Camperdown VMPRA Trophy – 2017

Posted on February 13, 2017 by Scadtastic

The first full 3 class race for the year which happens to be the VMPRA Trophy, was held at Camperdown over the weekend of February 4 & 5. Camperdown is always great place to go racing and the local club, the Corangamite Model Aircraft Club is situated in the middle of a horse racing track.

Weather for the Saturday was good although the sun was a bit warm and with concerns of possible rain on the Sunday, our CD for the weekend, (Mick Kellett) pushed to do 5 rounds of all classes on the Saturday. It was a long day with Q500 finishing after 5pm. After F3d finish and prior to Q500, we had to do a course change due to the wind direction shifting. At the end of the day, we had complete 40 races.

Sunday was cloudy and a little cooler. Another course change was required which took a little longer as the measuring line had fallen out of the trailer during the previous change and had to be found to set the pylons correctly.

We needed to complete 3 rounds of each class with rain and thunder forecast for that afternoon. F400 and F3D where competed by about 12:30. After a short lunch break, It all began to be a little challenging for Q500. With smallish numbers, and only 2 heats, we stay out at the flight line for refueling and service the planes to save time. A mid-air collation in the first heat, required a run back to the pits and assembling 2nd planes for Myself (John Schmidli) and John Yianni. The next race, James Hurley’s Viper had the tail fail around 2 & 3. He then had to fetch a 2nd plane. Just as the 2 round was starting a short but very heavy rain storm came through stopping proceeding again. Shortly after, racing resumed and we worked through to the end.

The course was packed up, trophies awarded and after saying a our goodbye, we got away before the rain arrived.

It was an enjoyable weekend and was particularly good to see our regular interstaters, Tom, Shaun & Jarrod Jacobsen and John Yianni from SA and Ranjit Phelan from NSW. It’s big commitment to travel these distances.

Check out the event photo gallery>>>

Results

Class – FA1

Places:
1st Ranjit Phelan
2nd Leigh Hocken
3rd Shaun Jacobsen

Fastest Time: 58.69 – Ranjit Phelan
No. of competitors: 9
NOTE: There was not cut judge on Pylon #3 for this class all weekend.

Class – F400

Places:
1st Shaun Jacobsen
2nd Andrew Davies
3rd Barry Murphy

Fastest Time: 68.75 – Shaun Jacobsen
No. of competitors: 11
NOTE: There was not cut judge on Pylon #3 for this class all weekend.

Class – Q500

Places:
1st Jim Orenshaw
2nd John Schmidli
3rd Jarrod Jacobsen

Fastest Time: 97.55 – Jim Orenshaw
No. of competitors: 7
NOTE: There was not cut judge on Pylon #3 for this class all weekend.

Check out the full results>>>

Season Championship

FA1

No change for the top 3 for FA1.

1st – Leigh Hocken
2nd – Daniel Arapakis
3rd – Andrew Davies

F400

Andrew Davies has moved up to top spot. Barry Murphy has moved up to 2nd position from 4th and Glenn Matthews is in 3rd position having been in 5th position previously.

1st – Andrew Davies
2nd – Barry Murphy
3rd – Glenn Matthews

Q500

Jim Orenshaw & Gary Whitbourn have remained in first and second places respectively with myself (John Schmidli) moving from 5th position up to 3rd position.

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

Check Out Season Championship >>>

Next Race

The next race on the calendar is back at Munro on March 18th -19th.

There has been a number of additions to the calendar so make sure you have these new dates penciled in to your diary so you don’t miss any races.

Check Out Complete Calendar >>>

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.

Quick Reference

Event Result
Photo Gallery
Season Championship
Event Calendar

Westernport Q500 and Sports – Jan 2017

Posted on February 12, 2017 by Scadtastic

These races that we have out at the Westernport club are just a great day and with so much enthusiasm for pylon racing coming from sports flyers and new Q500 flyers, these events are our best chance at getting new pylon racing pilots into our regular competitions.

Thanks to all the participants and to the WPMAC for hosting the event.

