Tag Archives: SAPFA

The Holborn Assets Groblersdal Speed Navigation Rally – 20 August 2022

by Rob Jonkers

This is the 3rd Speed Rally in Season 4 for 2022, which after the weather challenges of the first three in this season turned out with pristine conditions on Saturday morning, albeit very windy later on, giving some good challenging flying conditions to contend with.

For this event the organisers looked at changing the format slightly, where instead of a Friday arrivals with
test flights and an evening briefing with dinner for an early start on Saturday changed to a Saturday &
Sunday event with competitors arriving early Saturday and a mid-morning briefing. As many of the competitor aircraft have previous test flown handicaps or event history, the number of test flights would only be limited to new entrants which could be done in the early morning prior the briefing. The idea was that first take-off would take place around midday with a finish around 2 PM, where after results would be available in the late afternoon with a prize giving and dinner for the Saturday night. This would allow a good opportunity to network and engage with friends and the local club community.

The Groblersdal Club went to great lengths to make the event successful, and also combined the Speed
Rally with a fly in, and prepared an excellent surface taxi-way in this last week to accommodate operation to both ends of the runway. Also some more firsts for the Speed Rally series, previous Race Director Rob
Jonkers passed the baton fully on to Iaan Myburgh to prepare and run the event together with David le Roux as the Race Master, and took the opportunity to fly a race type event for the very first time, prior to this either having been in the back office, route planning and directing since 2016. It was great to be taking a back seat and be on the other side of the fence….

And given this, can now report first hand the experience of flying at speed. SAPFA Chair Leon Bouttell
offered to fly the event in his Sportstar as a late entry, and after some discussion decided fly with him
navigating given my navigation skills being more rusty. At papers time I collected the envelope and had to take a brisk walk to get to the aircraft parked some 200 m away, strap in while Leon started plotting,
essentially I got a map with the route highlighted and he went to prepare the 2 nd map with minute markers to allow us to assess progress along the route.

This was concluded prior start-up and after taxi to the holding position we still had some 5 minutes to go
through the route and discuss altitudes to fly at. Barreling down runway 05 we first had to pick up speed in ground effect and have positive rate of climb prior the first turn after the end of the runway which was a steep left at almost 180 deg (the preferred take-off direction was actually Rwy 23 but changed due to wind conditions favouring 05 and it being downhill).

Not having flown the Sportstar for some time had to get used to the very light controls (compared to a C182), so the first leg was a little skittish in heading and it took most of that leg to get oriented, which resulted in a turn-point miss on turn-point 1, which most competitors found difficult to find. After that we settled down and could get on with finding the next turn-points, checking track position relative to the far field and close in features.

Around half way we sighted the Ercoupe in front of us, and proceeded to haul them in, but not long after that the Cessna 150 with Ron & Von overtook us, just to see them almost miss turn-point 8 having to jinx left and then right to get around the turn-point, this brought them closer to us again before disappearing into the distance. For sure it remains important to not lose energy around turns. Thereafter we overtook first timers Benjamin & Clinton in their Bushcat coming into the home straight, and I started wondering where were the faster aircraft behind us, and then no less than 15 seconds from the finish line the Comanche ZS-NXG, the 235 ZS-FVV and the C210 ZS-CNY came zooming past as if we were standing still, at least it looked like we must have arrived overhead in 5th place.

The wind for sure had an effect on us all, with much turbulence, and even though staying between 3500 & 4000ft, I let the aircraft drift up with thermal / wave lift where it happened, and bled off altitude to pick up speed taking advantage on the conditions. All in all great to fly one of these, and for sure there are strategies to follow, navigation accuracy to be maintained, energy management around turn-points, altitude management, it is not for sure not just a full throttle burn around a track, each element an important ingredient in achieving leader board positions as seconds count, where an average of an hour’s flight is involved.

After everybody was safe on the ground, Iaan and Tarryn got to work with scoring, and concluded this by 4PM, and then awaited the prize-giving at 6PM hosted by David le Roux. A number of competitors were not able to stay over, thus prize giving had a number of winners not being present.

For the Navigation Accuracy category, third place went to Ron Stirk and Von Hamman in their Cessna 150
ZS-NBT, in 2 nd place Willem Kruger & Cris Moolman as first timers in their Alouette 2 ZU-RAH , and in 1 st place Stefan Lombard & Martiens Marais in their Piper Comanche ZS-NXG.

For the Handicap/Speed category, third place went to Phil Wakeley & Mary de Klerk in their C210 ZS-CNY, in 2nd place Stefan Lombard & Martiens Marais in their Piper Comanche ZS-NXG, and in 1 st place Quintin Kruger & Johan Whiteman in their Cherokee 235 ZS-FVV.

Overall Winners in third place went to Phil Wakeley & Mary de Klerk in their C210 ZS-CNY, in 2 nd place
Quintin Kruger & Johan Whiteman in their Cherokee 235 ZS-FVV, and in 1 st place Stefan Lombard &
Martiens Marais in their Piper Comanche ZS-NXG.

