Camperdown 2015 – Event Report

Posted on February 23, 2015 by Scadtastic

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.

Report – Tom Wetherill.

Check out the event photo gallery>>>

Results – FA1

Places:
1st Leigh Hocken
2nd Glenn Matthews
3rd Barry Murphy

Fastest Time: 58.43 – Beau Murphy
No. of competitors: 10
Course – 10.5 Laps

Results – F400

Places:
1st Brian Steele
2nd Andrew Davies
3rd Gary Davidson

Fastest Time: 64.79 – Brian Steele
No. of competitors: 8
Course – 10.5 Laps

Results – Q500

Places:
1st Tom Wetherill
2nd James Hurley
3rd John Schmidli

Fastest Time: 94.73 – Tom Wetherill
No. of competitors: 6
Course – 10.5 Laps

Check out the full results>>>

Season Championship

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

Q500 – Results

No position changes for the top 3 in Q500

1 – John Schmidli
2 – James Hurley
3 – Tom Wetherill

Full Championship Results>>>

Next Event

Next up is Munro on Feb 28/March 1st for the full 3 class event.

Check Out Complete Calender >>>

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.

Quick Reference

Event Result
Photo Gallery
Season Championship
Event Calender

New Zealand Nationals 2015 – Event Report

Posted on February 15, 2015 by Scadtastic

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.

Report – Tom Wetherill
Photos – Tom Wetherill
Gallery Page >>>

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.

January 2015 Update

Posted on January 20, 2015 by Scadtastic

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.

For more info – Sandown F1 Air Race

Check out the event photo gallery>>>

Next Event

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.

Check Out Complete Calender >>>

Come and Try – Pylon Racing

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

Quick Reference

Event Result
Photo Gallery
Season Championship
Event Calender

F-1 Air Race Sandown family day

Posted on December 22, 2014 by Scadtastic

Just a quick note about the F1 Air Race at Sandown on Jan 11, 2015 that the VMPRA will be represented by some of us with a static and flying display.

Chris Callow (current F3D world Champ) will be coming down from QLD to do a F3D demonstration. For those who have never see a world class F3D model aircraft flown, this event would be worth attending for this along.

For more details check the below link.

http://www.sandownairrace.com.au/

Hamilton 2014 – Event Report

Posted on November 30, 2014 by Scadtastic

The final event on the VMPRA 2014 calendar was held at the Hamilton Model Aeroplane Club’s field in Branxholme, Victoria, on the weekend of 15 – 16 November 2014. The event attracted a very good number of entries – from both Victoria as well as a large contingent from South Australia. The weather forecast for the weekend was for changeable conditions, with storms expected. As usual, many competitors camped at the field on Friday and settled in for the weekend.

On Saturday morning the course was set up and racing got underway with four rounds of F400. This class attracted an impressive 14 entries. Shaun Jacobsen set the early pace and there was a lot of close racing throughout the field. Times for the 10 ½ laps were not particularly fast due to the conditions.

Andrew Arapakis's Viper came off the worst

Q500 Sport commenced following a break for lunch and this class attracted 11 entries. However, the numbers were soon reduced in the first round when 3 models came together on the ground! After that, things settled down. However, the wind was increasing and times dropped off. After four rounds, John Schmidli was in the lead and was closely followed by Jim Orenshaw. Times were also slower than usual in Q500.

F3D was next on the schedule, and this class attracted 12 entries. There were a number of new models being tested on the weekend – Beau Murphy had a Redonkulous and Daniel Arapakis, Andrew Davies and Tom Wetherill all had new Veyrons. Unfortunately, a major storm front came through in the early afternoon, which was followed by another one a bit later on. This brought thunder, lightning, heavy rain and strong winds. As a result, the day’s racing was called off and F3D was not flown.

During the break, a meeting was held to discuss rules and other related matters. It was agreed that VMPRA would target running eight rounds instead of nine (before dropping two scores) for each of its competitions starting in 2015. This change aligns the VMPRA procedures with the international rules for F3D.

