Due to unforeseen circumstances, the Munro event (originally scheduled for 11th-12th/Nov/2017) has been postponed to the 18th – 19th of November, 2017.
The following event has been added to our Event Calendar.
John Schmidli
I was great to be back racing at Cohuna once again after a break of a year to celebrate 40 year of this great club hosting pylon racing in Victoria. The VMPRA has always regarded the Cohuna Club as the home of pylon racing.
We had a good turn-out of competitors including the interstate guys from South Australia & New South Wales and we were blessed with terrific weather. Lots of club members, locals, photographers and even a local councilor visited to watch proceedings.
The Cohuna club was so supportive of this event that we had enough helpers to run a 10 lap course rather that the usual 10.5 laps. There were some very fast times and even an Australian record for F400 was broken by Shaun Jacobsen with a 61.60 sec.
Check out the event photo gallery>>>
Places:
1st Shaun Jacobsen
2nd Barry Murphy
3rd Brian Steele
Fastest Time: 56.32 (10 lap course) – Daniel Arapakis
No. of competitors: 10
Class – F400
Places:
1st Shaun Jacobsen
2nd Andrew Davies
3rd Jarrod Jacobsen
Fastest Time: 61.60 (10 Lap Course) – Shaun Jacobsen
No. of competitors: 9
Places:
1st Jim Orenshaw
2nd John Schmidli
3rd Gary Davidson
Fastest Time: 94.17 – John Schmidli
No. of competitors: 5
This was the first event for the new 2017-2018 Season Championship.
1st – Brian Steele
2nd – Glenn Matthews
3rd – Rick Townsend
1st – Andrew Davies
2nd – Brian Steele
3rd – Glenn Matthews
1st – Jim Orenshaw
2nd – John Schmidli
3rd – Gary Davidson
Check Out Season Championship >>>
The next race on the calendar is at Bazza’s paddock at Munro on Nov 11-12.
Check Out Complete Calendar >>>
Event Report and Photos – John Schmidli
Additional photos – Tegan Clifford
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 ReferenceEvent Result |
After a long break in racing, the last event being back in May, the VMPRA held it’s first event at Rick Townsend’s purpose built pylon racing field in Newbridge. Rick has been setting up and developing this field over the last few years with the ambition of holding regular pylon racing events there.
We were blessed with some superb weather, particularly on the Sunday with temperatures of zero and below when we first arrived at the field, but with clear blue skies, it was t-shirt weather by lunch time.
Numbers were a little down on usual with the post world championship hang-over. Barry Murphy was suffering with the flu and had to return home on Saturday morning and Leigh Hocken also had to pull out due to illness. On the plus side it was great having father/son team Matt & Xavier Noonan there for the weekend flying Q500 and also Steve & Jo Taylor put in a big effort, coming down from Queensland. Steve was debuting his brand new F3D racer, the “Vector” which had only just been test flown the week before. They also left a bunch of models down here with some great bargains to be had. It was also great to have Rick flying with us again after a long break and he was certainly on it right from the start and ended up taking out 1st place in FA1.
Racing on both days comprised of F400, FA1 and Q500 as the last class for the day and all flew 8 rounds by the end of the weekend. We finished nice and early on the Sunday and finish, packed up and presented certificates and left around 3pm.
I think we would all say the flying at Rick’s field was very enjoyable. The field setup was great and the hospitality was 2nd to none with Rick and Ozzie’s Coffee van being on-site and along with Barry Townsend, were selling some very nice “really” coffees plus homemade food.
Check out the event photo gallery>>>
Places:
1st Rick Townsend
2nd Tom Wetherill
3rd Steve Taylor
Fastest Time: 57.97 – Daniel Arapakis
No. of competitors: 7
Class – F400
Places:
1st Andrew Davies
2nd Brian Steele
3rd Glenn Matthews
Fastest Time: 65.18 – Andrew Davies
No. of competitors: 6
Places:
1st Jim Orenshaw
2nd John Schmidli
3rd Alan Whitbourn
Fastest Time: 93.14 – John Schmidli
No. of competitors: 7
This was the first event for the new 2017-2018 Season Championship.
1st – Rick Townsend
2nd – Tom Wetherill
3rd – Steve Taylor
1st – Andrew Davies
2nd – Brian Steele
3rd – Glenn Matthews
1st – Jim Orenshaw
2nd – John Schmidli
3rd – Alan Whitbourn
Check Out Season Championship >>>
The next race on the calendar is at Cohuna on October 14-15 which will include the VMPRA AGM on the Saturday night.
There has been a bunch of dates added to the calendar for 2018, so make sure you make a note of these dates.
Check Out Complete Calendar >>>
Event Report and Photos – John Schmidli
Additional photos – 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/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 ReferenceEvent Result |
This event unfortunately didn’t go ahead due to poor weather. There was a smaller than usual attendance probably because of the conditions but those that attended were keen. It has been decided to reschedule this event again for December 3 (see the calendar for details). Thanks to those members who came out to run the event .
