SAPFA Rally Training Camp - Aerosud Premises 19 January 2019
SAPFA Rally Training Camp - Aerosud Premises 19 January 2019
By Rob Jonkers

Alan Evan Hanes - GM of the Aero Club with a short Aero Club Intro
It is great to see the sport being supported so enthusiastically, and the willingness to learn these basic skills of map reading and planning. The GM of the Aero Club Alan Evan Hanes opened the day with a brief overview of the Aero Club and its functions, that the Aero Club has as its mission to protect all forms of Recreational Aviation, and supports Sections of the Aero Club such as SAPFA to be able hold successful events within the procedures governing recreational aviation in SA.

The Participants - 50 in total
With that Mary de Klerk took charge and laid out the objectives of the day, by initially going through the theory of plotting, and then to practice on an actual plot. With this year of 2019 having a full calendar of events, and the Nationals coming up in April in Stellenbosch, and with SAPFA having won the bid to host the World Rally Flying Championships in 2020 (which is also the Centenary year of the Aero Club), this training event would serve as an excellent platform to entice new members to the sport and to start training for the Internationals and obtain Protea Colours.

The Rally Plotting Class of 2019
Mary first started off with having everybody introduce themselves, and what they each had as objectives for training, some were there as newbies interested in taking part in the sport, some having takien part previously indicated they needed some formal and expert training, and some others indicated they just wanted to delve more in depth than what a ppl course would give on the art of paper based navigation.

From there Mary outlined the theory on plotting procedures and described the tools of the trade. Then it was off to plotting an example course which had to be done from basic plotting principles of co-ordinates, bearings (which could be in either true or magnetic) and distances (either in nm of km). Each turning point then had to be found and identified and linked into legs, some of which could be arcs or follow map features.
The goal in getting to National level standard is to be able to plot in the aircraft with a papers time of around 30-40 minutes prior take-off, which means speed is of the essence in doing the plot, so that the navigator can assist with finding and identifying the ground photos.
The morning's training ended off at around 11 am, and after a short break, everybody got their first route in an envelope, got the laminated transparent tool, which they had to cut out, and proceeded to plot each of the turn points making up the route. It was decided to proceed right through lunch, and most had finished their plot by after 2pm. The course was ended off with an in cockpit video of one of Rob & Martin's 2012 rally flights to show how the leg photo features match up with the real world outside to give the perspective of what one sees outside the cockpit from the flying height and distance.
Everybody left with some knowledge gained on plotting and techniques of planning & flying a rally, and it is hoped that many will come to the Rand Challenge on the 26th January and Nationals in April.

Daniel Ralefeta and his team of Rise Above Aviators getting ready to plot

Feverously map reading and plotting

Martin Meyer assisting Dave Thomas

Mark and Rene Clulow figuring the plot.

Newbies to the sport, Time Scharf, Conrad van Coller and Daniel Ralefeta

Mary de Klerk assisting Melika Mohapi with Franz Smit & Ashley Loynes at left

Kim Pratley and his son Andrew Pratley working their plot

Protea pilot Adrian Pilling and newly minted ppl pilot son Adam learning from the expert

Arthur Piercy working his plot

Michael Stofberg & Bryony Martin from 104 squadron

Virtual Aviators Johan van Wyk and Freek Stegman

Shaun Barron with Cally Eckard helping in the background

Rob Jonkers explaining some flying techniques
Team SA at the 21st World Rally Flying Championships 2018
By Rob Jonkers


This year, 50 crews from 16 nations participated, where South Africa was the only Southern Hemisphere team to take part. Team SA was represented by 4 crews in the Unlimited Class: Frank & Cally Eckard, Thys vd Merwe & Ron Stirk, Jonty Essor & Sandi Goddard, Rob Jonkers (Team Captain) and Martin Meyer with Mary de Klerk as the Team Manager, Hans & Ursula Schwebel, Jacques Jacobs, Barbara Freibose as International Judges and Leon Bouttell as Judge Observer. The team was given superb support from Vera Jonkers and Alex Meyer, and later joined by Dr Thys and Rentia Geldenhuys as South African supporters.

The scenic town of Trencin with the Castle on the hill
Our team's arrival was Monday the 30th July. A full week before the championship, team SA are normally the first to arrive, as we need the most exposure to the European conditions and terrain as well as aircraft familiarization, as we need to hire local aircraft. By Tuesday mid-morning we had our first aircraft ready for us, a local Slovakian C172 OM-DCD (DOC) and joined the next morning with another local C172 OM-SNA (SNAP). Thus as a team we could get started with our training. Normally no validations are required, but back in 2010 this club had the bad experience of one of the participating teams have bent two aircraft (by the same crew no less….), thus we all had to have a check ride with the local instructor for 2 circuits to verify we could fly, thus by lunch time this was completed. Each team then had a chance to fly a navigation exercise in DOC for the rest of the afternoon till late and with European summer the light fades only around 9 PM.

