Pakenham & District Aircraft Radio Control Society - The History of the Monty Tyrrell

The rally was first conceived in 1990. This was the result of some lunchtime meetings between Monty Tyrrell and me, with regards to this new concept of scale rallies that were being run in The USA. No three views were needed and there is no static judging. I approached Monty with the view of organizing and running an event at P&DARCS. Monty was very enthusiastic about the idea. He suggested an event called box top scale but it was decided that modelers were very conversant with full size aircraft and the only time a three view would be needed was if the aircraft was a very obscure design. We discussed various means of judging the event. I was eventually decided to keep it low key with the view of encouraging modelers to have ago at scale. I then proceeded to write down the basic rules and with much discussion and Monty’s blessing I then presented it to the committee. They approved. Whilst organizing the first rally Monty’s wife became very ill and so Monty’s help was relegated to offering advice when required and this was much appreciated.

Ian Thompson kindly stepped in to lend a hand. Ian tried to organize some corporate sponsorship but unfortunately we had the recession we had to have so this was not forthcoming. Ian did all of the artwork for the original trophies as well as commissioning them. I drew up the entry form as well as the promotional flyers to send to the clubs. Ian then re did them so that they were presentable.

It was decided that the first rally would encompass all scale models except free flight. RC fixed wing , control line scale and helicopter scale were run. Well, the day dawned and what a day it was.

Ian and I continued to run the event the following year. Interest in the other forms of scale, control line and helicopter were poorly represented so just fixed wing was catered for. But it was no doubt that this event was firmly fixed in the P&DARCS Calendar.

Sadly in 1992 Monty Passed away and it was overwhelmingly decided to name the rally in Monty’s honor.

Well the rally is still going 19 years after its inception. Thankfully others have stepped in over the years to run the event. In 2008 I was approached by David Walsh and asked if I would be interested in running the event once again. David offer to help me and it was a fantastic success. The success was definitely attributable to the fantastic volunteers who stepped in on relatively short notice to help.

The future

Well in 2009 there will be a car boot sale organized by Ivan Chiselett for those who want to off load some modeling gear. In the event itself there will be Two lots of trophies: 1st 2nd and 3rd for Scratch Built Models and 1st 2nd & 3rd for ARF models. As well as the Monty Tyrrell Trophy which will be presented by pilots choice. It will be for the aircraft that promotes the true spirit of building/flying or scale model aircraft.

We will also have prize draws for the pilots and helpers during the day.

So mark it down on your calendar and make a bee line for the P&DARCS field on the 22 March 2009

And the winners of that very first event were: