How good was that weekend at Munro? Good weather, good attendance, good competition and a good banquet? Thanks to all the interstate competitors making the trip, it was great to see South Aus and Queenslanders, some I hadn’t seen for 30-odd years.
Thanks to the interstate girls for helping run the event, timing and no.1, and Wendy for running the computer, I hope they enjoyed their jam doughnuts; I didn’t win the US Lotto, so I couldn’t give them a car each.
Thanks to Barry, Alan, Greg and Andrew for the banquet and lunch food and Nerida for the yummy dessert.
Thanks to Glenn for all his efforts in keeping the timing equipment running.
Thanks to Barry for his work preparing the excellent field, and thanks to Lyn for allowing him out
Hoping we can continue such good attendance and running this great sport/hobby we all love Maybe next time we won’t let the interstaters kick our butts.
Fastest Time (Red Box): 57.15 Beau Murphy (Note: This was raced over a 10 lap course and doesn’t count to the fastest time over the season). No. of competitors: 14
Class – F3T
Places: 1st Marc Hamilton 2nd Shaun Jacobsen 3rd Andrew Wall
Fastest Time (Red Box): 61.60 Brian Steele. No. of competitors: 15
Class – F3E
Places: 1st Trevor Pearce 2nd Bruce Dechatel 3rd Tony Singleton
Fastest Time (Red Box): 58.74 Tony Singleton. No. of competitors: 4
Class – Q500
Places: 1st John Schmidli 2nd Jim Orenshaw 3rd Gary Whitbourne
Fastest Time (Red Box): 91.18 John Schmidli (Note: This was raced over a 10 lap course and doesn’t count to the fastest time over the season). No. of competitors: 7
Report – Eddie Rich & 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.
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.
It was wonderful to be back at the Warrnambool Model Aircraft Club for the second time this year to hold our State Championships combined with the World Champs team selections.
Again, for the third time in a row, we encountered difficult weather on Saturday, with improved conditions on Sunday, where we carried out the majority of the racing. This meant we flew reduced rounds for the whole weekend.
No change in the top 3 placings, with Andrew increasing his lead by another 2 points, making him 4 points ahead of Brian. Anthony Thurgood remains in 3rd place.
1st – Andrew Davies 2nd – Brian Steele 3rd – Anthony Thurgood
F3T
Andrew Davies has regained the lead over Brian by 7 points, having been on equal points prior to this race. Jim Orenshaw remains in 3rd place.
1st – Brian Steele 2nd – Andrew Davies 3rd – Jim Orenshaw
Q500
No change in the top 3 placings for Quickie.
1st – Jim Orenshaw 2nd – John Schmidli 3rd – Eddie Rich
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.
Back on August 17th to 18th, the VMPRA went off to the home of Victorian pylon racing, Cohuna, for our annual pilgrimage. Unfortunately, the weather was similar to Bendigo, where running of races on Saturday was limited, only flying six rounds of F3T before having to call it a day. We had better weather on Sunday, so we could run six rounds of F3D and then Q500 to complete the race weekend.
The great thing about being at Cohuna is the great bunch of helpers there to man the pylons. The number one pylon cage was full, and we also had helpers on two and three, which is fantastic and frees up competitors to be able to concentrate on racing.
Unfortunately, we had some issues with running the timing system, which resulted in confusion about the scores at the end of the weekend. Since then, a few errors have been corrected and the scores, as published on the website, are now correct and the championship standings have been updated accordingly.
At the end of the weekend, we had a birthday cake for Gary Whitbourn and Gary Davison, who both had significant birthdays on either side of the weekend. Thanks to Wendy and Anthony for organizing that.
Our next event is from September 14th to 15th, which will be the state championships at Warrnambool, where we will also be holding the team trials for the F3D and F3E world championships. So we hope to have some interstate competitors as well as good numbers from Victoria there, which always adds another level of interest to the weekend.
So it should be a great weekend and fingers crossed for better weather this time. It’ll be great to see you all there.
No change in the top 3 placings with only 2 points separating Andrew and Brian.
1st – Andrew Davies 2nd – Brian Steele 3rd – Tom Wetherill
F3T
Brian Steele and Andrew Davies are sitting at the top on equal points and only divided by Brian having a slightly better average race time over the championship.
1st – Brian Steele 2nd – Andrew Davies 3rd – Jim Orenshaw
Q500
No change in the top 3 placings for Quickie also
1st – Jim Orenshaw 2nd – John Schmidli 3rd – Eddie Rich
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.
On the 20th and 21st of July, the VMPRA held a pylon racing event the Bendigo Model Aircraft Club. Despite the threatening weather forecasts, we were fortunate that rain didn’t impact the weekend at all. Although, Saturday was both cold and very windy.
