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
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It’s was great going back to the home of pylon racing in Victoria, 41 years from the first pylon event at this great club. We held the VMAA State Championship on this weekend which included the 2nd F3D Australian Team Trial for next years World Championships in Queensland, Australia.
The Cohuna club always provides a full compliment of helps which is absolutely necessary for running the team trials on the 10 lap course. What a great job all the helpers did. Thanks to the Cohuna Club.
We started with 2 rounds of Q500 after a little delay getting the timing system sorted. Once the Q500 races finished, it was into the half an hour of flight testing for the F3D and then 5 rounds were run in nice sunny and warm conditions. later in the day, F400 ran 3 rounds before running out of time.
Sunday started with the remaining 3 rounds of F3D followed by Q500 and the F400 after lunch.
The event was a great success with Andrew Arapakis and Andrew Davies CDing for the weekend plus Allan Swift running the timing systems with help from Daniel Arapakis. Great job everybody
This was only the second event for this new championship season. Being an VMAA Championships and a F3D team selection trial, it was a 10 lap course with a good amount of cut judges. We done Cohuna club!
The very next race is at the Westernport Club where there’ll be a Sports & Q500 race on Oct 14. There is always a great turn out at this event and a heap of fun had.
The next 2 day/3 class event is being held on Nov 10-11 at Munro.
There have been quite a few changes to the calendar of late so make sure you have them all in your diary so as to not miss out.
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 November 18 – 19 after a weeks postponement, the VMPRA ran the Victorian State Championships down at Barry Murphy’s beautifully prepared, purpose built pylon racing facility.
Unfortunately I was not able to attend and an event report hasn’t been provided so I’ll get stuck into the results.
Brian Steele and Glenn Matthews have moved up a position each into 1st & 2nd positions respectively and Andrew Davies has dropped from 1st to 3rd position.
1st – Brian Steele
2nd – Glenn Matthews
3rd – Andrew Davies
That was the last full 3 class event for the year. We have a Q500 & Sports event scheduled for Crib Point on December 10.
The first event for 2018 is at Camperdown on February 3-4. This event is the VMPRA Trophy. Pencil that one into the diary.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
On the week end of October 12-13 (2013) the VMPRA held the Victorian State Pylon Championships which was held in Hamilton. Ironically, this is the event that we see a good number of our South Australian friend come across to enjoy a great weekend of pylon racing. On the Friday afternoon when I arrived, there were more of the SA guys at the field than Victorians. All up, there was 7 SA pilots plus a few partners along for the trip and calling.
There was quite a few of us camping over the weekend despite some dire weather predictions. It turned out to be a very pleasant spot to camp. The field at Hamilton was very green with plenty of grass and solid ground. No need for me to get towed out of the mud this time.
We had a great deal of help from the Hamilton members They manning #1 pylon and also number 2 & 3 pylons where manned all weekend. Along with the catering, the VMPRA were very grateful to the Hamilton members.
All weekend we had fairly windy condition with a threat of worsening conditions on the Sunday, so we managed to get 5 round of each class raced just in case Sunday racing was cut short. Yep… It was! F400 completed their 4 rounds on Sunday but Q500 was cut short and FA1 didn’t get to fly at all. It’s been a on-going theme since the new racing season started on July.
Results
FA1
This class being the Formula One of pylon racing and travelling at similar speeds, people who see this class for the first time can not believe what they are seeing.
Leigh Hocken was on form for this weekend after an early hickup in the form of a spectacular wing failure while practicing on Saturday morning. Gary Davidson also lost his model. He now knows where pylon #3 is as he hit it during a race.
We had a couple of pilots from SA flying in the class (Stuart Humpherson & Tom Jacobsen).
Places:
1st Leigh Hocken
2nd Barry Murphy
3rd Brian Steele
Fastest Time: 61.98 – Leigh Hocken
No. of competitors – 10
Course – 10.5 Lap
F400
A good size field for this class with 13 compeditor of which 6 were from SA.
Mike Kellet lost his KD Racer (jnr) after he lost it around #1.
Places:
1st Glenn Matthews
2nd Andrew Davies
3rd Terry O;Connor
Fastest Time: 67.89 – Andrew Davies
No. of competitors – 13
Course – 10.5 Lap
Q500
Not my best weekend for this class as I went home with 2 broken models but all caused during dodgy landings. I think the was one less Viper after John Yianni crashed his. The Tee-Que 500 is now becoming the more prevalent Q500 model now. Daniel was flying his new Tee-Que on the weekend.
Places:
1st Tom Weatherill
2nd John Schmidli
3rd Daniel Arakakis
Fastest Time: 99:33 – Daniel Arapakis
No. of competitors – 9
Course – 10.5 Lap
FA1 – Barry Murphy has consolidated his lead further now being 9 points in the lead. Brian Steele has jumped up to 2nd position and Gary Davidson has slipped one position down to 3rd.
F400 – Glenn Matthews and Andrew Davies are in 1st & 2nd place respectively on equal points and Gary Davidson is only 2 points behind them in 3rd place. This is a really close battle.
Q500 – I’ve (John Schmidli) increased my lead with Daniel Arapakis 6 points behind in 2nd place having displacing Jim Orenshaw who is now in 3rd position.
The next event is on November 23-24th and is back at Bazza’s Paddock near Munro. This purpose-build pylon racing field is fantastic and we always enjoys racing there. I hope to see lots of competitors at this event. If you need to find out the location, as it’s a private field, you can contact a member of the committee and we can give you directions. This is a great place to go pylon racing for the first time, so grab a Quickie model come along.
Another great chance to try pylon racing for yourself, is a club event at the LDMFA on November 10. Although not an official VMPRA event, this is open to anybody as long as you are a VMAA member. It will be a Q500, Sports & Electric pylon race (10.5 laps only). Visit the LDMFA site to find out more.
The written content in this post is accurate to the best of my 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.
Class – FA1
Class – F3T 
Class – Q500
