The most exciting and exhilarating discipline of RC – pylon racing comes to the Echuca State field on the 14/15th of May. Two classes will be flown, the introductory class Q500 and the international class F3T. The racing is flown around a 400-metre triangular course for 10 laps, the Q500 models complete the race in around 90 to 100 sec, and the F3T models complete the race in around 60 to 70 seconds.
This will be the inaugural event at the Echuca field and we encourage all pylon flyers to support the event and the Echuca club. We encourage those who want to witness pylon racing for the first time to come and have a look or bring a model (any model) and ”have a go”.
The pylon racing fraternity is a very friendly and supportive group from all walks of life sharing one passion and will go out of their way to welcome and help both newcomers and the experienced racer.
For further information on this event visit https://vmpra.org.au/ or contact our President Gary Whitbourn on 0421 024 091
On the weekend of February 26-27, 2022, we finally had a chance to get together and run our 2021 AMPRA Champs. The AMPRA event was also a team selection for the F3D World Championships to be held later this year in the U.S. This meant we had lots of competitors from interstate come down, which was great to see.
We had some of our interstate visitors arrive earlier in the week. On the Friday afternoon when I arrived, there were many people there practising and set up ready for the weekend.
To ensure our best chance of getting through our flying programme for the weekend, we scheduled to start racing quite early (at 8 am), meaning people were turning up to setup their planes in the dark. The first class we ran, this being a team trial, was F3D, one of the priority classes for the weekend. We managed to get through the five minimum required rounds very early.
After a short break, we commenced flying F3E and Q500 to give the competitors of F3E, a chance to charge batteries between rounds, which worked quite well and kept a good flow for the event.
We managed to get through the eight rounds of combined F3E & Q500 by about the middle of the afternoon, meaning we could bring forward the AMPRA meeting. We had to discuss some items of business for AMPRA. AMPRA (Australian Miniature Pylon Racing Association) is the Australian body for pylon racing. This event was the AMPRA Championships, which we hold once a year, normally in June, but due to COVID, this had been delayed from last year.
The next day we started early again. First up, we had to finish the remaining three rounds of F3D, making up a total of eight rounds. This done, we had completed the required racing for the team trials.
It was still early in the day, so we had time to run a good eight rounds of F3T. This class is always great to race and we had a good mix of Victoria and Queensland flyers flying this event.
F3T all finished up in the early afternoon after a short break for lunch. Presentations were made and we started leaving the field about 2:30 in the afternoon.
In general, it was a great event. It was excellent to have competitors from interstate, including Queensland, New South Wales, South Australia, and Victoria.
We saw some fantastic racing. In particular, some very tight racing between Beau Murphy and Lea Hocken, with Beau coming out on top with some excellent times. It was also great to see some good results in F3E. Quickie 500 was competed only by Victorians and as usual, Jim Orenshaw came out on top.
The Warrnambool club did another great job of hosting, and we all very much appreciated it. Everyone pitched in and helped with pylon judging and timing. A great weekend had by all.
Please note: We are looking for people willing to write event reports or photograph the events. This is important and valuable to pylon racing in Victoria, Australia and Worldwide as this site has a vast readership.
The written content in this post is accurate to the best of my/our knowledge at the time of publishing. It is written from my/our perspective and reflects how I/we have experienced this event. Photos published as feature images are selected purely for their quality, general interest or topicality. They are chosen from a pool of photos taken by myself and others when time permits. If a perspective is not being represented, I am more than happy to publish any written content or photos that are supplied to me provided it is fair and reasonable.
Finally, the VMPRA was able to go back to racing and back to the Warrnambool Model Aircraft Club. What a fantastic club facility they have there. The field was beautifully prepared, the club put on great catering and the help was incredible.
Saturday was a little wet particularly in the morning and early afternoon so after completing 4 rounds of Q500, we held the AMG. After that, the weather had clear enough to fly 4 rounds of F3D,
Sunday, the weather was more stable and with an early start, we completed 8 rounds of F3T, then the balance of the Q500 and F3D rounds. All in all, it was a great weekend and the welcome return to pylon racing in Victoria.
We look forward to returning to this club for our world champs team selection event in Feb 2022.
Please note: We are looking for people willing to write event reports or photograph the events. This is an important and valuable to pylon racing in Victoria, Australia and Worldwide as this site has a vast viewership.
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.
Well, it has been such a long time since we last all went pylon racing. With a false start back in February due to wet weather, the VMPRA finally re-launched pylon racing in Victoria.
The weather was kind to us and we managed to race a complete program of 8 rounds of Q500, F3D & F3T over the weekend.
An early start and refuelling out on the line saw Q500 complete five rounds before 11 am. Next up was F3D, with four rounds and then after lunch, two rounds of f3T before a cool change came through, stopping flying for the day.
We finally held our long-delayed AGM from last year and later that night, we all enjoyed another one of Andrew Arapakis’s spit roast meals.
Sunday was cooler compared to Saturday’s warm and humid conditions. As a result, times were faster, with fast and furious racing by Beau Murphy and Daniel Arapakis for F3D. David Chippindall also recorded a very fast sub 90 sec time for Q500.
We cycled through all the remaining rounds and classes, managing to finish up by lunch. After a lunch break consisting of some very nice pizza’s and left-overs from Saturday night, we packed up, held presentations and headed home.
As I said at the start, it was great to be back racing again and thanks to Barry Murphy for having us at his excellent pylon racing field.
