Warrnambool 2016 – Event Report

Posted on May 17, 2016 by Scadtastic

Warrnambool located on the south-western Coast of Victoria and at the western end of the Great Ocean road, is world famous for it’s spectacular oceanic coastal views. Home club to the Hocken family, Koroit is a humble club amongst farm land with great facilities and very well maintained grounds.

As usual Friday arrivals consisted of pilots and teams travelling from afar and were greeted with perfect Autumn conditions of mid 20’s and light winds.

The usual campers of Axons, Steeley’s, Murphy, Arapakis’ settling in for the afternoon and evening grazing with spits roasting and beers flowing. Well into the evening, festivities continued with perfect star filled night skies. In the morning, we woke up to misty rain and cold winds.

The field of competitors for Formula 400

Flying didn’t start until late morning due to the wet weather conditions. The usual race format of F400, Q500 followed by F3D was to be flown.

A field of 11 F400 pilots challenged the sky’s with Shaun Jacobsen in fine form with opening rounds in the 60’s putting loads of pressure on the rest of the field. Great to see the South Aussies at the event with 4 pilots flying in this class. Brian (Iron-man) Steele finished with the most cuts for the weekend which is certainly uncharacteristic and Leigh Hocken recording the fastest time of 64.95 seconds. Nevertheless Ranjit Phelan and Baz Murphy finishing 2nd and 3rd respectively after 1st place getter, Shaun Jacobsen. Well done to all pilots.

- Long time pylon racing friends, Jim Orenshaw and Gary Davidson (LtoR) with Gary's El Bandito F400 model.

Q500 always slated for a few laughs and a bit of sledging on the start line saw some brilliant flying and sub 100 seconds times by the three top place getters. A mix of experience and newer pilots to the racing scene challenged each other with each pilot flying at their best.

Jimmy (Tiger) Orenshaw taking out 1st place again, now in a really good position for the season championship just nudged in front of Tom Allen who came 2nd with Jarrod Jacobsen finishing 3rd dueling Dannmann’s Dad (Andrew Arapakis)for the weekend.

Local lad and winner of F3D class - Leigh Hocken and his VooDoo pylon racer.

F3D with a 10 pilot entry was great to watch. The first up race was with good mates Shaun Jacobsen and Dannmann. Shaun opening up with a personal best, WELL DONE Shauny! Dannmann having looked forward to this weekend, unfortunately hit #2 pilot on his 3rd race with uncharacteristic model issues which saw him finish well down for the weekend. Leigh flew a brilliant race with his average for the event of 60 seconds and Shaun finishing 2nd in his second ever F3D race. He flew very consistently and was closely followed by a veteran of pylon, Baz Murphy, having got all his times in.

With only one event to go at Munro before the great race at AMPRA which is being held at Coolum QLD. This will be the first event for the team selection trial for the 2017 F3D World Championships to be held in Sweden. Good luck to all pilots!

Check out the event photo gallery>>>

Results

Class – FA1

Places:
1st Leigh Hocken
2nd Shaun Jacobsen
3rd Barry Murphy

Fastest Time: 58.97 – Leigh Hocken
No. of competitors: 10

Class – F400

Places:
1st Shaun Jacobsen
2nd Ranjit Phelan
3rd Barry Murphy

Fastest Time: 64.95 – Leigh Hocken
No. of competitors: 11

Class – Q500

Places:
1st Jim Orenshaw
2nd Tom Allen
3rd Jarrod Jacobsen

Fastest Time: 95.87 – Mike Kellet
No. of competitors: 6

Check out the full results>>>

Season Championship

The following is how the season championship stands currently.

FA1

1st – Daniel Arapakis
2nd – Barry Murphy
3rd – Leigh Hocken

No change for the top two positions, but Leigh Hocken has moved up to 3rd position, displacing Glenn Matthews.

F400

1st – Brian Steele
2nd – Glenn Matthews
3rd – Shaun Jacobsen

No change for the top two positions, but Shaun Jacobsen has moved up to 3rd position, displacing Jim Orenshaw.

Q500

1st – Jim Orenshaw
2nd – John Schmidli
3rd – Andrew Arapakis

For Q500, again there was no change for the top 3 positions.

Check Out Season Championship >>>

Season Fastest Time

There was no new fastest time recorded at the Warnambool event

FA1 – Leigh Hocken – 57.38

F400 – Leigh Hocken – 61.75

Q500 – Daniel Arapakis – 89.59

Check Out Complete Calendar >>>

Event Report – Anonymous
Additional information: John Schmidli
Photos – Andrew Arapakis & Tom Allen

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 Result
Photo Gallery
Season Championship
Event Calendar

Munro March 2016 – Event Report

Posted on March 31, 2016 by Scadtastic

The Annual John Hughan Memorial Event was held at Munro for our monthly Pylon Race.

John Hughan was at the forefront promoting pylon racing in the 70’s and was instrumental in the formation of AMPRA itself. John greatly assisted the pylon flyers and helped instigate several F3D rule changes as well as the plane dimensions that we now all enjoy. Hughan was remembered by all as a pylon racing enthusiast who loved the hobby and pylon racing. For many years John also was a column writer for Airborne Magazine with his regular article, “Pylon Round-Up’, which included great stories and technical information for precision aeromodelling and hence the significance of this weekend flying for all pilots.

