Being the second event for the championship and with some competitors not able to attend, the top 3 places have completely changed from last month.
1st – Glenn Matthews 2nd – Brian Steele 3rd – Andrew Davies
F3T
Again, with competitors unable to attend, the top two places have completely changed, with Andrew Davies retaining his third place.
1st – Brian Steele 2nd – Jim Orenshaw 3rd – Andrew Davies
Q500
John Schmidli and Jim Orenshaw are on equal points, but John attains the top spot on average times per race. Gary Davidson has moved up from 6th to 3rd place.
1st – John Schmidli 2nd – Jim Orenshaw 3rd – Gary Davidson
Next Class Race – Western Port – Q500 & Sports (Come Try) Race.
March 17 @ Westernport Model Aircraft Club. Racing starts at 10 am. Come with enough time to setup and test fly prior. Website:www.wpmac.com.au Location: Woolleys Road, Crib Point VIC. Melway Map Ref 165C8.
Next 3 Class Race (F3D, F3T & Q500) – Hamilton, April 20-21.
A heap of new races has been added to the calendar, so make sure you put them in your diary. These are not to be missed.
Report – John Schmidli. Photos – John Schmidli & Tom Wetherill.
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 February 10th and 11th, the VMPRA kicked off its season with our inaugural competition of the year at Munro. The weather was superb throughout the weekend, allowing us to complete eight rounds of each class. It was a pleasure to welcome Andrew Wall, who made the impressive journey from Queensland to join us in the competition.
The return of Daniel Arapakis and Beau Murphy to racing after their work-related hiatus added to the excitement, especially in the F3D category. We were also thrilled to witness John Junge’s continued participation in Q500 racing and Ian Rickard’s comeback to the same class. Additionally, Tom Allen stepped up to the challenge by participating in F3D.
The weekend boasted a fantastic turnout with 9 competitors in F3D, 12 in F3T, and 9 in Q500. Andrew Wall showcased a 3D-printed E2K pylon racing model produced by Tony Singleton, with Daniel Arapakis providing a captivating demonstration of its flight capabilities.
Overall, it was an excellent weekend, thanks in large part to Barry Murphy’s fantastic field and Nerida Matthews for managing the timing system.
The next event is scheduled for March 2nd and 3rd in Warrnambool. We look forward to seeing you there!
Being the season’s first race, the Championship standings are as per the race results. Stay tuned for the Season Championship standings once we have raced in Warrnambool.
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.
RAIN, RAIN, RAIN!! …but most of our regulars turned up. It was too wet on Friday and Saturday morning to do much.
Q500
We decided to try for a few Quicky Rounds on Saturday morning. A good entry of 10. Some good racing, as always, over six rounds in this class, with a dead heat for 3rd place with Andrew Davies and David Chippendall. The performance of these out-of-the-box, off-the-shelf 7.5cc engines is amazing. I would say they eclipse the VRP’s and OPS’s of my early days in F3D. John Schmidli ended up taking it out from Gary Davidson.
F3T
Eight entries managing five rounds. Andrew Davies taking it out. There were a few engine problems, DNFs, and cuts. I see some nice new models in this class and very fine flying. Special mention goes to Tony Eichstadt and Anthony Thurgood – two very enthusiastic newcomers. Very rare for some time now.
F3D
Nothing much to report here. We could only manage four rounds. Times were less than average, with only four entries. Anthony Thurgood is certainly on his way in this class with a second place. Nothing new to report, but until we have F3D numbers fully attended again, we won’t see the world-class times we have seen in the past.
We did see some world-class control line combat demos from Murray Wilson and Greg Nelson. It is very special to see this very skilful form of Aeromodelling. We must thank Murray and Greg for putting on this display.
See you at Munro Field again on February 10th / 11th, 2024
The 2022 – 2023 championship year has drawn to a close. The season spanned about 16 months as we will go by the calendar year for future seasons. It consisted of 12 races and taking part in the season; competitor numbers were 13 for FA1, 18 for F3T and 22 for Q500.
So congratulations go to the winners: Brian Steele taking out both FA1 & F3T and John Schmidli taking out Q500.
FA1
With the last race included, the Championship winner Brian Steele remained at the top, with Glenn Matthews jumping from 6th position into 2nd, bumping Rick Townsend down to 3rd place.
1st – Brian Steele 2nd – Glenn Matthews 3rd – Rick Townsend
F3T
This race didn’t change the top 3 places.
1st – Brian Steele 2nd – Jim Orenshaw 3rd – Andrew Davies
Q500
Again, there were no changes in the top 3 places for this class.
1st – John Schmidli 2nd – Jim Orenshaw 3rd – Anthony Thurgood
Report – Barry Murphy & 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.
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.
Bowen Brown, Debut in Q500 with Anthony Thurgood calling for him.
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.
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
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
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
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.
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.
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
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.
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
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 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.
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
Report – John Schmidli Photos – John Schmidli, Anthony Thurgood & Andrew Arapakis (sorry if I’ve missed someone).
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.
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.
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
Report – N/A Additional content – 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 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.
Unfortunately, we haven’t received a report for this event. I can tell you that all who attended enjoyed being back at Warrnambool. 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.
Report – N/A Additional content – John Schmidli Photos – Andrew Arapakis and Others (Sorry).
Please note: We are looking for someone to write event reports regularly. Also, it would be wonderful to have someone photograph these 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.
