Category Archives: Rally
The 22 nd World Rally Flying Championship
The 22nd World Rally Flying Championships by Rob Jonkers (photos Rob Jonkers & others)
Also, read The Arrivals and Training week for the 22nd World Rally Flying Championships
At last we had arrived at the competition week, after months of planning after Sunday the 13th of November dawned everything was in place to have the event start. After the morning briefings were concluded, preparation for the opening ceremony was carried out with podiums, sound and everybody in their National dress. Karl Jensen was the MC for the Opening ceremony, which started promptly at 3 PM with a Parade of Nations, each country with its National flag and country signboard walked past the clubhouse to gather around the podium, and as they walked past their National Anthem was played.
Once this was concluded, we had the Absolute Extras do a display as Nigel & Jason brought their aircraft over from the Coves earlier, they were able to give a stunning display against a backdrop of a passing storm cell, giving the photographers a good opportunity to get some amazing footage. Nigel and Jason are thanked for being able to give the opening ceremony the appropriate opening for such a prestigious event. It was also planned that the Puma Flying Lions would do an opening display, but the threatening weather all around us prevented them from getting through from Rand Airport.
It was fortunate that while the Opening Ceremony was underway between 3 – 4 PM the rain stayed away, as after the display the formality of the Opening continued, first with the chairman of the Brits Flying Club Lohan Otto giving a speech, then onto Rob Jonkers the Competition Director giving thanks to all the people involved in getting us to the point where we could start. Thereafter Hans Schwebel as the President of the General Aviation Commission (GAC) of the FAI declared the event open by raising the FAI flag. Cocktail snacks and drink was then enjoyed by all, and in the meantime, rain descended on the Airfield again.
The competition week then started out on Monday, when the weather was clearing up, although windy with low clouds, it was decided to fly the bad weather route – Granite for the day. All the routes were named after minerals in keeping with the theme of the area being rich in minerals. The only way the departure sequence would work was to use runway 20, and at least for Monday, the wind was southerly all day. A measured landing would be at Brits, in this case also on runway 20, where most of the previous week the prevailing wing was northerly. After day 1 in the first place was Michal Wieczorek from Poland and in 2nd place was Nigel Hopkins.
The rest of the week had good weather predicted with increasing temperatures, and for day two, the Chrome route was flown, with a landing again at home base. After day 2 Nigel Hopkins took the lead, with Marek Kachaniak from Poland in 2nd, and Michal Wieczorek dropped to 3rd place. Day 3 the route was Copper, this route was flown up north with an intermediate landing to take place at Kokoriba, the idea of an away landing was to challenge crews to land in unfamiliar territory. The runway there was imminently suitable to carry out a touch-and-go in farm strip conditions, some found it difficult and others were able to bingo the landings. Unfortunately due to a rule technicality, the landings had to be excluded, much to the chagrin of some competitors who had done well there. After day 3, the standings were still with Nigel in the lead with 604 points and Michal Wieczorek in 2nd place with 753 points. On day 4 the route was Gold, this route was flown to the west in the Rustenburg area with another away landing planned, but as the rule technicality could not be fixed for the Silver Creek runway, only a runway inspection could be flown, and a home landing at Brits was measured. Day 4’s results had Krzysztof Wieczorek in 1st place with Nigel having dropped to 8th.
After all 4 days of flights, other than a few aircraft snags, all competitors could fly all the routes, we were well supported by the aircraft owners to sort out snags and issues. Thursday afternoon & evening is traditionally International day with every country taking part to bring out their specialty food and drink to sample and enjoy. Germany brought Jägermeisters, the Norwegians brought their famous Norwegian salmon, the French their French wines, and the South Africans with boerewors and melktertjies….
Friday was set out as a reserve weather day and was fortunately not required, some teams took further scenic flights and others went to visit local game parks. The prize giving Ceremony was to be held at Fatherland Estate which is around 5km from the Brits airfield – which was scheduled for 7 PM. Everybody started to gather at the venue from 6.30 and David le Roux was the MC for the evening called everybody to take their seats at 7h30 for starters.
The proceedings for the evening commenced, first with Rob Jonkers giving a speech of thanks to everybody involved in making the event successful, and despite the challenges, we were able to pull this significant event off. For sure the key to making this event happen was securing Aircraft, which is much more than would be the case in Europe, here only the South Africans had their own aircraft, we had to cater for 28 teams, 14 aircraft at the end of the day. Between Martin Meyer & Ron Stirk they managed to secure these aircraft for the best part of 2022 and gave congratulations on the great work done to negotiate with the owners to rent them.
All the Officials were called up to the stage to have their participation certificates handed over, after giving thanks for their support during the event, as it takes many functions to make this level of event happen successfully.
