Tag Archives: VMPRA

Event Report – Munro, March 2013

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Back on the weekend of March 23-24, the VMPRA held an event down at Bazza’s Paddock. For those who are unfamiliar with this venue, the field is near Munro between Bairnesdale and Stratford in Gippsland (Victoria, Australia). This field is a private, purpose-built pylon racing course developed by Barry Murphy. It is always a brilliant place to hold an event.

After the recent hot weather, it was nice to have milder conditions. Each day started off still, but the wind picked up during the mornings. Unfortunately on the Sunday, it was decided that FA1 wouldn’t fly as the wind had become too strong to continue racing. As a result, only 5 rounds of FA1 were flown for the weekend.

There was a lot more carnage than at recent events, with planes lost by Rick Townsend, Andrew Davies, Matt Young and James Hurley. James and Matt found themselves out of planes by lunch time on Saturday. Bad luck for both of them but especially for Matt, who had traveled down by train from Bendigo with his planes, gear and camping equipment which was a really big effort! It was also good to have him flying Q500 as well as FA1.

Beau & Barry Murphy with their "Hall of Fame" awards

During our lunch break on the Saturday, we had a visit from some VMAA & MAAA committee members. They presented the VMAA ‘Hall of Fame’ to Beau and Barry Murphy for their 2nd place at the F3D world championships back in 2011. It was great that the presentation could be made during this event and congratulations to Beau and Barry. Well done and we’ll be looking forward to hearing how you go at the world champs in Holland later this year.

FA1

1st Place Barry Murphy
2nd Place Tom Wetherill
3rd Place Glenn Matthews

F400

1st Place Tom Wetherill
2nd Place Gary Davidson
3rd Place Glenn Matthews

Q500

1st Place John Schmidli
2nd Place Daniel Arapakis
3rd Place Ian Rickard

Championship

The championship is now getting close to the end with only 2 FA1,  F400 and 3 Q500 events left for this season.

For FA1 there was no change with the top 3 still being Tom Wetherill, Beau Murphy & Glenn Matthews respectively. Tom has increase his lead considerably as Beau had an uncharacteristically bad run on Saturday.

F400 saw a swapping of positions between flying partners Tom Wetherill and Jim Orenshaw. Tom has leaped to the top and Jim has moved down to 2nd place. Andrew Davies has now moved up to 3rd place.

There is a tight battle at the top with myself (John Schmidli) moving back to 1st place with James Hurley in 2nd Place although both on equal points. Positions have been decided based on total times. Daniel Arapakis maintains his 3rd position.

The championship table has been updated and there is also a photo gallery from this event.

Next Event

Our next event is at Warrnambool on April 13-14
All 3 classes (FA1, F400 & Q500)

John Schmidli

Event Report – Camperdown 2013

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Matt Carter & Mark French

Victorian pylon racing started in earnest for 2013 on the first weekend of February with a 2 day event at Camperdown, situated in the western districts of Victoria. The Corangamite Model Aircraft Club is located at the Camperdown race course where they utilize the centre field of the course for r/c aeromodelling.

Events at this time of the year can be a rather hot affair. Luckily this year we experienced mild conditions with both days in the low 20s, partly cloudy and only one rain shower that stopped racing for a short time on the Sunday.

Gary Davidson & Toni Axon

This event consisted of our usual 3 classes of Q500, F400 and FA1 (AUST F3D) and we were able to run 9 rounds of each class over the 2 days.  It worked out quite well with roughly half the rounds of each class on Saturday and the balance on Sunday.

The racing was a very clean affair with not one plane destroyed in a mid-air or ground impact. It is a testament to the skills of all when there were at times, some very close racing whilst avoiding planes tangling in the air. There were only a few under-cart repairs required due to the rather hard/dry ground. We were all pleased to have Gary Davidson back racing with us after his accident late last year.

F1A

The Murphy’s were again in fine form with Beau in particular who is preparing for the World Champs later this year, coming in 1st place. Barry came 2nd & Tom Wetherill in 3rd place.

F400

Terry O’Connor came 1st, Tom Wetherill 2nd and myself (John Schmidli) in 3rd place although a long way off the pace.