The Munro field after the peak of summer was in impeccable condition with the grass, perfect as always and now with a facility upgrade of a substantial roof structure for all competitors to use. Gippsland’s local pylon pilot David Chippendale, together with the assistance of Ian Rickard, championed the construction that will no doubt stand the test of time (and a tornado or two)!

Pilots from far and wide arrived on Friday for model set up and engine testing for an exciting weekend ahead of racing. The weather Gods were kind to use yet again, with a forecast for perfect conditions for all to enjoy during this fantastic weekend racing.

As per previous events the weekends racing schedule was for F400 then Q500 followed by F3D.

Scores for the Saturday were very impressive until we discovered a computer glitch which left many pilots discussing this around the dinner table that Saturday night.

Formula 400 - Ready for the 60 second count down to start. Ranjit Phelan and his Polecat held by his caller, Jim Orenshaw.

The F400 class yet again was very competitive with 10 pilots challenging themselves round after round. Baz Murphy recording the best time for the event of 66.26 seconds. Our very own man of steel, Brain Steele with help from his good mate Andrew Davies, took out top prize with Baz second and Ranji in third. Only 10 seconds between the top 3 place getters and the rest of the field flying really well too!

Q500 saw 8 pilots compete with a mix of beginners through to experienced pilots. A variety of hand crafted and precision molded planes enjoyed the conditions and fun was had by all. Apart from a mid-air and various unfortunate terra-firma incidences, fun was had by all. Jimmy and John battled it out for first and second place and Andrew (Dannmann’s Dad) finishing in solid 3^rd. Jimmy recorded the best time of the event of 95.44 seconds with a very special mention to both Ian Rickard and David Chippendale for their PB’s.

Mark French was very happy after racing his Minute Master F3D model at its first event.

F3D witnessed Mark French returning to F3D with a Minute Master fuz from Leigh Hocken and wing from Dannmann. Quite a colourful combo for this model as the engine was also a first for Dannmann setting it up for his good mate Frenchy.

Racing was at its best with Baz Murphy and Frank Cassella full throttle dueling it out lap after lap resulting in what some say was one of the most spectacular mid-air crashes of all time! Even after collecting confetti, both pilots still had huge smiles on their faces as I am sure the adrenaline of action and a great sense of comradry being the winner.

• Daniel Arapakis with his winner's "John Hughan Trophy" for first place in F3D with his mentor, Barry Murphy beside him.

After 8 rounds of F3D Steely and Ranji finished with second and third place respectively for the weekend but the 1^st place trophy went to Dannmann flying out of a swivel chair which he self propelled with his left foot (his right foot in plaster after nasty ankle surgery for a reoccurring tendon issue flew). A huge sense of achievement for Dannmann with the ever reliable Baz set up saw Dannmann fly at his best with ripper times and also recording the fastest time of the weekend of 58.28 seconds.

The big race for the annual VMPRA Season Championship trophy’s is almost over with season leaders remaining unchanged with Dannmann now on 55 points further extending his lead in F3D, Brain Steel 1st place with an aggregate score of 56 points in F400. Jim Orenshaw is currently running in 1st place in Q500 with 56 points with John Schmidli only a few points behind.

Check out the event photo gallery>>>

Results

- Ian Rickard holding Barry Murphy's own design, Minute Master F3D while the mixture is adjusted only seconds from launch.

Class – FA1

Places:
1st Daniel Arapakis
2nd Brian Steele
3rd Ranjit Phelan

Fastest Time: 58.28 – Daniel Arapakis
No. of competitors: 8

Jim Orenshaw launches Ranjit Phelan's Polecat F400 racer.

Class – F400

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

Fastest Time: 66.26 – Barry Murphy
No. of competitors: 10

Q500 models ready to be launched.

Class – Q500

Places:
1st Jim Orenshaw
2nd John Schmidli
3rd Andrew Arapakis

Fastest Time: 95.44 – Mike Kellet
No. of competitors: 8

Check out the full results>>>

Season Championship

The following is how the season championship stands currently.

FA1

1st – Daniel Arapakis
2nd – Barry Murphy
3rd – Glenn Matthews

No change for the top position, but Barry Murphy has moved up to 2nd and Glenn down to 3rd.

F400

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

No change for these positions.

Q500

1st – Jim Orenshaw
2nd – John Schmidli
3rd – Andrew Arapakis

For Q500, again there was no change for the top 3 positions.

Check Out Season Championship >>>

Season Fastest Time

Once we disregard the Saturday results due to the time system anomaly there was no change to the fastest time for all classes.

FA1 – Leigh Hocken – 57.38

F400 – Leigh Hocken – 61.75

Q500 – Mike Kellet – 94.74

Next Race

We have a Q500, Scanner and Sports 40 pylon race on at the Westernport Model Aircraft Club down at Crib Point on Sunday April 3. There are a number of us going down on Saturday to practice, share a spit roast dinner and stay over night ready for racing on the Sunday.

