Tag Archives: Middelburg
Aero Club Air Week Middelburg 2023
by Dian Townsend
The Aero Club Of South Africa once again hosted their Air Week at Middelburg Airfield from the 3rd to the 5th of March 2023. Although not quite the same size (or if we are really honest, quite far from the same size actually), Air Week presents an Oshkosh in South Africa feel.
The event delivered a great variety of action over the weekend. The fly-in, starting on the Friday already, carried on right through the rest of the weekend. Some aerobatics displays from the likes of the Flying Lions Aerobatic Team and Goodyear Eagles were flown to perfection as per usual, a glider launch demo made for some really interesting viewing, and a final hot air balloon flight after dinner on the Saturday night showcased the lesser seen part of flight.
For attendees who opted to spend the weekend, camping options were available with breakfast in the mornings and a delicious braai each night. Night festivities on the Saturday included a quiz hosted by David from PilotInsure, that tested the very limits of years of accumulated aviation knowledge.
All in all the event was very well attended, with pilots coming and going throughout the whole weekend, and in a post COVID-19 world, events like these are a great example of how beautifully our aviation community has once again risen from the ashes and is now again flourishing.
With the benchmark now well and truly set, we look forward to seeing what the rest of the year’s aviation events have in store!
Please browse through our gallery!
The Middelburg Speed Navigation Rally – 26th June 2022
by Rob Jonkers
This is the 2nd Speed Rally in Season 4 for 2022, which has been fraught with challenges to get going, what with a venue change, skyrocketing fuel price and unseasonal weather. This is the 6th SAPFA event in as many months that has been affected by weather, seems that this year is jinxed in some way, what with following on of the two Covid years as well. So, now it seems a common term that everybody has now heard of “Cut off low” again made its appearance over SA, exactly a month later where the PTAR was also disrupted.
Strange that in mid winter having significant summer type rainfall in June. The initial weather prediction earlier in the week only showed cloudy conditions for Wednesday and Thursday, and as the week started to unfold, did the prediction see poorer conditions for Friday and Saturday, with all indictions that there would still be good enough conditions. Friday saw many arrivals after midday atter the morning low cloud had lifted, and test flights could be carried out of 5 new aircraft entries, four being new types not having flown in Speed Rallies before, an Ercoupe, a Maule, a Pioneer 300 and a Sequoia Falco.
The first Friday afternoon briefing was done at 6 PM, with a weather prognosis not very favourable but still showed promise of a window of clear enough weather in the early afternoon – shown on the spot graph for the local area.
Saturday morning dawned with rain, which although drying up a short while later with the cloud base rising, only two of the remaining competitors flew in, with five others still stuck at their fields. After holding three weather briefings at 9, 10 & 11 am, the event was scrubbed with an agreement to reconvene to Sunday where the weather was predicted to be clear and pristine. With everybody securing an additional night stay over, most of the teams and officials found their way to Ginelli’s for an excellent dinner and company, with a good fly-off finish before retiring for some good sleep…..
Sunday morning proved to start off in pristine cloudless and windless conditions, but icy cold with a high pressure system now dominating over the Highveld. However as the early morning unfolded the wind started picking up from the south east.
After having 16 entries, the field was reduced to 11, 5 having had to withdraw not being available for the Sunday. After an 8h30 briefing by Iaan Myburgh, we got everybody ready for a 10h30 first take-off, with scrutineering actions and releasing papers 25 minutes prior take-off. Having had to change the take-off runway to 14 due to the 10+ kt wind, groups of 3 aircraft had to backtrack the runway to get into position. This worked out well, everybody got off onto their route, with the exception of Race 6 ZS-FMH who developed a flat tyre.
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, two had got significantly lost. The scores were released fairly quickly, and prize giving could be held at 13h15 before everybody would pack up for home.
For the Navigation Accuracy category, third place went to Lex and Christo Erasmus in their first time flight of their Ercoupe ZS-VCE, in 2nd place Apie Kotzee and Hendrik Loots in their Robinson R66 ZS-HRS, and in 1st place Quintin Kruger & Johan Whiteman in their Cherokee 235 ZS-FVV.
For the Handicap/Speed category, third place went to Lex and Christo Erasmus in their Ercoupe ZS-VCE, in 2nd place Gareth Pollock & Marcus Nouwens in the Maule ZS-MNW, and in 1st place Quintin Kruger & Johan Whiteman in their Cherokee 235 ZS-FVV.