Tom Wetherill's new Mc Laren themed Vayron

On Sunday morning, there was a slight delay while waiting for the weather to clear and racing got underway with seven rounds of F3D. Conditions began to deteriorate as a strong cross wind and turbulence coming off the nearby trees made flying very difficult. A record number of 200s were posted as some pilots had problems launching their models.

At the end of the seven rounds, Andrew Davies was in first place with a score of 344.5. He flew an older model and saved the Veyron for another day. He had the reliability in the difficult conditions and was the only pilot not to get any 200’s.

Tom Jacobsen from South Australia, flying an old style Evo, was in second with a score of 432.7. Daniel Arapakis showed very good form for the first time out with his Veyron and finished third with a score of 437.4. Times were not fast due to the very windy conditions, with Glenn Matthews posting the fastest time for the event of 62.8 for 10 ½ laps.

After a break for lunch, three additional rounds of Q500 Sport were flown. John Schmidli extended his lead and finished with a score of 619.5. He was followed by Jim Orenshaw in second with a score of 644.2 and Tom Wetherill with a score of 648.4.

Team SA's Collection of aircraft

Last up were the remaining three rounds of F400. Shaun Jacobsen flew very well and finished well ahead with a score of 412.6. Glenn Matthews was second with a score of 432.7 and Andrew Davies was having a good weekend finishing third with a score of 437.4.

Certificates were handed out to the place getters at the end of the day and the course equipment was packed up. VMPRA extended its thanks to the Hamilton club for hosting the event and for providing course workers and great food all weekend.

Report – Tom Wetherill.

Editor’s – Comments:

The Hamilton club facilities where in great condition. It appeared that there had been recent painting and asphalting around the club house and toilet facilities.
Andrew Arapakis put on an awesome meal on Friday night. Thanks for organizing this Andrew.
There was a lot of difficulty taking off at times with a strong cross-wind and several competitors flying new aircraft types. Daniel Arapakis was racing a new Veyron and Beau Murphy a Redonkulous. Tom Wetherill and Andrew Davies had new Veyron models at the field with Andrew making a maiden flight of his aircraft.
There was also a fairly large amount of models damaged for one reason or another. As Tom mentioned, on Saturday, there was the coming together of 3 Q500s when taking off. On Sunday James Hurley lost his TeeQue Q500 model around pylon #2. Tom Wetherill had his very new AR-6 go off the air and do a fly-away which surprisingly was found by Matt Young in a newly plowed field. Unfortunately it was destroyed. The last race for the day (F400) was cut short having only completed half a lap before a mid-air between myself (John Schmidli) and Mike Savill.
It was good to have pylon judges on all pylons on Saturday and most of Sunday.

Check out the event photo gallery>>>

Results – FA1

Places:
1st Andrew Davies
2nd Tom Jacobsen
3rd Daniel Arapakis

Fastest Time: 62.87 – Glenn Matthews
No. of competitors: 12
Course – 10.5 Laps

Results – F400

Places:
1st Shaun Jacobsen
2nd Glenn Matthews
3rd Andrew Davies

Fastest Time: 66.43 – Shaun Jacobsen
No. of competitors: 14
Course – 10.5 Laps

Results – Q500

Places:
1st John Schmidli
2nd Jim Orenshaw
3rd Tom Wetherill

Fastest Time: 96.96 – John Schmidli
No. of competitors: 11
Course – 10.5 Laps

Check out the full results>>>

Season Championship

We have now finished the 1st half of the season championship and the following is how the top 3 positions sit.

FA1

With Andrew Davies win at this event, he has now jumped up into the top position with Ranjit Phelan dropping a position to 2nd place. Glenn Matthews has jumped from 5th up to 3rd place.

1 – Andrew Davies
2 – Ranjit Phelan
3 – Glenn Matthews

F400 – Results

The top 3 are all on 28 points and only separated by total time scores with Glenn Matthews in top position followed by Shaun Jacobsen and in 3rd place Ranjit Phelan.

