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The 2020 Brakpan Airport Nav Rally
The 2020 Brakpan Airport Nav Rally
By Cally Eckard - Photos by Willie Bodenstein
Participants and officials
Rob Jonkers talked about the Aeroclub's 100th Anniversary to be celebrated during Airweek to be held at Middelburg 1st to the 3rd of May 2020
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.
Von Hammon, Hans Schwebel, Andy Gouws and Ron Stirk plotting
Thys van der Merwe and Sally Shaw plotting
Rob Osner who flew with Hilton Wolf in the Mushack plotting
Novice ladies and the only completely female team Clarissa de Costa and Kerry Mathysen only got theirs wings late last year and were looking forward to this, their first rally. They have already entered the Bethlehem Speed Rally
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.
Two tracks, both scored well in navigation
Martin Meyer and Rob Jonkers busy in their Cessna 182
Quentin Taylor and Derek Bird who flew the Super Decathlon getting ready
Fanie Scholtz and Herman Haasbroek who flew a Sling 2 plotting
Fanie and son Frederick flew their Robison R66. Willie Bodenstein went along and took photos during the flight
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.
Some of the competitors taking off
Derek and Quentin in the Super Decathlon
Rob and Martin in their Cessna 182
Anthony and Pamela Russel who again flew up from Cape Town and rented a Cessna 172 and Jonty and Sandy in the Cessna C150
Fanie and Herman in the Sling 2
Andre Kluyts and Don Lucas in the Cessna 172
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. (That's not hard for a chopper?)
Hilton and Rob taking off in Hilton's Mushack, the only of its type in the country
Frederick just before crossing the starting line
The start line was this intersection just past the Ergo Slimes Dam
Then it was left to follow the highway for a while
Intersections makes good turn points like this where one had to follow the left road
Or this bridge, a number of which straddled that section of the railroad
Was this the one or the one we have just passed or the one in the distance? Calculating arrival time between turn points is absolutely essential
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 then home via Selcourt.
Von Hamman and Andy Gouws won the Sportsman Class
Thys van der Merwe and Sally Shaw was placed first in the Intermediate Class
Jonty Esser and Sandy Goddard took the honours in the Advanced Class
Anthony and Pamela Russell took second place…..
with Rob Jonkers and Martine Meyer in third place
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:
The Pilot Insure Witbank Speed Navigation Rally - 2 Feb 2020
The Pilot Insure Witbank Speed Navigation Rally - 2 Feb 2020
By Rob Jonkers (photos by Willie Bodenstein, Rob Jonkers)
This first of the Pilot Insure Speed Rallies for 2020 has been held at Witbank, the 2nd for Season 2, successfully organized by SAPFA and hosted by the Witbank Aeronautical Association. Planning for this event began in November 2019 with a reconnaissance to Witbank to review the logistics for the weekend. The Witbank team went out of their way to make this a memorable event for the weekend, their members having got involved in many of the aspects of achieving a great competition.
The competitors after the Saturday morning briefing
With the first event of the season behind us held at Springs, the SAPFA team and competitors held a further debrief to review options on further improvements, most notably to look at the scoring of navigation accuracy which is now normalised to ensure slow or fast aircraft types have an equal chance in scoring for navigation accuracy. Scores are counted for both Navigation & Handicap where before if you won in the handicap class in the first 3 places, the scores were excluded in the accuracy class.
Piet Meyer and Adrienne Visser finished 2nd overall
Zwelihle Zondo and Nkululeko Sokweba was placed 17th overall
Entries for Witbank were 34, with 4 GPS class competitors and 8 more in the Grand Prix part of the event. There were also two schools taking part, the Mach 1 school from Springs and first-time entry from Rhino Park LST - Light Sport Aviation Training. The Grand Prix event is the 2nd event in this Season 2 and is proving very popular from the result of the 1st try out held in Springs.
Some briefing Pics
The route for this weekend was planned at 146nm, had 10 turning points and for added spectator value now included a crossover, this is where the course was anti-clockwise, to cross over the airfield and then clockwise to return from the east. The cross-over was planned to have the first of the slower aircraft already passing over while a number of the faster aircraft were still waiting to take-off.
Tintsalo Mabunda and Lehlogonolo Kekana was placed 21st overall
The weather on Friday started out really well, the forecast not predicting any rain, but there were plenty of thermals about. Flight testing was carried out all day with Mark Clulow and Sean Cronin, although with some strong thermals in the afternoon had to wait for this to die down before continuing.
