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SAPFA Annual General Meeting

Please take note: The SAPFA Annual General Meeting is planned to take place in the Old Customs Hall, Rand Airport, right after the Rand Airport Challenge:

Saturday, 29th January 2022, Old Customs Hall, Rand Airport at 14H00 or after the Rally Prize Giving.

The AGENDA can be downloaded HERE

The PROXY FORM can be downloaded HERE

The COMMITTEE NOMINATION FORM can be downloaded HERE

 

SAPFA SA Landing Championships, Stellenbosch and Brits 2021

SAPFA SA Landing Championships, Stellenbosch and Brits 2021


Stellenbosch

Pete van der Spek



Precision landing competitions have been around for a long time but for me, this was a new experience behind my camera. I have always shied away from being too close to a landing aircraft for obvious reasons so when I was asked to do this photoshoot, I did so with an open mind - and with some trepidation. Having said that….



I was warmly greeted by Mauritz du Plessis at the Stellenbosch Flying Club early on Saturday and he introduced me to the rest of the team and some of the pilots. The pilots briefing was held, the order of the day and safety explained to everyone involved. We were told that if an aircraft veers off course and heads for us, run…. Ja well, no fine….



The judging team, Marshalls and video girls went down to the runway and set up - and at 10am sharp, the first three aircraft took off for their first of four landings. The four landing configurations (for the uninitiated like me) were as follows:

• Landing 1 - Normal Landing (Free style landing where the use of power, spoilers, flaps and /or sideslip is at the discretion of the pilot).
• Landing 2 - Forced Landing (Abeam the ZERO-LINE at a 1000 1200 ft AGL the engine is throttled back to idle power, and power shall not be used there-after, although Flaps, Spoilers and sideslip may be used at the discretion of the pilot).
• Landing 3 - Same configuration as in Landing 2 but no flaps or spoilers are to be used once the engine is in idle configuration, except for sideslipping at the discretion of the pilot.
• Landing 4 - Obstacle Landing - Here the pilot will make a landing after passing a marked obstacle 2 meters high, and placed 50 meters before the touchdown line (the use of power, spoilers, flaps and sideslipping is at the discretion of the pilot).



The sequence was chosen before the pilots took off by the judge and the pilots then did the four landings as the flew in the circuit - fitting in with other aircraft taking off and landing. The safety side was stressed by Rikus Erasmus, the safety officer for the day. He said if it doesn't feel right, go around. Good advice - I felt a little better knowing that we probably did not have to try and run away from an out of control and speeding aircraft!



We had six aircraft and seven pilots involved so it went quite quickly and the skills were of varying degrees. The eventual winner of the Stellenbosch leg was Martin Venn who did a sterling job of landing his RV pretty close to the line each time. First time entrant, Ed Llewelyn, found it very difficult at times but did very well indeed. All the entrants mentioned that they found the barrier landing daunting - having to fly over a barrier and then touch down shortly afterwards was a step too far for most pilots.



All in all, a very interesting and exciting morning - and my running shoes did not have to work once. Well done to all the pilots and the ground team - an excellently run event. The following people were involved on the day - Competition Director - Deon van den Berg, as mentioned, safety officer was Rikus, Chief Judge and marshall officer was Mauritz du Plessis, FASH event co-ordinator Brent Warren, Score Keeper was Mike Marshall, videographers were Leonie, Sally, Helloise and Annette and marshalls were Paul and Brent Warren.

Final results from Stellenbosch - 1st - Martin Venn, 2nd Thys van der Merwe, 3rd Christiaan du Plessis, 4th Willem Myburgh, 5th Ed Llewelynn, 6th Frank Ohlson and 7th Rikus Erasmus.



A Cessna Caravan had to get unofficially involved (just because he could) and showed the boys how to do it, landing the big aircraft just short of the mark - a real show-off… Boys and their toys….

Great day had by all. Well done Stellenbosch Flying Club.

The final combined results are at the end of this report


Brits
Willie Bodenstein



Brits, the hosts town for the up-country leg of the SA Landing Championships were almost the thirties on Saturday morning when the safety briefing let by Competition Director Jacques Jacobs in the relatively cool clubhouse of Brits Flying club.



Eight teams had entered but unfortunately the oleo on Rob Jonkers Cessna had collapsed so he and cousin Martin Meyer was stranded at Kittyhawk. Present at the briefing were Fanie Scholtz, Von Hamman, Tarryn Myburgh, Frank Eckard, Hans Schwebel and Ron Stirk. Fanie flew his Sling 2 and Tarryn her Jabiru while Frank, Von, Hans and Ron shared the little Cessna.





The South African Landing Championships is a skills test on the ability to land an aircraft under different circumstances. The championships is organised and executed in accordance with the valid sporting code of the FAI these Rules and Regulations and the Supplementary Rules and Regulations for the specific year's event.