1 – Glenn Matthews
2 – Shaun Jacobsen
3 – Ranjit Phelan

Q500 – Results

Only the top 2 positions have changed with John Schmidli in 1st position and James Hurley now in 2nd. Tom Wetherill remains in 3rd.

1 – John Schmidli
2 – James Hurley
3 – Tom Wetherill

Full Championship Results>>>

F3T – World Air Games – Dubai

On the Saturday, during the impromptu meeting that was held while waiting for the weather to clear, the subject of a F3T international event was discussed. Here is a link to some information about this event and a letter from Rob Metkemeijer – Chairman RC pylon racing subcommittee.

http://www.fai.org/events/fai-world-air-games

http://www.rc-network.de/forum/showthread.php/486673-World-Air-Games-Dubai December-2015

F3T ( Q40 ) has been selected to be one of the 3 aeromodelling classes at the upcoming World Air Games in Dubai, December 2015. The other two are F2D control line combat and Aerobatic Indoor Aero Musicals.
World Air Games is a kind of Olympics for airsports; this 4th edition will include Powered and Glider Aerobatics, Aeromodelling, Amateur-Built and Experimental Aircraft, Ballooning, Gyrocopters, Hang Gliding, Helicopters, Microlights, Paramotors, and Parachuting.http://www.fai.org/news/38367-fai-wo…taged-in-dubai

We have chosen F3T because the aim of the World Air Games is a sort of display competition for public, and F3T means close racing with highly reliable planes and engines, which is exiting for public!
All information is not available yet, but for the moment we think of the following format:
• 16 competitors from all continents, see for selection of pilots next item
• 4 planes per race
• a full competition, so every pilot flies all the others ( 5 races for each pilot), scoring by points, AMA system, and best fastest time per pilot if there is a tie.(points is easiest to understand for the public)
• 2 * 2 semi final flights between the 8 best, scoring by points , tie break by fastest time.
• final between the 4 best from the semi finals.

The location is Skydive Dubai, see attachment and under. There will be flown on the grass close to the runway. The size of the site is appr. 400 * 250 metres. We plan to have the public at appr 70 distance to the site behind safety nets.

It may be expected that the organizers will invite the competitors and pay for travel and stay; the only thing we have to do is to get the best pilots with the highest flying ability there.
There is no fixed selection format for this, but for now I suggest the following as a first guess, which reflects a little the performance level of the best half at the last F3D champs:
a total of 16 pilots:
6 from North, Middle and South America (Canada, US, Mexico, Guatemala, Venezuela)
5 from Europe
3 from Australia/New Zealand
1 from Qatar ( the local touch, Abdullah and Smitty, they also will be in charge for a part of the local organization)
1 from Japan

Competitions for selection :
a. Phoenix feb. 2015 for North, Middle and South America,
b. 2 F3T 2015 Euro cup competitions in Europe, ( e,g, Modena, Siziano, Tours, Senftenberg?) to be selected.
c. Australia could use their own system. Of course we would like to see their top pilots ( guys like Callow, Murphy, Mees if they want to fly F3T here)
d. Japan could do the same,
e. Abdullah and Smitty will be simply invited.

Please give feedback on this, we need to act to get the best pilots there. I hope it will be the best pylon display ever with the first big title in F3T.
The organizer will need help for a couple of things, like getting a timing system with display.
Our CIAM president would like to see little cameras on the planes for projection on large displays. I don’t know if that could work in our type of planes, but possibly one of you has ideas.

With kind regards

Rob Metkemeijer
chairman RC pylon racing sub committee.

Up and coming Events

That’s all the events for this year.

The next formal event will be Camperdown on Feb 7-8, 2015

On Jan 11, 2015, there is the Sandown R/C Festival which will involve some members in a static display, Glenn Matthews will be flying a Q500 and Chris Callow is coming down to do an F3D demonstration.
http://www.rcfestival.com.au/

Event Report – Tom Wetherill.
Additional content – John Schmidli
Photos – John Schmidli and Andrew Arapakis
Editing/Proof reading – Caroline Schmidli

Quick Reference

Event Result
Photo Gallery
Season Championship
Event Calender

November 2014 – Update

Posted on November 11, 2014 by Scadtastic

This weekend we’re off to Hamilton. There will be some of us camping out at the field. As usual, the Hamilton club will be providing lunch on Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday, the Hamilton club will be asking for an indication of numbers for breakfast on Sunday. Thanks in advance to the club for this catering.

