Event Report – Munro May 2022

Posted on June 12, 2022 by Scadtastic

On May 28-29, the VMPRA headed off to Barry Murphy’s fantastic purpose-built pylon racing field at Munro.
On arrival on Saturday morning, I was struck by how many people were camping out at the field with a plethora of vans, trailers and tents all set up.

We couldn’t have picked a better weekend for the weather. It was mostly clear skies, mild temperatures (once the sun was up) and light breezes.
There was a good amount of entries with 7 x Q500, 7 x F3T & 5 x F3D entries, plus a good amount of spectators. It was a pleasure not having trouble getting helpers; hence all racing was carried out with a full complement of pylon judges.

We carried out 8 rounds of each class and there was some excellent racing, particularly at the top of the tables. The race results pretty much tell the story of the racing for the weekend.

Other than that, it was an enjoyable and social weekend and although I wasn’t there on the night, I believe there was a great feed put on, as usual, by Andrew Arapakis and Matt Noonan’s band was a big hit. This is something new to pylon racing for us. Good one Matt.

Go to Gallery>>>

Results

Class – FA1

Places:
1st Beau Murphy
2nd Daniel Arapakis
3rd Rick Townsend

Fastest Time (Red Box): 58.55 Beau Murphy
No. of competitors: 5

Class – F3T

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

Fastest Time (Red Box): 61.63 Beau Murphy
No. of competitors: 7

Class – Q500

Places:
1st Jim Orenshaw
2nd David Chippindall
3rd John Schmidli

Fastest Time (Red Box): 95.40 David Chippindall
No. of competitors: 7

Check out the full results>>>

Season Championship

At this stage, it looks like these are the final positions for this season’s championship as we would be holding our AGM at the next event, Cohuna making that event the start of the new 2022-2023 season.

FA1

After Beau’s win this weekend, he’s popped up from 3rd position into 1st place pushing both Brian and Tom down a place into 2nd and 3rd respectively.

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

F3T

Jim has remained at the top 10 points ahead of Barry who has jumped up into 2nd place from 5th and Brian has moved up into 3rd place from 4th.

1st – Jim Orenshaw
2nd – Barry Murphy
3rd – Brian Steele

Q500

There was no change in places since the last race at Echuca with Jim strengthening his lead, 8 points ahead of John.

1st – Jim Orenshaw
2nd – John Schmidli
3rd – Gary Whitbourn

Check Out Season Championship >>>

Next Race

The next race meet will be on August 13-14 at the home of pylon racing in Victoria, Cohuna. I hope to see you all there.

Check Out Complete Calendar >>>

Report – John Schmidli
Photos – Sarah Doyle, Andrew Arapakis & John Schmidli

Please note: We are looking for people willing to write event reports or photograph the events. This is important and valuable to pylon racing in Victoria, Australia and Worldwide as this site has a vast readership.

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.

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Event Report – Echuca Moama May 2022

Posted on May 23, 2022 by Scadtastic

On the weekend of May 14-15th, the VMPRA headed to a new club for us, the “Echuca Moama Model Aero Club”.

The facilities at this club were fantastic and a good size contingent took advantage of this and camped out at the field. There would have been about 8 caravans there.

This was a new field to us and a new event to the local club members, so this race was only two classes, F3T & Q500. I think this made for an enjoyable and slightly more relaxed weekend and resulted in good numbers of entries, with 7 for F3T & 11 for Q500.

The only difficulty we had was due to so many Q500 entries, we had some difficulty getting helpers on the No.1 pylon. Luckily, a couple of club members helped us out on Saturday and some friends of David and Toni Axon, helped on Sunday. The weather was perfect on both days and we enjoyed 2 great days of racing.

Go to Gallery>>>

Results

Class – F3T

Places:
1st Barry Murphy
2nd Jim Orenshaw
3rd Brian Steele

Fastest Time: 67.69 Barry Murphy
No. of competitors: 7

Class – Q500

Places:
1st Tom Wetherill
2nd Jim Orenshaw
3rd Allan Swift

Fastest Time: 91.57 Tom Wetherill
No. of competitors: 11

Check out the full results>>>

Season Championship

F3T

Jim has jumped up to the top position from 3rd place resulting in Glenn and Andrew moving down a spot each.