Check out the event photo gallery>>>

Results

Class – SPORTS

Places:
1st Manny Reiderich
2nd Mark Jocob
3rd Brian Holmes

Fastest Time: 130.39 – Manny Reiderich
No. of competitors: 9

Class – Q500

Places:
1st Daniel Arapakis
2nd Gary Davidson
3rd John Schmidli

Fastest Time: 95.50 – Daniel Arapakis
No. of competitors: 16

Check out the full results>>>

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.

Quick Reference

Event Result
Photo Gallery
Event Calendar

February Update – VMPRA Trophy

Posted on January 31, 2017 by Scadtastic

The VMPRA Trophy is on at Camperdown this weekend (Feb 4-5)

The Field is in reasonable condition and not as dry as this time last year.

Camperdown Racecourse access conditions:

Friday (03/02/2017)
Racecourse is available from 11:00 am onwards. PLEASE DO NOT ENTER EARLIER THAN 11:00 am.

Saturday (04/02/2017)
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.
F400 to commence at 10:30 am.
FA1 practice allowed during lunch break.
FA1 to commence after lunch, followed by Q500.

Sunday (05/02/2017)
Field closed for test flying and racing to commence after 9:00 am.

The schedule for both days is F400, FA1 & Q500 and please let me know if you would be interested in being CD.

Please also note our VMPRA annual membership fees are due.

Munro Dec 2016 – Event Report

Posted on January 17, 2017 by Scadtastic

VMPRA’s last event for 2016 was in December back down at Munro.
Unfortunately there was no report written up for the event so, this post contains the basic results & championship standings.

Check out the event photo gallery>>>

Results

Class – FA1

Places:
1st Leigh Hocken
2nd Barry Murphy
3rd Daniel Arapakis

Fastest Time: 58.78 – Leigh Hocken
No. of competitors: 7

Class – F400

Places:
1st Ranjit Phelan
2nd Barry Murphy
3rd Glenn Matthews

Fastest Time: 68.13 – Ranjit Phelan
No. of competitors: 7

Class – Q500

Places:
1st Jim Orenshaw
2nd David Chippendale
3rd Andrew Arapakis

Fastest Time: 97.52 – Jim Orenshaw
No. of competitors: 5

Check out the full results>>>

Season Championship

FA1

Leigh Hocken has remained in top spot, Daniel Arapakis and Andrew Davies both moved up 1 position.

1st – Leigh Hocken
2nd – Daniel Arapakis
3rd – Andrew Davies

F400

Ranjit Phelan popped up from 5th to top spot. Andrew Davies and Jim Orenshaw remained in the 2nd & 3rd positions

1st – Ranjit Phelan
2nd – Andrew Davies
3rd – Jim Orenshaw

Q500

Jim Orenshaw & Gary Whitbourn have remained in first and second places respectively but Ian has now moved up into 3rd position.

1st – Jim Orenshaw
2nd – Gary Whitbourn
3rd – Ian Rickard

Check Out Season Championship >>>

Next Race

The first race for 2017 is a Sports & Q500 event to be held on Jan 22 at the Westernport Model Aircraft Club. Looks like we’ll have a really good turn-out. There is always a good amount on Sport flyers there and the Q500 pilots look to be coming out in force.

Only 2 weeks later and we have our first full 3 class event at Camperdown on Feb 4th – 5th. So it all starting up for another year with the F3D world champs thrown in as well.

Check Out Complete Calendar >>>

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.

Quick Reference

Event Result
Photo Gallery
Season Championship
Event Calendar

Westernport Q500 & Sports – Part 2 – August 2016

Posted on October 11, 2016 by Scadtastic

Click here for Part 1

WPMAC – Western Port Model Aircraft Club located in the seaside town of Crib Point hosted what is no doubt now one of the best Sports 40 and Quickie 500 races on the calendar. Crib Point is the home of HMAS Cerberus and is the Royal Australian Navy’s primary training establishment with history dating back to 1911, now trains 6000 personnel annually with about 800 trainees on-board at any one time.

With the ground swell of Pylon at WPMAC, the committee and members prepared the field to the highest standards putting on awesome flying weather conditions with a light northerly of about 10kph.

