So VMPRA was off to the MAAA Nationals held in the New South Wales town of West Wyalong. We were to be providing the equipment and be running the event. Mick Dallmann from Queensland offered to be Contest Director for the weekend and did a fine job of it. It was great to see a good group on competitors down from Queensland and some from South Australia also.
We were allocated an area on the secondary runway at the local airport which had a gravel runway. There was some test flying on Friday but due to the difficult take-off and landing conditions much time was spent on laying out sheets and matting to keep the dust down on the take-off position and on the runway for the planes that land wheels up.
At the nationals, the classes of Q500, F400, F3T, F3D & F5D were raced. This meant that racing of F400 & F3T ran late into the afternoon with the sun very low in the sky.
One of the highlights of the Nationals is being surrounded by lots of people that are interested in the various facets of aeromodeling and getting a chance to watch some of these other events. Hopefully the Nats can become a more regular part of the Australian aeromodeling scene and especially for pylon racers from all over Australia to come together.
Places: 1st David Wilkins
2nd Steve Taylor
3rd Marc Hamilton
Fastest Time: 96.39 – Jim Orenshaw
No. of competitors: 11
Class – F5D
Places: 1st Trevor Pearce
2nd Daniel Arapakis
3rd David Wilkins
Fastest Time: 60.10 – Jim Orenshaw
No. of competitors: 4
Event Report and Photos – John Schmidli
The written content in this post is accurate to the best of my/our knowledge at the time of publishing. It is written from my/our perspective and reflects how I/we have experienced this event.
Photos published as feature images are selected purely for their quality, general interest or topicality. They are chosen from a pool of photos taken by myself and others when time permits.
If a perspective is not being represented, I am more than happy to publish any written content or photos that are supplied to me provided it is fair and reasonable.
Back on the December 10, we returned to Crib Point for another of our Q500/Sports pylon racing days. Thanks Allan Swift for the below event report.
Q500
In Round 1, Jim Orenshaw did a 93 sec time which was the quickest all day. John Schmidli flew fast and consistently all day to win overall.
Some very quick models and close racing was displayed. Allister Cox (Western Port member) was flying one of Daniel Arapakis’s Q500 models which appeared to have the highest airspeed.
Gary & Alan Whitbourn both flew fast well prepared Q500’s.
Sports
A good day was had by all and a variety of high and low wing Trainer/Sport type models were flown.
F5D display
Daniel Arapakis performed a practice/demonstration flight of his F5D after lunch and was very quick!
Many thanks to the host Club for making the Pylon flyers welcome, assisting with the Pylon marshaling duties and providing the catering for lunch.
No change at the top 2 positions but in a close battle between father son team Gary Whitbourn has displayed Alan and has move up from 4th to 3rd positions.
1st – Jim Orenshaw
2nd – John Schmidli
3rd – Gary Whitbourn
Please note the VMPRA Committee approved engine list for Q500 Pylon events in VIC, as per carried motion at VMPRA General Meeting at Cohuna in 2017.
“Motion: VMPRA to use AMPRA Q500 rules, with the exception of retaining an updated approved engine list. VMPRA Committee to amend approved engine list.”
Thunder Tigre .46, OS 46AX, OS 46AXII, OS 46FX, Super Tigre G45, Evolution .46NX, ASP S46A & ASP S46AII
Next Race
The first event for 2018 is at Camperdown on February 3-4. This event is the VMPRATrophy. Pencil that one into the diary.
Camperdown Racecourse access conditions Friday (02/02/2018)
Racecourse is available from 11:00 am onwards. PLEASE DO NOT ENTER EARLIER THAN 11:00 am.
Saturday (03/02/2018)
Gate open at 8:30 am and NO FLYING.
Entries close at 9:30 am and the course is to be set up. Test Flying from 10:00 am to 10:30 am.
Q500 to commence at 10:30 am.
FA1 practice allowed during lunch break.