We decided to kick things off with the Quickie 500 class. Due to the harsh conditions, we managed to fly only four rounds throughout the whole weekend. The severe weather forced us to restrict flying to just one class on Saturday and postpone the others to Sunday.
Sunday started with a challenge of its own. We aimed for an early start at 9 o’clock, but the field was engulfed in fog that didn’t clear until 11. This delay significantly reduced our flying time. However, once the fog lifted, the conditions turned favourable, with minimal wind and a nice cloud cover, making it ideal for flying without the low Winter sun in our eyes.
We commenced with five rounds of F3T in these perfect conditions, followed by four F3D rounds in the afternoon. The event concluded around 3 o’clock with the presentation of awards and then we headed home.
A special thanks to Wendy Dean for managing the computer for Quickie and F3T and acting as the starter for F3D. Her help was invaluable and it was gratifying to have sufficient helps to man all the pylons throughout the weekend. Quickie class was particularly challenging in terms of getting enough helpers, but in the end, we managed well.
Looking ahead, our next race is scheduled for August 17th and 18th in Kahuna. We’re excited and look forward to seeing everyone there!
Report – John Schmidli. Photos – Tom Wetherill and 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.
Back on August 4th-5th, the VMPRA headed to Bendigo to go racing. We ended up with better numbers than we first thought would be in attendance and the weather was quite good. Thanks to the Bendigo Club for hosting this event and for providing a field that was in such great condition.
The next event is the VIC State Championships being held at Cohuna on September 8th – 9th. This will also be a selection event for the 2019 F3D world championships Australian team.
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.
Each year in July, the VMPRA head off to Bendigo, a regional city situated in the gold fields of central Victoria. It is also the start of the new season championship and we hold our annual general meeting at this event each year. Traditionally, this generally being in the middle of Winter, we can have some pretty cold and wet weather. Luckily, this year we were blessed with quite good conditions and Sunday felt positively Spring-like.
As we gathered out at the Marong Model Airfield, conditions were a little foggy but this soon cleared and test flights were carried out. The challenge for the weekend came when setting up the pylon course and in particular the #1 pylon cage. Both the trailer and car towing it dropped into a particularly soft patch of earth as there had been quite an amount of recent rain. Next Tom Allen’s 4-wheel drive ended up stuck while trying to extract the car and trailer. It took another 4-wheel drive of James Hurley’s and some harder ground to start extracting all the vehicles and the cage. As a result, it was just before midday before racing got underway.
First up was Formula 400 with the aim to run only 3 rounds due to the very late start.
Next up was Quickie 500 to also fly 3 rounds. As this class has a relatively easy and quick turn-around time (with only 6 competitors), we refueled out on the line. 3 rounds were quickly completed and we had lunch.
After the late lunch it was time for FA1 (F3D) to race. There were unusually low numbers with only 4 competing so the races where over quickly but model prep/turn-around was slow. Even still, 4 rounds where completed before the end of racing for the day.
During the day, I took the opportunity to test out Facebook Live to film and televise a Q500 and FA1 race. It worked quite well with some well known names from around the world of pylon racing, coming online and viewing the video live. You should be able to view these from the VMPRA facebook page.
In the evening a group of us went off to the Marong pub for dinner. For the size of the town of Marong, the pub is excellent. After dinner, we headed back to the Marong caravan park for our AGM and general meeting. The main change to come from the meeting was James Hurley being elected as our new President of VMPRA taking up the vacancy left by Glenn Matthews after many years as president. I know all the members will join me in thanking Glenn for all his hard work in the past, of which we are only now really starting to get a real appreciation of what he has been doing and congratulating and supporting James in taking up this position.
With Saturday being a rather grey, cold and threatening day, It was a real pleasure to come out to the field on the Sunday morning to sunny still conditions which continued all day. It became warm enough for a few of us to end up stripped down to t-shirts.
Test flying was supervised by Toni Axon in line with our new safety requirement as discussed at the general meeting the night before (these will be published and communicated before the next event).
Racing for the day was the same order as Saturday with F400 and then Q500 doing 5 rounds each with Q500 gaining another competitor in local, Shaun Powers. It was good to see him there having raced with us 2 years prior. FA1 started fairly late and only ended up flying 7 rounds for the weekend whereas F400 and Q500 flew 8.
With this event being one of the 1st with Glenn & Nerida being way, it was good that we had people chipping in to help run the event. In all it went fairly well with only one glitch with the new laptop which had the old version of the timing program loaded, so we had to manually drop the extra round. This will all be sorted for future events.
Below is the 2015-2016 Season Championship for FA1F400 and Q500. Congratulations Daniel, Brian and Jim. It is quite an effort to string together good performances, event after event to be in the position to win the season championship.