Bystanders and new flyers witnessed and took part in a great day of camaraderie, fun, flying and quick times from some of the more serious quickie pilots. Probably one of the most rewarding events to me as the Dad of Dannmann, was to assist and be part of showing a crowd of almost 80 people, something very special that I have shared with my son for 3 years now in flying Pylon. Great to see new father and son team of young Xaviour and Dad Matt Noonan flying in their very first event, learning heaps at every round and like wise with young Cameron Sexton and Dad Gavin, pushing themselves on every lap. It was also great to see new pilots from WPMAC have a go in the Sports event for the very first time, enjoying the fun and adrenaline rush for every second of the racing. Wayne Newman the owner of Addies Hobbies recovering his new model in iridescent fluro’s calling it the Coxy Killer brought a sensational spirit to the racing definitely pushed Alister Cox to the limit.

With 4 rounds of Sports 40 and Scanner racing after a great race demo between Dannmann and Jimmy saw Manny Reiderich take out 1st prize with his buddy Mick Kellet as his caller. Great to see Mark Jacob return to this event and also posted the quickest time of the day of 142.6 seconds claiming 2nd place and an ambassador to our famous club Alister Cox flying a ripper race with no cuts on the podium with 3rd place. New pilots to the event were Club President Mr Brian Holmes, Matt Noonan and Justin Trist, all having a great time !

After a banquet BBQ lunch, the Q500 field consisted of 13 pilots, battle it out also for 4 rounds. Mark Jacob with his scratch built Quickie, Cameron Sexton with his trusted Angelov model, Lucas Newman with his brand new Viper 500 all flew great as new comers to the racing. It was a ripper to see Matt Carter from Hasting Hobbies returning to Q500 racing with great reliable racing. Young gun Austin Omann cut him self out of the race as to did Dannmann after recording the fastest time of the event of 94.30 seconds. Young Cameron Sexton is now recording times under 110 seconds with his caller Dannmann mentoring him for future success. Veteran racers took the podium on Sunday with Mick Kellet returning to racing and was rewarded with 1st place – onya Mick and we are all very glad to see you return with great spirits and fantastic flying. Jim Orenshaw flew in true style taking 2nd place and well deserved after years of commitment and passion to this sport and so with Gary Davidson at 70 years of age showing up the rest of the field.

No doubt the weekend was one to remember with fantastic club spirit and passion for this very unique aspect of aeromodelling that is tremendously rewarding. it is a combination of fun, a winning spirit, strategy, and the 3 P’s says Baz Murphy – patience, perseverance and practice!

Well done to all pilots, callers, helpers, members, visitors, committees of both WPMAC and VMPRA for a great weekend of flying and fun!

Event Report – 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/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

Event Result
Photo Gallery
Season Championship
Event Calendar

Westernport Q500 & Sports – Part 1 – August 2016

Posted on September 12, 2016 by Scadtastic

Click here for Part 2

Back on August 28, The Westernport Model Aircraft Club hosted the 2nd Sport and Q500 pylon race for the year. Although I wasn’t able to be there for much of the day, I did see the last couple of hours of racing. It was great to see so many new faces to pylon racing and not just in the sport class but also involved in the Quickie class. It would be fantastic if we could see these new competitors start to compete at our regular events as we travel all over Victoria.

Results

Class – Sports

Places:
1st Manny Reiderich
2nd Mark Jacob
3rd Alister Cox

Fastest Time: 142.60 – Mark Jacob
No. of competitors: 9

Class – Q500

Places:
1st Mick Kellet
2nd Jim Orenshaw
3rd Gary Davidson

Fastest Time: 94.30 – Daniel Arapakis
No. of competitors: 13

Check out the full results>>>

Season Championship

Only Q500 was involved in the last event, so this is the standings as of the Westernport Event. The defending champ, Jim Orenshaw has popped up into 1st position from 3rd. Mike Kellet moved up to 2nd place from 7th and Gary Whitbourn moved up 1 position into 3rd spot.

Q500

1st – Jim Orenshaw
2nd – Mike Kellet
3rd – Gary Whitbourn

Check Out Season Championship >>>

Season Fastest Time

Daniel Arapakis clocked a new fastest time for Q500.

Q500 – Daniel Arapakis – 94.30

Next Race

The next event is the VIC State Championship to be help at Munro on September 17-18. This event is the 2nd F3D World Championship team selection trial and as such, flying of the F3D class will take priority.