The team SA C172's DOC and SNAP
The organisers provided three official practice routes, and these were put to full use in the following days, where we were able to carry out the plot inside the aircraft as one would do in the competition week, giving us a good practice run-up. The landscape varies radically between the valley at 800 ft and mountains going up to 3500 ft, and within minutes of taking off some routes would see you facing a steep climb out over the mountains, with check points often located just behind a steep incline and hidden behind forest features.

The river Vah with Trencin in the background
The weather for the practice week was good without much wind, although some thundershowers had to be avoided, with temperatures mostly above 34 deg, making the cockpit a sweltering sauna, at least in the mountainous areas higher up the cockpit became slightly cooler.
For this competition format, there was only an Unlimited class, in previous years there was an Advanced Class as well which was intended to bring in newer or amateur teams which made the competition somewhat more difficult for those teams who had no year round sponsorship or sports federation support. Clearly in the case of Team SA, all of the competitors and judges have to fund their own costs towards the event, travel, hotels and aircraft hire which is almost three times the cost of hire & fly in SA.
For the three practice days left from Wednesday to Friday, each of the teams flew the given practice routes, the Red route which was mostly east of the city of Trencin, proved the most difficult, as the terrain was very undulating, with more densely populated areas, making following the route very difficult especially recognizing the map shades of the various features and looking for turn points of minor river creeks and farm road crossings. The routes also had two arcs to follow, and with precessing DI's somewhat challenging to follow round, with the need to rely only on what is going on outside the window and what is on the map, and at least some sense of direction. Some of us re-flew the Red route a second time to get more familiar with the terrain in that busy eastern area.

Slovakian valleys and mountains

Team SA with DOC and SNAP in the background
For the competition week, flights are organized into two groups, flights start around 10 am at 5 minute intervals with the last flight taking off around 2 pm, and when returning, one spot landing needs to be done.
Frank flying DOC & Rob flying SNAP were divided into group one, and Jonty in SNAP and Thys in DOC were in group two. There was a strict procedure of parking aircraft next to the grass runway in take-off sequence where crews were isolated prior to receiving papers, normally around 30 minutes prior the flight starting which each of the routes having around 15 plotting points, allowing 2 minutes per plotting point to prepare the map, the cockpit during this period normally a frenzied affair.

Team Rob Jonkers and Martin Meyer

Team Thys vd Merwe and Ron Stirk

Team Frank & Cally Eckard with Team Manager Mary

Attempting Spot Landing in SNAP
Thursday was the last competition day for the Blue route, with again high wind conditions predicted, at around 15+ kts, the plots and timing were given with a wind compensation factor, so that is was somewhat easier to fly in terms of consistent speed, although headings would remain a challenge to maintain. With this route most of our teams started to improve on our scores, especially the photo recognition and finding the elusive white markers, so just as we were finishing up on the competition, so we started to get a real feel for the landscape.

Team Jonty Esser & Sandi Goddard

The Norwegians preparing their salmon snacks
Friday was packing up day and the closing ceremony and prize giving held at the Airfield, with most of us going for a day outing for some sightseeing before dressing up for the closing ceremony. This day is also when the heavens opened with torrential rain waterlogging many places including the airfield. The top prizes went to the Czech Republic, Poland and France, with Poland winning the country team prize, Team SA were in tenth place, and with landings were able to achieve 4th place.

The SA Flying Team at the closing ceremony parade of nations
Many thanks to our SA supporters that watch us from afar, also thanks to African Pilot and Absolute Aviation for the team clothing sponsorship, we always are the best dressed team with the best team spirit.