The team of Johan Sayers & Jack Coetzer preparing to mount their Harvard ZU-WSE
The Friday afternoon initial briefing started at 18h30, David le Roux being the new race master and 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 protocols. He also explained how the scoring system worked in terms of penalties as well as the expected weather conditions, which was predicted to be clear with a light and variable wind from the east swinging north east.
Race Master David le Roux
All the competitors were then treated to a briefing on Steroids with Race Master David le Roux introducing all the teams to come up to the stage with a fanfare of theme songs and handing out race stickers. thereafter everybody was treated to a lamb on the spit meal provided by the host club before retiring for the evening.
The team of Pierre vd Merwe and Neville Ferreira plotting on their wing of the Sling ZU-FWY
Century Avionics's Sean and Mark who assisted with the blanking out of GPS instruments
Father and son Kobus and Jacques Botha's Piper PA 28-140 in the foreground with the field in the background
Saturday morning dawned with perfect flying conditions, a clear day with virtually no wind, but as the morning wore on the wind started to pick up and from the South East which favouring Rwy 22, except the planned runway to be used was 04, as the cross-over was at the threshold of 04.
A view of the field from the tower. Fuel to Witbank is supplied by Puma Energy
Some competitors at the start
The briefing started at 07h00 am and was concluded at around 8, where everybody dispersed first for a group photo and then to park their aircraft and prepare for the scrutineers and refuelers. The wind was remaining stuck in the south easterly direction and had increased in strength, with Rob fretting over whether to delay the start to a little later to allow the wind to swing more to the predicted north easterly direction, a quick phone call to Deon vd Mescht, our weather guru, confirmed the wind would swing but ever so slowly. By 9h30 the wind started to die down a little and it was decided to continue.
Witbank Chairman Fife Delport with first time Navigator Marga Lombaard in their Sling ZU-STT
Navigator James Braid in an unusual plotting position flying a Sling - ZU-JAR
Rob Osner flew his Allo III from Brakpan and flew as Navigator in Hilton Wolff''s Mushack
Scrutineers Chareen, Lizelle, Karen, Ardyn 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. For this event we used a Grand Prix style flag to release the aircraft line up, with Christian du Plessis doing the honours, under starters orders given by the starter Mark Clulow.
Husband and wife team of Eric & Antoinette Addison in the RV7 ZU-LAX
Some of the Ground Crew that kept things going
Leon Joubert and Pilot's Insure owner and main sponsor flew in both the rally and the GP event
Each team then received their envelopes with their loggers at their 20 minutes prior take-off time who would then taxi to the starting line within 10 minutes of take-off time. 1st take-off was at 09h56 for the slowest aircraft and last take-off at 10h40, with a planned arrival at 11h30.
First Timers Kobus and Jacques Botha in their Piper 140 ZS - FHH
Franz Smith with new co-sponsors Warwick Wealth
With all the competitors off towards the norhwest, the route had a mix of easy and challenging turn points, especially TP 1 and 6 which required a descent into the Loskop valley, and then some hard to spot turn points 7,8 and 9 in among the mielie and coal fields. The wind had also picked up in the interim starting to favour those already heading in the westerly direction. Just before 11h30 the first aircraft over the line was a Sling ZU-IHK. The landing sequence was fairly easy to do with everybody joining right hand downwind onto Rwy 22 with good intervals.
The line-up of aircraft at the starting line
Starter Christian du Plessis waving off the Sling ZU-STT
In sequence take-off with 15 sec intervals of some close handicapped aircraft
Getting the results out on time proved to be a challenge, with changes in the scoring system there were some gremlins that had to be fixed which required extra time and with potential late afternoon weather on the reef put some time pressure to complete the results. Eventually at 4 PM the results could be announced. The tracks for the routes flown was also shown, pretty much everybody except 2 competitors did not get lost, although the eastern turn points were missed by a few.
Hendrik Loots
James Braid
Quintin Kruger and Johan Whiteman
Race Master David le Roux and our main sponsor Franz Smit from Pilot Insure handed out the trophies, first up being the winners of the most accurately flown route with father and son team Hendrik & Jandre Loots in their Sling ZU-IHK with 2nd place awarded to another Sling ZU-JAR with David Ross & James Braid. Son and father team Quintin Kruger & Johan Whiteman in their Cherokee 235 ZS-FVV bagged the last step of the podium.
