What an incredible weekend we experienced while participating in the Victorian State Championships at the Warrnambool clubs. The weather couldn’t have been better; the club facilities and field were of top-notch, and we had a great turnout.

A few of noteworthy highlights caught our attention. It was particularly gratifying to witness the debut of a new Q500 competitor, 14-year-old Bowen Brown, who adapted remarkably well to the pylon course and showed continuous improvement throughout the weekend. We sincerely hope to see Bowen at upcoming VMPRA events.

Additionally, it was a pleasure to see Shaun Power join us once more, marking his participation in the last four competitions. I think he’s enjoying it!

Finally, a special mention goes to Anthony Thurgood, one of our relatively recent competitors, who clinched the 1st place in F3D. Anthony has now competed in all three classes in a remarkably short time, especially excelling in the challenging F3D class, which he has only competed in five competitions to date. Congratulations to Anthony Thurgood on this well-deserved achievement.

Rankings

The FAI are putting together a list of overall ranking across all world champs. Attached is the ranking of all Australians. For more information, you can go to:
https://fai.org/page/f3-radio-control-pylon-racing

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Results

Class – FA1

Places:
1st Anthony Thurgood
2nd Brian Steele
3rd Glenn Matthews

Fastest Time (Red Box): 62.80 Glenn Matthews.
No. of competitors: 4

Class – F3T

Places:
1st Brian Steele
2nd Jim Orenshaw
3rd Anthony Thurgood

Fastest Time (Red Box): 68.58 Glenn Matthews.
No. of competitors: 13

Class – Q500

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

Fastest Time (Red Box): 96.10 John Schmidli
No. of competitors: 11

Season Championship

FA1

With one more race left for the season, Brian Steele has it all wrapped up. Rick Townsend has remained in 2nd position and Andrew Davies has moved up into 3rd position.

1st – Brian Steele
2nd – Rick Townsend
3rd – Tom Wetherill

F3T

Again, Brian Steele will wrap it up as season champion with one race to go. Jim Orenshaw has moved up into 2nd position having bumped Andrew Davies down a spot into 3rd position.

1st – Brian Steele
2nd – Jim Orenshaw
3rd – Andrew Davies

Q500

No change in the top three positions and John Schmidli has secured the championship with a race to go.

1st – John Schmidli
2nd – Jim Orenshaw
3rd – Anthony Thurgood

Next Class Race – Warrnambool.

We’ll be back at Munro on Dec 2 – 3.

Also, check the calendar regularly, as new dates for 2024 are being added regularly.

Report  – John Schmidli
Photos – John Schmidli & Tom Allen.

Please note: We are looking for someone to write event reports regularly. Also, it would be wonderful to have someone photograph these events. This site has a vast readership and is important and valuable to pylon racing in Victoria, Australia and Worldwide.

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/our perspective and reflects how I/we have experienced this event. Photos published as feature images are selected purely for their quality, general interest or topicality. When time permits, they are chosen from a pool of photos taken by myself and others. If a perspective is not being represented, I am more than happy to publish any written content or photos supplied to me, provided it is fair and reasonable.

Quick Reference

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Results

Class – FA1

Places:
1st Rick Townsend
2nd Brian Steele
3rd Glenn Matthews

Fastest Time (Red Box): 62.08 Rick Townsend.
No. of competitors: 5

Class – F3T

Places:
1st Glenn Matthews
2nd Anthony Thurgood
3rd John Schmidli

Fastest Time (Red Box): 67.08 Glenn Matthews.
No. of competitors: 8

Class – Q500

Places:
1st John Schmidli
2nd Jim Orenshaw
3rd Gary Davidson

Fastest Time (Red Box): 96.01 John Schmidli
No. of competitors: 9

Season Championship

FA1

Brian Steele remains in the top position. Rick Townsend and Tom Wetherill moved up two positions each to take up 2nd and 3rd positions, respectively.

1st – Brian Steele
2nd – Rick Townsend
3rd – Tom Wetherill

F3T

The top 3 positions remain the same after this race.

1st – Brian Steele
2nd – Andrew Davies
3rd – Jim Orenshaw

Q500

No change in the top two positions, but Anthony Thurgood has displaced Tom Allan by moving up into 3rd position.

1st – John Schmidli
2nd – Jim Orenshaw
3rd – Anthony Thurgood

Next Class Race – Warrnambool.

We’ll be back at Warrnambool on Oct 11 – 12.

Also, check the calendar regularly, as new dates for 2024 are being added regularly.

Report  – John Schmidli
Photos – John Schmidli & Anthony Thurgood.

Please note: We are looking for someone to write event reports regularly. Also, it would be wonderful to have someone photograph these events. This site has a vast readership and is important and valuable to pylon racing in Victoria, Australia and Worldwide.

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/our perspective and reflects how I/we have experienced this event. Photos published as feature images are selected purely for their quality, general interest or topicality. When time permits, they are chosen from a pool of photos taken by myself and others. If a perspective is not being represented, I am more than happy to publish any written content or photos supplied to me, provided it is fair and reasonable.