Overall Winners in third place went to Gareth Pollock & Marcus Nouwens in the Maule ZS-MNW, in 2nd place Lex and Christo Erasmus in their Ercoupe ZS-VCE, and in 1st place Quintin Kruger & Johan Whiteman in their Cherokee 235 ZS-FVV.
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, Iaan Myburgh doing the scoring, as well as taking up the Deputy Event Director role, Marc Robinson with his team from Century Avionics for technical scrutineering, Chareen Atherton & Anthea Cronin for aircraft scrutineering, and Moira Wakeley for handling the Papers. Race Master David le Roux did some double duty also being the race starter, and arranged for a number of live video pod casts.
Also thanks to our headline sponsors Holborn Assets, Pilot Insure, Flying Eyes and our sponsored teams, Prompt Roofing, Beagle Tracking, Gem Air and Mnandi Signs.
Our next Speed Rally event will be in Groblersdal on the 27th August 2022.
Aero Club Air Week- Middelburg 2022
The Aero Club Airweek held from Friday 22 nd to Sunday 24 th April is an event showcasing all of
General & Recreational Aviation as an annual event, which in recent years has been hosted by the
Middelburg Aero Club where there are excellent facilities and open airspace. In 2021 it was the
Centenary Year + 1 (as 2020 was cancelled – literally….), where 2021 with Airweek being one of the
first events post Covid, it became a big attraction for attendance with around 150 aircraft of various
types participating.
This year and also in conjunction with the EAA Convention, it was more subdued
in terms of attendance given variability of weather outlook (although weather was excellent through
the whole weekend) as well as economics coming in to play with fuel now hitting R30/l.
In any event, those that attended saw activities as a real gem, from no less than 10 aviation related
exhibitors, Flying Lions & Goodyear Eagles displays, Dawn Balloon flights to a EAA Navex hosted by
SAPFA. There were around 100 aircraft in attendance from Friday through to Sunday, with many
campers on the well prepared lawn adjacent the club.
As is the tradition at Airweek, the Saturday night dinner was also the awards evening, with Aero Club
handing out some fun awards, these being:
Most Enthusiastic Team Award – The Bateleurs who had prime spot at the event
Bob the Builder Award (Best Homebuilt) – Richard & Irene Lovett – RV14 – ZU-ITF
Fairy Award (Best Light Sport Aircraft) – Lance Holland – Cheetah – ZU-DKI
The old and Beautiful Award (Best Vintage Aircraft) – Patrick Watson – Cessna 140 – ZU-ECP
The Powdered Pampered Bum Award (Best Warbird) – Steve George – Navion – ZS-WUK
Piping Hot Award (Hottest Air Balloon) – Mario Febbrario – ZS-HOK
Many thanks go to our sponsors Vektor Aviation & Sport Plane Builders, support we had from our
exhibitors, the photographers & journalists, the Middelburg Aero Club, without all these entities we
would not have been able to hold the event.
The Aero Club is looking at reinforcing this event as the GA & RA annual showcase, and will be
working again with Middelburg to host again in 2023 where we will be looking at expanding the
activities on a wider front.
Thanks to Pieter Cronje for the beautiful pictures!
2019 Airshow Aircraft and Teams
Every year we see Airshows across Southern Africa. Some teams we see at every show and others we don’t see that often. Aircraft we get L29 & 39’s to Gripen and Cheetah, From Harvard’s and Pitts Specials to Little Annie. The Military aircraft is always a winner at any airshow.
Every 2nd Year with AAD, we all hold thumbs and our breath in hope for some international aircraft, however due to South Africa being on the most southern tip of Africa the cost to bring aircraft to SA is very costly and not always feasible. We are hoping for something spectacular in 2019, however our, Aviation Central’s hope is on 2020.
2020 is a big year for Aviation in South Africa. The Aero Club of South Africa and South African Air force will be turning 100 years old. At this stage only the Aero club indicated interest in Centenary celebrations and planning is already in progress. We will Keep you updated on any Centenary celebration planning!
2021 Swartkop AFB will be 100 years old. Lets hope 2021 we will see a BIG Swartkop / SAAF Museum airshow.
The list below contains Aircraft and Teams listed per Airshow for 2019. We will be running a list for every year from as from 2018!
Popular Display teams, Puma Energy Flying Lions, The Cows Aerobatic team, GoodYear Eagles Aerobatic team, The Silver Falcons Aerobatic Team and the High Energy Team Xtreme are some of the popular display teams on our Airshow circuit
Southern Africa also has some Farther’s and Son’s flying in Airshows, Larry and Jason Beamish, Mark and Jon-Marc, Scully and Ellis Levin, Derick and Nigel Hopkins.
