Australian Team Members:

Ranjit Phelan

Ranjit was born in India. With an Indian Fighter Pilot Father and an English Mother. He has been involved in Aeromodelling since he was a small child. Both his Mother and Father were Aeromodelers.

Ranjit has done a lot for Australian Pylon Racing, and his excellent WC results have been his reward.

Ever since he started flying pylon he was the man to beat.

His equipment has always been at the top. Many years ago in conjunction with his friend Ian McCaughey they developed the Magic Muffler. This was originally developed to get over the muffler rule (Which was then in F3D) to provide a tuned exhaust muffler. He went into production of this muffler for a while.

Now days almost every quality sports engine is using a variation of this muffler.

Ranjit is currently manufacturing his own Racing 40 The RPM (Ranjit Phelan Motors) . He does everything in his own little factory - which was at one stage the garage of this home. He does everything there -Casting - Chroming - and machining. He recently told me that he has a Quarter Million Dollars invested in his equipment.

This new engine which has proved to be very reliable goes very well. Many of the local lads are using them, and they are providing trouble free running. This is somewhat unusual for a racing 40 engine. Ranjit is very fast with this engine - should do very well in future WC.

Those people who are interested should contact Ranjit - with the way the Australian Dollar is trending - his engine must be a very good buy.

He flies his own designs and is really a total modeler. How many in the world do all this - perhaps you can count them with the figures on one hand.

Barry Murphy:

Barry (Moon) Murphy.  I know why some people have called Barry "MOON" - some think that it is because he often howls at the moon when it is full.  However I do not think that this is the case.  I met Barry many years ago when I traveled to Queensland for a Trans Tasman event.  He let me stay at his cotton plantation, on the way up there.  At this time there was a mouse plague - and this is something that I will never forget.  It was an amazing experience tp see millions of mice everywhere.  When driving the roads looked like they were running with water - but is was mice.

Anyway at that stage Barry was relatively new to Pylon and he proudly showed me his new pylon designs and the moulds he had constructed to make the fuselages.  I then realized that Barry was somewhat ahead of the average modeler.  Of course Barry is now very well known as an international Modeler - having competed in a number of World Championships and traveling to South Africa to enter in their Nationals. He gave it away some time ago to develop his business - and now he is back.  He welcome him into the Australian Team, and also his son Beau who will be his caller.

Frank Harrod

Frank lives in a holiday resort township called Maryborough.  This is on the East coast of Australia quite near the Barrier Reef.  He lives with his brother Karl who is on the Left of this picture.  Frank actually works at the Mt Isa Mines and travels back home every weekend.

They have been very active in the promotion of Pylon Racing within the state of Queensland.  They are kitting a small sports racing model that they have introduced as a beginners class in Queensland.

Frank and Karl have been very active in creating and manufacturing rather radical designs.  At one stage Bruce DeChastel and Karl were working together manufacturing the Evolution Design.

The picture here shows their latest FAI model design.  This is a very fast model - and I personally believe that there is nothing better flying F3D at this moment.

That's Frank on the right with his brother Karl who will be his caller.

Chris Callow

Christopher and Kevin will be attending the World Championships as the Current World Champions.

Christopher is a great mate of his Father Kevin - who is the prime sponsor of Chris. As a team Kevin does the building and provides the finance, whilst Chris does the Flying. This seems to work out great. Kevin just loves working on the aircraft and Chris just loves the flying. That is when he can get away from the Surfing.

Queensland is where they live and it is renowned for sunny beaches and great surf. What a place to live!.

At the last WC in 1997 Chris then 17 came third in the individual - he was the youngest ever competitor in a Pylon WC. This is great effort.

He is currently flying a model of his own design powered by a MB engine. Naturally he will be using the latest front induction MB that has just come into production in January 2003.