants at his event with the podium hotly contested every month. Brain Steele and Andrew Davies the dynamic duo flew well all weekend proving out consistency was the recipe. Beau recorded the fastest time of the day and weekend with a 64.96sec. Jim and John managed to keep clear of each other as sometimes it seems an unfortunate magnetism exists between some models and pilots, Hmmmm.
John Schmidli got all his times and Dannmann cutting him self out of the race after setting himself a target and pushing really hard for a record time! Great too see Frank back with the shiniest models ever unfortunately hitting terra firma after take off in his first heat. Pity as his plane was a ripper in practice but an upside for Father Christmas would be a new model order! An unexpected mid air between Barry Murphy and Andrew Davies saw both models return to ground with a broken prop on the Baz model and repair required on Batman’s model.
After 4 rounds of F400, the Quickie pilots were fueled up and ready to race. With 12 entrants and a variety of skills saw fantastic racing with a veteran Tom Prosser returning to Munro for his second Q500 event. Tom must have had fun at the last event at Munro with his custom built plane which is a master piece and scratch built. Unfortunately the Prosser and Axon models had a mid air but both pilots returning into the comp for the next round. Also a special mention to Tom Allen returning to the pylon scene after a stint of car racing with only his second event back, well in the mix with his best time of 100.50 sec only 0.57 sec of the fastest time of the event by Jim Orenshaw….no doubt Tom is on it and will be going real fast in the near future.
F3D up next albeit weather proving a little slow, Beau opened up with a respectable 59.8 sec which proved to be the quickest time of the event. Dannmann recorded 61.2 in first heat which was also his best time for the weekend. Mix results with all other pilots with Frank flying great but plug problems in resulting in a few 200’s.
Day 1 ended with a very familiar garlic scent of charcoal grilling lamb, chicken and pork gyros followed by Narida’s tiramisu and Toni’s Christmas pudding. Camaraderie with all pilots attending the dinner was defiantly one for the record books and now the Saturday night event is almost part of the event calendar for most race weekends. All entrants this weekend stayed for the feast and many thanks to all helpers and to all cooks!
Late afternoon and evening affairs started with old timers, speed gliders and foamies. George Angelov certainly has his rocket master gold wings complemented the sky with rockets all landing safely with parachutes. Much fun by all.
After a dusty start to Sunday, the weather God’s rolled up for the second day with perfect conditions and the F400’s were on their way. The competitiveness of this class was very exciting to watch and well done to all competitors and place getters. John Schmidli again getting all his times with no cuts for the weekend will surely keep the ranks on their toes in months to come.
With Q500 scores very close after day 1, a number of pilots were well positioned to commence the days racing. Jim Orenshaw, Tom Allen and John Schmidli taking out the top three places this time round with many pilots in all placing all recording excellent times and PB’s. Racing this class was great to watch as the very affordable models flown by entry level pilots had a great time and were also very competitive!
Grand finale premier F3D class was again a mixed bag something similar to a fishing trip in Western Port Bay! Again the weather a little slow with Beau recording the fastest time of the day of 61.76 sec, Baz flying very consistent this weekend and Andrew Davis holding it together to complete 8 rounds. Brian Steele alias Robin landed his F3D in a tree which took a mastermind of construction materials, Tarzan and luck to get his model back. Onya Brian!
Dannmann got all his times in for the weekend bar 2 cuts for the event ended up with the best average score to take out 1st place, 2nd Barry Murphy and 3rd Andrew Davies. Great to see Gary back in the air for 4th place and Beau in 5th due his last run a little rich resulting in a 200.
Check out the event photo gallery>>>
Results
Class – FA1
Places:
1st Daniel Arapakis
2nd Barry Murphy
3rd Andrew Davies
Fastest Time: 59.88 – Beau Murphy
No. of competitors: 8
Course – 10.5 Laps
Class – F400
Places:
1st Brian Steele
2nd Beau Murphy
3rd Ranjit Phelan
Fastest Time: 64.96 – Beau Murphy
No. of competitors: 10
Course – 10.5 Laps
Class – Q500
Places:
1st Jim Orenshaw
2nd Tom Allen
3rd John Schmidli
Fastest Time: 99.92 – Jim Orenshaw
No. of competitors: 12
Course – 10.5 Laps
The following is how the season championship stands currently.