Many thanks to the Groblersdal Flying Club for hosting this fantastic event, supporting with logistics and great meals available throughout the day, Iaan Myburgh as Race Director, Nigel Musgrave as the Safety Officer, Shane with his team from Century Avionics for technical scrutineering, David le Roux as Race Master, and all the SAPFA and Grobersdal Club members who supported marshalling and administration.

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 at Springs on the 30th September 2022, which will be the Season 4 finale, with a gala dinner to round it off.

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.

Springs Season Finale Speed Navigation Rally – 28 Nov 2020

By Rob Jonkers

The South African Power Flying Association (SAPFA) together with our main sponsor Aircraft Unlimited organised the 2020 Season finale Speed Navigation Rally on Saturday 28th November 2020. Although strictly not planned to have been the end of the 2 nd Season, 2020 being a year what it is, with reduced events, we decided to review the events and shorten the 6 per Season to 4, so Season 2 started and ended at Springs, so that Season 3 would start and end in 2021. For the overall season scoring the best
of 3 events would count towards the Season results.

As the event has evolved, changes have been brought into play, all with the participation of the organisers and competitors, and for this season the overall distance was reduced to 138 nm (from 150 nm), a
handicap overspeed penalty was instituted and allowance to fly with a GPS track-made-good magnetic heading reference. For this final Season 2 event, 32 entries were received. Springs 2019 was also the debut of the Grand-Prix circuit, and was also planned this year, a format that has also evolved over the last four GPs.

The route was mostly to the east and south of the airfield, with a bit more of a scenic route than previous events going close to the vaal dam. The weather on Friday started out real well, the forecast giving late
afternoon thundershowers which were lurking towards the west. Test flights commenced with some new entries requiring test flights and some old entries wanting to retest to re-confirm their handicaps. The test
flights were done by Mark Clulow and Sean Cronin, and had to be curtailed after 3PM as the weather deteriorated.

Thereafter at 18h30, Jonty Esser as the MC 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 turn points, distance, departure and arrivals protocol, and also how the scoring system worked in terms of penalties as well as the expected weather conditions, which looked like overcast to start with lifting after 9 am and 10+ kts of gusty northerly winds.

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 event and team sponsors. For this event,
an event sponsor was secured as Aircraft Unlimited, an AMO based at Rand Airport and Jonty introduced the new owner Andrew Lester and his team. They would also provide AMO support for aircraft during the
event. Thereafter everybody was treated to a buffet meal before retiring for the evening to the music of one of the competitors Leon Joubert and his band re-living the 70s real music era.

Saturday morning dawned with windy and low overcast cloud conditions, with the decision to start the briefing an hour later at 9 am, and the start to be an hour and a half later at 11h30 for an over the field
arrival at 1 PM. Once the shortened briefing was over, everybody prepared their aircraft and got them sorted into the parking bays. 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.

Scrutineers Lizelle, Louna, Bernhardt and Adrian were on hand to seal up all portable GPS capable devices, handing out papers at the allotted time, and also checking the fuel tanks were full. Starters Mark
Clulow and Sean Cronin set up at the starting line adjacent the threshold of Runway 03, 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 11h30 for the slowest aircraft and last take-off at 12h100, with planned arrival at 1 PM.

With all the competitors off towards the east, the route had a mix of easy and challenging turn points, this time some river crossing also in the mix, and a little more scenic than previous Springs events. In general
the competitors found the course easy enough this time round, with the photographs now in larger format to identify the ground features more prominently, which can be seen in the results where many had a clear
round in their tracks. At just before 1PM, 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 3 PM. A Season ending gala prize-giving evening was arranged, which turned out real
great as most of the teams stayed over or got dressed in their finest black tie. The evening got under way at around 6 with starter platters and then at 7 with Rob Jonkers showing everybody’s tracks – from the
most accurate to the most creative.

Thereafter Jonty had Andrew from Aircraft Unlimited and Rob Jonkers hand out certificates to each of the teams. Prize-giving got underway with three trophies going to best husband and wife team – Eric and Antoinette Addison, best Father and Son team – Apie & Frederik Kotzee and best school entry – Legend Sky from Rhino Park. The most creative track trophy went to the first time Chipmunk team of Grant Timms and Duncan Ritchie.

The GP race winners were Dane Laing in an RV4, Johan van Eeden & Cor Esterhuisen in an RV7 in 2 nd place, Leon Joubert in a Lancair in 3rd place.

Then followed the Springs event results in navigation accuracy, handicap and overall. Then as this was the end of the 2nd season the Season results and winners in each of the categories were also announced.
The final results for all the teams for Springs and the Season will be on the Speed Rally website.

