The 13th Rand Airport Challenge 2017

11th February 2017

By Cally Eckard

It was 13^th time lucky for this event, with no incidences for organiser Frank Eckard.  Rand Airport waived landing fees for the sixteen aircraft who took part, and provided Paul Roberts to be the Safety Officer for the event. 

Read more ...

Chairman's Report 2016

The South African Power Flying Association’s (SAPFA) main focus is to organise and promote power flying sports. We also represent the interests of our members by providing input on matters that affect GA pilots. We maintain links with the General Aviation Commission (GAC) of the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI).

World Air Games - Dubai
Based on their performance at the 19th FAI World Rally Flying Championships held in Torun, Poland, Frank Eckard and Cally Eckard were nominated by the FAI to represent South Africa in the World Air Games which were held in Dubai. At these World Air Games the team was awarded the FAI Gold Medal for the Landing Competition which was held in difficult cross wind conditions, and also the Bronze Medal for the Overall Result in the Air Navigation Race.

President’s Trophy Air Race
Bethlehem Aero Club set a new standard as hosts of the 2016 President’s Trophy Air Race.
After two days of racing the local team of Philip Jacobs and Nico Smith, took top honours. They had put in many hours of practice to hone their skills and the effort was rewarded with 1st place.

The 2017 race will be held at Springs. This promises to be yet another great event. Get your entries in early as the field is limited to 100 aircraft.

Precision and Rally Competitions
Our Fun Rallies were held at Rand Airport, Stellenbosch, Virginia, Brits, Morning Star, Hoedspruit, Secunda, Krugerdorp, Grand Central and Baragwanath.

The National Rally Flying Championships were hosted at Brits. At the 20th FAI World Rally Flying Competition held in Santa Cruz, Portugal, the South African Rally Flying Team were awarded the FAI Silver Medal for a team second place in the Advanced class of this event. The Team consisted of Frank Eckard and Cally Eckard, and Hans Schwebel and Ron Stirk. A joint second place in the Landing Competition was also awarded to Hans Schwebel and Ron Stirk.

Adventure Rally
SAPFA arranged yet another successful Adventure Rally at the EAA Sun and Fun which was held in Brits. Crews enjoyed solving the cryptic clues as they flew around the Brits Area and great fun was had by all competitors.

SAPFA continues to be run by volunteers who give up their personal time to attend meetings, organise events, study legislation and more.

Thank You.

Frank Eckard
Chairman
South African Power Flying Association (SAPFA)

The Bob Hay Fun Rally at Baragwanath Airfield

19 November 2016

By Cally Eckard

Eight teams participated in this rally, four of them first-timers, who now describe themselves as hooked on the sport.  Roger Bizzoli organised the event, and made sure the competitors and spectators were well supplied with breakfast and coffee. 

The weather was overcast with high cloud, so the competition was postponed by an hour, so organiser Frank Eckard took the opportunity to explain some of the finer points of rally flying while we waited for the weather to lift. 

Read more ...

EAA Brits Sun & Fun 2016 Adventure Rally

– By Rob Jonkers

This year’s EAA Sun & Fun flying event was planned similar to the event held in 2015 as a format that EAA’ers enjoyed, as a more relaxed fun kind of event mostly involving observation out of the window recognition of ground features and learning about the area being flown over.

Over the last four weeks, a route schedule was hatched with the prime theme of overflying 13 airfields in the Magalies Berg area, why airfields?, well with many of us aviators flying around in this area quite often, it would be a good idea to know about potential forced or precautionary landing places, so a bit of safety advice while having fun in looking for them.

Read more ...