1st – Daniel Arapakis
2nd – Glenn Matthews
3rd – Brian Steele
No change for the top 2, but Brian Steele has moved up to 3rd position
1st – Brian Steele
2nd – Glenn Matthews
3rd – Jim Orenshaw
Like FA1, No change for the top 2, but Jim Orenshaw has moved up to 3rd position
1st – Jim Orenshaw
2nd – John Schmidli
3rd – Andrew Arapakis
For Q500, there was no change for the top 3 positions.
Check Out Complete Calendar >>>
Season Fastest Time
There was only a new fastest times for F400 with Beau Murphy raising the stakes on his first time racing F400.
FA1 – Leigh Hocken – 57.38
F400 – Beau Murphy – 64.96
Q500 – Jim Orenshaw – 94.79
Next Event
The next event will be Camperdown on February 6-7, 2016. Make sure you have this and all the currently listed events marked in your calendar.
Another date to remember is the Sandown F1 Air Race to be on January 31, 2016 which includes a general remote control hobbies expo. The VMPRA will have a stand there and we will also have some members involved in flying displays throughout the day. There will be a number of us manning the stand and promoting the pylon racing special interest group.
http://www.sandownairrace.com.au/
On a final note for the year, I wish everybody all the best for the Christmas and New Year break and that we all return to racing again next year refreshed, ready for some great competition and good times.
Event Report and Photos– Anonymous
Additional information: John Schmidli
Photos – John Schmidli & 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
Quick ReferenceEvent Result |
On Wednesday the 2nd of December,Padua College students from Green House visited PARCS as part of their annual Celebration Day and wrap of the year end and as part of Dannmann’s flying in the World Champ’s.
The club hosted 40 children at their field for a display day and Wayne from Addie’s Hobbies assisted with the organisation of this event and participated with display models, tuition and also flying his jet. Many thanks also to Mick Kellet how also helped out for the afternoon.
Daniel and Wayne buddied about 20 kids and teachers with trainer models then put on their own air display of a jet demonstration and Dannmann flying his F3D around the course. Very lucky students and teachers to be part of an awesome display of models hopefully gaining an appreciation of RC planes and pylon!
All ended very well no terra firma incidences!
Report & Photos – Andrew Arapakis
Back on October 24-25 we held our VIC State Championships at Hamilton. Once again, it was great to have the South Australians come across to race with us. Without them, the numbers would’ve been on the low side.
On Friday, the weather was spectacular as everybody arrived and testing and setting was carried out. I heard that Shaun Jacobsen even was having a go at one of Daniel’s Minute Masters as Shaun in leading up to joining the ranks of F3D fliers.
Saturday morning arrived with more great weather. After setting up the field, we were off racing with F400 first up. Numbers were quite good for this class (13 competitors) flying including Daniel Arapakis and John Schmidli back flying this class again.
Four rounds of F400 was raced before commencing Q500 racing. Numbers for this class where on the low side so as per usual practice, we all go out to the start line with the drum of fuel and do all our refueling out on the line. This makes the turnaround between heats a lot faster. It was great to see Tom Allen there racing as he returns to pylon racing after many year away with his beautifully finished Banshee Sport Q500 racer.
There were four of these Banshee Sport Q500 models for the first round. Unfortunately Jim Orenshaw and John Schmidli had another coming together while going around pylon #1. This is the third time this year they’ve collision with each other. Unfortunately this was the first race that Jim had with his brand-new Banshee Q500 model which was a replacement for his previously mid-aired Q500 plane. John Schmidli was luckier this time, with only sustaining wingtip damage and a broken propeller and was able to glide in for a landing. Four rounds of this class which was completed.
Next up was F3D, the premier class that we race. It was our intention to fly this class for as many rounds as possible as we had a feeling the weather for the following day would not be so kind. We manage to run 6 rounds of this class before finishing up for the day. It was great to have helpers from the Hamilton club manning the #1 pylon cage as well as pylon 2 and 3 Judges.
The Hamilton club members also provided a canteen throughout the weekend including a big fry up breakfast for the Sunday morning. This was greatly appreciated.
As feared, when we arrived at the field on Sunday morning, conditions were very windy. We set up our planes hoping that things will settle down but as time to start arrived, there was no action happening.