1st – Jim Orenshaw
2nd – Glenn Matthews
3rd – Andrew Davies

Q500

There was no change for the top 2 positions but Garry has jumped up from 4th position into 3rd, displacing James Hurley.

1st – Jim Orenshaw
2nd – John Schmidli
3rd – James Hurley

Check Out Season Championship >>>

Next Race

The next race meet will be on May 28-29 at Barry’s flying field in Munro and we’ll be back to our usual 3 class race event. I hope to see you all there.

Check Out Complete Calendar >>>

Report – John Schmidli
Photos – Anh Swift & John Schmidli

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Event Report – Newbridge March 2022

Posted on April 16, 2022 by Scadtastic

Back on the 26-27th of March, the VMPRA held its second race event for the year at Rick Townsend’s pylon racing field in Newbridge. Although the numbers were a little down on usual, we had a successful weekend on pylon racing. The weather was perfect, everybody chipped in with helping and the Townsend family provided us with some delicious breakfast and lunch offerings.

As I mentioned, numbers were a little down on usual, particularly in Q500 as Gary and Alan Whitbourn had to pull out at the last moment.

It was great to have a new pilot, Anthony Thurgood from Warrnambool, racing Q500 with us for the first time. Anthony was at the Previous event at Warrnambool and was inspired to come along and have a go. As a first-time pylon racer, he flew very well and seemed to pick up flying the course quickly.

There are a few photos from the event in that gallery.

Go to Gallery>>>

Results

Class – FA1

Places:
1st Beau Murphy
2nd Glenn Matthews
3rd Tom Wetherill

Fastest Time: 61.82 Beau Murphy
No. of competitors: 5

Class – F3T

Places:
1st Andrew Davies
2nd Beau Murphy
3rd Jim Orenshaw

Fastest Time: 64.76 Andrew Davies
No. of competitors: 8

Class – Q500

Places:
1st Jim Orenshaw
2nd James Hurley
3rd Anthony Thurgood

Fastest Time: 100.02 Jim Orenshaw
No. of competitors: 3

Check out the full results>>>

Season Championship

FA1

Brian, Tom and Beau all moved up one position on the season championship with Leigh Hocken slipping down to 4th position due to not competing this weekend.

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

F3T

Glenn stayed in the top place but Andrew and Jim swapped positions.

1st – Glenn Matthews
2nd – Andrew Davies
3rd – Jim Orenshaw

Q500

There was no change in positions for Q500

1st – Jim Orenshaw
2nd – John Schmidli
3rd – James Hurley

Check Out Season Championship >>>

Next Race

The next race meet will be on May 14-15 in Echuca and we will be running only 2 classes. F3T & Q500.

More about this event:

The most exciting and exhilarating discipline of RC – pylon racing comes to the Echuca State field on the 14/15^th of May. Two classes will be flown, the introductory class Q500 and the international class F3T. The racing is flown around a 400-metre triangular course for 10 laps, the Q500 models complete the race in around 90 to 100 sec, and the F3T models complete the race in around 60 to 70 seconds.

This will be the inaugural event at the Echuca field and we encourage all pylon flyers to support the event and the Echuca club. We encourage those who want to witness pylon racing for the first time to come and have a look or bring a model (any model) and ”have a go”.

The pylon racing fraternity is a very friendly and supportive group from all walks of life sharing one passion and will go out of their way to welcome and help both newcomers and the experienced racer.

Check Out Complete Calendar >>>

Report & Photos – John Schmidli

Quick Reference

Pylon Racing comes to Echuca – May 14/15th

Posted on April 11, 2022 by Scadtastic

For further information on this event visit https://vmpra.org.au/ or contact our President Gary Whitbourn on 0421 024 091

Event Report – 2021 AMPRA/WC Team Trial – Warrnambool Feb 2022

Posted on March 6, 2022 by Scadtastic

On the weekend of February 26-27, 2022, we finally had a chance to get together and run our 2021 AMPRA Champs. The AMPRA event was also a team selection for the F3D World Championships to be held later this year in the U.S. This meant we had lots of competitors from interstate come down, which was great to see.