FA1 to commence after lunch, followed by F400.
Sunday (04/02/2018)
Field closed for test flying and racing to commence after 9:00 am.
VMPRA Membership renewal
Please also note, your VMPRA membership fees are due for 2018. Payment of $25.00 can be made at Camperdown or by the following methods:
2018 Nats
Also worth considering is the Nats that are being held in West Wylong (NSW) on April 28-29, 2018. Entries close on January 31, 2018 so you can register to compete by visiting the below link.
Event Report – Allan Swift
Additional material – John Schmidli and Allan Swift Photos – John Schmidli
The written content in this post is accurate to the best of my/our knowledge at the time of publishing. It is written from my/our perspective and reflects how I/we have experienced this event.
Photos published as feature images are selected purely for their quality, general interest or topicality. They are chosen from a pool of photos taken by myself and others when time permits.
If a perspective is not being represented, I am more than happy to publish any written content or photos that are supplied to me provided it is fair and reasonable.
Wow, what a great event. On the Queen’s birthday long weekend, VMPRA hosted the 2015 AMPRA Championships and F5D Australian team trials. This event was held in Munro at Barry Murphy’s superb purpose build pylon racing field.
Arriving at the field a few days early, it was obvious that a lot of hard work had gone into getting the field prepared including flags, banners and even a winner’s podium that was fitting of any high class event. Ian Rickard took his annual leave holidays to prepare the grounds for pilots, campers and spectators. Preparations of the field were spectacular!
Thursday night saw competitors starting to arrive with most participants from the four different states arriving during the Friday. After some fairly dubious weather earlier in the week, the weather Gods turned up on Friday and really turned it on for perfect conditions over the weekend in Gippsland one of Victoria’s famous regions for veggie growers and cattle. Friday consisted of setting up of aircraft and campsites and plenty of test flying. Most pilots camped for the long weekend enjoying a real country felt environment. After some pre sunset electric flying, we were treated to a fantastic dinner put together by Toni Axon and also contributions by Lydia Arapakis and her legendary meatballs and fed the 30 campers and visitors. Dessert consisted of plenty of cold beers and mash mellows around the camp fire.
The AMPRA Championships are a once a year national event that is held in different states where pylon racers from typically VIC, QLD, SA and NSW come together to compete. This year it was decided that this would be the F5D World Championships team selection. F5D is a pylon racing class that uses electric powered motor flying a very similar speeds to F3D. As it was a selection event, this class would take priority to ensure 8 rounds are flown.
After some early test flying and setting up the course and timing system, first up was 2 rounds of F5D. Early pace and consistency was set by Alex Davie, Barry Murphy and Bruce DeChastel.
Next up was F400 of which 3 rounds where run. With 14 entrants, it took a while to get through each round. Shaun Jacobsen set the bench mark with a (62.45) in the first round and consistency flew with great times all weekend and also recorded the fastest times on both days. With prefect conditions for flying with a 5km/h westerly and 18 degrees, saw more rounds of F5D and lunch to follow.
Lunch consisted of hamburgers and pasta carbonara also organized again by Toni Axon. Straight after lunch, there was another couple of rounds of F5D with all pilots on the money. Beau Murphy pulled out a ripper and flew the fastest time (57.53) of the event.
Next up was Q500. Lots of cuts for the 1st round but Caleb Chipendale putting in a nice fast clean time. with his PB of (98.08) and the fastest time of the round– truly a great effort as this was only his second pylon race event! The 2nd Round Jim Orenshaw recorded the fastest time for the weekend of 90.81 and he put in a nice fast time for the 3rd round. The sun was now setting so racing was stopped for the day. Surprise entrant Austin Omann (Curley) in his very first event was flying very tight circuits and positioned really well for the start of the weekend.