After quite a time of waiting to see what the conditions would bring, it was decided that there would be no flying that day which meant the competition would only consist of the rounds flown on the Saturday. Four rounds of F400, four rounds of Q500 and six rounds of F3D.
Check out the event photo gallery>>>
Results
Class – FA1
Places:
1st Leigh Hocken
2nd Tom Wetherill
3rd Andrew Davies
Fastest Time: 59.10 – Daniel Arapakis
No. of competitors: 8
Course – 10.5 Laps
Class – F400
Places:
1st Shaun Jacobsen
2nd Brian Steele
3rd Andrew Davies
Fastest Time: 66.91 – Shaun Jacobsen
No. of competitors: 13
Course – 10.5 Laps
Class – Q500
Places:
1st Jim Orenshaw
2nd John Schmidli
3rd Andrew Arapakis
Fastest Time: 94.79 – Jim Orenshaw
No. of competitors: 7
Course – 10.5 Laps
Season Championship
The following is how the season championship stands currently.
FA1
1st – Daniel Arapakis
2nd – Glenn Matthews
3rd – Tom Wetherill
The top 2 positions remains the same but Tom Wetherill has jumped up to 3rd position from 5th.
F400
1st – Brian Steele
2nd – Glenn Matthews
3rd – Shaun Jacobsen
Like FA1, the top 2 positions remained the same but Shaun Jacobsen jumped up to 3rd position also from 5th.
Q500
1st – Jim Orenshaw
2nd – John Schmidli
3rd – Andrew Arapakis
Again, the top 2 positions remained the same and Andrew Arapakis has moved into 3rd position from 4th.
Season Fastest Time
There was a new fastest times for F400 and Q500 at Hamilton. Well done Shaun Jacobsen and Jim Orenshaw.
FA1 – Leigh Hocken – 57.38
F400 – Shaun Jacobsen – 66.91
Q500 – Jim Orenshaw – 94.79
Next Event
The next comp is also the last one for the year and will be held at Bazza’s Paddock at Munro on November 28 and 29. Come along and have a great time racing at this greta venue. There won’t be another event until early in February 2016 at Camperdown.
Make sure you check the new events that are listed in the Event Calendar and put them in your diary.
Check Out Complete Calendar >>>
Event Report and 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.
Quick ReferenceEvent Result |
Back on September 13, a group of us headed to Lilydale (LDMFA) to compete in a Q500 and Sport racing day. We had a good turn out of regular participants but didn’t get any rookies and only a couple of non regular racers in Maddison Lang and Jarrod Tatham.
Due to the space limitations at Lilydale, the course is shorter than usual so flying a Q500 is quite a bit more frantic than usual. The fastest time for the Q500 for the day was a 72.11, at least 20 seconds shorter than usual.
The weather was great and we all had a great day. James Hurley also did a fabulous job of being contest director for the day. Thanks LDMFA.
Check out the event photo gallery>>>
Results
Class – Q500
Places:
1st Daniel Arapakis
2nd John Schmidli
3rd Glenn Matthews
Fastest Time: 72.11 – Daniel Arapakis
No. of competitors: 8
Course – 10.5 Laps (shorter than usual – not measured out)
Class – Sports
Places:
1st George Angelov
2nd Gary Davidson
3rd Maddison Lang
Fastest Time: 93.99 – George Angelov
No. of competitors: 5
Course – 10.5 Laps (shorter than usual – not measured out)
Next Event
The next event is the VIC State Championships at Hamilton to be held on October 24-25, 2015.
Check Out Complete Calendar >>>
Event Report & 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.
Quick ReferenceEvent Result |
I was approaching this event with some trepidation due to the weather forecast which turned out to be justified to some degree. With the start of Spring only around the corner, wet condition had been experienced leading up to this event down at Barry Murphy’s purpose built pylon racing field at Munro.
Turning up on the Friday as many did, there was a lot of standing water lying around the site making water proof shoes or gum boots essential. Some practice flying was possible during dry spells on the Friday.
Saturday morning came and conditions were very grey and windy with predictions of the wind increasing during the morning. Regardless, we went about setting up the pylon racing equipment so we could get racing started.
The first class to be racing was F400 with an unusually small number on competitor for this typically very popular class. Only 2 rounds were flown before the wind became just too strong causing excessive turbulence from the surrounding trees. Jim Orenshaw became a victim to the conditions with his plane being forced into the ground going around pylon 3.
