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SAPFA Springs Speed Rally #1
Event: Springs Speed Rally #1
Where: Springs Airfield
Dates: Fri 22 Nov – Sat 23 Nov 2019
Organisers – Jonty Esser
e-mail: jonty@promptroofing.co.za
cell: 082 855 9435
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World Rally Flying Championships Training Session
World Rally Flying Championships Training Session
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
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
The teams participating on Competition Day
Competition Director Colin Jordaan - briefing the teams
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)
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.
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.
8. 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.
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.
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….
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:
Third placed Alexis Fuchs and Adele Schramm with Colin Jordaan
Second Placed Michal Wieczorek and Mary de Klerk
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 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.
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 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
The French Team
Celebrating Rally Veteran Ron Stirk's 70th Birthday on 1st Nov 2019
Grand Central Fun Rally - 14 Sep 2019
Grand Central Fun Rally - 14 Sep 2019
By Rob Jonkers
This year's SAPFA Fun navigation rally had its challenges in getting off the ground, the date initially set for the 7th September, where two other events entered the fray, that being the Children's Flight and the SAAF Museum Airshow, and then the weather conspired to also be against us with foul weather on both the Friday and the Saturday.
In any event the date was moved by a week to the 14th September which coincided with the RV day and the Tedderfield Sling Fly-in, it seems everybody was getting into the spring feeling to hold events…. This Fun rally event is run in conjunction with Superior Pilot Services (SPS) who provide the facilities and sponsor a great breakfast at the Harvard, and an opportunity to allow their students to get to grips with rally flying.
The teams busy plotting the course from the task sheets.
For a number of years now Rob Jonkers planned and plotted the course for this event, catering for Open class and a Fun class, where the fun class introduces newbies to the sport. Entrants were planned to be around ten crews, with four from SPS and six from other airfields, and with the Protea teams still in Portugal having just completed the ANR World Championships were not available to take part. Eventually on the day only four teams could take part, thus it was a small field, with two in fun class and two in the Open class.
Most competitors arrived by 8.00 on Saturday morning to first enjoy the Harvard breakfast, thereafter briefing and plotting. The weather forecast looked promising with clear skies with 10+ kts wind later in the morning, which proved to become somewhat blustery closer to midday.
The route was planned to go out north, into familiar territory for the competitors as most of the legs were in their GF backyard. The start and finish points were just north of the N14 in the narrow Special Rules corridor between the Waterkloof & Lanseria airspace, and from there the route went out over the Hartebeespoort dam, across the Magalies ridge and into the scenic Crocodile river valley, then east across to Soshanguve and back across the ridge to the finish.
Matthew French & Mike Blackburn plotting their course.
From the GPS logger plot results, it could be seen the teams were struggling to slow down enough on the eastern & southern legs with many zig-zags being evident to counter the stronger wind at altitude.
The Apron of Grand Central with competitor aircraft.
There was one photo per leg that needed to be recognized, some of them were at least spotted by the crews, including a bonus photo which was one of those irresistible features (Stadium) that had to be found somewhere along the route, and which many crews did find in Attridgeville on the last leg.
Approaching the Crocodile Valley - Landscape still wintery.
After all the scores were tallied, first in Fun class was Matthew French with navigator Michael Blackburn in their very fast Mooney, second was father and son Jan and Max Coetzee in a C182. In this class the navigation accuracy allows 15 seconds at each gate before penalties are applied, one penalty per second.
In Open class in first place was Nick Christodoulou with navigator Andre Kluyts in a C172, and for this event a Route Planner class…. Rob Jonkers with his trusty navigator Martin Meyer in a C182, and being the route planner was expected to return with a perfect zero, but could not find the all the photos…., memory not that good it seems. In this class the navigation accuracy allows 2 seconds at each gate before penalties are applied, three penalties per second.
The navigation tracks - all seems fine until the eastern & southern legs.
This event was for sure enjoyed by all, getting an understanding of flying with more precision, especially in the slower flight regime, and having to deal with wind variation. Many thanks extended to SPS for making all the arrangements with Grand Central Management, and for the fantastic breakfast and for Franz Smit and Ashley Loynes for joining at the start and providing the teams with much needed water refreshments.
