On May 18th and 19th, the VMPRA held a pylon race at the Newbridge field, which is Rick Townsend’s private flying field. Thanks to Rick for letting us race there and for all the work that goes into preparing the field for us to attend.

The weather over the weekend was good, and we were fortunate to have enough helpers to man all the pylons. Our newest volunteer race starter, Wendy Dean did a brilliant job out at the startline. Again, we had Amy Eichstadt running the computer timing system throughout the weekend. With their tireless efforts and the fact that we had enough participants free to help during each class, all pylons were judged for all racing.

First, on Saturday morning, we ran four rounds of Q500 followed by four rounds of F3D. Unfortunately, by the time we started flying F3t, the sun was getting too low, so we ended up canceling flying for the rest of that day and decided to start early on Sunday.

On Sunday morning, we completed six rounds of F3T and due to the early finish on Saturday, we agreed only to complete six rounds of each class therefore, we ended up flying two more rounds of F3D and two more rounds of Q500

Thanks to everybody who attended the weekend. It was great fun, as usual. Unfortunately, due to a technical hitch, we haven’t got any photos of the weekend. If you have some, please send them to me.
This report is also a little late coming out. I do apologize, but remember, we are in need of volunteer report writers for our events. Your contribution, no matter how small, is highly valued. It can be just two or three paragraphs or as detailed as you like. You can even send it to me as a voice memo, and I can have it transcribed. Your help is greatly appreciated.

If anybody wants to try their hand at photographing the weekend, I would be very grateful to have help with that.

Next up, we have a race at Bendigo on the on July the 20th and 21st.
I hope to see you all there.

Results

Class – FA1

Places:
1st Andrew Davies
2nd Tom Wetherill
3rd Rick Townsend

Fastest Time (Red Box): 62.55 Rick Townsend.
No. of competitors: 5

Class – F3T

Places:
1st Andrew Davies
2nd Anthony Thurgood
3rd John Schmidli

Fastest Time (Red Box): 63.69 Andrew Davies.
No. of competitors: 8

Class – Q500

Places:
1st Jim Orenshaw
2nd Tony Eichstadt
3rd Eddie Rich

Fastest Time (Red Box): 92.07 John Schmidli
No. of competitors: 9

Season Championship

FA1

No change in the top three for this class.

1st – Andrew Davies
2nd – Brian Steele
3rd – Anthony Thurgood

F3T

No change in the top three positions for this class also.

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

Q500

Jim Orenshaw has moved up to the top spot, displacing John Schmidli down into the 2nd position. Tony Eichstadt maintains his 3rd position.

1st – John Schmidli
2nd – Jim Orenshaw
3rd – Tony Eichstadt

Next Race Event – Bendigo 20th – 21st July.

Report  – 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

 On April 20th and 21st, the VMPRA held a pylon racing event at the Hamilton Model Aero Club for the first time in many years. It was a great weekend, with fantastic weather and flying conditions, and the club really made us feel welcome.

It was great to see David and Tony Axon back. It’s been quite a while since we last saw them. Tony took on some of the starter duties for the weekend, which she performed with her usual expertise.

We also had Tony’s daughter, Amy Eichstadt, return to run the timing system for the whole weekend, and she did an absolutely fantastic job. Wendy Dean was there and she received some expert starter training from Tony Axon. So Wendy will be well-equipped to perform the starter duties at future events. It was fabulous to see the ladies out in force this weekend.

It was also great to see Daniel Arapakis back. Due to conflicts with work schedules, he’s not been to many events recently, and it was really good to see him back and flying fast.

We had enough people there to have all the helpers we needed to run the events and man all the pylons, which was absolutely fantastic.

The F3Ds didn’t do as many rounds. We encountered a fuel problem on Saturday, so we scrubbed three of the rounds and started again on Sunday, hence only completing 5 rounds.

Overall, it was a fantastic weekend and it would be great to return to Hamilton again next year. Our next event for the VMPRA is Newbridge on May 18th and 19th.

Look forward to seeing you there.

Results

Class – FA1

Places:
1st Andrew Davies
2nd Tom Wetherill
3rd Daniel Arapakis

Fastest Time (Red Box): 59.37 Daniel Arapakis.
No. of competitors: 5

Class – F3T

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

Fastest Time (Red Box): 65.13 Andrew Davies.
No. of competitors: 8

Class – Q500

Places:
1st Tom Wetherill
2nd John Schmidli
3rd Tony Eichstadt

Fastest Time (Red Box): 92.58 John Schmidli
No. of competitors: 9

Season Championship

FA1

Andrew Davies has jumped up to the top stop from 3rd, leaving Brian Steele in 2nd and Anthony Thurgood has moved up one spot to 3rd place.

1st – Andrew Davies
2nd – Brian Steele
3rd – Anthony Thurgood

F3T

Brian Steele has remained in first place, with Andrew Davies moving up to second place, displacing Jim Orenshaw down into third.

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

Q500

No change the top two places but Tony Eichstadt has moved up a place into 3rd place..

1st – John Schmidli
2nd – Jim Orenshaw
3rd – Tony Eichstadt

Next Class Race – Newbridge 18th – 19th May.

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 March 17th, the VMPRA went to the Western Port Model Aircraft Club for a one-day sports and Quickie 500 pylon race. The weather was absolutely fantastic that day. Unlike some events we’ve held at this field, there was only a light breeze.