After this the Chief Judge took over with the prize giving, first being the youngest pilot category, this going to the Czech team of Lukas Behounek & Krystof Bobek, then the Landings category going to the Polish Team of Krzysztof Wieczorek & Kamil Wieczorek. Then the main category of Individual team results with 1st place going the Polish Team of Krzysztof Wieczorek & Kamil Wieczorek, in 2nd place Michal Wieczorek & Marcin Kwiatosz, and in third place South African team of Nigel Hopkins & Mary de Klerk, the first podium finish for the South Africans since 2003. Next was the Team Trophy which went to Poland in 1st place, Czech Republic in 2nd place and France in 3rd place. The Air BP best in navigation and observation trophy went to the Polish Team of Krzysztof Wieczorek & Kamil Wieczorek
After the prize giving the GAC President Hans Schwebel officially closed the event and the FAI flag was lowered, folded where the Competition Director Rob Jonkers handed it over to Phillipe Muller of France who is the appointed Competition Director for the 23rd WRFC to be held in Macon France in 2023.
With that the 22nd WRFC was closed and guests could enjoy the main course for the evening.
There are so many thanks to be given, from all the Officials from far and wide that is the engine room of such a competition, everybody in their various roles were well versed in what they needed to do and did so very well, and to get to the end of competition having been concluded with safe flights throughout.
A big thanks to Thanks to Lohan Otto and the BFC team for preparing the airfield and having upgraded the clubhouse as you see today.
Thanks to all the SAPFA & BFC committee members that for months of planning meetings got this event fully realised.
Thanks to the CAA PEL department carrying out licence validations, also the GA department, Piet Fourie & Mothiba Kanyane on the Special Air Event application management and their daily support for the event over the last week.
Thanks to the media for their support and attendance, they always support our Recreational Aviation
Thanks to the sponsors, Absolute Aviation, DJA Aviation Insurance, Bill Harrop’s Balloons, Brits Auto, Century Avionics, Wings and Tracks, Puma Fuel, and various local hotels & food establishments.
Am sure this event will come around to South Africa sometime in the future again, and that new teams will experience the best of South Africa. I wish all of you safe skies where ever you fly, and am sure we’ll see you again soon at the next events.
Click on the photos below to enlarge
EAA Sun and Fun 2022 Rally
EAA Sun and Fun 2022 Rally by Rob Jonkers
This year’s EAA Sun and Fun flying event is the 7th in the series of rally events held yearly in support of the EAA, although previous events has followed the Adventure rally format, in recent years some level of accuracy of maintaining track has also been part of the route. This year, it was decided to have a route that was a more formal ANR type (Air Navigation Race). This type of rally is the newest type of rally to be found as part of the FAI events series.
In an ANR, there are only two objectives, the first being on-time at the start and finish gates, each second early or late attracts 3 penalty points. The second objective is to remain inside the corridor which in this case is 1 nm wide any excursion outside the corridor also attracts 3 penalty points per second being outside the corridor. For the Brits ANR it was decided not to measure the start & finish gate timing due to the busy airspace for the day.
The route is normally fairly short at 25 nm, and for the route planned it was to start south east of the field, route over Brits town and find a way through the scenic Crocodile river valley to end north west of the field.
The Route
There were 8 entrant teams, and briefing commenced at 9 am, where the teams after briefing got on with plotting their routes and could fly at their own pace. As they returned, logger downloads commenced and scoring could be done.
Best for the day were the team of Bert v Jaarsveld & Lance Holland flying a Bushcat ZU-FEW, in fact an excellent platform to fly this type of rally being slow enough for observation and being able to keep the turns fairly tight. In second place Bryan Nicolau and Roger Ford in their Bathawk ZU-IGI – another good observation aircraft. In third place Roger Bozolli and Dean Nicolau in the Piper Arrow ZS-KFM.
Teams plotting their routes – discussing their strategies, Caroline Koll, Byron Kirkland, Sean Cronin and Roger Ford
Roger Bozolli and Dean Nicolau with intense concentration
Hilton Wolff and Milan Daniz plotting their route
The Winning Track
Prize giving was held at the evening braai together with the EAA awards, unfortunately the floating trophy was not available, and will be handed over at an appropriate date. This trophy is the Sling (previously The Airplane Factory) Sun and Fun rally trophy awarded annually.
The Google Earth Live track screen, the yellow track being the best of the day, and the purple track with some wandering around the course
The Track shown of Route 2 – a clockwise route
A wet and cold PTAR 2022
A wet and cold PTAR 2022 at New Tempe Bloemfontein – By Rob Jonkers
This year’s Presidents Trophy Air Race was held at New Tempe Bloemfontein, and traditionally held on the last weekend of May, but with the advent of the Botswana Air Show also taking place on the same weekend it was decided to move it a week earlier, which if we all had the perfect hindsight, with that event not happening, we could have held it on its traditional date, and subsequently avoiding this last few days of most unseasonal weather that befell the race weekend.