Jonty then thanked all the officials who put in the effort to make the Speed rally what it has become, Adrian Cronje as the Chief Marshall, Nigel Musgrave as the Safety Officer, Dirk de Vos doing the scoring,
Mark Clulow & Sean Cronin doing test flights and starting, Marc & Shane for Century Avionics for Scrutineering, Lizelle Kruger, Louna de Vos, Bernhard Jansen handing out competition papers to the crews as well as Scrutineering (we missed Chareen Shillaw who could not join this time round) , Jonty & Lizelle & Sandy for putting together an awesome Friday evening launch event, and Gala Dinner on Saturday, the ATNS team for managing the ATC for the weekend, and Santjie White for being everybody’s Guardian angel. Thanks also to the East Rand Flying Club for the excellent airfield facilities.

Also to the sponsors Aircraft Unlimited, who was the main sponsor of the event, Flightline Weekly for sponsoring the race numbers, team sponsors JB Electrical – Leon Bouttell and Martin Meyer, Fast Flame
Laser Cutting – Hendrik & Jandre Loots, Beegle Micro Trackers – Quintin Kruger and Johan Whiteman, Prompt Roofing – Leon Joubert and Sandi Goddard.

Our next Speed Rally event will be in Witbank in the 6th of February 2021.

Please view our gallery below

The SAPFA Secunda Speed Rally – 12 September 2020

by Rob Jonkers

This year we have returned again to the birth place of the Speed Rally, being the 3 rd time this event has been held here, and appropriate that our Speed Rally event during these unprecedented times has come
back to its roots, with 8 months having passed from the last one held in Witbank. Although this would have been the season finale, SAPFA had decided to extend this 2nd season up to the end of the year to also
include Springs which will be held on the 28th November, this will then at least have had 2020 with 3 events, then we can start afresh with a new season in 2021.

Once after lockdown level 3 we were granted the means to hold events, planning started for Secunda, with competitors having snapped up the open spots of 23 teams within days, given the popularity of this
event. At least under Level 2 Covid guidelines, overnighting could also be done, with arrivals and test flights on Friday the 11th , as well as the extended briefing on steroids with the race number handouts.

Our host club with Chairman Johan van Niekerk went all out to support the event, making arrangements for food on site, and contacts for accommodation, and the use of club facilities. Arrivals started coming in
from just before midday with flight tests commencing in good conditions under the guidance of Mark Clulow and Sean Cronin, the wind however started to pick up with gusty conditions, which at least settled
down in the late afternoon.

Thereafter at 18h30, Jonty Esser as the MC 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 turn-points, distance,
departure and arrivals protocol, and also how the scoring system would world work and the expected weather conditions.

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 event and team sponsors, which has
unfortunately reduced over this last period, but was great to see that some sponsors were able to maintain their support for 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 08h30, which was a shortened version just to cover the basics of the route, radio procedures and weather, which turned out to be pristine conditions with very little wind.
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, turn-point 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.

Scrutineers Chareen, Lizelle and Sean were on hand to seal up all portable GPS capable devices,handing out papers at the allotted time, and also checking the fuel tanks were full. Chief Marshall Adrian
Cronje and Starter Mark Clulow 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. 1 st take-off was at 10h10 for the slowest aircraft and last take-off at 10h40, with planned arrival at 11h30.

With all the competitors off towards the north west, the route had a mix of easy and challenging turn points. In general the competitors found the course easy enough this time round, with the photographs now in
larger format to identify the ground features more prominently, which can be seen in the results where many had a clear round in their tracks. At just before 11h30, 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 13:30, with prize giving at 14:00. MC Jonty Esser thanked everybody in the Speed Rally series for their contributions, this was followed by Rob Jonkers showing some interesting tracks for the day.

Thereafter trophies were handed out to firstly the host club for hosting the event, their club house now sporting 3 of these trophies, the most interesting track flown which went to Hilton Wolff and Rob Osner
and the best crew spirit going to Lourence Matthee and Christo Erasmus.

The winners in the handicap category were father and son Hendrik & Jandre Loots in their Sling ZU-IHK, in second place Eugene van Staden & Manaf Mubarak in their Sling ZU-IBH and in third place Leon Joubert & Sandi Goddard in their Lancair ZU-LNC. The first thirteen placings were the only crews who managed a clean penalty free round.

The winners in the accuracy category were again father and son Hendrik & Jandre Loots in their Sling ZU-IHK, in second place also father and son Johan Whiteman & Quintin Kruger in their Cherokee 235 ZS-FVV, and in third place Phil Wakeley & Mary de Klerk in their C210 ZS-CNY.

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, Dirk de Vos doing the scoring, Mark Clulow & Sean Cronin doing test flights and starting, Marc & Shane for Century Avionics for Scrutineering, Chareen Shillaw, Lizelle Kruger handing out competition papers to the crews as well as Scrutineering, Jonty & Lizelle & Sandy for putting together an awesome Friday evening launch event, and the ATNS team for managing the ATC for the weekend.

The 2020 Brakpan Airport Navigation Rally

With the National Rally Flying Championships only two weeks away, most of the existing Protea  rally team members took part in the Class 1, or “Open” category of the sport at Brakpan Airport.  It was also encouraging to see that after all the training sessions held by Mary de Klerk, Rob Jonkers and Jonty Esser, many of the previous “Fun Rallyers” stepped up to Class 1 as well.  