Check Out Complete Calendar >>>

Event Report – John Schmidli
Photos – Lydia Arapakis

Quick Reference

Event Result
Photo Gallery
Season Championship
Event Calendar

Bendigo 2016 – Event Report

Posted on August 12, 2016 by Scadtastic

Each year in July, the VMPRA head off to Bendigo, a regional city situated in the gold fields of central Victoria. It is also the start of the new season championship and we hold our annual general meeting at this event each year. Traditionally, this generally being in the middle of Winter, we can have some pretty cold and wet weather. Luckily, this year we were blessed with quite good conditions and Sunday felt positively Spring-like.

As we gathered out at the Marong Model Airfield, conditions were a little foggy but this soon cleared and test flights were carried out. The challenge for the weekend came when setting up the pylon course and in particular the #1 pylon cage. Both the trailer and car towing it dropped into a particularly soft patch of earth as there had been quite an amount of recent rain. Next Tom Allen’s 4-wheel drive ended up stuck while trying to extract the car and trailer. It took another 4-wheel drive of James Hurley’s and some harder ground to start extracting all the vehicles and the cage. As a result, it was just before midday before racing got underway.

First up was Formula 400 with the aim to run only 3 rounds due to the very late start.
Next up was Quickie 500 to also fly 3 rounds. As this class has a relatively easy and quick turn-around time (with only 6 competitors), we refueled out on the line. 3 rounds were quickly completed and we had lunch.

After the late lunch it was time for FA1 (F3D) to race. There were unusually low numbers with only 4 competing so the races where over quickly but model prep/turn-around was slow. Even still, 4 rounds where completed before the end of racing for the day.

During the day, I took the opportunity to test out Facebook Live to film and televise a Q500 and FA1 race. It worked quite well with some well known names from around the world of pylon racing, coming online and viewing the video live. You should be able to view these from the VMPRA facebook page.

In the evening a group of us went off to the Marong pub for dinner. For the size of the town of Marong, the pub is excellent. After dinner, we headed back to the Marong caravan park for our AGM and general meeting. The main change to come from the meeting was James Hurley being elected as our new President of VMPRA taking up the vacancy left by Glenn Matthews after many years as president. I know all the members will join me in thanking Glenn for all his hard work in the past, of which we are only now really starting to get a real appreciation of what he has been doing and congratulating and supporting James in taking up this position.

With Saturday being a rather grey, cold and threatening day, It was a real pleasure to come out to the field on the Sunday morning to sunny still conditions which continued all day. It became warm enough for a few of us to end up stripped down to t-shirts.

Test flying was supervised by Toni Axon in line with our new safety requirement as discussed at the general meeting the night before (these will be published and communicated before the next event).

Racing for the day was the same order as Saturday with F400 and then Q500 doing 5 rounds each with Q500 gaining another competitor in local, Shaun Powers. It was good to see him there having raced with us 2 years prior. FA1 started fairly late and only ended up flying 7 rounds for the weekend whereas F400 and Q500 flew 8.

With this event being one of the 1st with Glenn & Nerida being way, it was good that we had people chipping in to help run the event. In all it went fairly well with only one glitch with the new laptop which had the old version of the timing program loaded, so we had to manually drop the extra round. This will all be sorted for future events.

Check out the event photo gallery>>>

Results

Class – FA1

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

Fastest Time: 59.75 – Leigh Hocken
No. of competitors: 4

Class – F400

Places:
1st Andrew Davies
2nd Jim Orenshaw
3rd Gary Davidson

Fastest Time: 63.93 – Andrew Davies
No. of competitors: 6

Class – Q500

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

Fastest Time: 95.21 – Jim Orenshaw
No. of competitors: 7

Check out the full results>>>

Season Championship

Below is the 2015-2016 Season Championship for FA1 F400 and Q500. Congratulations Daniel, Brian and Jim. It is quite an effort to string together good performances, event after event to be in the position to win the season championship.

Now we have already started the 2016-2017 season championship so let’s see who can get to the top this year. There is nothing like a challenge to made us lift our performance.

Season Championship after 1 event.