2 weeks later (April 16-17), we will be down at Warrnambool for one of our regular 3 class races.

Check Out Complete Calendar >>>

Event Report – Anonymous
Additional information: John Schmidli
Photos – John Schmidli & 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 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

Quick Reference

Event Result
Photo Gallery
Season Championship
Event Calendar

Camperdown 2016 – Event Report

Posted on February 22, 2016 by Scadtastic

Camperdown is an agricultural centre located on the world’s third largest volcanic plain and is surrounded by large salt and fresh water lakes. For the slope sourers among us, volcanic peaks such as Mount Leura and the ripper spot at the end of the Lakes and Craters Caravan Park also have fantastic views of the lakes in this region.

Setup on the Saturday morning, with hot weather predicted, There was plenty of Gazebos to make the pit area nice and shady.

Located within the Camperdown Race Course, the CMAC President Foster Taylor’s hand shake warmly welcomed all competitors to the traditionally hot weekend and also the first race meet of the 2016.

Friday saw many competitors arriving in the early afternoon to set up shade and test fly their pride and joys. Customary to recent meets, the line up for the weekend would be F400 starting each morning followed by Q500 then the missile class FA1 (F3D).

The Jacobsen family from South Australia, Jarrod, Tom & Shaun holding their AR-6 F400 racers and on the ground, a VooDoo and Dominator F3D models.

Competitors attending the Victorian Miniature Pylon Racing Association (VMPRA) Trophy, showed up in good numbers from far-a-field with some pilots coming from as far away as South Australia, Sydney and Bairnesdale having travelling many hours to compete. With a staggering line up of world class competitors, there was 12 pilots in F3D, 15 in F400 and 12 in Q500.

Saturday temperatures were forecast to peak in the mid 30’s which is a challenge to all competitors. Beers where put on ice ready for the end of the days racing.

Leigh Hocken with his Super Cat racer which recorded a fastest time for F400 on the weekend of 61.75 seconds

F400 was hotly contested with Leigh Hocken’s first round setting the fastest time recorded in this class for the weekend of 61.75 seconds which is a time that most F3D pilots would be proud of. The battle continued with great racing from the Jacobsens with the final results being the ever consistent Shaun Jacobsen taking out first place by 0.3 seconds with his rocket red AR-6. Leigh Hocken can in 2nd place and Jarrod Jacobsen took 3rd place. This class is always exciting to watch as the out of the box equipment is ever so competitive.

Q500 class take-off. Shaun Jacobsen launches his brother's (Jarrod) Sonic While Mike Kellet waits for his turn to launch Les Spaltman's Banshee model.

With a broad rage of experience, the Q500 contestants enjoyed a ripper event. 8 rounds in the peak of the heat saw a lot of fun had by all. This stock class again produced some very quick times and it was great to see Mick Kellet return to racing and being very competitive. Really only a hand full of seconds between most place getters saw NZ F3D pilot Tom Wetherill taking out 1^st place with consistent mostly sub 100 second times. He was followed by the fancy florescent pink, Addies Hobbies sponsored plane flown by Mick Kellet. 3^rd place was taken out by the every reliable John Schmidli. Well done to all pilots for having a go.

The start of a F400 race with Rajit Phelan launching Tom Jacoben's AR-6. Callers, Mike Kellet and Tom Wetherill watch their team mate's planes as they approach pylon #1 for the first time. In the Background Barry Murphy pilots his racer with son, Beau calling for him.

F3D commenced mid afternoon on both days, 12 pilots spread across 4 heats battle high temperatures and hot racing. Shaun Jacobsen entered the F3D circuit for the first time and made it look easy getting into the grove early in similar style to his F400 flight path. Phelan’s newly designed and built V-Tail also had it maiden race with the world watching on. For 8 rounds of F3D, the Victorian based Aussie F3D Team pilots battled it out. Some spectators said that the racing witnessed this weekend was the best racing seen in a very very long time. All three pilots ripped into the 10 &1/2 lap course lap after lap. All three Aussie Team pilots are sponsored by JR through Model Flight with the root of their flying days starting out in Gippsland. Friendly camaraderie and competition saw Beau Murphy finishing in 1^st place, Leigh Hocken in 2^nd place and Dannmann Daniel Arapakis finishing 3^rd after a last round cut – all flew their very best and unique styles and was fantastic to witness such a high standard and competitive racing! Perfect engine work with start ups every time combined with ultimate precision flying is no doubt the success to this F3D class.

Les Spaltman, flew his first competition in the F400 class with his GR-7 and with the help of call, Mike Kellet (holding the plane).

The annual VMPRA Season Championship trophy score board for season leaders remains unchanged with Dannmann now on 43 points extending his lead in F3D, Brain Steel 1^st place with an aggregate score of 45 points in F400 and Jim Orenshaw currently running in 1^st place in Q500 with a total points score of 46.

Check out the event photo gallery>>>

Results

Back L-R - Ranjit Phelan, Barry Murphy, Beau Murphy, Tom Jacobsen, Shaun Jacobsen, Gary Davidson, Tom Wetherill & Andrew Davies. Front L-R Daniel Arapakis, Glenn Matthews, Leigh Hocken, Brian Steele.

