Masters 2009 Shepparton

Thumbs down from the master!!!

Henry and Jas with the 140rx powered Cyclone.

Sparksey calling for me, rain is on the way.

Jas, Henry and the Nugget boys (Nugents)!

Just some of the fifty odd planes that were flown.

Neil Martin had a interesting way of keeping his outrunner cool.

Jas with Oxai Australia representative - Rob Clarke.

Oxai Axiome owned by Bill Bloodworth.

More models, Dave McFarlane from Model Sports flew his beautifully built EP with great skill in the strong winds.

Team Crossman, preparing for another flight.


Bill Bloodworth finished in third position and also made the Aussie Team for Portugal in October but later withdrew due to work commitments.

****CANOPY UPDATE****GlennO breaks another one!!!

UPDATE***FIXED!!
Thanks to Steve Dawbin and Mike Timms, we successfully removed and replaced then re-painted the damaged area and now you'd be hard pressed to pick the repair. Thanks guys.

Well, your not going to believe it. After breaking the Aries GP canopy when the wind blew it off the rubber stand a few months back, you'd think I would have learned from my mistake.
NOT LIKELY.
Yes at Ballarat I had the new Aries EP on the stand changing batteries (plane has to be turned over to access packs) when I left it unattended for only a matter of seconds and a wind gust came through knocking it off the stand and onto the Canopy.

Same as last time, canopy destroyed. I did tape it up for my last flight, however it needs a major "cut and shut" job to have it ready for the Masters in April.

I, together with the help of local club member Mike Timms removed the broken canopy and replaced it with a new one, then Steve Dawbin re-painted the affected area. Lucky I brought two canopies last time! Must have known something...
GlennO

Model Engines Trophy at Ballarat

The winners.

Oxai once again were a popular choice among competitors.

Triplets! Aries in the foreground is an EP version, the other two powered by DZ170.

Electric power!! Peter Newman with his own designed Hacker outrunner powered model.
GlennO with Aries EP and Rob Clarke with his beautiful new miss wind powered by Hacker c50 14XL.

Our contest director busy at work keying in scores again. On ya Henry!!!

The Model Engines Trophy, awarded to first place in F3a.

Pilots inspect the damage following Brian Greens Beryll's battery coming loose
and un-plugging. Luckily, only minor damage to the undercart.

My new EP powered Aries. Fly's great!! had a Oxai Dymaxion motor and Hyperion controller, will be changing over to Hacker C50 14XL.

Rob Clarke preparing the miss wind for it's first flight late on Friday afternoon. This plane has awesome potential once trimmed and sorted.

Tates Trophy at Mannerim Geelong

Winner's are grinners!! Here's me ole mate Marlo who pipped me for second place again. Bill Bloodworth too good for us once again, he took out first in F3A.

The gang, ready to pounce on a trophy at the presentations.
The boys!!! Marlo and Bill up to no good again!!!

Eddie (owner of Tates) took myself, Bill and Tom for a cruise along the Great Ocean road and back in his 210 late on Saturday. Thanks heaps ED!!



Plenty of time for chin wagging.

A great turn out again for the VPA.

Me!!!

Marlo's new weapon!!!

Lesson # 1 - Never leave plane unattended on rubber stand.

The canopy and belly pan.

The whole almost bigger enough to put you hand through.

After having not flown flown for nearly four weeks, yesterdays Xmas party at the flying field seemed like a good time to brush up on the P sequence.
Anyway, after unloading the car I had the Aries up on the rubber stand to strap in the lipo battery and bolt the wing on.
During this process, I walked a way for matter of only seconds when a wind gust came through, flipping the fuse onto the ground canopy first. I could hear a crack - it didn't sound good!!
After picking it back up and inspecting it, I was horrified to see the canopy had been badly broken.
The canopy area of the model actually fell onto the belly pan which was sitting near by. (see pictures above)

***UPDATE*** after the canopy damage, the plane was obviously un-flyable. I rushed home and did a patch job with hinging tape, then back to the field for some late afternoon practice.
All stayed in place - with no further damage apart from the canopy region resembling a mummy.