This year for sure has had many of the planned aviation events disrupted by wet, cold, windy weather systems, the most bandied about term of “cut-off low” being used to describe the weather situation. This weekend no less had a very large cold front coupled with an intense low-pressure system over the centre of the country affect the plans to race.
I arrived on Wednesday in excellent weather conditions and started setting up for the race, mostly the race control room and preparing for test flights, some of the early competitors also started to arrive at the field. Thursday saw all the aircraft arrive, some of the Cape based teams first had to wait for the front to pass before setting off, arriving just before dark. Most of the day was taken up by flight tests and registration and watching what the weather would be doing for the next day as the front was approaching.
During the first extensive Thursday afternoon briefing which also included the SA weather services team being on hand to give us the best outlook it appeared that there may be an early morning flyable gap, thus the day was planned with an early 7h30 start. As Friday dawned, it looked promising, cloud base was at a reasonable 1000 ft, and we proceeding briefing and sent the turnpoint marshals to their locations, this being particularly important to get weather condition updates from them at the furthest corners of the route.
As the morning progressed with a planned 10 am first take-off, the news from the turnpoints were not good, and then light rain started, it was then decided to scrub Day 1 with a debrief at 11 am to plan for the next day. The prediction for Saturday would be that the weather would improve from midday onwards. Everybody dispersed for some rest for the rest of the day.
Saturday dawned with flyable conditions, and in fact the window opened up from 11 onwards, thus at briefing the first take-off was planned for 11. The turnpoint marshals were sent out, who from the previous day’s rain had challenges of negotiating almost impassable roads to get to their intersections, fortunately they all sent in confirmation of being in position prior the first take-off.
This year’s field attracted 37 entries, which is very low by PTAR standards, which would normally have 60+ competitors, this year for sure the cost impact would have been affecting most would be competitors, given the fuel price virtually double that of last year at the same time. Three competitors had to withdraw mostly due to not being able to get to the event on time, thus we had 34 starters.
With the airfield being water logged, we decided not to move the aircraft from where they were parked, and carried out scrutineering in-situ and changed the papers time with a few additional minutes for the crews to collect their maps and route envelopes, which worked out well. The ground marshals were also very efficient in getting the start order taxying out at their allocated time. With the race under way, and having a cross over route, we could all watch how the order of the aircraft would be coming back over the field which was at around one third race distance.
Although the traditional race finish would be at 1PM, and given the weather window having a later than normal start, the finish was planned at 13h45, and as the time got closer to finish, the weather was threatening to deteriorate, with sudden cold and dark clouds forming just east of the field, which fortunately stayed away. The line finishers were close between Race 2 Bosbok, Race 14 Piper Commanche, Race 45 Harvard. With spacing between aircraft at the start being required to keep a safe distance, the finish order became Race 45 Harvard ZS-WSE, Race 9 RV-7 ZU-VZJ, Race 14 Piper Commanche ZS-NXG, who were the handicap winners.
Prize-giving was held at the Windmill Casino, which had laid out an excellent banquet hall for all the teams, club members and officials to enjoy. The evening started with a short debrief of the race, some of the best and “interesting” tracks being shown. Race 19 had a “long” day having lost their way at turnpoint 1 continuing northwest for 20 nm, before realising their error, they had the presence of mind to return to that first turnpoint, and continue from there to fly a good race further, only picking up one penalty, but of course adding almost 40 minutes to their time.
After the main meal, David le Roux the Race Master started the proceedings for the rest of the evening, first up Franz Smit who introduced and thanked all the sponsors supporting the race, Pilot Insure, Holborn Assets, Aircraft Finance Corporation, DJA Aviation, Century Avionics, and all the local Bloemfontein sponsors, Leon Bouttell was up next as the SAPFA Chairman, and at this point announced that Rob Jonkers would be standing down as Race Director, the baton being handed over to Iaan Myburgh.
Rob took to the stage thanking all for their support since 2018 when the Race was handed to him, at the same time an evolution of the format having been developed to today’s standard of a 10 turnpoint race limited to 300 nm, with an accuracy component added as well. There is still much discussion about this race format and its merits compared to the traditional 4 corner race, and this will be for the next Race team to work together with the racers for their input. Just as Formula 1 evolves with technology improvements, so must the PTAR evolve to take into consideration changes in technologies utilised, such as GPS based heading reference devices, different engine types that have variable power settings, these all affect the handicap speeds and course accuracy.