We had some of our interstate visitors arrive earlier in the week. On the Friday afternoon when I arrived, there were many people there practising and set up ready for the weekend.

To ensure our best chance of getting through our flying programme for the weekend, we scheduled to start racing quite early (at 8 am), meaning people were turning up to setup their planes in the dark.
The first class we ran, this being a team trial, was F3D, one of the priority classes for the weekend. We managed to get through the five minimum required rounds very early.

After a short break, we commenced flying F3E and Q500 to give the competitors of F3E, a chance to charge batteries between rounds, which worked quite well and kept a good flow for the event.

We managed to get through the eight rounds of combined F3E & Q500 by about the middle of the afternoon, meaning we could bring forward the AMPRA meeting. We had to discuss some items of business for AMPRA. AMPRA (Australian Miniature Pylon Racing Association) is the Australian body for pylon racing. This event was the AMPRA Championships, which we hold once a year, normally in June, but due to COVID, this had been delayed from last year.

The next day we started early again. First up, we had to finish the remaining three rounds of F3D, making up a total of eight rounds. This done, we had completed the required racing for the team trials.

It was still early in the day, so we had time to run a good eight rounds of F3T. This class is always great to race and we had a good mix of Victoria and Queensland flyers flying this event.

F3T all finished up in the early afternoon after a short break for lunch. Presentations were made and we started leaving the field about 2:30 in the afternoon.

In general, it was a great event. It was excellent to have competitors from interstate, including Queensland, New South Wales, South Australia, and Victoria.

We saw some fantastic racing. In particular, some very tight racing between Beau Murphy and Lea Hocken, with Beau coming out on top with some excellent times. It was also great to see some good results in F3E.
Quickie 500 was competed only by Victorians and as usual, Jim Orenshaw came out on top.

The Warrnambool club did another great job of hosting, and we all very much appreciated it. Everyone pitched in and helped with pylon judging and timing. A great weekend had by all.

Go to Gallery>>>

Results

Class – FA1

Places:
1st Beau Murphy
2nd Leigh Hocken
3rd Tyler Mees

Fastest Time: 54.55 Beau Murphy
No. of competitors: 6

Class – F3E

Places:
1st Tyler Mees
2nd Tony Singleton
3rd Trevor Pearce

Fastest Time: 56:27 Tony Singleton
No. of competitors: 6

Class – F3T

Places:
1st Andrew Wall
2nd Steve Hughes
3rd Glenn Matthews

Fastest Time: 60.51 Andrew Wall
No. of competitors: 6

Class – Q500

Places:
1st Jim Orenshaw
2nd James Hurley
3rd John Schmidli

Fastest Time: 94.49 Jim Orenshaw
No. of competitors: 6

Check out the full results>>>

Season Championship

FA1

1st – Leigh Hocken
2nd – Brian Steele
3rd – Tom Wetherill

F3T

1st – Glenn Matthews
2nd – Jim Orenshaw
3rd – Andrew Davies

Q500

1st – Jim Orenshaw
2nd – John Schmidli
3rd – James Hurley

Check Out Season Championship >>>

Next Race

The next race meet will be on March 26-27 at Rick Townsend’s model airfield.
Classes being raced will be F3D, F3E & Q500.

Check Out Complete Calendar >>>

Report & Photos – John Schmidli

Quick Reference

Event Report – Warrnambool Nov 2021

Posted on November 13, 2021 by Scadtastic

Finally, the VMPRA was able to go back to racing and back to the Warrnambool Model Aircraft Club. What a fantastic club facility they have there. The field was beautifully prepared, the club put on great catering and the help was incredible.

Saturday was a little wet particularly in the morning and early afternoon so after completing 4 rounds of Q500, we held the AMG. After that, the weather had clear enough to fly 4 rounds of F3D,

Sunday, the weather was more stable and with an early start, we completed 8 rounds of F3T, then the balance of the Q500 and F3D rounds. All in all, it was a great weekend and the welcome return to pylon racing in Victoria.