Class – FA1

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

Fastest Time: 59.24 – Beau Murphy
No. of competitors: 12
Course – 10.5 Laps

Back L-R - Beau Murphy, Jarrod Jacobsen, Tom Jacobsen, Barry Murphy, Jim Orenshaw, Marcus Guss, Les Spaltman, Andrew Davies & Glenn Matthews. Front L-R - Leigh Hocken, Shaun Jacobsen, John Schmidli, Brian Steele, Gary Davidson & Ranjit Phelan.

Class – F400

Places:
1st Shaun Jacobsen
2nd Leigh Hocken
3rd Jarrod Jacobsen

Fastest Time: 61.75 – Leigh Hocken
No. of competitors: 15
Course – 10.5 Laps

Back L-R - Jarrod Jackobsen, Tom Wetherill, Les Spaltman, Jim Orenshaw, Gary Whitbourne, Mike Kellet Fron L-R - John Yianni, James Hurley, John Schmidli, Andrew Arapakis, Austin Omann, Allan Whitbourne.

Class – Q500

Places:
1st Tom Wetherill
2nd Mike Kellet
3rd John Schmidli

Fastest Time: 94.74 – Mike Kellet
No. of competitors: 12
Course – 10.5 Laps

Check out the full results>>>

Season Championship

The following is how the season championship stands currently.

FA1

1st – Daniel Arapakis
2nd – Glenn Matthews
3rd – Brian Steele

No change for the top 2, but Barry Murphy has moved up to 3rd position from 4th.

F400

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

Like FA1, No change for the top 2, but Shaun Jacobsen has moved up to 3rd position, displacing Jim Orenshaw.

Q500

1st – Jim Orenshaw
2nd – John Schmidli
3rd – Andrew Arapakis

For Q500, there was no change for the top 3 positions.

Check Out Season Championship >>>

Season Fastest Time

There was a new fastest time for F400 with a 61.75 sec achieved by Leigh Hocken, rapping up both FA1 & F400 for now. Mike Kellet achieved a new fastest time of 94.74 in Q500. Well done guys.

FA1 – Leigh Hocken – 57.38

F400 – Leigh Hocken – 61.75

Q500 – Mike Kellet – 94.74

Next Race

We are back at Bazza’s Paddock in Munro for the next event which is the John Hughan Trophy. This event is on the weekend of March 5-6, 2016.
Hope to see you all there.

Check Out Complete Calendar >>>

Event Report – Anonymous
Additional information: John Schmidli
Photos – John Schmidli & 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 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

Quick Reference

Event Result
Photo Gallery
Season Championship
Event Calendar

Munro, Nov 2015 – Event Report

Posted on December 20, 2015 by Scadtastic

Gippsland as a region is famous for its agricultural development and has become Melbourne’s largest supplying region of dairy and vegetables.

Munro pylon field has also grown to what most racers would consider one of the best fields of its kind in the country.

As always, the grounds were meticulously prepared by a local fishing tackle sales rep, Ian Rickard who devotes nearly every weekend at the strip working on a list of odd jobs and manicuring the bowling green run way!

Race preparation began on Friday where several pilots took to the course for fine tuning in preparation of the last pylon event for the calendar year.

The day saw Master Murphy’s and Dannmann with their Minute Master’s out circulating in the 20 knotter and Beau rippen into his new Miss Dara F400 running in a fresh motor. The Miss Dara model was designed by Dan Kane who also designed the Polecat and Loki both also being extraordinary models.

Ranjit and Tricky Ricky test flew Ricks Veyron and all went well. Rick due to extended family commitments with the safe arrival of baby boy #2 Albert couldn’t stay for the weekend show down. Unfortunately Phelans’ new V Tail models came to grief with more development required.

The day ended with good spirits and plenty of Crownies with many pilots arriving setting up camp with a feast prepared by the Axons.

The fist race day plan was for 4 rounds of F400, Q500 then followed by F3D.
Willy Weather forecast for the weekend was for fine weather and Saturday morning was perfect for racing start at 9:45am of the F400 class. 10 entrants at his event with the podium hotly contested every month. Brain Steele and Andrew Davies the dynamic duo flew well all weekend proving out consistency was the recipe. Beau recorded the fastest time of the day and weekend with a 64.96sec. Jim and John managed to keep clear of each other as sometimes it seems an unfortunate magnetism exists between some models and pilots, Hmmmm.

John Schmidli got all his times and Dannmann cutting him self out of the race after setting himself a target and pushing really hard for a record time! Great too see Frank back with the shiniest models ever unfortunately hitting terra firma after take off in his first heat. Pity as his plane was a ripper in practice but an upside for Father Christmas would be a new model order! An unexpected mid air between Barry Murphy and Andrew Davies saw both models return to ground with a broken prop on the Baz model and repair required on Batman’s model.