Rob went on to thank all those involved in the race organisation, particularly the Bloemfontein Flying Club under the key organiser Andre Grobler and experienced PTAR event coordinator, who had provided the ground marshals, turn-point marshals, and all the catering at the airfield. Nigel Musgrave as the Safety Officer with the ATNS team of Ricardo Afonso, SA Weather Services, ARCC, Bloemfontein Emergency Services team of Braam van Zyl, the CAA Special Air Events team, the local Municipality & SAPS.
After this the long awaited Prize Giving was held, with 24 trophy categories being handed out, up until the top 3 places, with third place going to Race 9 RV-7 ZU-VZJ with crew of Johan van Zyl & Eric Addison, second place going to Race 45 Harvard ZS-WSE with a crew of John Sayers & Dion Raath, and the PTAR trophy going to Race 14 Piper Commanche ZS-NXG crewed by Stefan Lombard and Martiens Marais.
After this the PTAR flag was handed over from BFC Chair Deon Loots to Jock Nel the Chairman of the Middelburg Aero Club as the 2023 PTAR event location. Thanks go to everybody who makes this event a success, especially the volunteers who take time out to assist, also the media who are key to promoting the PTAR.
Click on the photos below (By Rob Jonkers)
The Witbank Speed Navigation Rally
26 March 2022 by Rob Jonkers
This first of the 4th Season Speed Rallies for 2022 has been held at Witbank, organised by SAPFA and hosted by the Witbank Aeronautical Association. This is the 3rd event held at Witbank in the series, which also had to be postponed due to weather issues on the original date of 5th March, the weather forecasting being fickle at best, but looked eventually flyable on the 5th, and as Competition Director you are damned for making those weather related calls…. one way or the other, especially up here on the reef where weather changeability is so prevalent within hours.
With the change of date also saw some competitors having to withdraw and at least others could join. Similarly we had officials planned that also had to drop out, but the WAA stepped up with an additional ground support team to help out, with the end result we had a fun & safe event.
There were 20 entries, but with the early morning weather situation on the highveld, many attempted to get to Witbank, but had to turn back or could not take-off, reducing the field to 15. Only two competitors had arrived on Friday before significant thundershowers made their appearance.
The traditional Friday evening briefing was cancelled, so the full briefing was then planned for Saturday morning, where after the club provided a nice Friday dinner spread and for the teams, officials and club members, before retiring for the evening.
Saturday morning dawned with more promising weather, the predicted low cloud did not materialise, and by 9 am the cloud base had risen to around 6000 ft, with light and variable wind. The briefing was delayed to 9h30 am and was concluded at around 10 am, where everybody dispersed first for a group photo and then to park their aircraft and prepare for the scrutineers. The route for the day was one with a cross over to the east of the field, with the first series of legs to the north-west, and the 2nd series of legs to the north-east.
1st take-off was planned at 11h20, and arrivals at 12h45. With all the competitors off towards the northwest, the route had a mix of easy and challenging turnpoints, especially TP6 which required good navigating skills to find the dust road intersection from amongst the same colour surroundings, from the results this turn point seems to have been difficult to home onto. There were two groups coming over the line, those that were a bit early as they had got waylaid along the course and a group that were accurate with their navigating skills getting over the line close to their handicap times.
After all teams having returned and safe on the ground, the scoring team got to work to analyse the results, with the tracks for a number being quite accurate, although some had wobbles, three had got significantly lost. As everybody essentially left for home, it was left to the scoring team to complete their work off line, and hold a virtual prize giving as done at previous events, which was done at 8 PM.
For the Navigation Accuracy category, third place went to Quintin Kruger & Johan Whiteman in their Cherokee 235 ZS-FVV, in 2nd place Apie & Frederick Kotzee in their Robinson R66 ZS-HRS, and in 1st place Hendrik & Jandre Loots in their Sling ZU-IHK.
For the Handicap/Speed category, third place went to Quintin Kruger & Johan Whiteman in their Cherokee 235 ZS-FVV, in 2nd place Hendrik & Jandre Loots in their Sling ZU-IHK and in 1st place Apie & Frederick Kotzee in their Robinson R66 ZS-HRS.
Overall Winners in third place went to Quintin Kruger & Johan Whiteman in their Cherokee 235 ZS-FVV, in 2nd place Apie & Frederick Kotzee in their Robinson R66 ZS-HRS, and in 1st place Hendrik & Jandre Loots in their Sling ZU-IHK.
Many thanks to the Witbank Aeronautical Association for hosting this fantastic event, supporting with logistics and great meals available throughout the day, Nigel Musgrave as the Safety Officer, Iaan Myburgh doing the scoring, as well as taking up the Deputy Event Director role, Marc Robinson with his team from Century Avionics for Scrutineering, Martin Meyer & Hans Schwebel for doing Starting. Thanks also extended to ATNS for supporting ATC for this event..