At 5:30, the AMPRA AGM and general meeting was held under the cover of a huge marquee, supplied along with tables and chairs by Marcus Guss which was a perfect set up for the weekend festivities. Once the official items for the night were completed, Andrew Arapakis put on one of his now legendary Greek style spit roast chicken and Lamb, Greek salad and butter and garlic potatoes. Dessert was one of Gary Davidson’s favorites being “World Famous Sticky Date Pudding” and cream which was impeccably made by Nerida Matthews. It was a terrific evening with all participants staying out at the field for the meeting followed by great food, great camaraderie spirit and certainly one for the history books.
Sunday Morning, dawned with beautiful clear conditions yet again. Racing started a little earlier as there was no resetting of the course required. First up again was round 7 of the F5D selection races. This time Daniel Arapakis was also racing giving him an opportunity to be selected as a junior representative. In this round, Beau really hit his stride, with another sub 60. Unfortunately for Allan Swift, he managed to hit the #3 pylon during this race which ended his racing for the day prematurely. The ever reliable Barry Murphy yet again on his game with our friends from QLD Tony and Bruce flying great with only a few seconds apart between them.
Next up was the final round (round 8). Beau again recorded a fast time of 57.56, only 3/100s off the fastest time he recorded the day before and pipped Baz finishing in top spot and only 5 seconds separating the next three places. Dannmann also flew his PB ripper in round 8 with a (60.15).
Next we went straight into FA1 racing with a view completing all 8 rounds that day.
To start off, the 1st round saw half the field record DNS’s including Daniel Arapakis who uncharacteristically recorded 2 DNS’s for rounds 1 &2. After 4 rounds had been completed, lunch was called. The ever reliable Glenn Matthew started the event really well and great to see Frenchy having a go!
Before lunch was ready, we had a trophy presentation for the F5D event as the QLD competitors needed to leave that afternoon to catch flights back. Well done guys and big efforts recognized by all…..
The places where:
1st place: Beau Murphy, Caller – Barry Murphy
2nd place: Barry Murphy, Caller – Beau Murphy
3rd place: Tony Singleton, Caller – Bruce de Chastel
Place getters received a very nice glass trophy and both pilots and callers received AMPRA mugs with the appropriate and place and position. The podium really made a great feeing of an official presentation and memorable pictures for the album.
After lunch FA1 was up again. Round 6 saw Beau Murphy, record a fastest time for this class for the weekend of 58.82sec. This rounds also saw an unfortunate post race collision betweenGary Davidsonand Brian Steele. Andrew Davies struck some bad luck as well destroying a new piston and withdrawing from the event. Tom Jacobsen flew his best time of the event with a (62.33) but found the ground in the last round tearing a cannon in Bazza’s bowling green. So the last race of the day saw Beau and Dannmann. Both pilots flew their WC models neck and neck which was truly a spectacle to watch as neither pilot gave an inch. Both Dad’s obviously nervous but very proud to watch their sons on top of their game and Beau’s unquestionable character mentoring Dan with final World F3D Championships preparations. Both pilots pushing hard resulted in cuts and show time thankfully was over, never the less both pilots and callers had a ripper time and high fives all round with both planes safe on the ground.
Daniel Arapakis and Austin Omann
Next up was Q500 and racing continued till dark. James Hurley and John Schmidli recording a string of sub 100’s placing them in top positions. It was also becoming evident that a young first time racer, Daniel Arapakis’s best mate and protégé, Austin Omann has been practicing behind the scenes at Munro going really fast even though he had recorded a cut in most rounds. Dark horse Jimmy cut himself out of the event after the first 6 rounds scores were posted. Consistency of Ian Rickard also positioned well after 6 rounds and flying really well. Great to see all pilots having a go and Matt Young also back flying.
After another great night and now into the left over’s saw plenty of laughs and beer around the camp fire and a reasonably quiet night, the morning kicked off starting with F400 (round 4). It was in the 1st heat that John Schmidli and Jim Oreshaw had a mid-air (link to Youtube clip) putting them both out of the competition for the rest of the day. The rest of the F400 races went without incident and there was some very good and fast flying. Shaun recorded the fastest time for the class in the 7th round and ended up securing 1st place. Great to watch the Jabobsen crew from the side line as all three guys had a great weekend flying!