Piet Meyer and Adrienne Visser
Chris and Adriaan de Beer
For the handicap results, a double win was in order for Hendrik & Jandre Loots. Piet Meyer and Adrienne Visser in their Jabiru ZU-DUU were second and in 3rd place Michael Blackburn & Steve Briggs in their Sling ZU-IBM. For the GPS event the winner was local Witbank crew of Chris and Adriaan de Beer in their C182RG ZS-KUN. The club trophy was handed over by Jonty to chairman Fife Delport, with the winning school being the Mach 1 Training School who are becoming consistently better at improving their results at each event.
This weekend's overall results has ZU-IHK in the lead followed by ZU-DUU and ZS-FVV. The overall season points standing has ZU-IHK in the lead followed by ZU-FVV and ZU-JAR.
GP Competitors
The GP Podium
Winners, Johan van Eeden and Gavin Edwards
Second place, Winners, John Sayers and Jack Coetzer
Third place, Dane and Wade Laing
Many thanks to the Witbank Aeronautical Association for hosting this fantastic event, supporting with ground marshals, logistics and great evening meals, the Pilot Insure team of Franz Smit David le Roux the Race Master at the registration desk together with the Warrick Wealth team, Nigel Musgrave as the Safety Officer, Dirk and Louna de Vos and Mark Clulow doing the scoring, 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 for putting together an awesome Friday evening launch event. Thanks also extended to Santjie White of the ARCC who always watches over us.
Also thanks to our sponsors, Pilot Insure being our signature Speed Rally Brand Sponsor, 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 - Phil Wakeley and Mary De Klerk Fast Flame Laser Cutting - Hendrik & Jandre Loots, Beegle Micro Trackers - Quintin Kruger and Johan Whiteman, Prompt Roofing - Leon Joubert and Franz Smit.
Our next Speed Rally event will be in Bethlehem on the 22nd of March 2020.
Nice perfect Track
Oops - Found Middelburg instead
The competitors after the Saturday morning briefing
With the first event of the season behind us held at Springs, the SAPFA team and competitors held a further debrief to review options on further improvements, most notably to look at the scoring of navigation accuracy which is now normalised to ensure slow or fast aircraft types have an equal chance in scoring for navigation accuracy. Scores are counted for both Navigation & Handicap where before if you won in the handicap class in the first 3 places, the scores were excluded in the accuracy class.
Piet Meyer and Adrienne Visser finished 2nd overall
Zwelihle Zondo and Nkululeko Sokweba was placed 17th overall
Entries for Witbank were 34, with 4 GPS class competitors and 8 more in the Grand Prix part of the event. There were also two schools taking part, the Mach 1 school from Springs and first-time entry from Rhino Park LST - Light Sport Aviation Training. The Grand Prix event is the 2nd event in this Season 2 and is proving very popular from the result of the 1st try out held in Springs.
Some briefing Pics
The route for this weekend was planned at 146nm, had 10 turning points and for added spectator value now included a crossover, this is where the course was anti-clockwise, to cross over the airfield and then clockwise to return from the east. The cross-over was planned to have the first of the slower aircraft already passing over while a number of the faster aircraft were still waiting to take-off.
Tintsalo Mabunda and Lehlogonolo Kekana was placed 21st overall
The weather on Friday started out really well, the forecast not predicting any rain, but there were plenty of thermals about. Flight testing was carried out all day with Mark Clulow and Sean Cronin, although with some strong thermals in the afternoon had to wait for this to die down before continuing.
The team of Johan Sayers & Jack Coetzer preparing to mount their Harvard ZU-WSE
The Friday afternoon initial briefing started at 18h30, David le Roux being the new race master and 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 protocols. He also explained how the scoring system worked in terms of penalties as well as the expected weather conditions, which was predicted to be clear with a light and variable wind from the east swinging north east.
Race Master David le Roux
All the competitors were then treated to a briefing on Steroids with Race Master David le Roux introducing all the teams to come up to the stage with a fanfare of theme songs and handing out race stickers. thereafter everybody was treated to a lamb on the spit meal provided by the host club before retiring for the evening.
The team of Pierre vd Merwe and Neville Ferreira plotting on their wing of the Sling ZU-FWY
Century Avionics's Sean and Mark who assisted with the blanking out of GPS instruments
Father and son Kobus and Jacques Botha's Piper PA 28-140 in the foreground with the field in the background
Saturday morning dawned with perfect flying conditions, a clear day with virtually no wind, but as the morning wore on the wind started to pick up and from the South East which favouring Rwy 22, except the planned runway to be used was 04, as the cross-over was at the threshold of 04.