FA1

1st – Brian Steele
2nd – Andrew Davies
3rd – Leigh Hocken

F400

1st – Andrew Davies
2nd – Jim Orenshaw
3rd – Gary Davidson

Q500

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

Check Out Season Championship >>>

Season Fastest Time

We have reset the fastest times with the start of a new championship year. A huge congratulation goes out to Leigh Hocken for taking out the fastest times for last season in both FA1 and F400 and Daniel Arapakis for taking it out for Q500.

Next Race

The next event for VMPRA is a Q500 and Sports/Scanner race down at Crib Point on August 28. The race we had there earlier in the year was great with a lot of new comers to pylon competing. This one is really worth getting involved with. It is also part of the season championship for Q500.

Check Out Complete Calendar >>>

Event Report and Photographs – John Schmidli

Quick Reference

Event Result
Photo Gallery
Season Championship
Event Calendar

Munro May 2016 – Event Report

Posted on June 4, 2016 by Scadtastic

Despite gale force winds throughout the week in Victoria, our QLD friends from A1 Composites arrived safely at Munro. Yet again the field was immaculately prepared and ready for racing.

A dozen campers and pilots arrived on Friday for testing and preparations for the event which would be the last one for the F3D and F400 Annual Season Championship fly-off. With another field upgrade of a roaring pot belly heater, this proved to be a ripper particularly during the very popular evening festivities of the famous Saturday night dinner.

James Hurley and his F400 model recording a PB on the weekend

Saturday’s forecast was perfect with 24 degrees and light Westerly winds. Formular 400 kicked off with a field of 11 pilots with a variety of models flown. There was carnage between Brian Steele and Jimmy Orenshaw with a spectacular mid-air collision which obliterated both models. James Hurley focusing on one class this weekend which saw his personal best of 71.64 seconds being recorded in round 5 with a big smile returning to the pits pipping his team mate John Schmidli for 4th place. Great to see Andrew Davies back into the groove with sub 70 times on the Sunday finishing in a solid 3rd position for the weekend. Murphy owned Miss Dara’s designed by the world famous Dane Kane, took out 1st and 2nd places powered by a Nelson flown by Beau and Barry respectively. Fastest time was recorded by Beau with a 64.88 seconds. Well done to all pilots for the weekend.

Recent additions to the pylon fraternity, Father and son team, Gavin and Cameron Sexton

The entry pylon class – Quickie 500, took to the sky’s with 12 pilots from ages 12 to 80 years old. Veteran Tom Prosser again flew his immaculately scratch built model and was very impressive all weekend and an absolute pleasure to chat with regarding a life time of great stories and competitions. Saturday saw 3 rounds completed and young Cameron Sexton debut in this class with an Angelov model. His best time for this weekend was 124.96 seconds. Well done Cam!

As the event rolled on, the 1st & 2nd podium positions battle went on between Tom Allen and plane builder, Steve Taylor who was visiting Munro for the very first time and flying his flagship Q500 model, the Banshee with a uniquely yellow colour scheme. Some would say the stripes resembled a pineapple. Well done guys. Steve nudging 1st place, Tom Allen in 2nd and the very reliable John Schmidli in 3rd place. Weather did turn fierce with 30+ knot winds for the last 3 rounds and well done to all quickie pilots!

Beau Murphy and Daniel Arapakis and their Minute Master F3D pylon racers.

F3D event was piloted by 7 entrants. Saturday saw Beau Murphy in the 50’s and Dannmann closely behind him. Baz Murphy was tackled by dead-air while tail-gating Glenn Matthews which caused the destruction of his Minute Master after plowing into terra firma in round 1. Unfortunately only 3 rounds were completed on Saturday and flying on Sunday afternoon was cancelled due to strong winds. The best time was recorded by Beau with a 59.36 seconds. With AMPRA just around the corner, the Victorian pilots are in great shape for the first round of the 2017 world championship team trials.

Check out the event photo gallery>>>

Results

Class – FA1

Places:
1st Beau Murphy
2nd Daniel Arapakis
3rd Brian Steele

Fastest Time: 59.36 – Beau Murphy
No. of competitors: 7

Class – F400

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

Fastest Time: 64.88 – Beau Murphy
No. of competitors: 11

Class – Q500

Places:
1st Steve Taylor
2nd Tom Allen
3rd John Schmidli

Fastest Time: 95.62 – Tom Allen
No. of competitors: 12

Check out the full results>>>

Season Championship

This was the last event for the 2015-2016 Season Championship for FA1 & F400.
Q500 has one more event to run which is on July 3 at Werribee. Trophies for 1st place for each class will be presented at the AGM at the Bendigo event.