As the F400 race drew to a close, the wind had really picked up which had been expected. Q500 had only 2 rounds to be completed but Glenn Matthews, the contest director, declared it too windy so Q500 was to only be the 6 round already flown.
Great call as the weekend ending with a BBQ lunch. The field equipment was then packed up and then trophies presented at the contest podium (see results below) which drew what can only be classed as an absolutely awesome weekend’s flying to an close.
In closure, the weekend was one for the history books with contributions by all pilots, spectators, visitors and helpers being truly outstanding. Special mention to the Munro ground crew and the interstate visitors who made great efforts to travel significant distances to participate in this year’s event!
Back in January this year, the VMPRA was involve at Sandown Race Way as part of the Sandown F1 R/C Air Race. As part of this, we had a Great Planes Viper Q500 racer kindly donated by Dawn Trading (http://www.dawntrading.com.au) along with a Thunder Tiger engine (TT 46 PRO), also kindly donated by R/C Headquarters – Werribee (http://www.rcheadquarters.com.au/). This aircraft was used by the VMPRA for flying demonstrations at that event.
The VMPRA committee decided that this donated aircraft should be awarded to someone that would benefit from the use of such a model in the pursuit of getting started in pylon racing.
It was with great pleasure that the VMPRA awarded the prize of the Great Planes Viper and Thunder Tiger TT466PRO to first time Q500 competitor, Austin Omann. Austin has been going flying and practicing pylon racing under the encouragement and guidance of Daniel and Andrew Arapakis and was flying using their aircraft. By awarding this aircraft to Austin, we feel that it will assist him in his Pylon Racing ambitions. Congratulation Austin and we look forward to seeing you at future events.
Season Championship
For 2 out of the 3 classes, the championship has finished for the 2014/2015 season.
FA1
Final Positions:
1st – Daniel Arapakis
2nd – Glenn Matthews
3rd – Barry Murphy
A big congratulations must go out to Daniel for clenching this championship at the age of 14 and only 3 years after coming long to his first pylon race armed with a Boomerang Trainer. This not only has happened as a result of a huge effort and commitment from Daniel but also by his caller and dad, Andrew and coaches and mentors, Barry and Beau Murphy.
Congratulations also goes out to Glenn Matthews for coming in 2nd place and also last year’s champion, Barry Murphy sneaking into 3rd place in the last event for the season.
F400
Final Positions:
1st – Andrew Davies
2nd – Glenn Matthews
3rd – Brian Steele
A big congratulations goes out to Andrew Davies for gaining the winning position at the last event for the season displacing last year’s winner, Glenn Matthews who has come in 2nd place and then Brian Steele has come in 3rd place.
Q500
This class has still got one more event to go before places will be confirmed. Current placings are:
1st – John Schmidli
2nd – Jim Orenshaw
3rd – James Hurley
In actual fact, the winner can’t change as John Schmidli is 25 points ahead with a maximum of only 10 points available to the winner of the next race.
Between 6-11 July, 2015, there is the FAI F3D world championship being held in the Czech Republic. We wish all the Australian team and defending world champ, Chris Callow, all the best. In particular, our fellow VMPRA members, Beau Murphy and Caller Barry Murphy, Leigh Hocken and caller Vern Gibson and Junior representative, Daniel Arapakis and caller Andrew Arapakis. We wish you all the best.
Also we wish our Team New Zealand represents, Tom Wetherill and his caller Jim Orenshaw, all the best too.
To all supporters and family travelling over for the event, have a great trip and a good time at the world champs.
Next Event
As mentioned in the Season Championship section, we have a Q500 and Sports pylon race on at the Werribee Club Field on July 5, 2015. Hope to see many there and anybody keen to try pylon racing, you are welcome to come along with a sport or trainer plane.
