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 positions after Saturday’s heats. Stronger winds and even bigger patches of sink made achieving 15 minutes difficult. Group 1 flew 4 heats, and Groups 2 & 3 flew 3 rounds with strengthening winds and rain threatening. Mike O’Reilly came out on top with his Pike Prestige, Dan Haskell was second with his Pike Prestige and Theo Arvanitakis came in third making it a Pike Prestige trifecta.