The following is how the season championship wrapped up for FA1 & F400 and how Q500 currently stands.

FA1

1st – Daniel Arapakis – Winner
2nd – Barry Murphy
3rd – Glenn Matthews

Congratulations to Daniel for an extremely strong year of racing.

F400

1st – Brian Steele –
2nd – Glenn Matthews
3rd – Shaun Jacobsen

Congratulations to Brian for what was also a very strong year of racing.

Q500

1st – Jim Orenshaw
2nd – John Schmidli
3rd – Andrew Arapakis

For Q500, again there was no change for the top 3 positions but John Schmidli is back in with a mathamatical chance to knock Jim off the top at the last event in Werribee.

Check Out Season Championship >>>

Season Fastest Time

There was no new fastest times recorded at this event. A huge congratulation goes out to Leigh Hocken for taking out the fastest times for the year in both FA1 & F400.

FA1 – Leigh Hocken – 57.38

F400 – Leigh Hocken – 61.75

Q500 – Daniel Arapakis – 89.59

Check Out Complete Calendar >>>

Next Race

AMPRA is being held on the Queen’s Birthday weekend (June 11-13, 2016) up at Coolum “Sunshine Model Flyers” in QLD. This is the 1st of the 2017 WC Team Trials. Good luck to all the VMPRA members attending this event.

For the VMPRA, the next event is a Sports/Q500 1 day event being held at Werribee on July 3. A great opportunity to have some fun racing. Bring a Q500 or Sports model along.

Check Out Complete Calendar >>>

Event Report – Anonymous
Additional information: John Schmidli
Photos – Lydia Arapakis & 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

Event Result
Photo Gallery
Season Championship
Event Calendar

Warrnambool 2016 – Event Report

Posted on May 17, 2016 by Scadtastic

Warrnambool located on the south-western Coast of Victoria and at the western end of the Great Ocean road, is world famous for it’s spectacular oceanic coastal views. Home club to the Hocken family, Koroit is a humble club amongst farm land with great facilities and very well maintained grounds.

As usual Friday arrivals consisted of pilots and teams travelling from afar and were greeted with perfect Autumn conditions of mid 20’s and light winds.

The usual campers of Axons, Steeley’s, Murphy, Arapakis’ settling in for the afternoon and evening grazing with spits roasting and beers flowing. Well into the evening, festivities continued with perfect star filled night skies. In the morning, we woke up to misty rain and cold winds.

The field of competitors for Formula 400

Flying didn’t start until late morning due to the wet weather conditions. The usual race format of F400, Q500 followed by F3D was to be flown.

A field of 11 F400 pilots challenged the sky’s with Shaun Jacobsen in fine form with opening rounds in the 60’s putting loads of pressure on the rest of the field. Great to see the South Aussies at the event with 4 pilots flying in this class. Brian (Iron-man) Steele finished with the most cuts for the weekend which is certainly uncharacteristic and Leigh Hocken recording the fastest time of 64.95 seconds. Nevertheless Ranjit Phelan and Baz Murphy finishing 2nd and 3rd respectively after 1st place getter, Shaun Jacobsen. Well done to all pilots.

- Long time pylon racing friends, Jim Orenshaw and Gary Davidson (LtoR) with Gary's El Bandito F400 model.

Q500 always slated for a few laughs and a bit of sledging on the start line saw some brilliant flying and sub 100 seconds times by the three top place getters. A mix of experience and newer pilots to the racing scene challenged each other with each pilot flying at their best.

Jimmy (Tiger) Orenshaw taking out 1st place again, now in a really good position for the season championship just nudged in front of Tom Allen who came 2nd with Jarrod Jacobsen finishing 3rd dueling Dannmann’s Dad (Andrew Arapakis)for the weekend.

Local lad and winner of F3D class - Leigh Hocken and his VooDoo pylon racer.