After that, there is a full 3 class pylon race at the Marong field near Bendigo on August 1-2, 2015. This will be the 1st event for the new 2015/2016 championship season and there will also be our AGM on the Saturday night which is usually held at the caravan park. More details will be posted closer to then.
Event Report – John Schmidli and Andrew Arapakis
Photos – John Schmidli and 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.
It’s been a bit of a break but we are off to racing again in less than a weeks time. Back to one of our favorites, Cohuna.
This will be run to our usual format – F400, Q500 and FA1 will be run. We should get 8 rounds of each in and have a great weekends racing!
Also coming up is the AMPRA Championship to be held in Munro on the Queens birthday weekend (June 6th, 7th and 8th – if required) .
Not only is this our national championship for our usual classes of F400, Q500 & FA1, but is will be a team selection event for the next F5D world championships in 2016. For more information on this event, go to this link on the AMPRA website.
With the completion of the 2014 F5D World Championships, we celebrate the Australian team coming a brilliant 2nd place. A fantastic result considering Australia has only been represented once before in this class at a world championship.
Beau & Barry Murphy
Individually, Bruce DeChastel came 11th, Tyler Mees was just outside the placings coming 4th and VMPRA’s very own Beau Murphy with his father, Barry as call came 3rd. This is an outstanding result for all and particularly for Beau, having no real opportunity to race this class in Victoria and this being his first time competing in the class at the world level. Well Done guys!
Coming up this weekend (at time of publishing) is the Victorian State Championships being held at Hamilton. There probably hasn’t been enough made of the fact that this is our state championship but everybody would like the bragging rights to be a place getter at this event. I believe there is a good contingency coming from South Australia also which will be great.
Hamilton 2012 - FA1 starting line
It’s a busy time with a pylon event having been held up in Queensland last weekend and one being held the week after our state champs in NSW. Talking about the Queensland event. I believe Beau and Barry Murphy made a flying visit to Maryborough to compete in the F5D World Championship team select event. Congratulation to Beau and Barry for winning that event and for securing a place on the Australian Team. Beau’s fastest time was a 55.76 (mighty fast).
I need to point out an error in the Swan Hill Event Report. I had Glenn Matthews down as having the fastest time in F400. This should have read Gary Davidson with a time of 65.41.
Please don’t hesitate to let me know if you even spot an error in an web posts.
Well, according to the VMPRA.org.au event count-down, it’s just over 2 weeks before the event at Cohuna. This event (Sept 15-16) is the 3rd selection trial event for the next F3D World Championship in the Netherlands 2013. It promises to be a hotly contested event in F3D with several of our northern friends making the trip down to compete and we should see most if not all of the winning 2011 F3D WC team flying at Cohuna.
As this is a selection event for the F3D WCs, this will take priority, but there is also going to be F400 flown after 9 rounds of F3D has been completed.
Note: There isn’t going to be any Q500 flown at this event but you can still come along and get involve with helping out, fly in the other classes and enjoy some really quick racing.
So it’s time to make your preparations and have accomodation organized ready for this great week end.
While we are at Cohuna, over in Romania, the F5D World Championships as getting under way. Having seen Rick and Beau fly these models earlier in the year, we have had a chance to see just how quickly they fly. Australia is sending a team, so we’ll being keeping an ear out for news on their progress. Good Luck guys.
So VMPRA was off to the MAAA Nationals held in the New South Wales town of West Wyalong. We were to be providing the equipment and be running the event. Mick Dallmann from Queensland offered to be Contest Director for the weekend and did a fine job of it. It was great to see a good group on competitors down from Queensland and some from South Australia also.
At the nationals, the classes of Q500, F400, F3T, F3D & F5D were raced. This meant that racing of F400 & F3T ran late into the afternoon with the sun very low in the sky.
