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

BARRY MURPHY

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Results

Class – FA1

Places:
1st Glenn Matthews
2nd Anthony Thurgood
3rd Brian Steele

Fastest Time (Red Box): 66.63 Glenn Matthews.
No. of competitors: 4

Class – F3T

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

Fastest Time (Red Box): 69.93 Andrew Davies.
No. of competitors: 8

Class – Q500

Places:
1st John Schmidli
2nd Gary Davidson
3rd Andrew Davies

Fastest Time (Red Box): 96.73 John Schmidli
No. of competitors: 10

Season Championship

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

Next Class Race – Warrnambool.

We’ll be back at Munro on Feb 10-11.

Also, check the calendar regularly, as new dates for 2024 are being added regularly.

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.

Quick Reference

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.

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.

Rankings

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

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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

Season Championship

FA1

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

Next Class Race – Warrnambool.

We’ll be back at Munro on Dec 2 – 3.

Also, check the calendar regularly, as new dates for 2024 are being added regularly.

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.

Quick Reference

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Results

Class – FA1

Places:
1st Rick Townsend
2nd Brian Steele
3rd Glenn Matthews

Fastest Time (Red Box): 62.08 Rick Townsend.
No. of competitors: 5

Class – F3T

Places:
1st Glenn Matthews
2nd Anthony Thurgood
3rd John Schmidli

Fastest Time (Red Box): 67.08 Glenn Matthews.
No. of competitors: 8

Class – Q500

Places:
1st John Schmidli
2nd Jim Orenshaw
3rd Gary Davidson

Fastest Time (Red Box): 96.01 John Schmidli
No. of competitors: 9

Season Championship

FA1

Brian Steele remains in the top position. Rick Townsend and Tom Wetherill moved up two positions each to take up 2nd and 3rd positions, respectively.

1st – Brian Steele
2nd – Rick Townsend
3rd – Tom Wetherill

F3T

The top 3 positions remain the same after this race.

1st – Brian Steele
2nd – Andrew Davies
3rd – Jim Orenshaw

Q500

No change in the top two positions, but Anthony Thurgood has displaced Tom Allan by moving up into 3rd position.

1st – John Schmidli
2nd – Jim Orenshaw
3rd – Anthony Thurgood

Next Class Race – Warrnambool.

We’ll be back at Warrnambool on Oct 11 – 12.

Also, check the calendar regularly, as new dates for 2024 are being added regularly.

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.

Quick Reference

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Results

Class – FA1

Places:
1st Brian Steele
2nd Barry Murphy
3rd Rick Townsend

Fastest Time (Red Box): 64.57 Rick Townsend.
No. of competitors: 6

Class – F3T

Places:
1st Brian Steele
2nd Jim Orenshaw
3rd Andrew Davies

Fastest Time (Red Box): 64.63 Andrew Davies.
No. of competitors: 10

Class – Q500

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

Fastest Time (Red Box): 93.15 John Schmidli
No. of competitors: 12

Season Championship

FA1

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

Next Class Race – New Bridge (Rick’s Field).

We’ll be back at Rick Townsend’s pylon field at New Bridge, on Oct 14 – 15

Report  – 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.

Quick Reference

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Results

Class – FA1

Places:
1st Rick Townsend
2nd Brian Steele
3rd Andrew Davies

Fastest Time (Red Box): 59.88 Rick Townsend.
No. of competitors: 4

Class – F3T

Places:
1st Andrew Davies
2nd Brian Steele
3rd Gary Davidson

Fastest Time (Red Box): 62.99 Andrew Davies.
No. of competitors: 10

Class – Q500

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

Fastest Time (Red Box): 93.46 Jim Orenshaw.
No. of competitors: 12

Season Championship

FA1

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

Next Race – Mt Wallice (Q500 ONLY).

We head off to a new field for us to Mt Wallice (187 Brisbane Ranges Rd) on August 20.

Next Full 3 Class Race – Cohuna

We’ll be back at the home of pylon racing, Cohuna, on Sept 16 – 17

Report  – 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.

Quick Reference

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.