Disappointingly, few of the local Brakpan pilots supported this event, even though one of the training sessions was held at the club recently.  Hopefully more of them will be inspired to put their flying and navigational skills to the tests, especially as this sport improves general flying safety.  


Organisers Frank and Cally Eckard kept the route fairly simple, so as not to discourage the first-timers.  They all managed to complete the task sheet quite easily, except for one navigator who plotted the Start point from the wrong Brakpan Airport, which found his pilot heading off to start at the Finish point, and was surprised to find another aircraft flying directly towards him.    


ZU-DUU

The  “follow-the-feature” (a railway line) was easily managed by most of the teams, except for one who followed the wrong railway line.  Frank did not include arcs in the route, as these require more skills, and will be incorporated into the next event.  

The weather cleared in time for the scheduled take-off, and the winds were light, with just a very slight cross-wind over the run-way.  It was decided to judge the landings after the rally, and the results showed that a lot of practise is required before the National Champs.   For the first time in a SAPFA event, a helicopter set the record by winning the landing stage of the rally. 

One of the tracks of the participating aircraft!

Apart from the Robbie 66, another aircraft of interest was the Mushak, which is featured in the latest Pilot’s Post. 

The route took them to a Start Point near Ergo Slimes Dam, then South towards Heidelberg, to a point along the N3, then East towards Leandra, then back North along the railway line to Delmas, and home via Selcourt.  

Although the results were far from what is required from a National standard, the selectors trust that the skills the entrants will pick up at Nationals will enable them to put together five “A” team and five “B” team partnerships to give SA the best chance of a good team result.

The full results are:

Landing Competition:


PilotNavigatorAircraftScore
1Apie KotzeFrederick KotzeR 660
2Andre KluytzDon LucasC 17210
3Antony RussellPamela RussellC 17220
4Jonty EsserSandi GoddardC 15030
5Von HammonAndy GouwsC15040

Class 3 (The Fun Rally section):


PilotNavigatorAircraftPoints
1Von HammonAndy GouwsC150974
2Hilton WolfRob OsnerMushak1374
3Roydon GilliesJustin DorringtonPA 28-1401781
4Clarrissa de CostaKerry MathysenC1521989

Class 2 (The Intermediate Section):


PilotNavigatorAircraftPoints
1Thys van der MerweSally ShawC172594

Class 1 (The Unlimited or Open Section):


PilotNavigatorAircraftPoints
1Jonty EsserSandi  GoddardC150435
2Antony RussellPamela RussellC172539
3Rob JonkersMartin MeyerC182709
4Hans SchwebelRon StirkC150741
5Andre KluytsDon LucasC1721085
6Apie KotzeFrederick KotzeR661210
7Hendrik LootsJandre LootsSling1214
8Derek BirdQuentin TaylorSuper Decathlon1586
9Milan DanizCaroline KollTC071856
10Piet MeyerAdrienne VisserJabiru J4001956
11Fanie ScholtzHerman HaasbroekSling 22800

A score less than 2000 indicates that with the training and discipline the pilots experience at Nationals, they should be able to be selected to represent South Africa in Stellenbosch in November.  

Nationals take place from Thursday 2 – 4 April, with training at your own discretion.  Look out also for our very exciting Speed Rallies. Please see our website sapfa.org.co.za for our events calendar.

By Cally Eckard

SAPFA Rally Practical Training Camp – 22 Feb 2020

SAPFA Rally Practical Training Camp – Brakpan 22 February 2020 – by Rob Jonkers

After learning the theoretical side of Navigation plotting at the training camp held at Aerosud on the 18th of January, it was time to put into practice what was learned with a practical flight. The SAPFA national coach Jonty Esser put together a short route in the Brakpan Heidelberg area with 4 turnpoints to be flown by participating teams.

The weather however did not play ball at all, restricting participants to arrive by air, however many decided to drive in, to at least do some ground school. At the end there were 9 teams that participated. On hand from the SAPFA Protea members were Jonty Esser, Frank Eckard, Sandi Goddard and Rob Jonkers imparting their knowledge to the teams.

The theme of the morning was to gain knowledge on practical flying, how to accurately bingo each turn point in time, how to approach the start, this always being the most difficult part of any rally, firstly to find it, and then to get there at the start time. Then the dynamics of keeping on time on each leg, approaching the next turn point and identifying the photo being correct or incorrect. First up was Frank Eckard who explained all the required strategies of flying, explaining that you have to be in the right frame of mind to take part in this sport, extreme focus and concentration will get one to the winning post.

Frank Eckard – Strategies of Flying a Rally

Thereafter Jonty provided an outline to the planned flight route for the day – which could not be flown, but an explanation of how to set up the aircraft to fly the route, to get to the nominated 1000 ft altitude, set the flaps and power setting, then to adjust timing by changing the aircraft’s attitude to speed up or slow down, rather than utilize power changes as power changes disturb the fundamental speed set up.