The SA Flying Team
Presidents Trophy Air Race 2018 - Home Page
|
President's Trophy Air Race 2018 Hosted by Bloemfontein Flying Club New Tempe |
Bloemfontein Flying Club |
Competitor Start List | Results Day 1 | Results Day 2 | Overall Results | Trophies |
PTAR_2018_Results.xls / PTAR_2018_Results.pdf
SPONSORED BY
Brought to you by
Message from the Race Director
The President’s Trophy Air Race hosted by the Bloemfontein Flying Club last weekend was, without doubt, one of the nicest ones we have had in a long time.
Firstly, a huge debt of gratitude is owed to Andre Grobler and his team at the Bloemfontein Flying Club for working tirelessly for a year to get it all together on the race weekend.
The fact that we were down to 40 odd entries was a blessing and caused me to have a massive epiphany. 40 entries made everything easier to manage. There weren’t long queues for food and refreshment. Results came out quicker and everything ran like clockwork. There was a noticeable air of friendliness and mutual respect between competitors and officials alike with a distinct lack of acrimony.
The final result was amazing to watch and to see once the downloads has been done. The most noticeable being the fact that, not too many years ago, the winner would come over the line 15 or 20 minutes ahead of the rest of the field. By comparison, now that we are applying the algorithm, the last 3 years comparison can be seen as
- 2016 Bethlehem top 10 aircraft over the line in 4 : 17 secs
- 2017 Springs top 10 aircraft over the line in 2 : 12 secs
- 2018 New Tempe top 10 aircraft over the line in : 92 secs
Now for my epiphany............. Maybe chasing a huge quantity of entries is not such a good idea. Maybe we should limit our entries to say 60 which will serve to elevate the race to its former prestigious status which is a non commercial event recognised by FAI and giving the opportunity to win provincial colours. It involves Flying Clubs whose objective is to promote sport aviation at grass roots level.
Something to think about..............?
On behalf of my fantastic and hard working committee I would thank each and every one of the competitors who made this race the amazing event it was
Keeping the blue on top
Robin Spencer-Scarr
Presidents Trophy Air Race 2018
By Cheryl Smit, Willie Bodenstein and Rob Jonkers

This year's PTAR which celebrated its 81st Anniversary, was hosted by the Bloemfontein Flying Club at New Tempe Airfield and it was heartening to see; by a show of hands at the Friday briefing, that more than half of the entrants were first timers and also that a large number of younger pilots had entered the iconic air race.
Liesl Damstra who did her PPL with Westline Aviation and currently resides in Bloemfontein but originally hailed from Nelspruit was one of only two lady pilots who crossed the startline. It was Liesl's first PTAR and she flies a Cessna 182 for fun. Navigating for her was Pieter Burger.
This was Willie Visser's 31st PTAR. They are both based in Postmasburg.
The Governor General's Cup which became the State President's Air Race and then the President's Trophy Air Race has been run since 1937 with only a couple of breaks during the war years but pretty much has been the leader in the world with this type of amateur air event. It invites anyone with a pilot's licence and a bit of experience to test their skills in accurate flying and navigating at the maximum speed their aircraft is capable of doing.
Competing aircraft at Tempe on Thursday afternoon
It is the one event that allows the weekend warriors to spend three days amongst friends and peers and to experience the adrenalin rush of flying as fast as possible whilst testing their skills against those who would beat them to the line. This year there were 48 entrants, with 43 on the starting grid for day 1, where unfortunately five having had to withdraw with technical problems.
Race Director Robin Spencer-Scarr
A week or two before the race, Race Director Robin Spencer-Scarr addressed an email, “To GPS or not to GPS” to all entrants asking for their opinion on the use of GPS during the race. A number responded and the general feeling is that the GPS system should not be allowed during the race. This opinion was confirmed during the briefing when an overwhelming majority of 99.9% who voted by a show of hands to retain the current format.

Safety Officer Nigel Musgrave and Chief Marshall Hans Potgieter

Race Secretary Sharon Potgieter

Martin Meyer, Frank Eckard and Rob Jonkers

Aero Club General Manager Alan Evan-Hanes
When we arrived Thursday midday the field was a hive of activity. Sharon Potgieter, Race Secretary was kept busy with confirming entries and issuing entrants with the sponsor's gift bags, caps, race shirts and meal tickets.



The Safety briefing, led by Robin Spencer-Scarr took place in one of the hangars where after some contestants got busy with route planning whilst others relaxed.
Those that remained on the field were entertained on both Thursday and Friday night by Zak Steyn
Ensuring safety were the ATC Special Events Team of from left to right Peter, Ricardo, Kane and Safety Officer Nigel Musgrave
The weather predicted for the race weekend were near perfect conditions, clear skies with high pressure system over the mid country, and virtually no wind, the morning starting off at less than 5 knots, and at midday to around a maximum of 10 knots, this made for more accurate and easier flying and of course getting everybody to achieve their handicap speed without to much effect of the weather.