Also see our Airshows and other Aviation Events Calendar
If you feel we missed any Airshow, Team, Pilot or Aircraft, please let us know, Flippie@aviationcentral.co.za or Jarryd@aviationcentral.co.za
Important Notice:
We will only add Aircraft as we get conformation to the buildup of an show, this the listing my not be complete when its added prior to show date! Where Aircraft is added prior to an Event, does not guarantee that all aircraft is added nor that all Added aircraft will be flying!
Plz Browse Advertisement(s) below to help keep us going!
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This is a list of all Airshows in Southern Africa for the Year 2019, Middelburg, Stellenbosch, Lowveld, Matsieng, Newcastle, Mozambique, Klerksdorp, Bethlehem, Swartkop, Swaziland, Ladysmith, ICAD 2019
Teams & Aircraft
Middelburg Speed Rally 2019
The Pilot Insure Middelburg Navigation Speed Rally – 9 March 2019 by Rob Jonkers
The South African Power Flying Association held a very successful Speed Rally at the Aero Club Airweek 2019 at Middelburg. Originally scheduled as an Adventure Rally as was held in 2018, SAPFA decided to change this to a Speed Rally given the popularity of the event, with this one being the 4th in the series.
Within days of the announcement, the first 28 places were snapped up by competitors having taken part in the previous events, not leaving any room for new entrants, and it was decided to extend the field from the original maximum of 30 to 35, with an opportunity for the local Middelburg club members to take part. This event is one that is flown at full speed under handicap conditions, the course is around 120 nm long, has 11 or so turning points, with each turning point identified with a correct photograph.
Planning got underway in February to prepare the route, keeping in mind that with the Airweek as an event and an Airshow to coordinate with, in terms of take-off and landing slots of other arrivals and departures made the details challenging to plan. The route was kept to the north and east of the airfield, as most inbound and outbound traffic would be from the west.
Friday saw a fairly full day of test flights with some repeat test flights to reconfirm handicaps, with conditions mostly favourable although the cloud base was low in the morning. After the Safety Aviator Presentations which started just after 2 pm, Mary de Klerk had arranged to hold a training session on how to fly a Speed Rally, which was very well attended, and included a practical map preparation session on an example map, sharing the tips and tricks of how to follow the map features and timing points.
Thereafter at 6h30, Jonty Esser as the 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 with expected weather conditions, which looked as if it would be good.
Then all the competitors were treated to a briefing on Steroids on Friday night with the Speed Rally Race Master Jonty Esser having set up a show for the teams, with a real life lights, camera, action sequence, where each team were introduced with their team theme song, handed their race numbers. Jonty also introduced the teams to the Speed Rally website where a Speed Rally ranking system was created, with team profiles and their leaderboard position.
Briefing on Steroids – race numbers being handed out
The evening ended with a braai hosted by the Middelburg Aero Club, before retiring for the night, some were camping under the wing or in Neil Bowden’s tent area. Saturday morning saw low cloud and some fog, although it started to lift and clear fairly soon, giving a go ahead to start the rally.
The briefing started at 8h30, which was a shortened version just to cover the basics of the route, radio procedures and weather. With the briefing over, teams prepared their aircraft, with marshals assisting in parking sequence, 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, and although no onboard systems were disabled, it relied on an honour code to not utilise onboard GPS as a Navigation aid, however the course is designed as such that GPS would be of minimal benefit.
The Rally line up getting ready to start
The intent is that everybody uses the basic skills of navigation plotting and flying, and operate as a team in terms of cockpit workload, and with the course layout with short legs it for sure makes the crew resource work sharing all the more important. The idea would be that each crew would receive a pre-plotted map already complete with the route, turning points, headings, altitudes, where the map would not have any lat/long or grid references. This would be provided 20 minutes prior take-off to allow route orientation and the plotting of minute markers.
The skopgat team of Von Hamman & Ron Stirk in their C150 ZS-IWD
In this format, there are two objectives, fly against a pre-determined handicap speed for each aircraft, and fly the shortest route around the course which would consist of a minimum of 10 turning points, and any aircraft would be able to compete, from slower LSA aircraft to the fast turbo singles or twins. The idea would be to test the speed capability and navigation skills of each crew against each other, where the most accurate flying and turn performance management would win the rally.