After 4 rounds of F400, the Quickie pilots were fueled up and ready to race. With 12 entrants and a variety of skills saw fantastic racing with a veteran Tom Prosser returning to Munro for his second Q500 event. Tom must have had fun at the last event at Munro with his custom built plane which is a master piece and scratch built. Unfortunately the Prosser and Axon models had a mid air but both pilots returning into the comp for the next round. Also a special mention to Tom Allen returning to the pylon scene after a stint of car racing with only his second event back, well in the mix with his best time of 100.50 sec only 0.57 sec of the fastest time of the event by Jim Orenshaw….no doubt Tom is on it and will be going real fast in the near future.

F3D up next albeit weather proving a little slow, Beau opened up with a respectable 59.8 sec which proved to be the quickest time of the event. Dannmann recorded 61.2 in first heat which was also his best time for the weekend. Mix results with all other pilots with Frank flying great but plug problems in resulting in a few 200’s.

Day 1 ended with a very familiar garlic scent of charcoal grilling lamb, chicken and pork gyros followed by Narida’s tiramisu and Toni’s Christmas pudding. Camaraderie with all pilots attending the dinner was defiantly one for the record books and now the Saturday night event is almost part of the event calendar for most race weekends. All entrants this weekend stayed for the feast and many thanks to all helpers and to all cooks!

Late afternoon and evening affairs started with old timers, speed gliders and foamies. George Angelov certainly has his rocket master gold wings complemented the sky with rockets all landing safely with parachutes. Much fun by all.

After a dusty start to Sunday, the weather God’s rolled up for the second day with perfect conditions and the F400’s were on their way. The competitiveness of this class was very exciting to watch and well done to all competitors and place getters. John Schmidli again getting all his times with no cuts for the weekend will surely keep the ranks on their toes in months to come.

With Q500 scores very close after day 1, a number of pilots were well positioned to commence the days racing. Jim Orenshaw, Tom Allen and John Schmidli taking out the top three places this time round with many pilots in all placing all recording excellent times and PB’s. Racing this class was great to watch as the very affordable models flown by entry level pilots had a great time and were also very competitive!

Grand finale premier F3D class was again a mixed bag something similar to a fishing trip in Western Port Bay! Again the weather a little slow with Beau recording the fastest time of the day of 61.76 sec, Baz flying very consistent this weekend and Andrew Davis holding it together to complete 8 rounds. Brian Steele alias Robin landed his F3D in a tree which took a mastermind of construction materials, Tarzan and luck to get his model back. Onya Brian!

Dannmann got all his times in for the weekend bar 2 cuts for the event ended up with the best average score to take out 1st place, 2nd Barry Murphy and 3rd Andrew Davies. Great to see Gary back in the air for 4th place and Beau in 5th due his last run a little rich resulting in a 200.

Check out the event photo gallery>>>

Results

Class – FA1

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

Fastest Time: 59.88 – Beau Murphy
No. of competitors: 8
Course – 10.5 Laps

Class – F400

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

Fastest Time: 64.96 – Beau Murphy
No. of competitors: 10
Course – 10.5 Laps

Class – Q500

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

Fastest Time: 99.92 – Jim Orenshaw
No. of competitors: 12
Course – 10.5 Laps

Check out the full results>>>

Season Championship

The following is how the season championship stands currently.

FA1

1st – Daniel Arapakis
2nd – Glenn Matthews
3rd – Brian Steele

No change for the top 2, but Brian Steele has moved up to 3rd position

F400

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

Like FA1, No change for the top 2, but Jim Orenshaw has moved up to 3rd position

Q500

1st – Jim Orenshaw
2nd – John Schmidli
3rd – Andrew Arapakis

For Q500, there was no change for the top 3 positions.

Check Out Complete Calendar >>>

Season Fastest Time

There was only a new fastest times for F400 with Beau Murphy raising the stakes on his first time racing F400.

FA1 – Leigh Hocken – 57.38

F400 – Beau Murphy – 64.96

Q500 – Jim Orenshaw – 94.79

Next Event

The next event will be Camperdown on February 6-7, 2016. Make sure you have this and all the currently listed events marked in your calendar.

Another date to remember is the Sandown F1 Air Race to be on January 31, 2016 which includes a general remote control hobbies expo. The VMPRA will have a stand there and we will also have some members involved in flying displays throughout the day. There will be a number of us manning the stand and promoting the pylon racing special interest group.
http://www.sandownairrace.com.au/

On a final note for the year, I wish everybody all the best for the Christmas and New Year break and that we all return to racing again next year refreshed, ready for some great competition and good times.

Event Report and Photos– Anonymous
Additional information: John Schmidli
Photos – John Schmidli & 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 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

Quick Reference

Event Result
Photo Gallery
Season Championship
Event Calendar

Padua College @ PARCS

Posted on December 10, 2015 by Scadtastic

On Wednesday the 2^nd of December,Padua College students from Green House visited PARCS as part of their annual Celebration Day and wrap of the year end and as part of Dannmann’s flying in the World Champ’s.

The club hosted 40 children at their field for a display day and Wayne from Addie’s Hobbies assisted with the organisation of this event and participated with display models, tuition and also flying his jet. Many thanks also to Mick Kellet how also helped out for the afternoon.