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Results

Class – FA1

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

Fastest Time (Red Box): 63.51 Andrew Wall.
No. of competitors: 5

Class – F3T

Places:
1st Andrew Wall
2nd Tony Singleton
3rd John Schmidli

Fastest Time (Red Box): 62.58 Andrew Wall.
No. of competitors: 13

Class – Q500

Places:
1st David Chippindal
2nd Jim Orenshaw
3rd Mike Kellet

Fastest Time (Red Box): 93.15 David Chippindal.
No. of competitors: 13

Season Championship

FA1

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

Next Race – Bendigo

We’ll be back a Bendigo for the first time in a while (July 22 & 23), racing all three classes.

Report  – John Schmidli
Photos – John Schmidli, Anthony Thurgood & Andrew Arapakis (sorry if I’ve missed someone).

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.

Quick Reference

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.

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Results

Class – FA1

Places:
1st Rick Townsend
2nd Brian Steele
3rd Anthony Thurgood

Fastest Time (Red Box): 62.58 Rick Townsend (Not all Pylons Observed).
No. of competitors: 5

Class – F3T

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

Fastest Time (Red Box): 65.13 Glenn Davidson (Not all pylons were observed).
No. of competitors: 9

Class – Q500

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

Fastest Time (Red Box): 90.15 Tom Wetherill (Not all pylons were observed).
No. of competitors: 10

Season Championship

FA1

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

Next Race – Newbridge

Western Port Model Aircraft Club – Q500 and Sports only May 21, 2023

Report  – N/A
Additional content – 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/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

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.

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Results

Class – FA1

Places:
1st Beau Murphy
2nd Glenn Matthews
3rd Tom Wetherill

Fastest Time (Red Box): 60.19 Beau Murphy
No. of competitors: 6

Class – F3T

Places:
1st Glenn Matthews
2nd Brian Steele
3rd Andrew Davies

Fastest Time (Red Box): 66.69 Andrew Davies
No. of competitors: 8

Class – Q500

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

Fastest Time (Red Box): 98.51 John Schmidli
No. of competitors: 9

Season Championship

FA1

Both Barry Murphy and Brian Steele stayed in 1st and 2nd positions, respectively. Tom Wetherill moved up to 3rd place from 4th.

1st – Barry Murphy
2nd – Brian Steele
3rd – Tom Wetherill

F3T

Andrew Davies has remained in 1st position. Glenn Matthews has moved up to 2nd place from 4th, pushing Jim Orenshaw down into the 3rd spot.

1st – Andrew Davies
2nd – Glenn Matthews
3rd – Jim Orenshaw

Q500

John Schmidli remained in 1st position. Tom Wetherill moved up to 2nd place from 4th while pushing Tom Allan down to 3rd place.

1st – John Schmidli
2nd – Tom Wetherill
3rd – Tom Allan

Next Race – Newbridge

Ricky’s field. April 15 – 16.
Class: FA1, F3T & Q500.

Report  – N/A
Additional content – John Schmidli
Photos – Andrew Arapakis and Others (Sorry).

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

Unfortunately, we haven’t received a report for this event. I can tell you that all who attended enjoyed being back at Munro. 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.

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Results

Class – FA1

Places:
1st Beau Murphy
2nd Barry Murphy
3rd Brian Steel

Fastest Time (Red Box): 59.69 Beau Murphy
No. of competitors: 5

Class – F3T

Places:
1st Andrew Davies
2nd Glenn Matthews
3rd Brian Steel

Fastest Time (Red Box): 68.18 Andrew Davies
No. of competitors: 11

Class – Q500

Places:
1st John Schmidli
2nd David Chippindall
3rd Gary Davidson

Fastest Time (Red Box): 96.61 Mike Kellet
No. of competitors: 11

Season Championship

FA1

Barry Murphy has lept up to the top position from 4th and Brian Steele doing the same from 5th position to 2nd spot. Daniel Arapakis has been displaced down into 3rd position.

1st – Barry Murphy
2nd – Brian Steele
3rd – Daniel Arapakis

F3T

The only change in this top 3 is Andrew Davies and Jim Orenshaw swapping spots with Andrew being in top stop.