Jonty Esser – How to set up your aircraft in flight

After Jonty, Rob showed a short video of a practical flight demonstrating what photos look like on the ground and the visual angles and distances to be able to recognize them, and from what altitude these would be best visible.

A practical out of the cockpit view of en-route photo recognition

After a short break, it was decided to carry out a real plotting exercise of the Rand Rally Challenge against the clock with a 30 minute deadline, essentially 2 minutes per plotting point. It gave everybody an incentive to attempt to beat the clock. With new teams this proved daunting, thus more focus was provided on techniques of using the tools and developing the skills to use them.

Clarissa & Kerry busy with their plot

Clarissa & Kerry busy with their plot

Milan, Caroline & Andy busy with their plots

Karyn & Leon happy they have aced their plot in the allotted time

The Track shown of Route 2 – an anti-clockwise route

Pilot Insure 7th Speed Rally-Season 2 Springs 23 November 2019

Season 2 of the Pilots Insure Speed Rally in already upon us for the second edition of the growing flying sport which is becoming an exciting aviation event around South Africa, with 2020 close it was decided for the first of the speed rally proceedings to start earlier then usual.

The last Speed Rally held at Secunda on the 10th August was the finale of the 2018/19 season, and the 6th in the series, where it had returned to the birth of the Speed Rally concept in 2018. This new Season as Season 2 should prove to elevate this event to the next level, and since the completion of the 1st Season an extensive Season debrief was held with the officials and a number of competitors to review the rules and workings of the Speed Rally concept to look at improvements and changes, a number of which have been brought into the competition. One of the major changes was to extend the overall distance from 125 nm to 150 nm, to make the legs a little longer to accommodate the faster aircraft, most of the other
changes facilitating the crew with better cockpit paperwork.

Furthermore a GPS category was brought into play, which would allow novices to be introduced to the event without the stress of knowing or not knowing where to go, with the intent to get themselves
upgraded to Championship status after having gained sufficient experience.

Entries were already open after Season 1, and many already confirmed their entries which quickly went over 40, with an eventual count at 40 on Friday, with 3 withdrawing on the day. This event is attracting
many father & son teams, and many more of the younger generation. It was decided for this event that the Mach 1 Flight School would be the hosts on the airfield, they have as a school been involved from the first
rally and have increased their participation with their instructors, and seeing from the results over time they have become more experienced and moving up in the placings.

With a view of bringing in more excitement to this event, a shortened course of 60 nm with 3 laps in the
style of a Grand Prix circuit was also designed by Race Master Jonty Esser for a small field as a try out
event.

This event is one that is flown at full speed under handicap conditions, the course is now around 150 nm long, has 11 or so turning points, with each turning point identified with a correct photograph. This is also
an event where no GPS aids are allowed in the Championship league, these are all sealed up, and courtesy of Century Avionics on-board devices are also covered up, although not disabled. In the GPS league, competitors can utilize any technology, although it seems that this did not help much, a number of the GPS enabled competitors also went walk about…

The route was mostly to the east of the airfield, not in the most scenic part of the country, which is mostly dotted with power stations and coal mines, but then the competitors would have been more concerned
about keeping track than looking at scenery.

The weather on Friday started out real well, the forecast giving late afternoon thundershowers which were lurking towards the west. Test flights commenced with many new entries requiring test flights and some
old entries wanting to retest to re-confirm their handicaps. The EAA came in to help with this, with Sean Cronin & Karl Jensen supporting SAPFA’s test flight designate Mark Clulow, and got through all the test
flights just after 3 PM. Mary de Klerk also breezed in to provide the newbies with some dedicated training.

Thereafter at 18h30, 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 turn points,
distance, departure and arrivals protocol, and also how the scoring system worked in terms of penalties as well as the expected weather conditions, which looked like some early cloud, then a clear day expected
with late afternoon thundershowers.

All the competitors were then treated to a briefing on Steroids with 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, thereafter everybody was treated to a buffet meal before retiring for the evening.

Saturday morning dawned with perfect flying conditions, a clear day with virtually no wind, with the briefing
starting a little earlier at 7.30 am as the intent was to finish the rally at 11.30 to be able to fit in the Grand Prix in the early afternoon.

The briefing was shorter than the previous evening, and focused on the procedures for scrutineering, the handing out of papers, starting line, and finish protocol. The aircraft were to be parked in order of slowest
to fastest, with a 15 second gap as a minimum between them, with the idea to have all the aircraft cross the finish line as close to 11h30 as possible, given that everybody needs to achieve a perfect route around
the course. There was a plan to also to live track the event under the events section of Livetrack 24, and for this purpose a number of live trackers were loaned and set up, although this proved to be very finicky,
it had marginal success, although

Scrutineers Chareen, Lizelle, Karen, Conrad, Johan and Alex 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 Jacques Jacobs and Mark Clulow, who 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 09h40 for the slowest aircraft
and last take-off at 10h40, with planned arrival at 11h30. This was the first time two helicopters also tookpart, one an Alouette 2 and the other a Robinson R66, the Alouette 2 being the slowest and was the first
to depart.