Race 45 the Vans RV7A ZU-LAX Flown by Eric Addison with navigator Mario Fabbraio finished 13th overall

Johan van Eeden and Cor Esterhuizen, Race 44 ZU-IHH Vans RV7A was placed 7th overall
The route for day one took contestants from Tempe to Boshof. The turn point at Boshof was a brightly coloured gazebo at which they had to turn left whilst staying above 200feet AGL and then head towards Gariep Dam. Another Gazebo erected on the shores of an Island in the middle of the dam was the next turnpoint. Another left turn and then head in the general direction of Bethulie keeping the Orange River in their sights. A third Gazebo at the end of the bridge on the Orange River was the next turn point. Turning left yet again they would then head home being mindful too keep below the TMA and the CTR boundary.

Steve and Thys van der Merwe Race 61 in ZU-FHZ the Vans RV6A

Willie Uys and Frans Maeder Race 20 in the Jabiru J430 ZU-FVA
Before contestants were allowed depart they, as well as their aircraft were thoroughly searched for any devices that may assist them in navigation

At 10h00 Robin Spencer-Scarr waved Dieter Bock and Dale de Klerk in Dieter's Lancair Legacy away and the PTAR has officially started.

Next to leave was Jack Onderstall and Nicholaas Janse van Rensburg in Jack's Glasair III.

Following the Glasair was the Cirrus SR22 with Shaun Baron piloting and Steve Watkins navigating

Another Cirrus SR22 with Simon Abbott at the control and Chris Shillaw navigating was the 4th to depart






Other day one arrivals overhead the airfield
1st Race 32 ZS-ACA Cirrus SR22 Steve Abbott and Chris Shillaw
2nd Race 56 SU-SAX Vans RV10 Stephan Fourie and Derek Bird
3rd Race 44 ZU-IHH Vans RV7A Johan van Eeden and Cor Esterhuizen
4th Race 84 ZU-KKL Jabiru Clive Louw and Leonard Hawkins
5th Race 39 ZS-KOB Piper PA-28-235 Mark Bristow and Quinteon Warne
Day two took participants to Bultfontein. Contestants had to be mindful to keep the CTR boundary to the east. The turn point at Bultfontein was a Gazebo erected at the side of a pan near the Protespan Railway Station from where they headed towards Boshof where they again had to turn left staying above 200 feet AGL and head towards New Tempe for the cross over and then head for Jagersfontein where the turn point again was an orange Gazebo. From Jagersfontien they turned left and headed for Edenburg where they were required to turn left and head back home.

Race 63, ZU-EWL the Vans RC10 flown by Boetie Herhold and Johan Greyling was placed 12th overall

Gustave Bester and Helius Smit Race 58 finished 10th in ZS-NFI the Beech A36

First to depart were Race 33 Kevin Reeves and Ken Hawkins in ZS-IXL Grumman AA-5
2nd Race 88 Danie and Yvonne Kritzinger in their Jabiru J-430 ZU-IEI
3rd Race 25 Ivan and Martin Marx in ZU-ACY Aermacchi AM 3C
The line-up on day two is where the slowest aircraft is off first and fastest last with the attempt to get everybody over the line at the same time, and some of the aircraft had very close start times of 8 seconds apart, just enough to provide take-off spacing, quite a sight to see as each was released to go.





Other arrivals overhead the field
Normally the race ending is planned for a 13h00 finish time, this year it was moved to 13h40 to accommodate Bloemfontein scheduled traffic timing, and at the planned time the first aircraft came over and within the first minute around 20 aircraft had crossed the finish line, quite a sight to see as they came over.








The Awards dinner, sponsored by Puma Energy, was held at the legendary Ramblers Club in Bloemfontein and what a lavish affair it was and the meal was awesome.

Master of Ceremonies Robin Spencer-Scarr had those attending in stiches with his quips and jokes before getting down to serious business, the announcing of the prize winners and the results.


The Presidents Trophy awarded to the aircraft and crew gaining the most time on handicap went to Race 76 the Beechcraft BE 33 ZS MYB flown by Joggie Prinsloo and navigator Rufus Dreyer


The Air Charter Trophy awarded to the second place crew went to Race 84 the Jabiru ZU-KKL piloted by Clive Louw and Leonard Hawkins who navigated


Third place finishers Simon Abbott and Chris Shillaw Race 84 who flew the Cirrus SR22 ZS ACA

4th Stephan Fourie and Derek Bird in Race 56 ZU-SAX Vans RV10

5th Hennie and Dandre Bisschoff in race 64 ZS-BNA Beech F33A

6th Mark Bristow and Quinton Warne Race 39 ZS-KOB Piper PA-28-235

The Saldanha Bay Flying Club will host the 2019 PTAR
EAA Vryheid Convention 2018 Adventure Rally
EAA Vryheid Convention 2018 Adventure Rally
By Rob Jonkers

The Competitors


Plotting the route

As part of this rally, it was decided that to add some spice as well, to track everybody with loggers to check how accurately they fly to keep within a 1 km corridor, which should have been easy given that one is allowed to fly with GPS. The map and task booklet were provided 20 minutes prior the take-off for everybody to either plan their route with traditional map plotting tools or to program their GPS's - if they were more at home following the magenta line.
Each route's leg had turning point photographs to be recognised (either being correct or incorrect), then a few questions had to be answered on ground features or sites that were historic or scenic, mostly cryptic in nature.