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Also thanks to our sponsors, who sponsored our sponsored teams, Prompt Roofing, Beagle Tracking, Gem Air and Aviation Direct.
Our next Speed Rally event will be in Kroonstad on the 25th June 2022
Nice perfect Track
Oops – Turned a bit early on most of the turnpoints
Click on photo below to enlarge
The SAPFA Secunda Speed Rally
The SAPFA Secunda Speed Rally – 28 August 2021 by Rob Jonkers
This year we have returned again to the birth place of the Speed Rally, being the 4th time this event has been held here, with 2018 the start of Season 1, and from 2020 having re-aligned the Speed Rallies to calendar year seasons, with this event being the 3rd event in Season 3, with the final event for Season 3 being at Springs on 27 Nov 2021.
With lockdown still at level 3, we limited the entries to 25 teams, and 22 had entered by the time the event entries closed on Friday 27th August. Our host club with Chairman Ashvir Kallis and Vice Chairman Lourence Mathee went all out to support the event, making the club facilities available and a braai for the Friday evening. The Aviation Junction flight school made their school facilities available for the scoring and officials team.
The weather outlook was looking challenging as the weekend was approaching, many warnings of severe cold and high winds predicted from a substantial cold front, and at dawn on Friday much low cloud and rain squalls made their appearance across Gauteng, which cleared later but with increasing gusty wind conditions. Having left Kitty Hawk at 10 am, caught a 30 kt tailwind to Secunda and had to deal with a 15 kt crosswind on landing. Around half the field chose rather to arrive early on Saturday, with some test flights also delayed to Saturday morning. The test flights were ably handled by Mauritz du Plessis and Iaan Myburg, with Iaan also taking up the role of scorer for this event having developed new scoring software.
At 18h30, Jonty Esser as the MC and Race Master introduced Rob Jonkers who took to the stage and provided a briefing on what to expect for the next day in terms of the planned route, how many turnpoints, distance, departure and arrivals protocol, and also how the scoring system would world work and the expected weather conditions. This year’s route would include a cross-over, which would bring more spectator interaction as the aircraft came over the field at the half way mark.
Jonty Esser then took to the stage in his signature competing crew introductory theme song videos and race number handouts, and also including introductions to the team sponsors, which has picked up this year after a disastrous 2020, and great to see the sponsors returning to support their teams. A scrumptious braai was laid on by the club to end the evening with around the fire stories on a high note.
For Saturday the briefing started at 8h00, which was a shortened version just to cover the basics of the route, radio procedures and weather, which at least had improved wind conditions from the Friday, starting out at 10 kts with a maximum of 15 kts predicted in a westerly direction, which would at least be favourable for runway 29. Some line squalls were also in the area, with the cloud base at least more than 1000 ft, with good visibility.
With the briefing over, teams prepared their aircraft, while the organisers got the papers ready. Each team would then receive an envelope with a map, turnpoint photos, a minute marker and a GPS logger to record their track. Aircraft were then also scrutineered with all portable electronic devices sealed up in bags. For this event Mark & Shane from Century Avionics were on hand to also block off / seal Aircraft GPS and autopilot systems, and also checking the fuel tanks were full.
The Pilot Insure Scrutineer Team were on hand to seal up all portable GPS capable devices, with the papers team under guidance of Lizelle handing out papers at the allotted time, Chief Marshall Adrian Cronje and Starters Mauritz & Chareen set up at the starting line adjacent the threshold of Runway 29, who would release each aircraft at their allotted time slot. Each team then received their envelopes with their loggers at 20 minutes prior take-off time, taxi to the starting line within 10 minutes of brake release. 1st take-off was at 10h20 for the slowest aircraft which was a Magni Gyrocopter (the first time a gyro has taken part) and last take-off at 11h10, with planned arrival at 12h00.
With all the competitors off towards the south west, the route had a mix of easy and challenging turnpoints. In general the competitors found the course easy enough. At just before 12h00, the first aircraft over the line was a little early, and then followed by at least three quarters of the field within 1 minute, with tail enders after that.
After all teams having returned, the scoring team got to work to analyse the results, completing the individual scores by 14h00, with prize giving planned for at 15:00. In the meantime, most of the competitors being concerned over deteriorating weather decided to return to their home bases, thus a call was made at 14h30 to rather hold a virtual prize giving, which Race Master Jonty carried out at 5 PM on the WhatsApp platform. MC Jonty Esser thanked everybody in the Speed Rally series for their contributions.
The winners in the handicap category were Deidre Batchelor & Dave Naude in their Jabiru ZU-EBU, in second place Mike Blackburn & Steve Briggs in a Sling ZU-IBM and in third place the Evans Racing team Jonty & Jonathan Esser in their C150 ZU-BLL. The first thirteen placings were the only crews who managed a clean penalty free round.