Everybody hung around the field for the rest of the day waiting to see if conditions would improve but no further racing took place. A fare bit of time was spent standing around fires chatting and supervising the dinner being cooked. I noticed that Jim managed to hang around the spit roast all afternoon taking the odd taste test!
That night we had another excellently cooked spit-roast meal prepared by Andrew Arapakis and afterwards, we had a beautiful desert prepared by Nerida Matthews. Thanks to Andrew and Nerida for a great dinner.
Sunday morning greeted up with perfect condition with blue skies and still conditions the event was on in earnest.
F400 was up again flying only another 2 rounds.
Q500 was up next with a view to flying 5 rounds. We had 7 competitors with the notable inclusion of a past pylon racing identity, Tom Prossor. Austin Omman was making his 2nd pylon racing appearance and father and son team Gary and Alan Whitbounre were racing also. I’m pleased to say racing was good and clean and Jim and I avoided any coming together by calling for each other.
The 5 rounds on Q500 were completed fairly promptly as we left the fuel out on the racing line and we didn’t need to walking back to the pits between races.
Next up was the premier class, FA1 with 5 rounds to be completed also. There was some pretty exciting racing, particularly between Barry Murphy and Leigh Hocken. Brian Steele tried burying his model, adding to Jim’s hole in the field from the previous day. It was also good to see Frank Cassella back flying at this event.
Once racing was finish, the course was packed up and the delicate task of making sure the various caravans could be extracted and placed on solid grounds was undertaken. Certificates were then presented and we all headed off home.
Although it was a challenging weekend, I think the racing on Sunday made it all worthwhile. Thanks again to Barry Murphy for providing this superb locations, Nerida and Glenn Matthews for running the event so well and Toni Axon for starting all weekend.
Check out the event photo gallery>>>
Results
Class – FA1
Places:
1st Barry Murphy
2nd Daniel Arapakis
3rd Frank Cassella
Fastest Time: 57.38 – Leigh Hocken
No. of competitors: 7
Course – 10.5 Laps
Class – F400
Places:
1st Brian Steele
2nd Frank Cassella
3rd Glen Matthews
Fastest Time: 67.25 – Frank Cassella
No. of competitors: 5
Course – 10.5 Laps
Class – Q500
Places:
1st Jim Orenshaw
2nd John Schmidli
3rd Austin Omann
Fastest Time: 98.64 – Jim Orenshaw
No. of competitors: 7
Course – 10.5 Laps
Season Championship
The following is how the season championship stands currently.
1st – Daniel Arapakis
2nd – Glenn Matthews
3rd – Barry Murphy
1st – Brian Steele
2nd – Glenn Matthews
3rd – Gary Davidson
1st – Jim Orenshaw
2nd – John Schmidli
3rd – Austin Omann
Season Fastest Time
There was new fastest times in for FA1 & F400 at Munro. Well done Leigh and Frank.
FA1 – Leigh Hocken – 57.38
F400 – Frank Cassella – 67.25
Q500 – Jim Orenshaw – 95.97
Next Event
This Sunday (September 13) there is a Sports/Q500 race at LDMFA. This is not a championship event but should be fun and another good chance for newbies to be introduced to pylon racing.
Our next full weekend event is the VIC State Championships at Hamilton to be held on October 24-25, 2015.
Check Out Complete Calendar >>>
Event Report – John Schmidli
Photos – Lydia and Andrew Arapakis and 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.
Quick ReferenceEvent Result |
VMPRA held its traditional mid-winter event at the Bendigo Radio Control Aircraft Club (BRCAC) in Marong on the weekend of 1 – 2 August 2015. A number of competitors travelled on the Friday and checked out Rick Townsend’s new pylon field, which is located near-by in Newbridge. They enjoyed fine but cold weather and all gave a “thumbs up” on the field as a future venue for competitions.
On Saturday morning everyone gathered at the BRCAC field, including the regular contingent of dedicated racers from South Australia. The field was in excellent condition as the club had mowed it the week prior. However, the weather was very cold and test flying could not start until the rain had cleared.
Racing finally got underway in the late morning. F400 has proven to be a very popular class – there were 11 entries and five rounds were flown (10 ½ laps). Shaun Jacobsen set the pace with a fast time of 68.68 and he finished in first place with a score of 280.5. Brian Steele finished second with a score of 284.9and Glenn Matthews was third with a score of 292.6.
