Jim .... recovering components after a mid-air with Brian Steele
What a great field is Bazza’s padock. AMPRA is going to be flown here next year! The weather was very good with light winds and light cloud cover if not sunny.
We ran 9 rounds of (4 on Saturday & 5 on Sunday) of F400, Q500 & then FA1.
It was good to see some Paul Schmidt after a long break from pylon and Marcus Guss was back for the 2nd time at Munro this year.
Kim, Terry, their huskies and a winning GR7
There were only a couple of incidents over the weekend, most notably was a mid-air between Jim Orenshaw & Brian Steele in FA1. Both continued to fly with backup models.
It’s time to start preparing for our next event which is down at Munro at Bazza’a Padock on the week end of August 11-12, 2012. If you haven’t raced down there before, it’s a fantastic field and purpose built for pylon racing. I encourage you to come down to compete, especially if you are flying Q500. So sort out where you’re staying, Stratford is the closest accommodation with a Motel and Caravan Park. If you don’t know where the field it, as it is a private field, contact a member of the committee for details.
Bendigo 2012 place getter's
Our last event at Bendigo went really well and the weather was kind to us this time. There are more photo from the event now on the gallery page courtesy of Bill Matthews from the BRCAC club.
Calender Update
If you check our calender you’ll notice that the classes and schedule hav been updated for the Cohuna event in September. The priority is F3D as this is one of the selection evens for the next World Championships in 2013. This important event could see some competitor coming from interstate. Once F3D has run 9 rounds, then F400 will run 9 rounds. There will not be any Q500 run this week end.
Bendigo once again played host to the VMPRA for a weekend of FA1 (F3D), F400 & Q500.
On the start line and on time
Despite a bleak forecast, the weather was not too bad. Saturday, there were a few showers that stopped racing, but Sunday was much better and wind conditions were good.
All 3 classes completed 9 rounds, with 3 each on the Saturday and 6 each on Sunday. This event was competely void of any flying incidents which is quite unusual but a testiment to the skill and clean racing that went on.
Tom Wetherill's F3Ds
Saturday saw a lot of FA1s struggling with a quite a few flame-outs which wasn’t evident on Sunday and pylon 3 was a bit of a challenge for some reason (or was that just me?!).
Saturday night was the VMPRA Annual General Meeting where office bearers were elected. Glenn Matthews is now the president, I’m the secretary & Andrew Davies is the contest organizer. Gary Davidson was good enough to stay on as treasurer for another 12 months. Thanks goes out to the previous office holders, Davis Axon, Tom Wetherill and Mike Kellet for all their time and effort. Without these people, we wouldn’t be pylon racing in Victoria.
Special thanks should also go to Rick Townsend & Matt Young for their big effort in
Matt Young (left) - A very successful weekend flying F3D
preparing the airfield for this event. It was a great weekend of racing and congratulations goes to Matt Young for his 3rd place in FA1 in only his 2nd go at flying this class. Great to see new talent joining the ranks. This should inspire other young pilots to give pylon racing a go.
Unless you were lucky enough to travel to AMPRA this year, it’s been a bit of a break since the last race. It’s now time to get ready for the next event which is being held at Marong, near Bendigo on July 14-15, 2012. Q500, F400 & FA1 (F3D) will be run on both days (see event calendar).
Also on this week end, is the VMPRA annual general meeting which is being held at the Marong Caravan Park on Saturday night. This is an important meeting as we are electing a new committee and taking care of important business that ensures the smooth running of VMPRA.
Come along and show your support for pylon racing in Victoria. You can even put your hand up for a position on the committee. Without having these committee positions filled, pylon racing in Victoria would not be as strong as it is or may not exist at all.
Look forward to seeing you all there.
Important:
Please note that the club has its regular flying day on Friday mornings, and they are generally finished by early afternoon. As such – it is not recommended to practice until after the club members have finished.
Also – the club wishes to remind us regarding leaving wire cuttings around the pits – please clean up after you have finished as there are sheep in the paddock and they do not want to have them ingest any wire.
Now team trials are starting in preparation for the F3D WC 2013, here’s a look back to the past. Found this video and it features lots of familiar faces from the Australian pylon scene.
This event will be run over the Queen’s birthday long weekend (June 9-11, 2012). Some VMPRA members will be traveling to Maryborough, Qld. This is also on eof the selection events for the next F3D championships in the Netherlands from 24-28th July 2013.
The weather for this day was brilliant. There was just a light breeze and mostly sunny. There was even a sighting of sun block in the pits.
Discussion in the pits before racing starts
There was some very close racing in Q500. One race saw a mid-air collision between Terry O’Connor and Mark French. Mark came out of it unscathed but the same couldn’t be said for Terry.
There was 3 EF-1 (Electric F1) models racing and a new comer to pylon, Daniel Arapakis racing his trainer. Well done to Daniel! He improved dramatically during the day.
This event is always a great opportunity for people to try pylon racing for the first time.
Brian, James, Jim & Tom on the way out to the line - FA1 (Aust F3D)
After a break from racing of over a month, VMPRA members headed down to Warrnambool for a weekend of pylon racing. Members of the Warrnambool club turned out in force to help and to provide good food and refreshments for the weekend. The field was in great condition but the weather on Saturday was not so good with very strong wind and the rain starting to fall in the afternoon. Sunday really made up for it, with only a light breeze and scatter cloud cover.
On Saturday we flew 5 rounds of Q500 followed by another 5 rounds of F400. Once the rain started falling, FA1 was abandoned for the day.
FA1 (Aust F3D) about to launch
Sunday started with FA1 & Q500 alternating until 9 rounds of Q500 had been completed and then a further 4 rounds of FA1 was flown to complete the event.
All in all this was a very enjoyable weekend. As well as the on field action, we all went to the pub for dinner and a good chin wag on the Saturday night. It was a pity that entries for this event were down on the usual numbers but there was plenty of good racing to be had by all.
Although numbers where a bit down due to the F1 Grand Prix in Melbourne and other clashes, this weekend turned out to be fantastic conditions for flying pylon, the field was in great condition and all had a good time.
F400 was flown with 2 new competitors to this class (Barry Townsend & myself) and Q500 saw Matt Carter flying in his second event (1st being Camperdown) and Ian Rickard who usually helps in the pylon cage on these weekends, flew Q500 for the first time.
The result are now uploaded. You can find them here>>>
The next event is at Warrnambool on April 28 – 29. See you there!