1st – Andrew Davies
2nd – Jim Orenshaw
3rd – Barry Murphy

Q500

John Schmidli was jumped up to the top position pushing Tom Allan and Jim Orenshaw down a position into 2nd and 3rd, respectively.

1st – John Schmidli
2nd – Tom Allan
3rd – Jim Orenshaw

Next Race

N/A.

Report  – N/A
Additional content – John Schmidli
Photos – Andrew Arapakis and Others (Sorry).

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

VMPRA STATE CHAMPIONSHIPS -MUNRO FIELD 3-4 DECEMBER 2022

This was a well-attended event although some regular flyers were unable to attend due to work commitments.

The weather conditions were not conducive to fast times. It was reasonably hot with a nice south-easterly on Saturday. Racing each day kicked off with F3T with a total of 9 entries. Some close racing from the top four place getters with Glenn Mathews taking it out from Jim Orenshaw and Andrew Davies. There was a mixture of aircraft designs, mainly Scad Aero designs with mainly Nelson LS engines with a Dubb Jett and DKT making up the minority.

In Q500 there were 8 entries.

Well…the racing became tight!!

The racing between Tom Allen and Jim Orenshaw was magic. No mid-airs…pure luck!

Good to see newcomers Tony Eichstadt and Anthony Thurgood full of enthusiasm. This is just what we need. We welcomed back Eddie Rich from a long break. The top 4 place getters were John Schmidli, Tom Allen, Jim Orenshaw and Tony Eichstadt.

In F3D there were 5 entries.

Well…the racing just got tighter!!

Dan Arapakis cruised through with exceptional flying with the fastest time of 61.88 on the long course (corrected time is sub 60 seconds).

Andrew Davies, Barry Murphy and Glenn Matthews were in some races which left nothing to spare. In round 5,6,7, & 8 the flying between Davies & Murphy was fantastic, neither gave an inch to the other. It was Davies gaining on Murphy or Murphy gaining on Davies! In this type of race, it is essential to hold your line. The drag race to the finish was spectacular!

Dan Arapakis came out on top followed by Andrew Davies and Barry Murphy 0.7 seconds behind in third place. Just the best racing for a long time.

The Aircraft were mainly Vectors and a couple of Faster Masters. All engines were MBs with one home built by Barry.

On Saturday night we all attended the VMPRA AGM and a magnificent roast prepared by Glenn and Nerida Matthews and Andrew Arapakis.

We all seemed worn out at the end of a very enjoyable weekend. It is worth noting that there was no loss of aircraft over the weekend which is a rarity!

Looking forward to the next race.

Baz Murphy

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Results

Class – FA1

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

Fastest Time (Red Box): 61.26 Daniel Arapakis
No. of competitors: 5

Class – F3T

Places:
1st Glenn Matthews
2nd Jim Orenshaw
3rd Andrew Davies

Fastest Time (Red Box): 67.88 Jim Orenshaw
No. of competitors: 9

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

Class – Q500

Fastest Time (Red Box): 96.77 John Schmidli
No. of competitors: 8

Season Championship

This was the third race for the 2022/2023 season championship.

FA1

Daniel Arapakis has jumped up from 3rd place into the top spot pushing Tom Wetherill and Rick Townsend down one place each.

1st – Daniel Arapakis
2nd – Tom Wetherill
3rd – Rick Townsend

F3T

Jim Orenshaw has maintained his top spot, with Andrew Davies moving up one place, displacing Barry Murphy into the 3rd spot.

1st – Jim Orenshaw
2nd – Andrew Davies
3rd – Barry Murphy

Q500

Tom Allen has maintained his top position, Jim Orenshaw has moved up one place and John Schmidli is now in 3rd place.

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

Next Race

Our next race and the first for the 2023 calendar year, is again at Munro on February 18 – 19, 2023.

Report  – Barry Murphy
Additional content – John Schmidli
Photos – Andrew Arapakis, Tom Allen, Sarah Doyle, Nerida Matthews and John Schmidli

A big thank you to all who contributed to this event report.

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