The winners in the accuracy category were the Gem air sponsored team of Phil Wakeley & Mary de Klerk in their C210 ZS-CNY, in second place Fanie Scholtz & Herman Haasbroek in their Sling ZU-FZF, and in third place Leon Bouttell & Martin Meyer in their Evektor Harmony ZU-FWS..
Overall Standings are in first place father and son Apie & Frederik Kotzee, in second place another father and son Johan Whiteman & Quintin Kruger in their Cherokee 235 ZS-FVV, and in third place another father & son team of Hendrik & Jandre Loots flying their Sling ZU-IHK. This is the first time the first 3 overall placed teams are all father and sons.
Many thanks to the Secunda Aero Club for hosting this fantastic event, the SAPFA team of Adrian Cronje as the Chief Marshall, Nigel Musgrave as the Safety Officer, Iaan & Tarryn Myburg doing the scoring, Mauritz du Plessis doing test flights and starting, Marc & Shane from Century Avionics for Scrutineering, Chareen Shillaw as the Event Secretary, Lizelle Kruger, Clarissa Dacostaesilva, Ariana Rompel, Leonie du Plessis for handing out competition papers to the crews, the Pilot Insure team under David le Roux for Scrutineering, Jonty & Lizelle & Sandi for putting together an awesome Friday evening launch event, and Anneke Pretorius for looking after officials lunches. Santjie & Jean Marie White were also on hand to ensure all aircraft are accounted for during and post the event.
ZS-CNY – third in the accuracy results
One of the tracks having gone a little pear shaped.
2021 Middelburg Speed Rally
The Aircraft Unlimited Middelburg Speed Navigation Rally – 27 April 2021 by Rob Jonkers
The South African Power Flying Association held a very successful Speed Rally at the Aero Club Centenary Airweek at Middelburg, and is our 2nd event in the third season. It was decided to hold this Speed Rally on Freedom day as the date of choice in keeping with the Centenary celebrations of the Aero Club that featured most of the Recreational Aviation Sections over the four days. Monday turned out to be a relatively quiet day, where we could have rather rescheduled the rally, but was too late to make any changes.
There were 20 racers that entered, some stalwarts could not join due to other long weekend commitments, giving us as organisers a cue that we need to be very choosy to pick dates that are not in conflict with other activities. The weather outlook look to be virtually pristine, with little wind, thus could not have wished for better.
With some arrivals on Monday, we had Mauritz carry out a number of test flights to establish a handicap speed, as there were a number of new entrants, who in fact had joined to be able to practice for the up and coming PTAR. The afternoon initial briefing started at 18h30, with Rob Jonkers who took to the stage and provided a briefing on what to expect for the next day in terms of the planned route, how many turnpoints, distance, departure and arrivals protocol, and a weather outlook. After this Jonty did his signature event promotion of handing out race numbers, where after the club caterer provided a nice dinner spread, before retiring for the evening.
Tuesday morning dawned with beautiful weather, the hot air balloons were up and about traversing the field taking advantage of the wind currents. The briefing was held at 08h00 am and was concluded at around 08h30, where everybody dispersed first for a group photo and then to park their aircraft and prepare for the scrutineers. The route for the day was intended to be a scenic one in a similar area as the previous Witbank event north of Loskop dam, although part of the route went closer to the eastern hills before returning to cross the 20/20 gravel runway.
With all the competitors off towards the northwest, the route had a mix of easy and challenging turnpoints, especially TP10 which was the last turn point before the home run – which by the way was the same last turn point used in the 2019 event. The finish was relatively close, only one competitor having got lost somewhat, one having great difficulty in keeping track, and three aircraft following each other having all mad the same mistake…. Will teach them not to follow the aircraft in front.
After all teams having returned and safe on the ground, the scoring team got to work to analyse the results. This time there were no major scoring issues, and the results were available for the prize giving at 2PM. The prizes are organised into 3 categories, Overall, Handicap, Accuracy, where teams that have featured in the top three in one category, don’t feature in the other categories, ensuring that all have a fair chance at winning a trophy. These scores are also added to the leader board in this manner. The following table shows the top placings.
The following are the individual handicap and accuracy results.
Many thanks to the Middelburg Aero Club for hosting this fantastic event, supporting with logistics and great meals available throughout the day, Nigel Musgrave as the Safety Officer, Dirk and Louna de Vos doing the scoring, Chester Chandler on handicapping, Marc Robinson with his team from Century Avionics for Avionic Scrutineering, Chareen Shillaw for Aircraft Scrutineering, Liz, Clarissa, Leonie, Louna for handing out competition papers to the crews, Mauritz for Test Flights and starting, Bernhard & Adrian as ground marshalls and starting, we for sure had a stronger crew as compared to Witbank earlier this year. Thanks also extended to Santjie White of the ARCC who always watches over us.