Results
Class – FA1
Places: 1st Beau Murphy
2nd Daniel Arapakis
3rd Barry Murphy
Fastest Time: 57.63 Daniel Arapakis
No. of competitors: 4
Class – F3T
Places: 1st Glenn Matthews
2nd Barry Murphy
3rd Jim Orenshaw
Fastest Time: 63.73 Glenn Matthews
No. of competitors: 7
Places: 1st David Chippindall
2nd Jim Orenshaw
3rd John Schmidli
Fastest Time: 89.76 David Chippindall
No. of competitors: 6
There have been a few recent additions to the event calendar with more to come so make sure you pencil in the confirmed events and keep an eye out for further updates.
The next event will be held at Warrnambool on April 17-18, 2021. Hope we can get a big turn-out there for some great racing. See you then.
Please note: We are looking for people willing to write event reports or photograph the events. This is an important and valuable to pylon racing in Victoria, Australia and Worldwide as this site has a vast viewership.
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.
Please note: We are looking for people willing to write event reports or photograph the events. This is an important and valuable to pylon racing in Victoria, Australia and Worldwide as this site has a vast viewership.
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.
The event was at Warrnambool on Nov 16-17. This field was in absolutely perfect condition with the club having recently upgraded all their facilities and the weather had been very kind with very green pastures and hay being cut everywhere.
Thanks to the Warrnambool Club for hosting this event and we look forward to revisiting you at the end of Feb 2020.
Results
Class – FA1
Places: 1st Andrew Davies
2nd Tom Wetherill
3rd Brian Steele
Fastest Time: 63.39 Beau Murphy
No. of competitors: 6
Class – F3T
Places: 1st Glenn Matthews
2nd Brian Steele
3rd John Schmidli
Fastest Time: 64.00 Andrew Davies
No. of competitors: 8
Places: 1st Mike Kellet
2nd John Schmidli
3rd Gary Whitbourn
Fastest Time: 96.27 Jim Orenshaw
No. of competitors: 8
Please note: We are looking for people willing to write event reports or photograph the events. This is an important and valuable to pylon racing in Victoria, Australia and Worldwide as this site has a vast viewership.
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.
Please note: We are looking for people willing to write event reports or photograph the events. This is an important and valuable to pylon racing in Victoria, Australia and Worldwide as this site has a vast viewership.
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.
What a fantastic club to go pylon racing at. With so much enthusiasm from the club members to help man the pylons, it was an absolute pleasure to race at Cohuna (the home of VIC Pylon) again.
Results
Class – FA1
Places: 1st Andrew Davies
2nd Brian Steele
3rd Leigh Hocken
Fastest Time: 59.69 Andrew Davies
No. of competitors: 3
Please note: We are looking for people willing to write event reports or photograph the events. This is an important and valuable to pylon racing in Victoria, Australia and Worldwide as this site has a vast viewership.
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.
Back on June 29 – 30, the VMPRA held a pylon race meet at Barry Murphy’s pylon racing field at Munto in Victoria. Due to the F3D world championships not being long after this date, we raced F3T & Q500 only for this event.
The intention was to fly 12 rounds of each class over the weekend. The weather had a different idea. Conditions were very windy and flying stopped for a while on several occasions.
By the end of the event, 8 rounds of Q500 and 3 rounds of F3T were completed.
Below are the results and championship standings for this event
If anybody has any photos they would like to contribute to the gallery and/or would like to add an event report, please email them to my usual address email or the below.
Places: 1st John Schmidli
2nd Allan Swift
3rd Jim Orenshaw
Fastest Time: 96.78 Allan Swift – Note: Q500 Class racing was a non-compliant race. Not all pylons were observed. The fastest time will not be recorded.
No. of competitors: 9
This was the final race event for the 2018/2019 Seasons Championship, so below are the final top 3 positions for each class. The 1st place getters will receive their Seasons Champion trophies at the Cohuna AGM.
There was no change in the top 3 positions post the Munro race. A big congratulations goes out to Andrew Davies. This is also his 3rd Championship win in the last 4 seasons.
1st – Andrew Davies
2nd – Jim Orenshaw
3rd – Gary Davidson
Again there was no change in the top 3 positions post the Munro race. A big congratulations goes out to Jim Orenshaw. This is his 4th season championship in 4 years.
1st – Jim Orenshaw
2nd – Allan Swift
3rd – John Schmidli
Through-out the season we keep a record of the fastest race times for the season. This is an informal competition but everybody loves to win the fastest time for an event. I’ve only just become aware that it is now becoming commonly known as the “Red Box”, named after how the fastest time is indicated on the results table. Here are the fastest times for the year.
Please note: We are looking for people willing to write reports or photograph the events. This is important and valuable to pylon racing in Victoria, Australia and Worldwide as this site has a vast viewership.
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.
Below are the results and championship standings for the recent Warrnambool event
If anybody has any photos they would like to contribute to the gallery and/or would like to add an event report, please email them to my usual address email or the below.
Further to this, for future events, I’m needing contributions in the form of an event report and photos, as I need to pull back for doing this.
Daniel & Andrew all set for the world champs in August.
This was the final round of F3D for the 2018/2019 season championship.
So a big congratulations go to Daniel Arapakis. This is the 3rd time he has won a season championship.
1st – Daniel Arapakis 2nd – Leigh Hocken
3rd – Andrew Davies
Please note: We are looking for people willing to write event reports or photograph the events. This is an important and valuable to pylon racing in Victoria, Australia and Worldwide as this site has a vast viewership.
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.