With all the competitors off towards the east, the route had a mix of easy and challenging turn points. In general the competitors found the course a little more difficult than the last one, especially around
turn point 4, where is seems the rail and road crossing was difficult to spot, attesting to the increased difficulty that there were only 13 clear round aircraft, out of 40. Just before 11h30 the first aircraft over the
line was a Cessna 172 ZS-OET, follow by a Sling 4 ZU-IOK, and closely after that the R66 ZS-HRS, and from there within the next 2 minutes or so 20 aircraft with stragglers coming up the rear. The landing
sequence was fairly easy to do with everybody joining crosswind, then downwind onto 03 with good spacing.

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, but a few got a bit
lost, the Alouette 2 flying at full speed being very thirsty in fuel consumption decided to carry out a precautionary landing in Nigel to refuel before resuming the course.

The results were completed by around 14h30, and prize giving  was schedule for 15h30, and first up on the prize giving programme was to show some of the interesting tracks, some excellent and some not so good getting the audience in fits of laughter. Jonty first handed over the GPS league competitor trophies, and then the host club trophy went to the Mach 1 Flight Training School owner Lee Petersen, and then the placings for the best handicap speed and thereafter the most accurate / shortest route flown.  Winners of the GPS league were the team of Ray Wilford and Bernard Jansen in a Sabre ZU-DIY.

Winners of the GPS league were the team of Ray Wilford and Bernard Jansen in a Sabre ZU-DIY.

The overall winners in the best handicap speed were the team of Munaf Sayyed & Ricardo Baruffa in a C172 ZS-OET, in second place was Joshua & Mark Dethian in their PA28-180 ZS-ELL, and in third place Apie & Frederick Kotzee in their R66 ZS-HRS.

Munaf Sayyed & Ricardo Baruffa in a C172 ZS-OET
Joshua & Mark Dethian in their PA28-180 ZS-ELL
Apie & Frederick Kotzee 3rd Handicap ZS-HRS

The most accurate / shortest route flown winners were the team of David Ross & James Braid in a Sling 2 ZU-JAR, in second place was Hendrik & Jandre Loots in their Sling ZU-IHK, and in third place was Quinten Kruger & Johan Whiteman in their PA28-235 ZS-FVV.

David Ross & James Braid in a Sling 2 ZU-JAR
Hendrik & Jandre Loots in their Sling ZU-IHK
Quinten Kruger & Johan Whiteman in their PA28-235 ZS-FVV.

Many thanks to the Mach 1 Flight School for hosting this fantastic event, the SAPFA team of Jacques Jacobs with the ground marshals, Nigel Musgrave as the Safety Officer, Dirk and Louna de Vos and Mark
Clulow doing the scoring, Chester Chandler assisting with the handicapping on Friday, David le Roux from Pilot Insure at the registration desk, Marc Robinson with his team from Century Avionics for Scrutineering,
Chareen Shillaw, Lizelle Kruger handing out competition papers to the crews as well as Scrutineering with their team, Jonty & Lizelle & Sandy for putting together an awesome Friday evening launch event. Thanks
also extended to Santjie White of the ARCC who always watches over us, and the ATNS team for managing the ATC for the weekend.

Also to the sponsors Pilot Insure, who was the main sponsor of the event, Flightline Weekly for sponsoring
the race numbers, team sponsors Excel E&I – Leon Bouttell and Martin Meyer, The Airplane Factory –
David Ross and James Braid, Pilots Post – Nigel Hopkins and Mary De Klerk, Fast Flame Laser Cutting –Oops – We went to Nigel instead

Hendrik & Jandre Loots, Beegle Micro Trackers – Quintin Kruger and Johan Whiteman, Prompt Roofing –
Leon Joubert and Sandi Goddard.
Our next Speed Rally event will be in Witbank in the 1 st of February 2020.

World Rally Flying Championships Training Session

World Rally Flying Championships Training session – Stellenbosch airfield (By Mary de Klerk – Photos Mary de Klerk & Rob Jonkers) 30th Oct – 2 Nov 2019

South Africa and the South African Power Flying Association (SAPFA) has won the bid to host the 2020 World Rally Flying Championships where Stellenbosch Airfield in the Western Cape has been selected as the Airfield of choice.

SAPFA has previously hosted:

1991 – 7th World Rally Flying Championships– Stellenbosch Airfield

2003 – 13th World Rally Flying Championships– Pilanesberg Airfield

2011 – 20th World Precision Flying Championships – Brits Airfield

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The picturesque Stellenbosch Airfield

In 2020, the Aero Club of South Africa and the South African Power Flying Association will be celebrating their 100th Centenary Birthday. This World Championship competition will be an integral part of our celebrations.