Clarkey at Oxai Australia has been informed, a new canopy has been ordered and will be installed upon arrival.
The tricky bit will be cutting out the old one and blending the new one in without it being obvious. I have two local club member's in mind for that job, one being a "Mr Fix it" and the other a "Hot shot" spray painter...

Out with the old, in with the new!!!

The old trailer - outgrown!!

3.6 metres long, with great rear excess and gas struts.

19mm form ply flooring, 1.4 high - 1.4 wide on the inside.

Commodore 16/7inc rims and stainless quarter gaurds.

Plenty of bling around the front, with aluminium checker plate.

I recently sold my trailer-boot trailer to a fellow F3A pilot as it was becoming to hard to transport
two 2 metre pattern planes and all the equipment necessary to the comps.
A good friend of mine built a magnificent trailer for himself to accommodate his rather large turbine powered F-16 jet, but he however decided to sell it soon after completion.

I decided that although rather large for only two pattern planes, I could also use it to transport my 3M Krill Katana - which was always going to be difficult to fit into the commodore wagon.
Those trips to Adelaide with Sparksey and others will be so much easier now - even the coffee machine will be hard to leave at home!

Tates Performance Hobbies 3D "Huckfest" held at Mildura.

Running repairs to the red bull yak.

Luke and Glen wrap up proceedings with the presentation of trophy's and prizes.

Rolling harrier down the strip!!

Luke from Tates backing down the Tates Performance Hobbies Ultimate, being watched closely by the boss - DON'T BREAK IT!!

"Cashy" enjoying the night time action.

GlennO's 50cc Carden yak well flown by Ryan Vu.

Glen, about to put on another awesome display.

Glen, doin his stuff!

Glen's 3M powered Austar's yak doing a rudder touch - well controlled of course.

Nice!! The yak just hanging in there.

Cashy, at it again with his DL powered extra 300. DL engines are sure good value for money.

Ryan, putting on a show with GlennO's Yak. You should have seen Ryan's face light up when
he found a plane on mode 2 he could fly.

Ryan, GlennO and Eddie enjoying the action.

Time to leave. Eddie and friends head home. Love the rego number ED!!

Mildura club Sunraysia Aeromodellers played host for it's first 3D Huckfest over the weekend of November 15th and 16th. Pilots from Melbourne and Sydney and even Broken Hill attended with most arriving Friday and some chose to even camp at the flying site. Eddie Edwards from Tates performance Hobbies not only supported the event, but flew up Saturday in his own Cessna to take a closer look at the action.

Glen Ure from Austars models www.austars-model.com flew his magnificent 3m yak with great skill and courage close to the ground which had the locals fascinated with his 3d demo's.
With strong and sometimes gusty winds prevailing for the entire weekend, this didn't deter Glen form performing rolling harriors, torque rolls and whatever else you could think of in a aggressive skillful manner. Glen took out the most entertaining award of course.

Luke from Tates put on a great display with his ultimate yak powered by an impressive Evo engine fitted with smoke. Luke even back the ultimate down to the ground in a cloud of smoke with his boss and actual owner of the plane Eddie Edwards watching over his shoulder..now that took guts!!!

"Cashy" from Melbourne also put on some nice 3D flying with his impressive looking DL50 powered Extra 300 from Extreme flight.

Saturday night saw a light tower arrive at the field with many pilots taking to the sky's with heli's, electric foamy's and profile fun fly's.

The one pleasing sight was the amount of locals that actually joined in and flew during the course of the weekend. There was only one major crash for the weekend when "Little John" from Broken Hill clipped the trees on Saturday, resulting in his father doing a 600km round trip back home to grab a back-up model..well done Dad!!!

Special thanks to The Sunraysia club for hosting the event, also Luke from Tates for all the behind the scenes stuff. A special mention to the sponsors, Tates performance Hobbies Geelong, Austar models Sydney and, Surf Crew Hobbies Mildura.