Q500 Sport was the next class to be run and there were six entries. It was decided to run 6 rounds and to postpone FA1 until the following day, with the hope for better weather. John Schmidli and Jim Orenshaw had a number of close races. Andrew Arapakis was also showing good form by reducing his times significantly. James York and John Yianni from SA were chasing hard and Matt Young’s hopes came to an end when his engine parted way with the fuselage in flight.
Saturday evening involved getting a hot dinner at the local hotel, followed by the VMPRA Annual General Meeting.
Sunday morning dawned very cold -4 degrees – but clear, so a further two rounds of Q500 Sport was flown. John and Jim had a very specular mid-air in Round 7, and they both pulled out their back-up models so they could continue to do battle. After eight rounds, John was in first place with a score of 621.9and Jim was second with a score of 627 and fast time of 95.97. Andrew Arapakis finished in third with a score of 645.5 and a personal best time of 105.64.
There were eight entries in FA1 and racing got underway later in the morning. Conditions were still very cold and the wind had picked up – making conditions challenging for both competitors (toget their engines running) and for the course workers (to stay warm). Six rounds were flown before it was decided to call it a day. Daniel Arapakis flew very consistently and finished in first place with a score of 322.5. Tom Wetherill finished second with a score of 467.1 – getting an extra couple of 200’s due to a broken pipe. Tom Jacobsen was third with a score of 474.0 and Ranjit Phelan posted the fastest time for the event with a 63.16. Glenn and Brian both found the same airspace in Round 5, resulting in another spectacular mid-air.
Certificates were handed out to the place getters at the end of the day and the BRCAC club and its members were thanked for their hospitality, for helping out working the course and for the hot food that was served up throughout the weekend. VMPRA also expressed its thanks to the SA group for travelling and supporting the event.
Check out the event photo gallery>>>
The next event is back at what is quickly becoming the home of pylon racing in Victoria, Barry Murphy’s field at Munro on August 29-30, 2015. And the great news is that Andrew Arapakis has offered to put on his superb spit roast dinner. So, make sure your planes and gear is sorted for what promises to be a good week end.
Check Out Complete Calendar >>>
Web Editing – 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.
Quick ReferenceEvent Result |
This season, I’m looking to break the report up into 2 separate posts to assist with getting some information out quicker while giving me time to compile other information such as the report a little later.
Places:
1st Daniel Arapakis
2nd Tom Wetherill
3rd Tom Jacobsen
Fastest Time: 63.16 – Ranjit Phelan
No. of competitors: 8
Course – 10.5 Laps
Places:
1st Shaun Jacobsen
2nd Brian Steele
3rd Glen Matthews
Fastest Time: 68.68 – Shaun Jacobsen
No. of competitors: 11
Course – 10.5 Laps
Places:
1st John Schmidli
2nd Jim Orenshaw
3rd Andrew Arapakis
Fastest Time: 63.16 – Jim Orenshaw
No. of competitors: 6
Course – 10.5 Laps
Being the first race of the season, the championship standings are the same as the place getters. It’s not too late to get in and give it a good go for this season.
This season, we are going to keep a record of the fastest times recorded of each class. So the fast times after the first events is:
Check back soon for the Event Report, Photos, Next Event News.
Web Editor – John Schmidli
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.
Check out the event photo gallery>>>
RESULTS – Q500Places:
1st Ian Haigh
2nd John Schmidli
3rd James Hurley
Fastest Time: 90.83 – Andrew Davies
No. of competitors: 9
Course – 10.5 Laps
NOTE: There was no cut judges on pylons #2 & #3.
Places:
1st George Angelov
2nd Grant Collins (46 size Trainer)
3rd Alan Swift – EF-1 racer
Fastest Time: 106.13 – George Angelov
No. of competitors: 4
Course – 10.5 Laps
NOTE: There was no cut judges on pylons #2 & #3.
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.
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.
Check Out Individual Results>>>
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.
Check Out Complete Calendar >>>
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.
Quick ReferenceEvent Result |
Sounds like a tough day flying over 12 hours with stops for excessive wind to make up rounds from day 1. See below for Tom’s Day 2 report.
Hi everyone:
After 5 days of practice is very hot conditions – racing started yesterday. The goal is to complete up to 15 Rounds over 3 to 4 days.