Daniel and Wayne buddied about 20 kids and teachers with trainer models then put on their own air display of a jet demonstration and Dannmann flying his F3D around the course. Very lucky students and teachers to be part of an awesome display of models hopefully gaining an appreciation of RC planes and pylon!

All ended very well no terra firma incidences!

Report & Photos – Andrew Arapakis

More Photos from the day >>>

Hamilton 2015 – Event Report

Posted on November 9, 2015 by Scadtastic

Back on October 24-25 we held our VIC State Championships at Hamilton. Once again, it was great to have the South Australians come across to race with us. Without them, the numbers would’ve been on the low side.

On Friday, the weather was spectacular as everybody arrived and testing and setting was carried out. I heard that Shaun Jacobsen even was having a go at one of Daniel’s Minute Masters as Shaun in leading up to joining the ranks of F3D fliers.

Saturday morning arrived with more great weather. After setting up the field, we were off racing with F400 first up. Numbers were quite good for this class (13 competitors) flying including Daniel Arapakis and John Schmidli back flying this class again.

Four rounds of F400 was raced before commencing Q500 racing. Numbers for this class where on the low side so as per usual practice, we all go out to the start line with the drum of fuel and do all our refueling out on the line. This makes the turnaround between heats a lot faster. It was great to see Tom Allen there racing as he returns to pylon racing after many year away with his beautifully finished Banshee Sport Q500 racer.

There were four of these Banshee Sport Q500 models for the first round. Unfortunately Jim Orenshaw and John Schmidli had another coming together while going around pylon #1. This is the third time this year they’ve collision with each other. Unfortunately this was the first race that Jim had with his brand-new Banshee Q500 model which was a replacement for his previously mid-aired Q500 plane. John Schmidli was luckier this time, with only sustaining wingtip damage and a broken propeller and was able to glide in for a landing. Four rounds of this class which was completed.

Next up was F3D, the premier class that we race. It was our intention to fly this class for as many rounds as possible as we had a feeling the weather for the following day would not be so kind. We manage to run 6 rounds of this class before finishing up for the day. It was great to have helpers from the Hamilton club manning the #1 pylon cage as well as pylon 2 and 3 Judges.

The Hamilton club members also provided a canteen throughout the weekend including a big fry up breakfast for the Sunday morning. This was greatly appreciated.

As feared, when we arrived at the field on Sunday morning, conditions were very windy. We set up our planes hoping that things will settle down but as time to start arrived, there was no action happening.

After quite a time of waiting to see what the conditions would bring, it was decided that there would be no flying that day which meant the competition would only consist of the rounds flown on the Saturday. Four rounds of F400, four rounds of Q500 and six rounds of F3D.

Check out the event photo gallery>>>

Results

Class – FA1

Places:
1st Leigh Hocken
2nd Tom Wetherill
3rd Andrew Davies

Fastest Time: 59.10 – Daniel Arapakis
No. of competitors: 8
Course – 10.5 Laps

Class – F400

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

Fastest Time: 66.91 – Shaun Jacobsen
No. of competitors: 13
Course – 10.5 Laps

Class – Q500

Places:
1st Jim Orenshaw
2nd John Schmidli
3rd Andrew Arapakis

Fastest Time: 94.79 – Jim Orenshaw
No. of competitors: 7
Course – 10.5 Laps

Check out the full results>>>

Season Championship

The following is how the season championship stands currently.

FA1

1st – Daniel Arapakis
2nd – Glenn Matthews
3rd – Tom Wetherill

The top 2 positions remains the same but Tom Wetherill has jumped up to 3rd position from 5th.

F400

1st – Brian Steele
2nd – Glenn Matthews
3rd – Shaun Jacobsen

Like FA1, the top 2 positions remained the same but Shaun Jacobsen jumped up to 3rd position also from 5th.

Q500

1st – Jim Orenshaw
2nd – John Schmidli
3rd – Andrew Arapakis

Again, the top 2 positions remained the same and Andrew Arapakis has moved into 3rd position from 4th.

Full Championship Results>>>

Season Fastest Time

There was a new fastest times for F400 and Q500 at Hamilton. Well done Shaun Jacobsen and Jim Orenshaw.

FA1 – Leigh Hocken – 57.38

F400 – Shaun Jacobsen – 66.91

Q500 – Jim Orenshaw – 94.79

Next Event

The next comp is also the last one for the year and will be held at Bazza’s Paddock at Munro on November 28 and 29. Come along and have a great time racing at this greta venue. There won’t be another event until early in February 2016 at Camperdown.

Make sure you check the new events that are listed in the Event Calendar and put them in your diary.

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 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.

Quick Reference

Event Result
Photo Gallery
Season Championship
Event Calendar

Munro August 2015 – Event Report

Posted on September 11, 2015 by Scadtastic

I was approaching this event with some trepidation due to the weather forecast which turned out to be justified to some degree. With the start of Spring only around the corner, wet condition had been experienced leading up to this event down at Barry Murphy’s purpose built pylon racing field at Munro.

Turning up on the Friday as many did, there was a lot of standing water lying around the site making water proof shoes or gum boots essential. Some practice flying was possible during dry spells on the Friday.