WORLD ANR CHAMPIONSHIP 2019
2nd FAI World Air Navigation Race Championship Santa Cruz
By Willie Bodenstein. Photos by Barbara Freibose and Jonty Esser
Air navigation racing is a relatively new aviation sport, with this year's championship being only the second world championships. This year's competition was organized by the Aeroclube Torres Vedras on behalf of the FAI and in cooperation with the Portuguese General Aviation Commission FPA (Portuguese Aeronautic Federation).
The opening ceremony featured the F-16s of the Portuguese Air Force as well as Yaks, Pitts and others.
Santa Cruz Airfield (ICAO: LPSC) is located 60 km North of Lisbon, 15 Km of Torres Vedras City, just a few meters from the beach and village of Santa Cruz.
The World Air Navigation Race (WANR) is a knock-out competition where teams representing their respective countries fly in elimination heats against each other. Precision flying, navigation and landings define this competition. The pilots have to fly along predetermined narrow corridors with irregular shapes at a specific speed. No GPS or other navigation assistance allowed. Teams are only allowed to use a compass, clock and map. All aircraft must enter and exit the corridors at an exactly predetermined time and at the end, must land without engine thrust from downwind in a one-meter box marked on the runway, for no penalties. Crews are penalised for flying outside their corridors and for timing errors. Penalties are also awarded for the landing.
Forty-three crews from seventeen countries entered the competition that started on the 5th of September and concluded on 13the with a gala prize giving dinner held at the Quinta da Almiara Winery ten minutes from Torres Verdas.
Five teams from South Africa entered.
Thys van der Merwe and Mary de Klerk
Mauritz du Plessis and Sandi Goddard
Hans Schwebel and Ron Stirk
Jonty and Eugene Esser
Anthony and Pamela Russel
The weather throughout most of the championships boasted blustery winds, typical to coastal regions, but was not what the teams from South Africa were used too, as were the maps that they were issued for planning purposes. However, after the practice days, during which approximately 200 training flights were flown in which all competitors had the opportunity to practice navigation routes and precision landings, they were confident that they would do well.
Day one of the championships started with an early morning briefing as did all the other days.
Crews are handed their map with the printed corridor and are only given thirty minutes to plan their flight.
A typical daily task map.
Competitors have to fly along predetermined corridors with irregular shapes at a specific speed (normally 80 knots). The corridors are generated by sophisticated mapping software to ensure they are of equal length.
The South Africans hard at work planning their flights.
Images taken from the big screen of some of the tracks being flown.
GNSS loggers are used to log the flight track which provides accurate timing to the second. All flights could be tacked live and this brought a new dimension to the sport of air navigation races. In South Africa fellow racers and others were glued to their phones watching the races live.
The final day's map showing the corridors in the shape of an aircraft that competitors had to fly in.
First overall were B. Radomski and D. Lechowski of Poland followed by Y. Rabassay and M. Esteve of Spain with A. Scramm and A. Fuchs of France in third place.
Thys van der Merwe and Mary de Klerk finished in 12th place with Hans Schwebel and Ron Stirk in 15th place. Mauritz du Plessis and Sandy Goddard finished 17th, while father and son Jonty and sixteen-year-old Eugene Esser 21st and husband and wife Anthony and Pamela Russel 35th.
The landings were won by B. Radomski and D. Lechowski of Poland with M. Osset and D. Benito of Spain in 2nd place with Mauritz du Plessis and Sandy Goddard taking the bronze in 3rd.
Thys and Mary finished in 15th, the Essers 21st, Hans and Ron 24th and the Russels 39th.
Considering that no more than five air navigation races have been flown in South Africa over the last two years, the performance of our teams in stiff competition with teams that regularly flew this type of air racing was fantastic to say the least.
More races are being planned locally for next year and the idea is to promote air navigation races as a spectator sport.
Air Navigation Race (ANR) - Nationals Brits 2019
Brits ANR (Air Navigation race) Nationals Championships – 25 to 27 July 2019 by Rob Jonkers
The South African Power Flying Association (SAPFA) held a very successful ANR (Air Navigation Race) Nationals Championships at Brits Airfield, spanning 3 days from 25th to 27th July 2019. This event was the qualifier event for selecting the National team to represent South Africa at the World ANR Championships to be held at Santa Cruz Beach Airfield in Portugal from the 5th to 14th September 2019.