The racing started yesterday, but only one round was completed due to heavy rain. Most of the afternoon was spent inside the very impressive pit area marquee sheltering.
We started racing again at 8 am this morning and continued until 8pm tonite. However, the conditions today changed from mild in the morning – to be very windy and cold in the afternoon. There was another break as the storm passed through and then racing continued. As a result, we have seen many extremes in weather – which makes a big challenge for tuning engines and racing.
In addition to the challenges associated with the weather, we are racing far from home and things are sometimes “different” from what we expect. The timing system takes some time to get used to, the cut judges are very diligent and other penalties are handed out to pilots and callers who step outside the designated pilot box or are perceived to launch before the flag drops completely. Lastly, there has been a fairly high rate of carnage due to mid-airs. Stuart Inoue from Japan had already lost two models by Round 4.
So what does it all mean… I have not had enough time to look at all the details, but here are some initial observations:
Italy – Carol Perella was in first place after four rounds.
Venezuela – Good friend Gabriel Tahan was in second place after four rounds.
Czech – The Czech team appear to be the first place (team) at present with some very impressive performances from their interesting looking models.
USA – Gino Del Ponte from the USA set a new World Record in Round One and backed it up in Round Two. However, since that time cuts and other factors seem to have come into play. Former World Champion from the USA Randy Bridge scored 2 x 200’s in the first two rounds, but has since been flying very well. The other USA team member, Gary Freeman, was also experiencing some initial problems but appears to have got on top of the issues.
Australia – Chris Callow has been pushing very hard, but does not seem to have the pace advantage that he experienced in 2013. Leigh Hocken, Beau Murphy, Tyler Mees and Daniel Arapakis are doing well – but the Australia team are not dominating like they have in the past. Very hard to come over here to compete with the locals…
New Zealand – I had a good run in Round 1, but got two cuts. In Round 2 (on the first day) the rain came down – so we got a refly today. During the refly the muffler in the pipe broke after about 4 laps – perhaps due to the stress of the high temperatures from the practice time. I was able to manage to limp around and get a score – better than a 200! My Round 3 flight was immediately after Round 2, so fortunately I had a backup ready to go. However, 1 cut hurt the score. The engine ran perfect – so a prop change was made (thanks AD) for Round 4 to get some more speed. The weather was stable for Round 4 but the wind got very strong in Round 5 so I flew conservatively and posted times. The weather front that came through caught many people out – but I changed the compression and posted two more scores.
In summary, a very challenging WC so far. We are only half way through the competition and a decision will be made tomorrow morning on how many rounds will be flown. There are many issues that the organisers have to deal with – including having enough fuel on hand to complete the competition. I was able to sell back the excess fuel that I had J.
It is a lot of hard work, changeling – but is very rewarding when things work out. We finished the day with a very enjoyable dinner at a local Italian restaurant near our hotel.
Tom
Only 1.5 rounds ran due to rain.
Australian Team Photos
Daniel & Andrew Arapakis
Today was the official opening ceremony – that included a very impressive air/aerobatic show courtesy of full size a Red Bull air race plane – just for us. It was a local Czech hero and after the show, he landed and chatted with people. When he left – he took off – and then flew banked at 90 degrees at a very low level between the control tower and a hangar with the smoke system going!!!
The weather has again been very hot and well into the 30’s and today each team had allocated timed sessions on the course. This gave the opportunity for both the teams and the course workers to get their systems sorted. The timing system is different to what we are used to – it was not fully automated. There is a countdown clock, then the flagman waves you off and the timers start from the flagman. The complex system that was trialled previously in 2009 that included cut lights has been abandoned.
The Australian team was first up (as it is run in alphabetical order). However, on the first flight of the day, current World Champion Chris Callow crashed, which was a big surprise to everyone. The rest of the Australian team did quite well but times were not posted.
We did not get to run until later in the afternoon and 2 of 3 models ran well. One did not like the heat and stopped after a few laps. However, this proved to be a common problem and others including current Junior World Champion Emil Broberg, some of the Dutch team, Japanese team, USA team, etc also had DNF’s during practice.
Tomorrow is the first day of competition, and there will be a big change in the weather as rain is forecast and cold weather should arrive on Thursday. Many challenges and hard work ahead.
Tom