F3D with a 10 pilot entry was great to watch. The first up race was with good mates Shaun Jacobsen and Dannmann. Shaun opening up with a personal best, WELL DONE Shauny! Dannmann having looked forward to this weekend, unfortunately hit #2 pilot on his 3rd race with uncharacteristic model issues which saw him finish well down for the weekend. Leigh flew a brilliant race with his average for the event of 60 seconds and Shaun finishing 2nd in his second ever F3D race. He flew very consistently and was closely followed by a veteran of pylon, Baz Murphy, having got all his times in.

With only one event to go at Munro before the great race at AMPRA which is being held at Coolum QLD. This will be the first event for the team selection trial for the 2017 F3D World Championships to be held in Sweden. Good luck to all pilots!

Check out the event photo gallery>>>

Results

Class – FA1

Places:
1st Leigh Hocken
2nd Shaun Jacobsen
3rd Barry Murphy

Fastest Time: 58.97 – Leigh Hocken
No. of competitors: 10

Class – F400

Places:
1st Shaun Jacobsen
2nd Ranjit Phelan
3rd Barry Murphy

Fastest Time: 64.95 – Leigh Hocken
No. of competitors: 11

Class – Q500

Places:
1st Jim Orenshaw
2nd Tom Allen
3rd Jarrod Jacobsen

Fastest Time: 95.87 – Mike Kellet
No. of competitors: 6

Check out the full results>>>

Season Championship

The following is how the season championship stands currently.

FA1

1st – Daniel Arapakis
2nd – Barry Murphy
3rd – Leigh Hocken

No change for the top two positions, but Leigh Hocken has moved up to 3rd position, displacing Glenn Matthews.

F400

1st – Brian Steele
2nd – Glenn Matthews
3rd – Shaun Jacobsen

No change for the top two positions, but Shaun Jacobsen has moved up to 3rd position, displacing Jim Orenshaw.

Q500

1st – Jim Orenshaw
2nd – John Schmidli
3rd – Andrew Arapakis

For Q500, again there was no change for the top 3 positions.

Check Out Season Championship >>>

Season Fastest Time

There was no new fastest time recorded at the Warnambool event

FA1 – Leigh Hocken – 57.38

F400 – Leigh Hocken – 61.75

Q500 – Daniel Arapakis – 89.59

Check Out Complete Calendar >>>

Event Report – Anonymous
Additional information: John Schmidli
Photos – Andrew Arapakis & Tom Allen

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

Event Result
Photo Gallery
Season Championship
Event Calendar

Westernport April 2016 – Event Report

Posted on April 16, 2016 by Scadtastic

Mike Kellet launches, Wayne Newman's Scanner as the clock reaches Zero.

Mornington Peninsula surrounded by two magnificent waterways boasts 80 boutique wineries and the home club of Dannmann18. After working with the club officials, VMPRA committee and sponsors, WPMAC was set up to host its very first official Pylon Race. Situated at Crib Point, the great race had 11 pilot entries for Sports Pylon, 16 entries for Q500, 25 pilots and approximately 100 spectators and supporting crews that attended the club throughout the day.

The field was presented in immaculate condition and the poles set up with pylon 1 in the south! The weather Gods were true to the forecast yet again with a 25 knotter from Bass Straight on the Saturday which made practice a little tough but the pot belly heater working a treat jam packed with red gum. The night was a traditional campers Greek feast with spit roasting and beers flowing.

Pilot Briefing at the start of the day.

Sunday morning with a 5 knot southerly was expected with pilots arriving early and setting up their models. The new comers both in Sports and Quickie, carefully observing the set-up of the experienced crews.

The morning flying commenced with an instructional demonstration on the start line with how the clock and pylon lighting works as well as all the safety regulatory information as well as race tactics. All pilots had the chance to fly the coarse and practice what most new comers have never done before, fly a left-hand circuit around themselves for 10 laps.

The race kicked off with Sports Pylon and Scanner Racing. Results were staggering and the smiles and sense of personal achievement being the winner by far. There were no mid- air’s, and most pilots brought their models home. It was great to watch the event from the start line where experienced ambitious club pilots were still 20 meters from the pylons and told to ”pull it in pull it in”. Young Cam Sexton is the rising star who had the opportunity to practice at Baz Burphy’s famous Munro field the week before. He was really tight around the poles and had the best style. Race results were a mixed bag as it’s a bit different to a fun fly as starting a plane in 60 seconds and flying 10 laps around a 3 pylon course with no penalties is always a challenge even for the most experienced teams and pilots. New starters Michael Burston and Mark Jacob flew great for their first efforts too.