Now we have already started the 2016-2017 season championship so let’s see who can get to the top this year. There is nothing like a challenge to made us lift our performance.
Season Championship after 1 event.
FA1
1st – Brian Steele 2nd – Andrew Davies
3rd – Leigh Hocken
We have reset the fastest times with the start of a new championship year. A huge congratulation goes out to Leigh Hocken for taking out the fastest times for last season in both FA1 and F400 and Daniel Arapakis for taking it out for Q500.
Next Race
The next event for VMPRA is a Q500 and Sports/Scanner race down at Crib Point on August 28. The race we had there earlier in the year was great with a lot of new comers to pylon competing. This one is really worth getting involved with. It is also part of the season championship for Q500.
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.
VMPRA held its traditional mid-winter event at the Bendigo Radio Control Aircraft Club (BRCAC) in Marong on the weekend of 1 – 2 August 2015. A number of competitors travelled on the Friday and checked out Rick Townsend’s new pylon field, which is located near-by in Newbridge. They enjoyed fine but cold weather and all gave a “thumbs up” on the field as a future venue for competitions.
On Saturday morning everyone gathered at the BRCAC field, including the regular contingent of dedicated racers from South Australia. The field was in excellent condition as the club had mowed it the week prior. However, the weather was very cold and test flying could not start until the rain had cleared.
Racing finally got underway in the late morning. F400 has proven to be a very popular class – there were 11 entries and five rounds were flown (10 ½ laps). Shaun Jacobsen set the pace with a fast time of 68.68 and he finished in first place with a score of 280.5. Brian Steele finished second with a score of 284.9and Glenn Matthews was third with a score of 292.6.
Q500 Sport was the next class to be run and there were six entries. It was decided to run 6 rounds and to postpone FA1 until the following day, with the hope for better weather. John Schmidli and Jim Orenshaw had a number of close races. Andrew Arapakis was also showing good form by reducing his times significantly. James York and John Yianni from SA were chasing hard and Matt Young’s hopes came to an end when his engine parted way with the fuselage in flight.
Saturday evening involved getting a hot dinner at the local hotel, followed by the VMPRA Annual General Meeting.
Sunday morning dawned very cold -4 degrees – but clear, so a further two rounds of Q500 Sport was flown. John and Jim had a very specular mid-air in Round 7, and they both pulled out their back-up models so they could continue to do battle. After eight rounds, John was in first place with a score of 621.9and Jim was second with a score of 627 and fast time of 95.97. Andrew Arapakis finished in third with a score of 645.5 and a personal best time of 105.64.
There were eight entries in FA1 and racing got underway later in the morning. Conditions were still very cold and the wind had picked up – making conditions challenging for both competitors (toget their engines running) and for the course workers (to stay warm). Six rounds were flown before it was decided to call it a day. Daniel Arapakis flew very consistently and finished in first place with a score of 322.5. Tom Wetherill finished second with a score of 467.1 – getting an extra couple of 200’s due to a broken pipe. Tom Jacobsen was third with a score of 474.0 and Ranjit Phelan posted the fastest time for the event with a 63.16. Glenn and Brian both found the same airspace in Round 5, resulting in another spectacular mid-air.
Certificates were handed out to the place getters at the end of the day and the BRCAC club and its members were thanked for their hospitality, for helping out working the course and for the hot food that was served up throughout the weekend. VMPRA also expressed its thanks to the SA group for travelling and supporting the event.
The next event is back at what is quickly becoming the home of pylon racing in Victoria, Barry Murphy’s field at Munro on August 29-30, 2015. And the great news is that Andrew Arapakis has offered to put on his superb spit roast dinner. So, make sure your planes and gear is sorted for what promises to be a good week end.
Web Editing – 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 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.
This season, I’m looking to break the report up into 2 separate posts to assist with getting some information out quicker while giving me time to compile other information such as the report a little later.
Results
Class – FA1
Places: 1st Daniel Arapakis
2nd Tom Wetherill
3rd Tom Jacobsen
Fastest Time: 63.16 – Ranjit Phelan
No. of competitors: 8
Course – 10.5 Laps
Class – F400
Places: 1st Shaun Jacobsen
2nd Brian Steele
3rd Glen Matthews
Fastest Time: 68.68 – Shaun Jacobsen
No. of competitors: 11
Course – 10.5 Laps
Class – Q500
Places: 1st John Schmidli
2nd Jim Orenshaw
3rd Andrew Arapakis
Fastest Time: 63.16 – Jim Orenshaw
No. of competitors: 6
Course – 10.5 Laps
Being the first race of the season, the championship standings are the same as the place getters. It’s not too late to get in and give it a good go for this season.