Quick Reference

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Results

Class – FA1

Places:
1st Brian Steele
2nd Barry Murphy
3rd Rick Townsend

Fastest Time (Red Box): 64.57 Rick Townsend.
No. of competitors: 6

Class – F3T

Places:
1st Brian Steele
2nd Jim Orenshaw
3rd Andrew Davies

Fastest Time (Red Box): 64.63 Andrew Davies.
No. of competitors: 10

Class – Q500

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

Fastest Time (Red Box): 93.15 John Schmidli
No. of competitors: 12

Season Championship

FA1

Brian Steele remains in the top position, with Barry Murphy moving up a spot to 2nd position, displacing Andrew Davies down into 3rd.

1st – Brian Steele
2nd – Barry Murphy
3rd – Andrew Davies

F3T

Brian Steele and Andrew Davies continue swapping the top 2 positions, with Brian now being in the top spot. Jim Orenshaw has now moved up a position into the 3rd place.

1st – Brian Steele
2nd – Andrew Davies
3rd – Jim Orenshaw

Q500

There was, again, no change in the top 3 positions after this event.

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

Next Class Race – New Bridge (Rick’s Field).

We’ll be back at Rick Townsend’s pylon field at New Bridge, on Oct 14 – 15

Report  – John Schmidli
Photos – John Schmidli,

Please note: We are looking for someone to write event reports regularly. Also, it would be wonderful to have someone photograph these events. This site has a vast readership and is important and valuable to pylon racing in Victoria, Australia and Worldwide.

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/our perspective and reflects how I/we have experienced this event. Photos published as feature images are selected purely for their quality, general interest or topicality. When time permits, they are chosen from a pool of photos taken by myself and others. If a perspective is not being represented, I am more than happy to publish any written content or photos supplied to me, provided it is fair and reasonable.

Quick Reference

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Results

Class – FA1

Places:
1st Rick Townsend
2nd Brian Steele
3rd Andrew Davies

Fastest Time (Red Box): 59.88 Rick Townsend.
No. of competitors: 4

Class – F3T

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

Fastest Time (Red Box): 62.99 Andrew Davies.
No. of competitors: 10

Class – Q500

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

Fastest Time (Red Box): 93.46 Jim Orenshaw.
No. of competitors: 12

Season Championship

FA1

Brian Steele remains in the top position, with Barry Murphy moving down a spot into 3rd, being displaced by Andrew Davies.

1st – Brian Steele
2nd – Andrew Davies
3rd – Barry Murphy

F3T

Brian Steele and Andrew Davies continue swapping the top 2 positions, with Brian now being in the top spot. Jim Orenshaw has now moved up a position into the 3rd place.

1st – Andrew Davies
2nd – Brian Steele
3rd – Jim Orenshaw

Q500

There was no change in the top 3 positions after this event.

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

Next Race – Mt Wallice (Q500 ONLY).

We head off to a new field for us to Mt Wallice (187 Brisbane Ranges Rd) on August 20.

Next Full 3 Class Race – Cohuna

We’ll be back at the home of pylon racing, Cohuna, on Sept 16 – 17

Report  – John Schmidli
Photos – John Schmidli,

Please note: We are looking for someone to write event reports regularly. Also, it would be wonderful to have someone photograph these events. This site has a vast readership and is important and valuable to pylon racing in Victoria, Australia and Worldwide.

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/our perspective and reflects how I/we have experienced this event. Photos published as feature images are selected purely for their quality, general interest or topicality. When time permits, they are chosen from a pool of photos taken by myself and others. If a perspective is not being represented, I am more than happy to publish any written content or photos supplied to me, provided it is fair and reasonable.

Quick Reference

Back on the weekend of June 10 & 11 was the King’s birthday weekend. The VMPRA hosted the Australian Miniature Pylon Racing Association (AMPRA) Championships down at the Munro Field Model Aircraft Club in Gippsland.

One of the great things about hosting the AMPRA Champs in Victoria is having interstate competitors come and race with us. We had all the way from Queensland, Andrew Wall, Tony Singleton, Steve & Jo Taylor and Mick Dallmann and from South Australia and Trevor Pierce from South Australia. It was great to see them again and get to race against them.

Conditions

The weather was really quite good although on Saturday it was a little windy and this coupled with the very bright sun, low in the sky, conditions made flying in the afternoon difficult. But we had a perfect full day of flying on Sunday and flew quite late into the afternoon. By the time we packed up, presented trophies and headed off on our way, it was getting dark. Getting home later than normal was negated by Monday being a holiday for most of us.

On Saturday night, we had a fantastic dinner at the field put on and prepared by Andrew Arapakis with the help of Tony Eichstadt. As usual, we had a wonderful evening of socializing with everybody.