The Programme:
7th to 14th Nov 2020 Unofficial practice
15th to 21st Nov 2020 World Rally Flying Championships
22nd to 25TH Nov 2020 General Aviation Committee (GAC) Annual meeting

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The teams participating on Competition Day

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Competition Director Colin Jordaan – briefing the teams

The sport of Rally Flying is aimed to improve fundamental flying skills to enable a team (Rally Crew of 2) to navigate and handle their aircraft under Visual Meteorological Conditions (VMC) as independent of technical subsystems as possible. Thus Rally Flying enhances flying safety. This overall aim for Rally Flying is achieved by:

  1. Emphasizing the ability to navigate by following a set of route instructions, using basic equipment
  2. Emphasizing the ability to follow a precise track while adhering closely to a timing test (punctuality test)
  3. Emphasizing the ability to perform realistic observation tasks while navigating the aircraft on a timing test (observation test)
  4. Emphasizing the ability to handle the aircraft on short and narrow landing strips (landing test)

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Flying the Mountain practice route – up through Bains Kloof Pass

The above tasks would demonstrate the team’s ability to perform accurately and safely. Penalties are awarded for each error incurred and the team with the lowest penalties over all competition days is ultimately the winner. The winning country is selected from the top 2 team scores from each country.

The competition map is a topographical map to the scale of 1:200 000. The routes will be set by the expert Protea Team of Frank and Cally Eckard and will be planned in the Special Rules Area, under the TMA, so maximum heights are restricted to 2000 ft AGL in the flat areas and 4000 AGL in the mountainous areas. The routes will nominally be set to the north, east and south east of the Stellenbosch Airfield.

Up to 80 Teams from the following countries are expected to participate from the following countries:

Austria China Czech Republic France
Germany Hngary Italy Lithuania
Luxembourg New Zealand Norway Poland
Russia South Africa Spain Switzerland
United Kingdom

Each Country will also bring additional crew in the form of International Judges, Team Managers, Judge Observers, Engineers, Supporters and Families.

In total we are expecting in excess of 300 of the “crème de la crème” of international aviators and their families to visit South Africa.

In preparation for the World Championships in 2020, SAPFA decided to hold a “mini training session” in Stellenbosch from 30th Oct – 2nd Nov 2019. The objective was to bring all parties together in order to execute a ‘Mock Event’ utilising all available services in order to iron out any potential wrinkles ahead of the main event in 2020.

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Poland’s Michal Wieczorek preparing for a practice route with Mary de Klerk

An enormous amount of work went into the preparation for this event. The SAPFA and WRFC Committees meet monthly and have worked tirelessly to ensure that the following sections were adequately covered:

  1. Aircraft Hire and Insurance – Mostly C152s and C172s were flown in from various surrounding airfields – a huge logistical task excellently handled by Chareen Shillaw
  2. Licence Validations – This took many hours of work and CAA meetings to finally arrive at a smooth operation – outstandingly arranged by Frank Eckard, Rob Jonkers and Marko Nel.
  3. Stellenbosch Hospitality – Magnificently hosted by Anton Theart, Frank Olsen and the incredible teams running the newly renovated Stellenbosch Flying Club.
  4. ATNS and Safety Planning – Professional approach by Rikus Erasmus, Nigel Musgrave and ATNS (with Santjie White and her team always ready in the wings)
  5. Route Planning – World Class Routes planned by Cally and Frank Eckard showcasing some of the most breathtakingly stunning scenery in the world over the mountains, the sea, and the wine farms of the Western Cape.
  6. Judging took place under the auspices of our well-seasoned international judges Jacques Jacobs, Ursula Schwebel and all their helpers.
  7. Colin Jordaan (ex SAA / CAA), well versed in the art of Precision and Rally flying took up the mantle of Competition Director with ease.

The opportunity to practice in Stellenbosch was snapped up by the French, Polish, Swiss and Austrian international teams. The South African teams including current and potential Protea members also participated. An interesting mix of 2 united teams from different countries also took part. Michal Wieczorek from Poland flew with Mary de Klerk from South Africa and Mauritz du Plessis flew with Nicola from France.

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Theewaterskloof Dam

Some teams arrived a few days early to take advantage of some tourism opportunities. The plan was to run open practice days from Wed – Friday and then the competition on Saturday 2nd Nov. However no one anticipated SA getting into the World Cup Rugby Finals so the plan was changed to accommodate this event. The Competition was flown on Friday 1st to allow all participants to watch the game live in the various SFC hosting restaurant facilities…… a truly memorable event!!!! Training then resumed after the match on Saturday 2nd Nov.

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Steep climb angle to fly over the Maanskynkop

The competition route on Friday was a route to the south east of Stellenbosch, with high overcast weather predicted with strong upper winds of up to 20 kts. The route took the teams just south of Sir Lowry’s Pass, remaining in the high ground and mountain areas until a steep descent to the coast to Voelklip, then along the coast all the way past Hermanus, with whales visible just off the river mouth in Walkerbay. From there the surprise steep climb up Maanskynkop, everybody having to snake their way over the top, and then into the Caledon valley up to the Theewaterskloof dam, and then back over the ridge of the Hotentots-Holland mountains to find the sharp bend in the railway line that goes up Sir Lowry’s pass, then to the finish point through Kleinnek which is just abeam the Helderberg. This was a very scenic route, as the whole Cape is, with many of the competitors being distracted from flying the route rather enjoying the scenery….

