Events

Model Flight has been a proud sponsor of the Noarlunga Civil & Military Scale Fun Fly event since 1978. This year’s event was well attended by members from a number of SA clubs.

After COVID border restrictions and poor weather had impacted the last two years, we made up for it this year with three fabulous days of sunshine and light winds. 33 pilots from WA, Victoria and South Australia enjoyed the open space and great thermal conditions at the Bordertown Aerodrome. Hundreds of flights took place with many of them over 30 minutes. 

Adelaide Model Aerosport played host to this year's Jets over Monarto 3-day event. Blessed with some great late winter weather, over 30 pilots with in excess of 50 RC jets attended. Models ranged from small EDF models to the super impressive 3-metre Leonardo turbine model of Theo Arvanitakis. Pilots came from Alice Springs, Mildura, Melbourne and various SA-based clubs, and a lot of interested RC modellers came from Adelaide to check out the action. See below and the image gallery for pictures from the event!

A big thank you to the AMA Club, and the organisers, Greg Leigh and David Wearing-Smith.

Model Flight is proud to have been a supporter of the LSF Glider Tournament since the very first event in 1977. 

The Annual Jerilderie competition was held over the June long weekend. This year, three classes were flown. F5J, Open Thermal (winch launch) and F5L (2m Electric RES).  There were 38 competitors representing most Australian states, with 4 from New Zealand. 37 flew in 5J, with 27 in each of OT and 5L. Our AUS F5J World Championship Team of Nick Chabrel, Marcus Stent, and Andrew Meyer were there for some practice before they travel to Bulgaria for the WC in early August. Conditions were very good with light, steady wind, generally sub 10 kph. Sunny skies on Saturday, overcast to varying degrees on Sunday and Monday.  

Thermal activity was generally good, and the local birds often provided excellent markers. Despite

The Model Flight Midway Cup & Victorian F5J State Championships were held at the new Jess Field 15 km east of Horsham over the 6th - 7th of May. Brad and Mike headed across to represent SA.  Cool mornings, freshening winds and the odd light shower aren’t normally associated with a nice weekend of flying, but it made for challenging conditions. The relatively high number of out landings in the adjacent paddocks is testimony to the strength of the sink that was ever-present. The Victorian team retained the Model Flight Midway Cup in a close battle with SA and the NSW team participating for the first time was third.

Theo Arvanitakis flying a Pike Prestige came out on top of the 27 pilots in the Saturday Qualifying rounds. Sunday’s flying was the 15-minute fly-off rounds with the pilots split into 3 groups depending on their

Jets over Monarto took place at Adelaide Model Aerosports, Monarto over the weekend of 26-27-28 August. This event is the post-covid version of Jet Action that had been an annual event for over 25 years.

The field was in perfect condition with closely mown grass on all sides of the north-south sealed strip. We were blessed with sunny weather and a northerly wind for all 3 days. 25 pilots and over 40 turbine and EDF-powered models were present, including something nostalgic (OS 25DF powered Mirage) and something very different (turbine-powered Ultra Stick 30cc). Gallons of Jet A1 were burnt and several hundred successful sorties were flown. A big thank you to the AMA Club and event organisers Greg Leigh and David Wearing-Smith.

Modelflight has been proud to support the Adelaide Golden Era Air Races since its inception in 1997. This biennial event was held at the Constellation Model Flying Club at Virginia over the April 5th - 7th weekend.

Pilots from SA, Victoria and NSW competed in 5 classes of racing. Golden Era Inline, Golden Era Radial, Reno Warbirds, Formula One and 30cc Warbirds/AT-6 Texan. The Golden Era models used up to 80cc engines whilst the Reno models are limited to 63cc engines.

Whilst Friday was blown out resulting in no flying, Saturday and Sunday were great days and the racing was close. A very big thank you to CD Trevor Pearce and his band of helpers who manned the course and fed us for the full 2 days.

This weekend was Round 2 (out of 4) of the WA Challenge Cup, hosted by MORBC on the recent IFMAR worlds track. Aaron would go into Round 2 with a 4 lap lead in the overall series, over Harry Simms (Mugen Maxima).

Saturday was qualifying day and all the 'locals' were straight out on track going super fast after running lots of laps last weekend at the 1/10th Interclub. Aaron used his consistency, and the OS B21 TY2, to TQ round 1 of qualifying, but it wasn't going to be easy. In round 2, the track condition had changed and a few small errors meant Aaron was 3rd for the round, only a few seconds in it. Aaron went on to TQ Q3 and Q4 under lights with consecutive FTD's. In Q5 unfortunately a DNF due to a bad cell in the receiver pack. With TQ 3 out of 5, Aaron would start P1 in the second semi. Younger brother Ben, with some solid runs, qualified 9th, starting 5th in the same semi as his brother.

Sunday came around

March 30th and 31st brought me to Thailand Heli Blowout 2019 at the Thung Srikan Flying Field in Bangkok, (THB) Asia's premier fun fly and Competition. This would be my first competition and demos out of Australia.

We arrived Thursday afternoon to the airport where we were greeted by my Teammates father Narong Poonoi who drove us off to the hotel to assemble helis for practice starting Friday.

The weather in Bangkok was quite a shock to the system with temperatures above 35°c and humidity in the high 60's.

Friday I managed to get in 7 flights of practice even with the chaotic flight lines, mainly set manoeuvers as that's what I was flying on Saturday. I made some good progress with the help of my teammates. Inbetween flights I was assisting the team with mechanical issues throughout the day where I could. I left Friday feeling better about

So this time tomorrow one of our team, Jamie Nancarrow, will be setting off as part of Road Raise 2019 - a fundraising initiative first launched in 2015 to raise vital funds and awareness for CanTeen. Thanks to the incredible efforts of those involved in Road Raise, CanTeen has raised over $550,000 since 2015, and hope to raise close to $200,000 from the 2019 event. These funds help support young people coping with cancer in their family, rebuild their foundations and connect with others in similar situations. Read on as Jamie gives us further information on the upcoming ride.

What is Road Raise?

Road Raise is a seven-day cycling ride from Adelaide to Melbourne taking place from the 6th to 12th April 2019. It takes in the “Great Ocean Road” coastline of South Australia and Victoria, culminating in the participants riding just under 1,100kms in this 7 day period. This year twenty participants, including some CanTeen youth ambassadors, will be part