The idea of this day was to fly Quickie 500 as part of our championship and then have a “come try” fly pylon racing day with sports models. We were very pleased to see two local competitors turn up, Justin Trist and Wayne Gorsuch. We flew seven rounds of Quickie and seven rounds of sports.

Tony Eichstadt’s daughters came down to see him fly. We ended up roping Amy into helping on the computer. She took to it like a duck to water and was a great help throughout the day.

Looking at the results, we were getting unusually fast times. We soon discovered that the course had been set up as a short course by accident, which explained this.

Thanks to all VMPRA members who attended this event and helped make it a success. Overall, it was a great day, and thanks to the Westernport Club for hosting, catering, and providing the pylons junges.

Next, we have a similar Quickie 500 and Sports Pylon race at Mount Wallace State Field on the 7th of April. Again, it’s a one-day event, and we’d love to get as many VMPRA members as possible there. Even if you’re not going to fly, it would be great to have help and to promote pylon racing to other members of the Aeromodelling fraternity.

Our next full three-class event will be on the 20th and 21st of April at Hamilton. We’ll see you there.

Results

Class – Q500

Places:
1st Mike Kellet
2nd Jim Orenshaw
3rd John Schmidli

Fastest Time (Red Box): 86.91 John Schmidli (Course was at least 40 metres shorter than it should have been
No. of competitors: 7

Class – Sports

Places:
1st Justin Trist
2nd Wayne Gorsuch

Season Championship

Q500

Jim Orenshaw and Eddie Rich have both moved up one place to First and Third, respectively. John Schmidli dropped from first to second place.

1st – Jim Orenshaw
2nd – John Schmidli
3rd – Eddie Rich

Next Class Race – Western Port – Q500 & Sports (Come Try) Race.

April 7 @ Mount Wallace. Racing starts at 10 am. Come with enough time to setup and test fly prior.
Website:  www.mwmaa.org/
Location: The club is Mount Wallace Model Aero Club
Brisbane Ranges Rd, Mount Wallace.
Google Maps Ref.

Next 3 Class Race (F3D, F3T & Q500) – Hamilton, April 20-21.

A heap of new races has been added to the calendar, so make sure you put them in your diary. These are not to be missed.

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

image004_600w

Image 1 of 35

Results

Class – FA1

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

Fastest Time (Red Box): 64.47 Tom Wetherill.
No. of competitors: 5

Class – F3T

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

Fastest Time (Red Box): 64.21 Brian Steele.
No. of competitors: 10

Class – Q500

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

Fastest Time (Red Box): 95.58 John Schmidli
No. of competitors: 8

Season Championship

FA1

Being the second event for the championship and with some competitors not able to attend, the top 3 places have completely changed from last month.

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

F3T

Again, with competitors unable to attend, the top two places have completely changed, with Andrew Davies retaining his third place.

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

Q500

John Schmidli and Jim Orenshaw are on equal points, but John attains the top spot on average times per race. Gary Davidson has moved up from 6th to 3rd place.

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

Next Class Race – Western Port – Q500 & Sports (Come Try) Race.

March 17 @ Westernport Model Aircraft Club. Racing starts at 10 am. Come with enough time to setup and test fly prior.
Website: www.wpmac.com.au
Location: Woolleys Road, Crib Point VIC. Melway Map Ref 165C8.

Next 3 Class Race (F3D, F3T & Q500) – Hamilton, April 20-21.

A heap of new races has been added to the calendar, so make sure you put them in your diary. These are not to be missed.

Report  – John Schmidli.
Photos – John Schmidli & Tom Wetherill.

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

On February 10th and 11th, the VMPRA kicked off its season with our inaugural competition of the year at Munro. The weather was superb throughout the weekend, allowing us to complete eight rounds of each class. It was a pleasure to welcome Andrew Wall, who made the impressive journey from Queensland to join us in the competition.

The return of Daniel Arapakis and Beau Murphy to racing after their work-related hiatus added to the excitement, especially in the F3D category. We were also thrilled to witness John Junge’s continued participation in Q500 racing and Ian Rickard’s comeback to the same class. Additionally, Tom Allen stepped up to the challenge by participating in F3D.

The weekend boasted a fantastic turnout with 9 competitors in F3D, 12 in F3T, and 9 in Q500. Andrew Wall showcased a 3D-printed E2K pylon racing model produced by Tony Singleton, with Daniel Arapakis providing a captivating demonstration of its flight capabilities.

Overall, it was an excellent weekend, thanks in large part to Barry Murphy’s fantastic field and Nerida Matthews for managing the timing system.

The next event is scheduled for March 2nd and 3rd in Warrnambool. We look forward to seeing you there!

Results

Class – FA1

Places:
1st Beau Murphy
2nd Daniel Arapakis
3rd Andrew Wall

Fastest Time (Red Box): 58.90 Beau Murphy.
No. of competitors: 9

Class – F3T

Places:
1st Beau Murphy
2nd Andrew Wall
3rd Andrew Davies

Fastest Time (Red Box): 62.35 Andrew Wall.
No. of competitors: 12

Class – Q500

Places:
1st Jim Orenshaw
2nd John Schmidli
3rd Tony Eichstadt

Fastest Time (Red Box): 97.85 Jim Orenshaw
No. of competitors: 9

Season Championship

Being the season’s first race, the Championship standings are as per the race results. Stay tuned for the Season Championship standings once we have raced in Warrnambool.

Next Class Race – Warrnambool.

We’ll be back at Warrnambool on March 2-3.

A heap of new races has been added to the calendar, so make sure you put them in your diary. These are not to be missed.

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