Father/son team, Michael and Wally Burston with their Scanner.

Race winner Wayne Newman representing his great store Addies Hobbies flew a great race, second place to Mark Jacob and third place going to George Angelov with a behemoth of a model of some silver and red description.

Quickie 500 Pilots ready to go racing

Q500 commenced after lunch and with entry numbers that this class hasn’t seen in years with a huge talent pool from first timers to best in class, experienced pilots. Definitely a spectators race on the day as the speed difference between the 2 classes was an eye opener for most people as this type of racing hasn’t been on the Peninsula in years.

Mark Jacob from the neighboring club, NMAA in Rosebud West with his scratch built model finished in the middle of the pack in his very first race amongst experienced pilots.

The host club members as well as young cool kids such as James Hurley Jnr and Cam Sexton were on the lights in Pylon 1 cage and had a great time with lots of laughs and also learnt a lot about racing!

Quickie 500 models on the start line. First timer, Mark Jacob's beautifully turned out, home built Q500 model in the foreground.

With 4 rounds of racing across multiple heats, the afternoon was set to be a ripper. Final results showed how close the racing was with only 10 seconds separating the top half of the racers. Jimmy Tiger Orenshaw took out 1^st place and has stretched his season championship lead. Dannmann’s first Quickie race this season recorded the fastest time of event and best time of the season 89.59 seconds coming in 2^nd place with John Schmidli finishing in 3^rd.

Great to see Austin Omann finishing in 4^th place (pipping Master Kellet by 0.4 seconds) achieving times averaging 95 seconds with a Viper that was donated to him by VMPRA at last years’ AMPRA event.

The Presentation was rewarding and all place getters receiving a formal trophy for their great efforts for the day. Dannmann handed down his Q500 trophy to the next place getter in fairness as the unwritten rule is for accomplished F3D pilots to stand down if presented a trophy at any event.

CD for the day, Andrew Arapakis organised a great event.

Many thanks to Model Flight for their donation of 6 gift vouchers that were handed out to other participants to recognize their efforts on the day.

Many thanks also goes to the WPMAC committee and club members who supported the event and putting Crib Point on the Map! I am sure more events will be the highlight of the clubs calendar for years to come.

In summary, the purpose of this event was to introduce Pylon to local Clubs and all pilots abroad with a mission of flying in an entry class and most importantly to have fun! Undoubtedly this was achieved with a top score of a perfect 10!

Check out the event photo gallery>>>

Results

Class – Q500

Places:
1st Jim Orenshaw
2nd Daniel Arapakis
3rd John Schmidli
Daniel stood aside when trophy were presented, allowing John Schmidli to receive the 2nd place trophy and Austin Omman received the 3rd place trophy.

Fastest Time: 89.59 – Daniel Arapakis
No. of competitors: 16

Class – Sports

Places:
1st Wayne Newman
2nd Mark Jacob
3rd George Angelov

Fastest Time: 138.62 – Allan Swift
No. of competitors: 11

Check out the full results>>>

Season Championship

The following is how the season championship stands currently.

Q500

1st – Jim Orenshaw
2nd – John Schmidli
3rd – Andrew Arapakis

For Q500, again there was no change for the top 3 positions.

Check Out Season Championship >>>

Season Fastest Time

Daniel Arapakis did a sub 90 seconds to take the fastest time from Mike Kellet.

Q500 – Daniel Arapakis – 89.59

Next Race

2 weeks later (April 16-17), we will be down at Warrnambool for one of our regular 3 class races.

After that there is another Q500 and Sports race to be held at Lilydale (LDMFA) on May 1. This isn’t a championship round for Q500 but still is a great opportunity to go racing, practice and encourage new-comers to our most exciting facet of aeromodelling.

Check Out Complete Calendar >>>

Event Report – Anonymous
Additional information: 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 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

Quick Reference

Event Result
Photo Gallery
Season Championship
Event Calendar