This newest form of power flying sport, still needs to take on here in SA, but with so much going on in the Rally arena in preparation for our 2020 World Championships, the ANR has taken a slight backseat, the last event was held in 2017. This meant that most participants were somewhat rusty in this type of event. Thus in the run up to the Nationals, many teams were practicing in prior weeks some old routes and some practice routes.
For this event, it was planned to be held over 3 days, with Thursday being a practice day, with Friday & Saturday the Nationals days. The weather outlook being winter promised to be good, with the usual winter inversion layers and early morning fog, and essentially pristine wind conditions, except for Saturday which had morning fog in the Johannesburg region delaying some teams to arrive, and where the wind picked up somewhat.
The Track shown of Route 3 – an anti-clockwise route
For this ANR, Rob Jonkers took up the role of Competition Director, with still unfamiliar finicky scoring software, which proved daunting with the second route, but eventually solved.
There were 11 crews taking part over the 3 days, with 5 Protea team aspirants to qualify for the team to represent SA at the World’s. There were 6 Sportsman or fun teams, most first timers to compete in an ANR event. For Thursday, Jonty Esser provided 4 practice routes, thus the teams had the benefit of practicing how to prepare the map, and fly the routes to assess how well they could maintain their track inside the navigation corridor.
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 0.4 nm wide (+/- 800 m), any excursion outside the corridor also attracts 3 penalty points per second being outside the corridor.
Competition Director Rob Jonkers briefing the teams on Saturday Morning
For this competition there were four routes to be flown, each at around 25 nm, so the course takes around 20 minutes to complete, which is nice and short but given the amount of concentration and focus required to stay within bounds, a very daunting contest. The navigator has the unenviable task of keeping the pilot on the straight and narrow, and the pilot has to keeping checking that the navigator is doing his job…. Two routes were flown on Friday and the other two on Saturday.
Team Pieter du Plessis & Hendrik Loots Plotting
Team Karen Purchase & Leon Bouttell Plotting
Team Tony & Pam Russell Plotting
The courses all had 10 legs (with the exception of route 3 with 11), which meant that on average the legs were around 1 min to 1.5 min in length, making flying these short legs quite daunting, as one is hardly on a leg when you have to think about turning onto the next leg, and keep track of the time.
The competing aircraft
First off was Jonty and Johnathon Esser in a C150 at 10h15 followed by the rest of the field in 5 minute intervals, some longer if there were aircraft being used twice by different crews. The next round started at 12H30, with the last crews in by 14h00. Then the big task of logger downloads, analyzing and printing results, which for route 2 was complicated by a software hitch, which was eventually solved.
The teams of competitors
For route 1, Shane Britz and Karen Stroud had the best result with 393 penalties, and for route 2 Jonty & Jonathan Esser with 72 penalties. It was very apparent that if you make a mistake, to recover from it is proven to be quite difficult. In the later afternoon, a landing competition was held, with a barrier landing and a glide approach landing, the winner of this was Hans Schwebel with a score of 44 points.
Adrienne Visser & Piet Meyer plotting
For route 3, Tony & Pam Russell aced it with 15 penalties, which were for timing at the end point, with no corridor excursions, and for route 4 Rob Jonkers and Martin Meyer with 99 penalties, although as Competition Director and having plotted the route a few days ago probably had a little bit of an unfair advantage…..
Ron Stirk & Hans Schwebel having received papers in the plotting area
Thys vd Merwe and Mary de Klerk plotting on practice day
Overall, for the 4 combined routes, Jonty & Jonathan Esser came in 1st place, and with the landings combined, the overall ANR champions were Thys vd Merwe & Mary de Klerk, followed by Jonty & Jonathan Esser in 2nd place, with Tony & Pam Russell in 3rd place.
Winning Landing in C150 ZS-NBT with Hans Schwebel & Ron Stirk
Shane Britz & Karen Stroud busy plotting
In the Sportsmans class, Leon Bouttell & Karen Purchase took 1st place, Shane Britz & Karen Stroud in 2nd place, Hendrik Loots & Pieter du Plessis in 3rd place.