There has been an update of events on the event calender so make sure you pencil them in to your diaries so not to miss a race.

There has also be a end-of-year fun fly/practice/test flight weekend scheduled for November 29-30 down at Bazza’s paddock at Munro. Thanks to Barry for making his field available.

See you all down at Hamilton for the last race weekend for the year.

John Schmidli

Cohuna 2014 – Event report

Posted on October 23, 2014 by Scadtastic

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.

Check out the event photo gallery>>>

F3D report

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)
Leigh Hocken, Vern Gibson – Caller (average 59.18)
Daniel Arapakis (Junior), Andrew Arapakis – Caller

F3D Report – Thanks to Tom Wetherill

The team selection table:

See Additional Info >>>

(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

Check out the full results>>>

Season Championship

We are getting on to the end of the 1st half of the season championship.

FA1

There’s been a swap in positions at the top with Ranjit Phelan now in 1st position and Brian Steele now in 2nd. Tom Wetherill remains in 3rd place.

1 – Ranjit Phelan
2 – Brian Steele
3 – Tom Wetherill

F400

There has not been any change in the top 3 positions for F400.

1 – Ranjit Phelan
2 – Brian Steele
3 – Glen Matthews

Q500

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

Full Championship Results>>>

Refurbished trailer

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.

2015 Nats Program >>>
2015 Nats Entry Form >>>

Event Report & photos: John Schmidli & F3D report by Tom Wetherill.
Editing : Caroline Schmidli

Quick Reference

Event Result
Photo Gallery
Season Championship
Event Calender

September Update

Posted on September 29, 2014 by Scadtastic

The Cohuna event is at the end of this week and it’s an exciting one with being the last of the F3D team trials for the Australian Team Selection for the 2015 World Champs. It’s also been a reasonable break since the last 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.

We look forward to seeing everybody at Cohuna.

In the meantime, follow this link to see a slideshow of photos take by a Werribee club member and the recent Q500/Sport race day. Youtube Clip >>>

John Schmidli

Werribee 2014 – Event Report

Posted on September 15, 2014 by Scadtastic

The Werribee Club Pit Aera

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.

Check out the event photo gallery>>>

Results

Q500

Places:
1st Daniel Arapakis
2nd John Schmidli
3rd James Hurley

Fastest Time: 90.58 – John Schmidli
No. of competitors: 9
Course – 10.5 Lap

Sports

Places:
1st Tom Wetherill
2nd Alan Swift
3rd Les Spaltman

Fastest Time: 94.91 – Tom Wetherill
No. of competitors: 8
Course – 10.5 Lap

Check out the full results>>>

Season Championship

Q500

James Hurley is still in 1st place, John Schmidli has gained a point on James and Daniel has jumped into 3rd places.

1 – James Hurley
2 – John Schmidli
3 – Daniel Arapakis

.Full Championship Results>>>

Next Events

Cohuna start line 2013

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.

Check Event Calender >>>

Event Report & photos: John Schmidli

Quick Reference

Event Result
Photo Gallery
Season Championship
Event Calender

F5D World Championship

Posted on September 1, 2014 by Scadtastic

Team Australia

With the completion of the 2014 F5D World Championships, we celebrate the Australian team coming a brilliant 2nd place. A fantastic result considering Australia has only been represented once before in this class at a world championship.

Beau & Barry Murphy

Individually, Bruce DeChastel came 11th, Tyler Mees was just outside the placings coming 4th and VMPRA’s very own Beau Murphy with his father, Barry as call came 3rd. This is an outstanding result for all and particularly for Beau, having no real opportunity to race this class in Victoria and this being his first time competing in the class at the world level. Well Done guys!