Also thanks to our sponsors, Aircraft Unlimited being our signature Speed Rally Brand Sponsor, Flightline Weekly for sponsoring the race numbers, and our team sponsors, Prompt Roofing, Fast Flame Laser cutting, Century Avionics, Beegle Micro trackers, JB Switchgear.
Our next Speed Rally event will be in Secunda on the 28th of August 2021
Click on a photo below to enlarge
Preparations for SAPFA Nationals Rally
As the final to be held on the 15th, 16th and 17th of April 2021 at Stellenbosch Flying Club are being put in place, it is time to reflect back on the Stellenbosch (practice) Rally that was held on Saturday 27 March 2012.
After some rain through the night, the skies in the Cape were perfect for flying. The day started nice and cool with little to no wind but this being the Cape… wind will always arrive when you need to make that perfect spot landing. Everyone was ready for the SAPFA Rally being held at the Stellenbosch Flying Club. Easily the flying club with the best views (and breakfast as well).
Pilots and navigators met up from early to top up the bodies with some coffee and a warm breakfast have a chat with fellow aviators and friends before the briefing that was to start at 9 am. Once the briefing started, the competitive side of pilots and navigators alike kicked in. Game on…
There was ample opportunity for those who had questions to ask them follow by the prepping for kicking off. Many had made notes during the briefing, clipboards came out, energy snacks and bag prepared, and even press tick to secure the smaller piece of paper that may be needed during the flight. Then the big moment… the locators were allocated and papers handed out. People couldn’t wait to get into the air and experience the beauty of the Cape. The route was to be a challenging one but also promised some good scenery.
With papers in hand, tanks topped up (humans and aircraft) and the day getting better and better the rally was about to start.
As the first batch of pilots took to the skies and getting to their targets, the normal Stellenbosch traffic and visitors were moving around. Some breakfast runs from Morningstar were made as well. As the day progressed and aircraft heading back, the wind started making an appearance. Getting stronger and stronger and I am pretty sure many pilots were hard at focus to stay as close as possible on target with the spot landing being the last major challenge.
The Cape wind just added another level of complexity to the already challenging route, next up… the landings. There was the odd bounce here and there but all in all good and some very great landings were made as pilots kept their cool and tackled the crosswind.
The second batch of pilots took to the air and by now they were fully aware of the wind. As the pilots went to hand in their locators and awaiting their results, the normal club visitors enjoyed the scenery with a cold beer and some lunch, children having fun, dads (even some moms) excited to show their young ones the aircraft… a very relaxed atmosphere while upstairs nervous pilot and navigators awaited their results. With the last pilots and navigators back at Stellenbosch Flying Club and their papers handed in, it was time to relax and enjoy a cold one.
Time for the announcing of the winners and where each team was ranked. Everyone was in agreement that the route was challenging (the route did have a name but there are children here, so we will just go with the route that shall not be named) but everyone was in the same boat. With the competition over, the social started and friends were friends again.
We all now look forward to the SAPFA National Rally Flying Championships held here in the Cape at Stellenbosch Flying Club.
I can only speak for myself but this was a most enjoyable day out. Even though the sanitizing and masks were in place with temperature checks, it was good to be out again. To experience the beauty of our country and back to the thing we love most… flying!
RAND AIRPORT CHALLENGE 30 JAN 2021
The 17th Rand Airport Challenge was scheduled to take place at Rand Airport on Saturday 30th Jan 2021. However, the weather gods were not playing ball this time, and with “Eloise” blanketing almost the entire country in clouds and rain, we had to revert to PLAN B.
With the 22nd World Rally Flying Championships postponed to November 2021, the pressure is on to train and select the best Air Rally Team to represent South Africa at this prestigious event. With most of the “old guard” still in place and planning to take part, the opportunity, however, exists to bring some new fresh blood into the South African Rally Flying Team. 
The sport of Rally Flying is not an easy sport. It requires an exceptionally strong “2-man” team of both Pilot and Navigator. Unlike most of the other Air Sporting disciplines which are flyable at competition level, as long as one member of the team is well trained, in Rally Flying a strong pilot without a strong navigator and vice versa is as good as having no team at all.
For this reason, Jonty Esser, who himself is a well-seasoned Protea Rally Flying Pilot (as well as a local aerobatic pilot) has been selected to coach the 2021 South African Flying Team to victory, as soon as they have been selected which should be post the National Championships in April 2021. Now for the official team to be selected, this team has to be sufficiently trained in order to fly to the required standard criteria as laid down by the world organisation.
The past decade (plus) of Fun Rally Programs, introduced by Frank Eckard and Mary de Klerk, and the more recent program of Speed Rallies introduced by Jonty Esser and Rob Jonkers, has produced a remarkably high standard of potential Protea Pilots and Navigators that now need to be put through the Rally Flying Grinder Training modules.