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Coming up to Kleinnek passing the Helderberg on the left

The French Team are well supported by their French Sporting Federation and therefore have to stick strictly to the Team Managers rules for training with little ‘free time’ to play. This discipline showed up in their final results with all 6 French Teams finishing in the top 10 positions.

The final results for all competitors were:

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Third placed Alexis Fuchs and Adele Schramm with Colin Jordaan

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Second Placed Michal Wieczorek and Mary de Klerk

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First placed Olivier Riviere and Jerome Jireau with Colin Jordaan & Frank Eckard

The South African Rally Flying National Championships will take place at the Stellenbosch Flying Club from 2-4 April 2020. The final Protea Team to represent South Africa at the World Championships will be selected at this event. Ideally SAPFA are hoping to select an “A” team and a “B” team to give some newbies the opportunity to experience a real World Championships Event. Jonty Esser has been appointed as Chief Protea Team Coach and will be publishing a training schedule soon.

Thanks to African Pilot we have a great website to capture all events, pictures, information, results live tracking etc http://www.worldrallyflyingchampionship2020.com/

Thanks also to DJ Aviation for their contribution in supporting excess insurance on the hire aircraft that were made available for the international teams.

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We are now investigating all avenues for financial and service support to ensure that we can deliver a world class event in 2020. Any further information and be mailed to info@wrfc2020.com

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The French Team

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Celebrating Rally Veteran Ron Stirk’s 70th Birthday on 1st Nov 2019

SAPFA Rally Flying Training Camp – Brits Airfield 16 February 2019

SAPFA Rally Flying Training Camp – Brits Airfield 16 February 2019 – by Rob Jonkers

As a follow-on to the Rally Navigation Training events held at Aerosud on the 19th of January 2019, it was planned to fly the practice route that was plotted on that day. The 16th February was chosen and as the week unfolded with almost daily rain, it looked auspicious to get good weather, although it looked a little promising on Friday. As the day dawned, the clouds were on the deck throughout Gauteng, north of the Magalies in the Brits area was a bit better. The cloud base only started lifting around 9 am, and then only in patches, so even with 12 teams registered to take part, only 4 teams eventually were able to get to Brits. Frank & Cally Eckard prepared the route packs for the teams and were on hand to do the scoring. 

Frank Eckard – Presenting the Rally Flying Techniques Course

The focus of the day was more related to flying techniques and Frank Eckard provided an hour’s presentation on how to prepare the cockpit, roles of the crew in work sharing, organizing the photos, flying techniques such as speed management, altitude, approach to turn points.

Nigel Hopkins & Mary de Klerk preparing their maps for their flight

The teams then plotted the course, basically replotted the course that was previously prepared a month ago, and went to fly the route. Aerobatics ace & SAA Captain Nigel Hopkins who has been a previous rally world champion 15 years ago, flew with experienced navigator Mary de Klerk, and proved by his excellent score of 64 penalty points that he has not lost his touch in rally flying.

Leon Bouttell & Karyn Purchase preparing their Plots

Veteran Protea Pilot Thys vd Merwe preparing the maps with Navigator Frans Smit

As SAPFA is preparing for the World Rally Flying Championships in 2020, the focus on these two years prior the event, is to gain as many South African qualified teams to take part, and every event being held this year will be an event that can improve skills.

Nigel & Mary preparing the cockpit

To achieve world standard qualification, there is a route to achieve these skills in classes, with Advanced Class as the definitive level of competition, where existing Protea teams would compete and new teams would vie to achieve a qualification standard. The initial Sportsman’s Class is the entry level where teams gain experience to get to try their hand at the Advanced Class. There is also an Intermediate Class, which has a combination of Protea pilots and navigators that fly or navigate with new team members as further skill building in a step to achieve an Advanced level.

A competitive score for Nigel on a route with arcs and follow the feature

The next rally is being held at Virginia on the 26th March, and as the weather was not favourable on this weekend, SAPFA will look at rescheduling this event again at a future date.

Rand Airport Challenge 2019

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.

Briefing on the way

Entry’s for the day

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.

C172 ZS-DAC


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:

PilotNavigatorPoints
1RC ShillawCJ Shillaw319
2Thys van der MerweGerda870
3Kim PratleyAndrew Pratley1231
4Piet MeyerPieter Kriel1410

The Intermediate Section:

PilotNavigatorPoints
1Shane BritzKaren Stroud750
2Jonty EsserJonathan Esser967
3Adrian PillingAdam Pilling982
4Don LucasAndre Kluyts1488
5Leon BouttellKaryn Purchase1955
6Mark ClulowRenee Clulow2170

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:

PilotNavigatorPoints
1Rob JonkersMartin Meyer409
2Hans SchwebelRon Stirk766
3Antony RussellPamela Russell1344

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