The 2016-2107 Season Championship ended back when the Bendigo event was scheduled for. Trophies will be handed out at the AGM when this is held.
The 2016-2017 Season Champions are:
FA1 – Leigh Hocken.
F400 – Andrew Davies
Q500 – Jim Orenshaw.
The fastest time flown for the 2016-2017 Season was:
FA1 – Daniel Arapakis – 57.85 sec
F400 – Andrew Davies – 63.93 sec
Q500 – Daniel Arapakis – 94.30 sec
It all starts again from the next event at Newbridge and for your chance for bragging rights.
Check Out Season Championship >>>
The next event is being held on September 16-17 at Rick Townsend’s pylon racing field in Newbridge. This will be the 1st time we have gone to this purpose built field.
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/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 |
The Western Port Model Aero Club member – nicknamed ‘Dannmann’ – did Australia proud bringing home the gold medal and becoming junior world champion…………..
http://mpnews.com.au/2017/08/14/dannmann-flys-to-gold-in-sweden/
Well, another World Championships “done and dusted”.
I must say that the Swedish F3D organisation ran what can only be described as a wonderful and professional event.
Congratulations to Jiri Novotny from the Czech Republic, Stefan Raven from Belgium and Thomas Eriksson from Sweden on their top results and fair sportsmanship.
First of all we were made to feel extremely welcome with no “special” laws laid down. The entire event ran smoothly with cuts registered on your lane board in real time and your time/result displayed within 5 seconds of your racer crossing the line. There was only one protest, which was dealt with swiftly. We saw the number 2 pylon destroyed on two occasions and repaired within minutes, and only a few re-runs required.
We now have a new World Champion. I must congratulate Daniel Arapakis for his Junior World Champion win. It just goes to prove that with the correct advice and help in this sport top results can be achieved. Good advice in pylon racing is not expensive. It was only 3 or 4 years ago, Danny and his Dad would hide behind a car when a F3D racer was started! Now he is a Junior World Champion. Well done Danny and Andrew also for your contribution to the Australian Team first place podium finish.
This Australian Team win is a special one. Not only is this a win on the scoreboard but a win for the type of Australian competitor.
To be a successful pylon competitor you need a few attributes…..know-how, sharp skills, cool and calm demeanor, a sense of fairness and a goodly amount of ‘gung-ho’ aggression. These boys have all of the above. This is what the world sees in our Australian Pylon way. This is what the world sees in us, as well as our friendly fun-loving nature.
This has been seen as the Australian way in the past- I once read on the wall of the Australian War Museum in Ypres, Belgium- “ The Australian soldier was found to be unpretentious, fun-loving and down to earth but we soon had to build another gaol as they were getting into too much trouble” “We soon had to release them as we realised we needed just this type of soldier” (or words to this effect).
I could have been easily reading a description of an Australian Pylon racing Team (almost).
The Australian Pylon Racing Team does not get into trouble as such…their sense of ‘fun’ can be witnessed by all and when called on they are ready. From the quiet dry humour in the ready box to the silent sixty-second countdown, the explosive and accurate 10 laps followed by satisfied smiles…this team flew for the team…no individual self serving.
To make the Australian Pylon racing Team is an achievement in itself. No walk up starters, no place by default, each place rightly deserved. Even 4th & 5th place in our team trials would make it in most of the world teams.
The 2017 Pylon Team was a pleasure to be a part of and I congratulate them all.
I especially congratulate Danny, as it has been a pleasure to be his mentor.
Barry W Murphy
Places:
1st Daniel Arapakis
2nd Barry Murphy
3rd Brian Steele
Fastest Time: 61.24 – Barry Murphy
No. of competitors: 6
Class – F400
Places:
1st Andrew Davies
2nd Barry Murphy
3rd Brian Steele
Fastest Time: 64.19 – Andrew Davies
No. of competitors: 8
Places:
1st Jim Orenshaw
2nd Ian Rickard
3rd Tom Prosser
Fastest Time: 97.68 – Andrew Davies
No. of competitors: 9
There was not change for the top 3 positions but there is only 1 point between Leigh and Daniel.
1st – Leigh Hocken
2nd – Daniel Arapakis
3rd – Brian Steele
Like FA1, there has been no change for the top 3 places but the gap at the top 2 positions has extended by a point to 3 points.
1st – Andrew Davies
2nd – Barry Murphy
3rd – Jim Orenshaw
No change for the top 2 positions by Ian Rickard has now moved up into 3rd place.
1st – Jim Orenshaw
2nd – John Schmidli
3rd – Ian Rickard
Check Out Season Championship >>>
The next event is AMPRA on June 10 & 11 to be held at Monarto Model Flying Field in South Australia. More information >>>
The next VMPRA event is scheduled for July 8 & 9. Details of what and where this event is to be staged are still to be confirmed.
The F3D World Championships are on in Sweden from July 25 to 29.
Note: The Bendigo event that was to be held on July 29 – 30 has been cancelled due to low numbers partly because of the World Champs. An alternate time and venue for the AGM is TBA.
Check Out Complete Calendar >>>
Event Results – 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 |