Q500

This was a bit of an upset (well at least for James Hurley and myself)! Daniel Arapakis in only his 3rd Q500 race (and before that a couple of races with a trainer), gained 1st place with some very quick times. James clawed his way back and finished less than 3 seconds away from Daniel in 2nd place. I (John Schmidli) came 3rd place.

Daniel Arapakis & Beau Murphy

Congratulations to Daniel. If you look at his past average times, you can see a large improvement each time. Nearly all his times were under 100 seconds and his best was 93.96 seconds. His acceptance speech was very amusing, referring to all who have helped him to date as uncles (ie Uncle Beau – his caller, Uncle Barry etc).

At the age of 12, Daniel’s path into pylon racing is a great example of how you can take up the sport beginning with simply having a go on some sports pylon races with a trainer (or similar) then getting into it a bit more seriously with the Q500 class. The Q500 class is a very affordable way to start racing and can be every bit as exciting as the faster classes. He has a great amount of support from his father but has also made friends with many of our experienced members who are very happy to give advice and guide him in the right direction.

Championship

At last count we only have three more races for F1A and F400 and five for Q500 in this 2012-2013 season.

FA1 – There has been no change with the top 3 although Beau Murphy in 2nd place is closing the gap on Tom Wetherill at the top. Glenn Matthews is still in 3rd.

F400 – Jim Orenshaw maintains the top position but now in 2nd is Tom Wetherill and 3rd is myself (John Schmidli).

Q500 sees the top 2 still being James Hurley and me (John Schmidli) respectively but Daniel Arapakis has moved up to 3rd place.

Next Event

Our next 3-class event is back at Bazza’s paddock in Munro on March 23-24.

Before that, there is a Q500/EF-1 and Sports event at Baccus Marsh on March 10.

Although not an official VMPRA event, we are all welcome to participate in a 50 Lap Endurance race at Lilydale (LDMFA) on Feb 17. Classes will be Q500 and Sports.

Anybody interested in taking up pylon racing is encouraged to come to the Bacchus Marsh or Lilydale events. Introduce yourself and give it a go!

The championship table has been updated and there is also a photo gallery from this event.

John Schmidli

January 2013 Update

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Happy New year and all the best for the 2013 pylon racing year. By now, most of us will have returned back to our usual work activities and thoughts are returning to pylon racing (if ever out of our minds!).

This year is another exciting time for the VMPRA with the AMPRA Champs being held in Victoria (Munro) on June 8, 9 & 10 plus the World F3D Championships being held in the Netherlands at the air force base Deelen from 23rd – 28th July 2013. The Australian team includes VMPRA members, Beau & Barry Murphy plus Matt Young who has a chance of attending as a junior if funds can be raised (Matt’s fund raising Facebook page). There are also a number of members travelling to Europe for this event to help and spectate.

Camperdown

Again for this year, Camperdown is the location for our 1st competition for 2013. This is a great location for racing and it’s always a pleasure to visit this town.

As usual, there are some access restrictions at times, which is important to note so as to ensure a good relationship with the turf club and continued use of this great venue into the future.

NOTE – On Saturday the “Trackwatch” turf club rep. will allow access to the flying site in-between horse movements until 10.00am when we are then actually ok to fly. We can set up inside prior to 10:00am but there is not to be any flying before then.
From 10.00 onwards it is obviously open entry. If anybody turns up on Friday, they MUST NOT ENTER the field before 11.00am. Anytime after that is fine.

On Sunday there is no horse activity.

Camping on site is ok if we keep a low profile – especially early Saturday morning.

LDMFA 50 Lap Endurance Race.

The LDMFA club is hosting a 50-lap race on Feb 17, 2013. This event is being supported by the VMPRA with members and equipment provided for running the day. The event is open to LDMFA & VMPRA members as well as members of other VMAA affiliated clubs.
There will be Quickie 500 and Sports classes. Sports will cover pretty much anything, but usually consists of 46 size trainers and other sports aircraft. Two compulsory landings are required during the 50 laps of the race.

This is a great opportunity to try pylon racing for the first time, get more experience flying around a pylon course or just have a fun day of racing.

Calendar Update

There has been a number of additional events added to the calendar so please add them to your diaries so you don’t miss out on any of the 2013 events. All of the events are confirmed except for Swan Hill which is still being discussed.

Thanks to Andrew Davies for putting in the hard work of contacting the clubs and organizing the events for us to go racing this year. Without this work, there would be no events.