A view of the field from the tower. Fuel to Witbank is supplied by Puma Energy
Some competitors at the start
The briefing started at 07h00 am and was concluded at around 8, where everybody dispersed first for a group photo and then to park their aircraft and prepare for the scrutineers and refuelers. The wind was remaining stuck in the south easterly direction and had increased in strength, with Rob fretting over whether to delay the start to a little later to allow the wind to swing more to the predicted north easterly direction, a quick phone call to Deon vd Mescht, our weather guru, confirmed the wind would swing but ever so slowly. By 9h30 the wind started to die down a little and it was decided to continue.
Witbank Chairman Fife Delport with first time Navigator Marga Lombaard in their Sling ZU-STT
Navigator James Braid in an unusual plotting position flying a Sling - ZU-JAR
Rob Osner flew his Allo III from Brakpan and flew as Navigator in Hilton Wolff''s Mushack
Scrutineers Chareen, Lizelle, Karen, Ardyn 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. For this event we used a Grand Prix style flag to release the aircraft line up, with Christian du Plessis doing the honours, under starters orders given by the starter Mark Clulow.
Husband and wife team of Eric & Antoinette Addison in the RV7 ZU-LAX
Some of the Ground Crew that kept things going
Leon Joubert and Pilot's Insure owner and main sponsor flew in both the rally and the GP event
Each team then received their envelopes with their loggers at their 20 minutes prior take-off time who would then taxi to the starting line within 10 minutes of take-off time. 1st take-off was at 09h56 for the slowest aircraft and last take-off at 10h40, with a planned arrival at 11h30.
First Timers Kobus and Jacques Botha in their Piper 140 ZS - FHH
Franz Smith with new co-sponsors Warwick Wealth
With all the competitors off towards the norhwest, the route had a mix of easy and challenging turn points, especially TP 1 and 6 which required a descent into the Loskop valley, and then some hard to spot turn points 7,8 and 9 in among the mielie and coal fields. The wind had also picked up in the interim starting to favour those already heading in the westerly direction. Just before 11h30 the first aircraft over the line was a Sling ZU-IHK. The landing sequence was fairly easy to do with everybody joining right hand downwind onto Rwy 22 with good intervals.
The line-up of aircraft at the starting line
Starter Christian du Plessis waving off the Sling ZU-STT
In sequence take-off with 15 sec intervals of some close handicapped aircraft
Getting the results out on time proved to be a challenge, with changes in the scoring system there were some gremlins that had to be fixed which required extra time and with potential late afternoon weather on the reef put some time pressure to complete the results. Eventually at 4 PM the results could be announced. The tracks for the routes flown was also shown, pretty much everybody except 2 competitors did not get lost, although the eastern turn points were missed by a few.
Hendrik Loots
James Braid
Quintin Kruger and Johan Whiteman
Race Master David le Roux and our main sponsor Franz Smit from Pilot Insure handed out the trophies, first up being the winners of the most accurately flown route with father and son team Hendrik & Jandre Loots in their Sling ZU-IHK with 2nd place awarded to another Sling ZU-JAR with David Ross & James Braid. Son and father team Quintin Kruger & Johan Whiteman in their Cherokee 235 ZS-FVV bagged the last step of the podium.
Piet Meyer and Adrienne Visser
Chris and Adriaan de Beer
For the handicap results, a double win was in order for Hendrik & Jandre Loots. Piet Meyer and Adrienne Visser in their Jabiru ZU-DUU were second and in 3rd place Michael Blackburn & Steve Briggs in their Sling ZU-IBM. For the GPS event the winner was local Witbank crew of Chris and Adriaan de Beer in their C182RG ZS-KUN. The club trophy was handed over by Jonty to chairman Fife Delport, with the winning school being the Mach 1 Training School who are becoming consistently better at improving their results at each event.
This weekend's overall results has ZU-IHK in the lead followed by ZU-DUU and ZS-FVV. The overall season points standing has ZU-IHK in the lead followed by ZU-FVV and ZU-JAR.
GP Competitors
The GP Podium
Winners, Johan van Eeden and Gavin Edwards
Second place, Winners, John Sayers and Jack Coetzer
Third place, Dane and Wade Laing
Many thanks to the Witbank Aeronautical Association for hosting this fantastic event, supporting with ground marshals, logistics and great evening meals, the Pilot Insure team of Franz Smit David le Roux the Race Master at the registration desk together with the Warrick Wealth team, Nigel Musgrave as the Safety Officer, Dirk and Louna de Vos and Mark Clulow doing the scoring, 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 for putting together an awesome Friday evening launch event. Thanks also extended to Santjie White of the ARCC who always watches over us.