There was no better opportunity to start the 2021 training program than the cancelled Rand Airport Challenge on Saturday 30th Jan 2021. No less than 25 exceptionally keen potential Team members arrived for the “On the Ground” training Modules. The Pilots were herded off into a separate venue and were taught some intricacies of rally flying in terms of fine tuning their approaches and timing overturn points etc by Jonty. The navigators were put through their paces by 30-year rally veteran, Mary, who spent the best part of a 4 hour period unpacking the plotting procedures, tools required and methodologies with the teams. She was adequately assisted by the other Protea Rally veterans, Frank & Cally Eckard, Hans Schwebel, Ron Stirk, Rob Jonkers, Martin Meyer, and Sandi Goddard. It is interesting to note that even though the “old guard” have between them, thousands of hours of local, national and international experience, they still managed to find time to drive through to Rand in the rain in order to sharpen their own skills and assist with all the newbies. Hats off to you guys!
Also, in attendance was the Aviation Legend Chester Chandler who, in his eighties now, still dedicated his day to visit and monitor the training session with great interest. He also stayed for the SAPFA AGM which was held at 14h00 and chaired by none other than Rob Jonkers with his dedicated SAPFA Committee members. We all welcomed Ian and Taryn Myburgh as new members onto the committee.
Rally Flying is a well renowned international sport recognised by the FAI. To represent one’s country at an international event is a supreme achievement. I applaud everyone who is taking the sport seriously in order to up weight their own personal skills and achieve what many others would only dream to achieve. However, nothing comes easy – it all requires many hours of hard work and input in order to succeed. Training training training ……
Watch this space to monitor all the upcoming training sessions and who the final SOUTH AFRICAN RALLY FLYING TEAM to represent our beloved country and the World Championships this year will consist of.
SAPFA Rally Training Camp
SAPFA Rally Training Camp – Aerosud Premises 18 January 2020 –
by Rob Jonkers – Photos by Flippie van Emmenis
SAPFA held a very successful training event on Rally Navigation on Saturday 18th January as the first SAPFA event of the year. Building on the successful event held last year at the same time, we decided to hold another one, particularly that this year is the year where SAPFA hosts the World Rally Flying Championships in November in Stellenbosch. There were 30 participants for the day, including many of the current SAPFA Protea team members who were assisting the trainees and our media friends. The Aerosud canteen was again the venue of choice lending itself well to this size of training camp.
It is great to see the sport being supported so enthusiastically, and the willingness to learn these basic skills of map reading and planning. The Chairman of SAPFA opened the camp with a brief outline of the plans of SAPFA in terms of events for the year, that the Aero Club also holds its Centenary year resulting in a packed calendar for the year, and from that look at developing and exposing particularly the youth to recreational aviation.
The Participants – 30 in total
With that Mary de Klerk took charge and laid out the objectives of the day, by initially going through the theory of plotting, and then to practice on an actual plot. With this year of 2020 having a full event calendar, and the Nationals coming up in April in Stellenbosch, this training event would serve as an excellent platform to entice new members to the sport and to start training for the Internationals and obtain Protea Colours.
Mary first started off with having everybody introduce themselves, and what they each had as objectives for training, some were there as newbies interested in taking part in the sport, some having taken part previously indicated they needed some formal and expert training, and some others indicated they just wanted to delve more in depth than what a ppl course would give on the art of paper based navigation.
From there Mary outlined the theory on plotting procedures and described the tools of the trade. Then it was off to plotting an example course which had to be done from basic plotting principles of co-ordinates, bearings (which could be in either true or magnetic) and distances (either in nm of km). Each turning point then had to be found and identified and linked into legs, some of which could be arcs or follow map features.
The goal in getting to National level standard is to be able to plot in the aircraft with a papers time of around 30-40 minutes prior take-off, which means speed is of the essence in doing the plot, so that the navigator can assist with finding and identifying the ground photos.
The morning’s training ended off at around 10h30 am, and after a short break, everybody got organized on plotting the example route provided which was the 2019 Rand Airport Challenge, got the laminated transparent tool, which they had to cut out, and proceeded to plot each of the turn points making up the route up until Turn Point 4, and after lunch at around 12, continued to finish the plot to the Finish Point.
After the plot was done, Mary opened up Google Earth, and “flew” the route along the plot lines to show where the photos were, and what they would look like against the photo sheets that are provided. This then effectively ended the day’s training at around 2 PM.
Everybody left with some knowledge gained on plotting and techniques of planning & flying a rally, and it is hoped that many will come to the Rand Challenge on the 25th January and Nationals in April.
The Rally Plotting Class of 2019 – with Teacher Mary de Klerk