We look forward to returning to this club for our world champs team selection event in Feb 2022.

Go to Gallery>>>

Results

Class – FA1

Places:
1st Leigh Hocken
2nd Brian Steele
3rd Tom Wetherill

Fastest Time: 56.77 Leigh Hocken
No. of competitors: 6

Class – F3T

Places:
1st Andrew Davies
2nd Glenn Matthews
3rd Jim Orenshaw

Fastest Time: 61.04 Andrew Davies
No. of competitors: 6

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

Fastest Time: 98.18 Jim Orenshaw
No. of competitors: 6

Check out the full results>>>

Season Championship

FA1

1st – Leigh Hocken
2nd – Brian Steele
3rd – Tom Wetherill

F3T

1st – Andrew Davies
2nd – Glenn Matthews
3rd – Jim Orehshaw

Q500

1st – Jim Orenshaw
2nd – John Schmidli
3rd – Gary Whitbourn

Check Out Season Championship >>>

Next Race

The next race meet will be a World Champs team selection event at Warrnambool on Feb 26-27, 2022.
Classes being raced will be F3D, F3E & Q500.

Check Out Complete Calendar >>>

Report – John Schmidli

Please note: We are looking for people willing to write event reports or photograph the events. This is an important and valuable to pylon racing in Victoria, Australia and Worldwide as this site has a vast viewership.

Quick Reference

Event Report – Munro Mar 2021

Posted on March 20, 2021 by Scadtastic

Well, it has been such a long time since we last all went pylon racing. With a false start back in February due to wet weather, the VMPRA finally re-launched pylon racing in Victoria.

The weather was kind to us and we managed to race a complete program of 8 rounds of Q500, F3D & F3T over the weekend.
An early start and refuelling out on the line saw Q500 complete five rounds before 11 am. Next up was F3D, with four rounds and then after lunch, two rounds of f3T before a cool change came through, stopping flying for the day.

We finally held our long-delayed AGM from last year and later that night, we all enjoyed another one of Andrew Arapakis’s spit roast meals.

Sunday was cooler compared to Saturday’s warm and humid conditions. As a result, times were faster, with fast and furious racing by Beau Murphy and Daniel Arapakis for F3D. David Chippindall also recorded a very fast sub 90 sec time for Q500.

We cycled through all the remaining rounds and classes, managing to finish up by lunch. After a lunch break consisting of some very nice pizza’s and left-overs from Saturday night, we packed up, held presentations and headed home.

As I said at the start, it was great to be back racing again and thanks to Barry Murphy for having us at his excellent pylon racing field.

Results

Class – FA1

Places:
1st Beau Murphy
2nd Daniel Arapakis
3rd Barry Murphy

Fastest Time: 57.63 Daniel Arapakis
No. of competitors: 4

Class – F3T

Places:
1st Glenn Matthews
2nd Barry Murphy
3rd Jim Orenshaw

Fastest Time: 63.73 Glenn Matthews
No. of competitors: 7

Places:
1st David Chippindall
2nd Jim Orenshaw
3rd John Schmidli

Fastest Time: 89.76 David Chippindall
No. of competitors: 6

Check out the full results>>>

Next Race

There have been a few recent additions to the event calendar with more to come so make sure you pencil in the confirmed events and keep an eye out for further updates.

The next event will be held at Warrnambool on April 17-18, 2021. Hope we can get a big turn-out there for some great racing. See you then.

Check Out Complete Calendar >>>

Report – 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

Event Results
Season Championship
Event Calendar

Event Report – Warrnambool

Posted on May 18, 2020 by Scadtastic

Our last event prior to the Convid-19 shut-down was at Warrnambool on Feb 29 – Mar 1.