Saturday morning came and conditions were very grey and windy with predictions of the wind increasing during the morning. Regardless, we went about setting up the pylon racing equipment so we could get racing started.

The first class to be racing was F400 with an unusually small number on competitor for this typically very popular class. Only 2 rounds were flown before the wind became just too strong causing excessive turbulence from the surrounding trees. Jim Orenshaw became a victim to the conditions with his plane being forced into the ground going around pylon 3.

Everybody hung around the field for the rest of the day waiting to see if conditions would improve but no further racing took place. A fare bit of time was spent standing around fires chatting and supervising the dinner being cooked. I noticed that Jim managed to hang around the spit roast all afternoon taking the odd taste test!

That night we had another excellently cooked spit-roast meal prepared by Andrew Arapakis and afterwards, we had a beautiful desert prepared by Nerida Matthews. Thanks to Andrew and Nerida for a great dinner.

Sunday morning greeted up with perfect condition with blue skies and still conditions the event was on in earnest.

F400 was up again flying only another 2 rounds.

Q500 was up next with a view to flying 5 rounds. We had 7 competitors with the notable inclusion of a past pylon racing identity, Tom Prossor. Austin Omman was making his 2nd pylon racing appearance and father and son team Gary and Alan Whitbounre were racing also. I’m pleased to say racing was good and clean and Jim and I avoided any coming together by calling for each other.

The 5 rounds on Q500 were completed fairly promptly as we left the fuel out on the racing line and we didn’t need to walking back to the pits between races.

Next up was the premier class, FA1 with 5 rounds to be completed also. There was some pretty exciting racing, particularly between Barry Murphy and Leigh Hocken. Brian Steele tried burying his model, adding to Jim’s hole in the field from the previous day. It was also good to see Frank Cassella back flying at this event.

Once racing was finish, the course was packed up and the delicate task of making sure the various caravans could be extracted and placed on solid grounds was undertaken. Certificates were then presented and we all headed off home.

Although it was a challenging weekend, I think the racing on Sunday made it all worthwhile. Thanks again to Barry Murphy for providing this superb locations, Nerida and Glenn Matthews for running the event so well and Toni Axon for starting all weekend.

Check out the event photo gallery>>>

Results

Class – FA1

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

Fastest Time: 57.38 – Leigh Hocken
No. of competitors: 7
Course – 10.5 Laps

Class – F400

Places:
1st Brian Steele
2nd Frank Cassella
3rd Glen Matthews

Fastest Time: 67.25 – Frank Cassella
No. of competitors: 5
Course – 10.5 Laps

Class – Q500

Places:
1st Jim Orenshaw
2nd John Schmidli
3rd Austin Omann

Fastest Time: 98.64 – Jim Orenshaw
No. of competitors: 7
Course – 10.5 Laps

Check out the full results>>>

Season Championship

The following is how the season championship stands currently.

FA1

1st – Daniel Arapakis
2nd – Glenn Matthews
3rd – Barry Murphy

F400

1st – Brian Steele
2nd – Glenn Matthews
3rd – Gary Davidson

Q500

1st – Jim Orenshaw
2nd – John Schmidli
3rd – Austin Omann

Full Championship Results>>>

Season Fastest Time

There was new fastest times in for FA1 & F400 at Munro. Well done Leigh and Frank.

FA1 – Leigh Hocken – 57.38

F400 – Frank Cassella – 67.25

Q500 – Jim Orenshaw – 95.97

Next Event

This Sunday (September 13) there is a Sports/Q500 race at LDMFA. This is not a championship event but should be fun and another good chance for newbies to be introduced to pylon racing.

Our next full weekend event is the VIC State Championships at Hamilton to be held on October 24-25, 2015.

Check Out Complete Calendar >>>

Event Report – John Schmidli
Photos – Lydia and Andrew Arapakis and 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.

Quick Reference

Event Result
Photo Gallery
Season Championship
Event Calendar

Bendigo 2015 – Event Report

Posted on August 12, 2015 by Scadtastic

Event Report

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.

Check out the event photo gallery>>>

Next 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.

Check Out Complete Calendar >>>

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.

Quick Reference

Event Result
Photo Gallery
Season Championship
Event Calender

Bendigo 2015 – Results, Championship and Fastest Times

Posted on August 11, 2015 by Scadtastic

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

Check out the full results>>>

Season Championship

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.

Full Championship Results>>>

Season Fastest Time

This season, we are going to keep a record of the fastest times recorded of each class. So the fast times after the first events is:

FA1 – Ranjit Phelan – 63.16

F400 – Shaun Jacobsen – 68.68

Q500 – Jim Orenshaw – 95.97

Check back soon for the Event Report, Photos, Next Event News.

Web Editor – John Schmidli

F3D World Championship 2015 – AUST/NZ News

Posted on July 8, 2015 by Scadtastic

Final Team Places

Team AUSTRALIA – 2nd Place
Team NEW ZEALAND – TBC

Individual Places

Chris Callow – 5th Place
Leigh Hocken – 8th Place
Tyler Mees – 12th Place
Bea Murphy – 14th Place
Daniel Arapakis – 3rd Place (Junior Competition) & 22nd – Senior Place
Tom Wetherill – 32nd

More photos added to the below gallery.