Racings

There was some great flying to be seen. One of great interest and a highlight was seeing Trevor Pierce flying his Electrified F3T model and seeing it fly in comparison to the conventional internal combustion-engined versions. It certainly looks very comparable and this may be quite an exciting way to go in the future for people who want to race electric. Certainly, this is an easier plane to see in the air compared to the F3E models and has the performance.

We had a really good number of flyers in F3T with 14 competitors, and in Q500 also had 13 competitors, which was outstanding.

Debut Race

Talking about Q500, it was fantastic to see a new competitor, John Junge, who was flying Q500 for the first time and placed himself very well, coming in 6th place out of 13, which was an excellent effort and he was flying the course better than most of us would on our first time. So congratulations to John.

We had many helpers and had no problems fielding the appropriate numbers of pylon judges. Also, it was very helpful having Wendy and Mick running the timing system, plus Mick Dallmann was roped into being CD. It was really appreciated.

Thanks to Andrew for the Saturday night meal and Gary Whitbourn for breakfast and lunch catering. Of course, we can’t forget Barry Murphy for hosting us at his wonderful pylon racing field. There is a good amount of pictures in the gallery. Check them out.

We look forward to the next event, which will be at Bendigo on July 22-23.

Don’t forget; we are looking for people to write reports and take photos of all these events for the website, which would be very helpful. See you in Bendigo.

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Results

Class – FA1

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

Fastest Time (Red Box): 63.51 Andrew Wall.
No. of competitors: 5

Class – F3T

Places:
1st Andrew Wall
2nd Tony Singleton
3rd John Schmidli

Fastest Time (Red Box): 62.58 Andrew Wall.
No. of competitors: 13

Class – Q500

Places:
1st David Chippindal
2nd Jim Orenshaw
3rd Mike Kellet

Fastest Time (Red Box): 93.15 David Chippindal.
No. of competitors: 13

Season Championship

FA1

Brian Steele remains in top position, with Barry Murphy moving up to 2nd spot, displacing Tom Wetherill down into 3rd place.

1st – Brian Steele
2nd – Barry Murphy
3rd – Tom Wetherill

F3T

Brian Steele has jumped up into 1st place, making him top spot in both FA1& F3T. Andrew Davies and Glenn Matthews have been pushed down a place each into 2nd & 3rd places, respectively.

1st – Brian Steele
2nd – Andrew Davies
3rd – Glenn Matthews

Q500

John Schmidli remains in top place, with Jim Orenshaw moving up a spot into 2nd, leaving Tom Wetherill in 3rd place.

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

Next Race – Bendigo

We’ll be back a Bendigo for the first time in a while (July 22 & 23), racing all three classes.

Report  – John Schmidli
Photos – John Schmidli, Anthony Thurgood & Andrew Arapakis (sorry if I’ve missed someone).

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/our perspective and reflects how I/we have experienced this event. Photos published as feature images are selected purely for their quality, general interest or topicality. When time permits, they are chosen from a pool of photos taken by myself and others. If a perspective is not being represented, I am more than happy to publish any written content or photos supplied to me, provided it is fair and reasonable.

Quick Reference

Unfortunately, we haven’t received a report for this event. I can tell you we all had an enjoyable race weekend back at Rick’s Field in Newbridge. Thanks for having us Rick.

Please check below the results and championship standings. Various people also took some photos, which can be found at the Event Gallery link below. Sorry, I have forgotten who you are, but I appreciate your contributions.

Regarding event reports, I’m looking for volunteers to write reports for future race events. It doesn’t have to be an essay. It can just be a few paragraphs. Just to give readers a feel for the event. That would be great.

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Results

Class – FA1

Places:
1st Rick Townsend
2nd Brian Steele
3rd Anthony Thurgood

Fastest Time (Red Box): 62.58 Rick Townsend (Not all Pylons Observed).
No. of competitors: 5

Class – F3T

Places:
1st Brian Steele
2nd Glenn Matthews
3rd Jim Orenshaw

Fastest Time (Red Box): 65.13 Glenn Davidson (Not all pylons were observed).
No. of competitors: 9

Class – Q500

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

Fastest Time (Red Box): 90.15 Tom Wetherill (Not all pylons were observed).
No. of competitors: 10

Season Championship

FA1

Brian Steele and Tom Wetherill have moved up a spot each, with Brian in the top position and Tom in 2nd place. Barry Murphy dropped from 1st down to 3rd position.

1st – Brian Steele
2nd – Tom Wetherill
3rd – Barry Murphy

F3T

Andrew Davies and Glenn Matthews remain in 1st and 2nd position, respectively. Brian Steele has moved up from 4th position to 3rd, push Jim Orenshaw out of the top 3.

1st – Andrew Davies
2nd – Glenn Matthews
3rd – Brian Steele

Q500

John Schmidli and Tom Wetherill remain in 1st and 2nd positions respectively. Jim Orenshaw has moved up into 3rd place

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

Next Race – Newbridge

Western Port Model Aircraft Club – Q500 and Sports only May 21, 2023

Report  – N/A
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/our perspective and reflects how I/we 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