An example out of the task booklet for one of the turning points....The tracks of some of the competitors - the blue one flown the most accurately and the yellow track of a competitor that got lost
The booklet contained a section of wiki notes that would enable the crews to answer all the questions - with a warning - "Don't read at your peril….", and guess what…., most forgot to find the answers in the most obvious place…. Some crews of course were googling for answers on their cell phones - because they can - somewhat inefficient given everything was right in front of them.
There were 14 crews who registered by briefing time, with a broad spectrum of aircraft participating, from a fast Cessna 210 to slow open cockpit Bat Hawks.

Alan Lorimer assisting with getting the task booklets and loggers ready for the competitors
With everybody successfully home, it was time for marking the exam papers which was left to Clive King to do, and Rob downloading loggers, and then printing the results.



When all was tallied up, two crews tied for first place, Carl Visagie with Navigator Mike Terreblanche in their Ikarus ZU-EOV and Shane Brits with Navigator Karen Stroud in their Jabiru ZU-FEP. Greg Clegg and Keaton Perkins in a Jodel ZU-UEK attained 2nd place, with third place going to Wayne Giles and Mark Clulow in their Bearhawk LSA ZU-IKO. In the spot landing that everybody carried out after the rally, the winner was Mike Ehrich flying a Bantam ZU-ADW.
Thus came to the end of a hopefully enjoyable day for everybody who took part, and given the interest in the event, should bode well for future rallies of this type and also gain an expression of interest in the more formal and timed rallies.

The Overall Results
Rand Airport and SAPFA - Fly-in and Adventure Fun Rally
By Rob Jonkers

With the success of last year's event, another Adventure Rally was planned in the style of the EAA Sun & Fun rally events, which of course is all about answering clues and finding Easter Eggs.

It is important to have a good crew cooperation on roles and responsibilities, and given the comments heard from the participants after the flight, it seems some cockpits had some hilarious moments.
For this year, for some added spice, the competitors were also tasked to fly within a defined corridor, being 1 km wide like an ANR, just a little wider, with time penalties for excursions outside the corridor
.


The route essentially started out south-west of the silver ball, at the Glenvista Country Club at a small pan at the 12th hole, complementary to the original start point Wemmer Pan, from there further south to the Rand Water Zwartkopjes pumping station which also has an associated Recreation Centre, from there westwards to the Olifantsvlei Nature Reserve with a sharp turn southwards towards Three Rivers and the confluence of the Vaal and Suikerbosrand river.
From the Vaal river the route went up north skirting past the Suikerbosrand nature reserve and then crossing the two airfields Circus and Kliprivier, the photos having been swopped around to confuse everybody. From Kliprivier up to the finish point Romeo Delta past the Heinken Brewery and Panorama Airfield.

The weather was mostly good with some rain showers predicted and at one point at around 11 ATC was about to declare IMC with weather moving from the west, which thankfully stayed away.

Ian and Adrienne Saunders Plotting.
After the 8h30 briefing, and with 20 minutes prior take-off of handing out papers, the first competitors took to the skies at 10.15, with the last off at 11.20.

So, what were those gems the competitors struggled with….. the N1 being part of the Cape to Cairo road…., that Boswell Wilkie have / had their home base at Circus Airfield, then of course getting wrong the airfield pictures that showed Kliprivier instead of Circus, and what beer the brewery made…. All of them….
With everybody successfully home, it was time for marking the exam papers which was left to Invigilator Martin Meyer, between the clues and photo recognition, a total of 39 points could be scored. In the interim, I got to download the loggers to mark up the corridor excursions, which counted time penalties.

Third Placed Eugene Schneider and Mark Clulow

Second Placed Shane Brits and Karen Stroud

First Placed Frank and Cally Eckard
Many thanks are extended to Carolle Olivier assisting with the administration of the event, Stuart Coetzee the Rand Airport Manager for all the arrangements .The prize-giving resulted in the top 3 places winning stunning laser cut aircraft and Easter hampers, the winner also winning 100 l of fuel, many thanks to Rand Airport management for the generous prizes on offer.

Rand Airport Management Stuart Coetzee and Carolle Olivier with Rob Jonkers