Places to find More info:

http://f3d-2015.cz/ – 2 Live Web Cams
https://www.facebook.com/groups/AussieF3Dteam2013/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/344545135567036/

Gallery

$DCIM\101GOPRO$

[Show as slideshow]

09/07/2015 – Day 2

Sounds like a tough day flying over 12 hours with stops for excessive wind to make up rounds from day 1. See below for Tom’s Day 2 report.

Tom’s Report – Day 2

Hi everyone:

After 5 days of practice is very hot conditions – racing started yesterday. The goal is to complete up to 15 Rounds over 3 to 4 days.

The racing started yesterday, but only one round was completed due to heavy rain. Most of the afternoon was spent inside the very impressive pit area marquee sheltering.

We started racing again at 8 am this morning and continued until 8pm tonite. However, the conditions today changed from mild in the morning – to be very windy and cold in the afternoon. There was another break as the storm passed through and then racing continued. As a result, we have seen many extremes in weather – which makes a big challenge for tuning engines and racing.

In addition to the challenges associated with the weather, we are racing far from home and things are sometimes “different” from what we expect. The timing system takes some time to get used to, the cut judges are very diligent and other penalties are handed out to pilots and callers who step outside the designated pilot box or are perceived to launch before the flag drops completely. Lastly, there has been a fairly high rate of carnage due to mid-airs. Stuart Inoue from Japan had already lost two models by Round 4.

So what does it all mean… I have not had enough time to look at all the details, but here are some initial observations:

Italy – Carol Perella was in first place after four rounds.

Venezuela – Good friend Gabriel Tahan was in second place after four rounds.

Czech – The Czech team appear to be the first place (team) at present with some very impressive performances from their interesting looking models.

USA – Gino Del Ponte from the USA set a new World Record in Round One and backed it up in Round Two. However, since that time cuts and other factors seem to have come into play. Former World Champion from the USA Randy Bridge scored 2 x 200’s in the first two rounds, but has since been flying very well. The other USA team member, Gary Freeman, was also experiencing some initial problems but appears to have got on top of the issues.

Australia – Chris Callow has been pushing very hard, but does not seem to have the pace advantage that he experienced in 2013. Leigh Hocken, Beau Murphy, Tyler Mees and Daniel Arapakis are doing well – but the Australia team are not dominating like they have in the past. Very hard to come over here to compete with the locals…

New Zealand – I had a good run in Round 1, but got two cuts. In Round 2 (on the first day) the rain came down – so we got a refly today. During the refly the muffler in the pipe broke after about 4 laps – perhaps due to the stress of the high temperatures from the practice time. I was able to manage to limp around and get a score – better than a 200! My Round 3 flight was immediately after Round 2, so fortunately I had a backup ready to go. However, 1 cut hurt the score. The engine ran perfect – so a prop change was made (thanks AD) for Round 4 to get some more speed. The weather was stable for Round 4 but the wind got very strong in Round 5 so I flew conservatively and posted times. The weather front that came through caught many people out – but I changed the compression and posted two more scores.

In summary, a very challenging WC so far. We are only half way through the competition and a decision will be made tomorrow morning on how many rounds will be flown. There are many issues that the organisers have to deal with – including having enough fuel on hand to complete the competition. I was able to sell back the excess fuel that I had J.

It is a lot of hard work, changeling – but is very rewarding when things work out. We finished the day with a very enjoyable dinner at a local Italian restaurant near our hotel.

Tom

08/07/2015 – Day 1

Only 1.5 rounds ran due to rain.

Australian Team Photos

Daniel & Andrew Arapakis

NZ News – 07/07/2015 – Tom Wetherill

Today was the official opening ceremony – that included a very impressive air/aerobatic show courtesy of full size a Red Bull air race plane – just for us. It was a local Czech hero and after the show, he landed and chatted with people. When he left – he took off – and then flew banked at 90 degrees at a very low level between the control tower and a hangar with the smoke system going!!!

The weather has again been very hot and well into the 30’s and today each team had allocated timed sessions on the course. This gave the opportunity for both the teams and the course workers to get their systems sorted. The timing system is different to what we are used to – it was not fully automated. There is a countdown clock, then the flagman waves you off and the timers start from the flagman. The complex system that was trialled previously in 2009 that included cut lights has been abandoned.

The Australian team was first up (as it is run in alphabetical order). However, on the first flight of the day, current World Champion Chris Callow crashed, which was a big surprise to everyone. The rest of the Australian team did quite well but times were not posted.

We did not get to run until later in the afternoon and 2 of 3 models ran well. One did not like the heat and stopped after a few laps. However, this proved to be a common problem and others including current Junior World Champion Emil Broberg, some of the Dutch team, Japanese team, USA team, etc also had DNF’s during practice.

Tomorrow is the first day of competition, and there will be a big change in the weather as rain is forecast and cold weather should arrive on Thursday. Many challenges and hard work ahead.

Tom