Results

Class – FA1

Places:
1st Daniel Arapakis
2nd Barry Murphy
3rd Andrew Davies

Fastest Time: 56.24 Leigh Hocken
No. of competitors: 7

Class – F3T

Places:
1st Jim Orenshaw
2nd Glenn Matthews
3rd Marcus Guss

Fastest Time: 65.46 Andrew Davies
No. of competitors: 8

Places:
1st Jim Orenshaw
2nd Cameron Sexton
3rd Robin Gray

Fastest Time: 93.40 Jim Orenshaw
No. of competitors: 6

Check out the full results>>>

Season Championship

FA1

No change in position for these three.

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

F3T

No change in position for these three.

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

Q500

Jim Orenshaw remains in first place and Gary Whitbourn has moved up to 2nd from 3rd place displacing Allan Swift.

1st – Jim Orenshaw
2nd – Gary Whitbourn
3rd – Allan Swift

Check Out Season Championship >>>

Next Race

Because of Cancellations and Postponements due the the Covid-19 pandemic shut-down, keep an eye on your emails and the calendar on this site.

Check Out Complete Calendar >>>

Report – 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

Event Results
Season Championship
Event Calendar

Event Report – Camperdown, VMPRA Trophy

Posted on February 29, 2020 by Scadtastic

We held this year’s VMPRA Trophy at Camperdown back on Feb 1 & 2. Unfortuneatly, it rained on Saturday and there were no rains on that day. All classes raced on Sunday with only 4 rounds of each being completed.

Results

Class – FA1

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

Fastest Time: 64.64 Barry Murphy
No. of competitors: 4

Class – F3T

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

Fastest Time: 67.36 Jim Orenshaw
No. of competitors: 9

Places:
1st Jim Orenshaw
2nd Allan Swift
3rd Tom Allan

Fastest Time: 97.77 Jim Orenshaw
No. of competitors: 8

Check out the full results>>>

Season Championship

FA1

Andrew Davies and Brian Steels remain in 1st and 2nd places respectively. Glenn Matthews has displayed Leigh Hocken for 3rd Place.

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

F3T

No change in position for these three.

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

Q500

Jim Orenshaw remains in first place and Allen Swift has moved up to 2nd and John Schmidli up into 3rd place.

1st – Jim Orenshaw
2nd – Allan Swift
3rd – John Schmidli

Check Out Season Championship >>>

Next Race

Munro – April 04-05

Check Out Complete Calendar >>>

Report – 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

Event Results
Season Championship
Event Calendar

Event Report – Warrnambool Nov, 2019

Posted on February 1, 2020 by Scadtastic

The event was at Warrnambool on Nov 16-17. This field was in absolutely perfect condition with the club having recently upgraded all their facilities and the weather had been very kind with very green pastures and hay being cut everywhere.

Thanks to the Warrnambool Club for hosting this event and we look forward to revisiting you at the end of Feb 2020.

Results

Class – FA1

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

Fastest Time: 63.39 Beau Murphy
No. of competitors: 6

Class – F3T

Places:
1st Glenn Matthews
2nd Brian Steele
3rd John Schmidli

Fastest Time: 64.00 Andrew Davies
No. of competitors: 8

Places:
1st Mike Kellet
2nd John Schmidli
3rd Gary Whitbourn

Fastest Time: 96.27 Jim Orenshaw
No. of competitors: 8

Check out the full results>>>

Season Championship

This was the first event for the new 2019-2020 season championship.

FA1

Andrew Davies and Brian Steels remain in 1st and 2nd places respectively. Leigh Hocken has displayed Beau Murphy for 3rd Place.

1st – Andrew Davies
2nd – Brian Steele
3rd – Leigh Hocken

F3T

Brian Steele and Andrew Davies have moved up a position each leaving Jim Orenshaw in 3rd place after not competing at this event.

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

Q500

Jim Orenshaw remains in first place and Gary Whitbourn has moved up to 2nd pushing Allan Swift down to 3rd place.

1st – Jim Orenshaw
2nd – Gary Whitbourn
3rd – Allan Swift

Check Out Season Championship >>>

Next Race

Warrnambool Feb 29 – Mar 1.

Check Out Complete Calendar >>>

Report – 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

Event Results
Season Championship
Event Calendar