Father & Sone team of Hendrik & Jandre Loots
Scrutineers Chareen, Lizelle, Charlene, Jean, Conrad, Frans and David were on hand to seal up all portable GPS capable devices, and also handing out papers at the allotted time, and also checking the fuel tanks were full. To assist the teams at getting their take-off roll accurate, a starting colour panel was used, which was set up next to the start line on the runway by Chief Marshal Hans Potgieter and Mark Clulow, which would release them at their allotted time slot. Each team then received their envelopes with their loggers at their 20 minutes prior take-off time, and then taxi to the starting line within 10 minutes of take-off time. 1st take-off was at 09h55 for the slowest aircraft and last take-off at 10h50, with planned arrival at 11h30, the fast Cirrus ZS-ACA only needing 40 minutes to complete the course.
Scrutineering the team of Piet Meyer & Adrienne Visser in their Jabiru ZU-DUU
With all the competitors off towards the north, the route had a mix of easy and challenging turnpoints to contend with to give competitors a chance to always be aware of where they were, but some turnpoints were a challenge find, especially if the colour of the surrounding ground features had changes since the photos were taken. Although Turnpoint 2 was essentially along the road going past the airfield, it was still difficult to find apparently given how many were searching for it. Quite a few competitors cut the corners on turnpoints including Phil & Mary who during her training session warned everybody to “go round the TP”.
Chief Marshall Hans Potgieter at the Starting Point
After all teams having returned and safe on the ground, the scoring team got to work to analyse the results, and with the new loggers were able to complete the scores by 1 pm, and everybody were given their score sheets. Prize giving would only be in the evening so the teams and officials could enjoy the Airshow for the afternoon.
With everybody settling in for the VIP dinner hosted by the Middelburg Aero Club, and opening speeches and starters enjoyed by the guests, the prize giving was coordinated by Jonty Esser acting as the MC for this time slot, with firstly aircraft judging certificates handed out by EAA’s Sean Cronin, and thereafter a showing of a number of interesting flight tracks given by Rob Jonkers, which for this rally turned out overall to be very good, with only one competitor having had some navigation trouble, and for sure the overall standard is improving, with all aircraft over the line within 7 minutes. As the teams were visible approaching the field, first in view was Jonty Esser in the slowest aircraft a Foxbat being chased down by Phil Wakeley in a C210, who crossed the line within 8 seconds of each other. Some other interesting facts were that the full field also completed the course with an average of 7 nm overflown and the best performance against handicap time was 25 seconds.
After this the Speed Rally promo video was shown, and then the prize giving, which was hosted by Frans Smit from Pilot Insure who was this Speed Rally’s main sponsor. First a Hard Luck certificate was handed out to Jaco Goosen whose C182 fell into a subterranean aardvark tunnel and damaged the horizontal stabilizer, then Jonty handed over the Club Trophy to Richardt Lovett and the Middelburg team.
The overall winners in the best handicap speed were the team of Jonty Esser and Jonathan Esser in a Foxbat ZU-DYE, in second place was Arthur de Kock and Freddie van Rooyen in their Jabiru J430 ZU-MEL, and in third place Hendrik Loots and Jandre Loots in their Sling 2 ZU-IHK. The first fourteen placings were the only crews who managed a clean penalty free round.
The winners in the accuracy category were the team of David Ross and James Braid in their Sling 2 ZU-JAR, in second place was Johan van Eeden and Cor Esterhuizen in their RV7 ZU-IHH, and in third place the skopgat team of Ron Stirk and Von Hamman in their C150 ZS-IWD.
Many thanks to the Middelburg Aero Club for hosting this fantastic event, the SAPFA team of Hans Potgieter with the ground marshals, Nigel Musgrave as the Safety Officer, Dirk and Louna de Vos and Mark Clulow doing the scoring with our handicapping guru Chester Chandler, Chareen Shillaw, Lizelle Kruger handing out competition papers to the crews, Jonty & Lizelle for putting together an awesome Friday evening launch event. Also thanks to Mary de Klerk for the time made available to do the training course held on Friday, it for sure helped the teams to gain an understanding of what to expect.
Also to the sponsors Pilot Insure, who was the main sponsor of the event, Flightline Weekly for sponsoring the race numbers, also to Pilot’s Post for sponsoring the team of Phil Wakeley and Mary de Klerk, and provided three key reasons for this, the first one being that the Speed Rally as a brand is seen as the future of competitive flying, second being that the Speed Rally brand will add value to our brand, third being that they believe that Phil and Mary are the perfect ambassadors for Pilot’s Post and they will carry our flag high.
The next speed rally is in Bethlehem on the 8th June 2019
The winning track – ZU-DYE
Having a bad day, but not bad considering the good recovery – ZU-LAX