Also thanks to our sponsors, Pilot Insure being our signature Speed Rally Brand Sponsor, 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 - Phil Wakeley and Mary De Klerk Fast Flame Laser Cutting - Hendrik & Jandre Loots, Beegle Micro Trackers - Quintin Kruger and Johan Whiteman, Prompt Roofing - Leon Joubert and Franz Smit.
Our next Speed Rally event will be in Bethlehem on the 22nd of March 2020.
Nice perfect Track
Oops - Found Middelburg instead
The Sixteenth Rand Airport Challenge 2020
The Sixteenth Rand Airport Challenge 2020
By Cally Eckard Photos by Willie Bodenstein
Competitors and officials with Rand's historic terminal building in the background
Early morning at Rand. Photo by Michael Crause of the Sling in which he and Edzart Verseput competed
With the World Rally Flying Championships in sight, a record 8 teams took part in the Class 1, or "Open" category of the sport at the Rand Airport Challenge. In previous years most participants preferred to stick to the simplest and easiest Class 3, or "Fun Rally", but this year pilots and navigators were encouraged to enter the most advanced group. They all certainly found their skills were challenged on this first rally of the year. Mary de Klerk and Rob Jonkers presented a Navigation workshop the previous week, so everyone was keen to exercise their new-found knowledge in this rally.
The route map and photo sheets
Route Planner Cally Eckard gave the teams the task of flying two back-to-back arcs, which are curved tracks between two turn-points and a follow-the-feature, where they had to fly along a road. All navigators plotted the arc perfectly:- the pilots flew them accurately and really enjoyed the challenge.
Frank and Cally and some of the competitors during the briefing
Sadly, drizzle and low cloud kept some of the entrants grounded at their home airfields, but for local pilots, the skies cleared early enough for them to fly through just in time for the briefing by Competition Director Frank Eckard, so there was no delay in the start time for the rally. The sky continued to clear during the course of the morning, but strong winds challenged the pilots on some of the legs, making it difficult for them to maintain their allocated speeds.
Plotting is serious business
Use of Google photos which were taken in mid-winter were also difficult to match up to the current terrain after soaking summer rains which have coloured the landscape a lush green.
Andre Kluyts and Don Lucas
Leon Boutell and Karin Purchase
Tony and Pam Russell flew from Cape Town and rented a C172 at Rand in which the participated
Jonty Esser and Mary de Klerk
Milan Daniz and Caroline Koll
Quintin Tayler and Derick Bird
Father and Son Hendrik and Jandre Loots
Thys vd Merwe and Kerry Matthysen
Shane Britz and Karen Stroud
Edzart Verseput (left) and Michael Crause (extreme right)
The route took them west from Rand Airport, over Soweto, with the Start Point the train station at Nasrec, then the two arc between Carletonville and Fochville, skirting north of Vanderbijlpark, before turning northwards for the return journey over Ennerdale to a tricky Finish Point which was the "Stirrup Club".
Some of the tracks. The logger in the last one unfortunately stopped working at turn point two
Although none of the results were of National standard, there are many rallies and training opportunites between now and the World Champs, and we hope to put together five "A" team and five "B" team partnerships to give SA the best chance of a good team result.
Jonty Esser and Mary de Klerk won Class 1 Advanced and the Rand Airport Floating Trophy
Tony and Pam Russell finished in second place
with Andre Kluyts and Don Lucas in third
The Rand Airport Trophy, donated by Rand Airport, was won by seasoned rallyers Jonty Esser (pilot) and Mary de Klerk (navigator).
Michael Crause and Edzart Verseput finished first in Class 3 Sportsman
Thys vd Merwe and Kerry Matthysen won the Class 2 Intermediate
Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the challenge of this sport and are all very motivated to take part in the next rally events:
· 7 March - Brakpan Rally (Classes 1, 2 and 3)
· 3 - 5 April - Rally Nationals in Stellenbosch (Class 1 only)
· 5 April - Stellenbosch Rally (Classes 1, 2 and 3)
· 8 August - Rally Training Camp in Brits (Class 1)
· 22 August - Krugersdorp Rally (Classes 1, 2 and 3)
· 3 October - Witbank Rally (Classes 1, 2 and 3)
Look out also for our very exciting Speed Rallies.
Please see our website Sapfa.org.co.za for our events calendar
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