Winning track of the Competition of Tony & Pam Russell
One of the tracks that went a bit pear shaped
The Google Earth Live track screen, the yellow track being the best of the day for route 4, and the red and green tracks with some wandering around the course up in the north end of the course
This event was for sure enjoyed by all, with the Nationals participants having made the cut-off of 20% of max score, and have been selected to represent South Africa at the World Championship this year in Portugal.
The Nationals Team selected to represent South Africa at the Worlds ANR event in Santa Cruz Beach, Portugal in September 2019
View from a Novice to ANR – Piet Meyer
My navigator and I have been taking part in the SAPFA Speed Rally championship and browsing through the events calendar, noticed the ANR National and just entered having no idea what it entailed. We were under the impression it is just another Nav or Speed Rally. Later when asking the start times etc. we realized that this is no easy and fun flight but the actual National championship for teams to qualify for the world championship held in Portugal later this year.
Adrienne Visser and Piet Meyer
The race format is a very tricky route which is to be flown at 80kts in a 0.4nm corridor. Penalties are allocated for time outside the corridor as well as for each second outside of the allocated start and finish time. Seconds count here and an early finish here will end you up in more hot water than an early finish on your wedding day. Part of the competition also includes two spot landings. One glide approach and one power landing over an obstacle. The Thursday 4 practise routes were flown with two official routes on Friday followed by the spot landings. Saturday two routes with prize giving in the afternoon and then the announcement of the teams qualifying for Worlds in Portugal.
We entered as Sportsman class just to compete and see how we stacked up against the Professionals. Having never done this type of race before we were nervous on Thursday and did the first practice run. Total mess as we missed the first turn and with legs being anything from 45 seconds to 2 minutes, a small mistake can cost you hundreds of points. Here the crew with the least points win. Getting some tips from the professionals, we did the second route and did better. Stayed in the corridor for most of the route. Third and fourth went even better. Our scores ranging from 1200 to 1700. I mentioned to my navigator that “we did not do too bad?” after she repeatedly had to say, turn, watch your speed, stay on track. I got that look from her with the smile that I give parents with new-born babies while saying “What a beautiful baby” although you hope for their sake that the little rat will turn into a human someday. The response from Adrienne “Not too bad. We can do better” ….smile…. One of the routes we scored just over 700 points so we were getting better. The top pilots scored under 100 for some of the routes with Jonty Esser and his son with a score of 23 in one of the routes.
Friday and Saturday, each team is allocated a take-off time, start and finish time. The routes are handed out 45 minutes before your allotted start time. You are given 30minutes to plot the route, 10 minutes to go to the plane and get to the runway for take-off. Then 5 minutes to get to the start and then cross the start on the exact time. Only maps and compass to be used so no GPS, cell phone, Fitbit, or anything allowed. For newbie pilots or those who are getting bored with the cabbage patch flying or the coffee at Zebula, challenge yourself to one of these events. Your skills as a pilot and navigator is greatly increased. My confidence in my flying as well as my aircraft grew more in this one weekend than in the hundreds of hours flying to go get a coffee. When I started flying and saw the articles of these championships and the guys with Protea colours, I always thought that this is way out of our league. I did not want to make a fool of myself amongst these flying gods of whom you read and always watch in awe from a distance. Even though it is a Nationals Championship, the atmosphere is relaxed. Pilots talk, help each other and give tips to us newbies. Everything is well organized with Rob Jonkers doing the official part of downloading loggers and working out scores. Brits Flying club did well in having coffee and food available and a nice fire in the clubhouse to keep all nice and warm in the morning.
Well done to SAPFA and all the guys involved to make this event possible. As a newbie to the sport, I can highly recommend all to try these events. It is not as intimidating as it looks and the knowledge you gain is priceless. Thanks to all for a great weekend and thanks to my navigator who is after everything still flies with me. So, all the weekend warriors, cabbage patch flyers and other flying professionals, dust of those maps, switch off the GPS and come join these SAPFA events. I must warn you however, it is very addictive and you will more likely be able to kick a Heroin addiction but this flying racing habit will stick and there is no cure. We are counting the days to the next event.