VMPRA returned to the Bendigo Radio Control Aircraft Club (BRCAC) for the annual pylon event that was held at the club’s field in Marong, Victoria on the weekend of 5 – 6 July 2014. This is a very popular event on the VMPRA calendar for many reasons. The club and field are great, the accommodation is very close to the field and the local hotel serves up excellent food, which is very important for getting some extra insulation on the cold winter nights.
While weather can be a factor at this time or year, competitors enjoyed very good overall conditions during practice on Friday and over racing during the weekend. The racing program included Q500 Sport, VIC F400 and FA1, with the objective of flying as many rounds in each class as possible. Per usual VMPRA practice, racing was held over 10 ½ laps to reduce the requirements for the number of course workers.
Friday practice was a somewhat leisurely affair as the weather was good, except for a brief rain shower, and there was plenty of opportunity to get in flights. The field was in excellent condition – and special thanks go out to Rick Townsend spending nine hours with his lawn mower.
Regular competitors came from Victoria and New South Wales as well as a large contingent of racers arrived from South Australia. The host Bendigo club was also well represented with a good number of entries.
Racing got underway on Saturday morning with four founds of VIC F400. There was an impressive 17 entries in this class and it immediately became clear that if Shaun Jacobsen could tame his new DKT powered AR-6, that he would be putting in some good times. Brian Steele had also pried open his wallet and purchased a new Nelson.
By the end of Round 4 he had posted an impressive time of 64.76 seconds, just short of a 64.6 that was posted by Glenn Matthews with his Nelson powered Supercat. Daniel Arapakis and Ranjit Phelan were also fast with times 65 second times.
Next up was Q500 Sport, and this class attracted 13 entries. John Schmidli and Barry Townsend were debuting impressive new Banshee models. Daniel Arapakis “unretired” himself from Q500, as he was saving his FA1 models for the next Team Trial. Three rounds were flown and James Hurley posted the fastest time with a 101.03. Behind him there were many close races. John and Barry were still coming to grips with their new models.
After a brief break, four rounds of FA1 were flown. This class attracted nine entries, including Rick Townsend’s new Veyron and Glenn Matthews new VooDoo. After four rounds, Rick was about 2 seconds ahead of Tom Wetherill, with Bryan Steele in third. Ranjit Phelan had posted the fastest time with a 60.69.
On Saturday evening, most of the competitors met at the Marong Family Hotel for dinner. This was followed by the VMPRA Annual General Meeting, which was held at the caravan park.
Plans for an early start on Sunday morning were thwarted by fog, which did not clear until mid-morning. As a result, the target was re-set at completing seven rounds for each class.
First up was Q500 Sport and times were improving significantly. In the end, James Hurley was in first place with a score of 612.6, Daniel Arapakis was second with a score of 703.4 and John Schmidli was third with a score of 726.6. Tom Wetherill had a score of 606.7, but opted to let the class regulars take the placings. Daniel Arapakis had the fastest time with a 93.95.
The next task was to complete the remaining three rounds of VIC F400 and the pace also improved from the Saturday. In the end, Ranjit Phelan was in first place with a score of 392.3 and the fast time of 62.92…not far behind the pace of the faster FA1’s. Shaun Jacobsen was second with a score of 401.8 and Brian Steele was third with a score of 416.1.
The final class to be flown was FA1 and three additional rounds were completed. Conditions had changed from the prior day and a few 200’s were showing upon the scoreboard. Late in the afternoon the position of the sun became problematic, so starter Mick Kellett would wait for cloud cover to appear before starting the final few heats.
After the seven rounds were completed, Brian Steele was in first place with a score of 391.0, Tom Wetherill was second with a score of 524.6 and Glenn Matthews was third with a score of 526.5. Ranjit Phelan posted the fastest time with a 60.11. Rick Townsend detonated an engine in spectacular fashion.
At the end of the day the awards were handed out to the place getters. VMPRA and the competitors expressed their thanks to the Bendigo club for hosting VMPRA and supplying hot food and drinks, to Rick Townsend for preparing the field, to the people who had worked the course in the cold conditions and to the group from South Australia that had travelled to compete. Tom Jacobson is the ring leader for the SA group and their presence and camaraderie really enhanced the event.
The next event is the Victorian State Championships being held on August 2-3, at the fantastic pylon racing field of Barry Murphy’s. Not only is this the State Champs, but it is also another of the F3D 2015 World Championship team trials, so there will be some hotly contested racing in F3D. We will also be flying the 10 lap course and obviously, F3D will take priority due to the importance of this result to selecting the next Australian team. As this is a private field, If you would like to attend this event and don’t know the location, please contact a member of committee for directions. See you all there.
Event Report: Tom Wetherill Additional Post items & 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 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.
