A typical summer morning at Rand Airport where most pilots like to take to the skies over Johannesburg and enjoy the beautfual scenary
around the Gauteng Province.

This past weekend we attended the first fun Rally for the year and no better place to have it at a busy airport,with the Harvard Cafe
along side the terminal building, pilots and navigators stocked up on a filling breakfast and coffee, they made their way to the airports terminal building for a sharp briefing at 8.30am.A quick photo of every participant in front of what could be a oasis of palm trees shading Rand Airport Tower!

Once the briefing was over the team memebers made their way to their aircraft making sure all routes and refrences marked out so that the best man or women wins.

The SAPFA Committee, particularly Rob Jonkers and Mary de Klerk, who organised a very thorough workshop recently on Rally Flying,  saw their efforts bear fruit at the annual Rand Airport Challenge, when a record 8 teams took part in the Intermediate form of the sport.  In previous years most participants preferred to stick to the simplest and easiest form which is Fun Rally, but this year pilots and navigators were encouraged to enter the more difficult category.  The reason for this, is to elevate their skills levels, so that they can participate at national level, thereby building up a new breed of South African champion rally pilots and navigators.

The navigators and pilots in the Intermediate category had one hour to plot the entire route, and had to do so in the cockpit, which was a first for most of them.  They also had far more photo targets to identify, and these were mixed up instead of being sequential and only one per leg. The pilots had only a 5 second window to get through each turn-point, instead of 15 seconds  for Fun.

Organisers Frank and Cally Eckard gave them the task of flying an arc, which is a curved track between two turn-points, and a follow-the-feature, where they have to fly along a road, river or railway line.  Every pilot flew the arc perfectly, and really enjoyed the challenge.

The route took them south from Rand Airport, around Suikerbosrand to Heidelberg, then down to two turnpoints on the banks of the Vaal Dam, and back again near Vereeniging to the Finish Point at Klipriviersberg Nature Reserve.

Rand Airport, who sponsor the Rand Airport Challenge Trophy, also waived landing fees on the days for the participants.  The trophy was won by the defending team of Shane Brits and Karen Stroud, who have been putting a lot of effort into their sport.  

The full results are:

The Fun Rally section:

Pilot	Navigator	Points
1	RC Shillaw	CJ Shillaw	319
2	Thys van der Merwe	Gerda	870
3	Kim Pratley	Andrew Pratley	1231
4	Piet Meyer	Pieter Kriel	1410

The Intermediate Section:

Pilot	Navigator	Points
1	Shane Britz	Karen Stroud	750
2	Jonty Esser	Jonathan Esser	967
3	Adrian Pilling	Adam Pilling	982
4	Don Lucas	Andre Kluyts	1488
5	Leon Bouttell	Karyn Purchase	1955
6	Mark Clulow	Renee Clulow	2170

Unfortunately the two teams consisting of Phil Wakely and Mary de Klerk, and Jakes Jacobs and Franz Smit did not complete the course due to mechanical problems.  

The Unlimited Section:

Pilot	Navigator	Points
1	Rob Jonkers	Martin Meyer	409
2	Hans Schwebel	Ron Stirk	766
3	Antony Russell	Pamela Russell	1344

Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the challenge of this sport, and are all very motivated to take part in the next events:

• 1-2 Feb – Cape Speed Rally, Morning Star
• 16 Feb – Training Day in Brits, with the focus on the role of the pilot, and cockpit-management
• 23 March – Virginia Rally, Durban (with a training course on 22 March)
• 4 – 6 April – Rally Nationals, Stellenbosch

Please enter online at http://Sapfa.org.za