Fanie Scholtz


Von Hamman

The object of this competition is to assess the pilot's skill in landings of different types. Circuits may be left or right hand. Circuits for landings 1 and 4 must be above 500 feet QFE. Circuits for landings 2 and 3 not less than 1,000 feet or more than 1,200 feet QFE. These will be defined by the competition management who has the right to vary the circuit direction. The event will comprise four landings as described below:

Landing 1- Normal Landing: A free style landing where the use of power, spoilers, flaps or sideslip is at the discretion of the pilot.


Tarryn Myburg

Landing 2 - Forced Landing: Abeam the zero line, at 1000 to 1200 ft AGL the engine is throttled back to idle power. Power shall not be used thereafter. Flaps, spoilers and sideslip may be used at the discretion of the pilot.


Ron Stirk

Landing 3 - Forced Landing Without Flaps: Abeam the zero line, at 1000 to 1200 ft AGL flying with flaps or spoilers fully retracted, the engine is throttled back to idle power. Power, spoilers and flaps shall not be used thereafter. Sideslip may be used at the discretion of the pilot.


Hans Schwebel

Landing 4 - Obstacle Landing: The competitor will make a landing after passing a marked obstacle 2 meters high, placed 50 meters before the touchdown line. Use of power, spoilers, flaps or sideslip is at the discretion of the pilot. Approaches in connection with the obstacle landing, where the wheels are lower than the obstacle before passing over it, are not permitted (creeping).


Frank Eckard

After the combined scores were tabulated Hans, who has won the title five times since 2004 was declared the winner of the 2021 Landing Championships.

Brits results


1st Hans Schwebel


2nd Frank Eckard


3rd Ron Stirk

followed by Fanie Scholtz, Tarryn Myburgh and Von Hamman

The final combined results are at the end of this report

Tarryn Myburgh, a competitor's perspective

The National Spot Landing Nationals held in Brits on 13 November 2021 was my second Spot Landing Nationals. Unfortunately, the timing of my Jabiru's annual service and the recent gusty weather meant that I had no time to practice. Doing at least a few circuits is invaluable before a competition as you fly a much tighter circuit than normal and the approaches, especially your glide approach, is quite different to one that is completed for the comfort of passengers.

What I have learnt is that the key to a good landing starts on the downwind. You need to be trimmed and ready at your selected altitude and speed early on the downwind, as things start to happen very quickly once you are in line with the landing line. The stress level goes up significantly from that moment until your landing, confirmed by my rapidly rising heart rate over each circuit.

The conditions were really calm on arrival but quite quickly, the wind started to pick up and the heat really started to build. By Round 2, the heat and variable gusty wind made setting up on downwind a challenge, with turbulence bouncing you around while the wind is helping one moment and hindering the next. Maybe this ups your concentration level as surprisingly most of us managed to reduce our scores in Round 2.



On my first landing in Round 1, I surprised myself with a +5 landing. This was followed by my first glide approach where I was descending way faster than expected and had my hand itching on the throttle, ready for a go around. Luckily a go around wasn't necessary, but I landed way short of the box. Luckily this is a competition and not real engine failure as landing so short could be a real problem if you aren't able to go around!

Things improved from here, and I managed to get all but one landing in the box! It becomes very clear during the day that managing speed is key. If you are too fast, you will float much further than you think, especially in my Jabiru where the plane and I have no weight to help settle onto the ground. If you have too much speed, your flare can float you more than 70m and right out the other side of the box or worse, it could cause you to bounce!

On the other hand, managing speed on a glide approach is quite different as you are also managing distance to the runway based on your descent rate. An important lesson is the sharper the turn, the faster you descend!

Overall, I am very happy with my results. Compared to last year, I managed to shave off over 100 points. This is including the two additional obstacle landings that you have to do in the Unlimited Class that were not required in the Sportsman's Class I competed in last year. Next year I hope to get under the 400-point mark!

I enjoyed the new multi-venue approach. The close overall results showed that the different conditions at different venues don't have that large an effect and the larger field makes the results feel like that much bigger an accomplishment. A big thanks to the organisers, judges and marshalls for their effort and for standing in the sun all day for us!


Jacques Jacobs Contest Direct left with Hans Schwebel the new SA Landing Champion

The SAPFA Secunda Speed Rally - 28 August 2021

The SAPFA Secunda Speed Rally - 28 August 2021

By Rob Jonkers. Photos by Willie Bodenstein and Rob Jonkers



This year we have returned again to the birth place of the Speed Rally, being the 4th time, this event has been held here, with 2018 the start of Season 1, and from 2020 having re-aligned the Speed Rallies to calendar year seasons, with this event being the 3rd event in Season 3, with the final event for Season 3 being at Springs on 27 Nov 2021.




With lockdown still at level 3, we limited the entries to 25 teams, and 22 had entered by the time the event entries closed on Friday 27th August. Our host club with Chairman Ashvir Kallis and Vice Chairman Lourence Mathee went all out to support the event, making the club facilities available and a braai for the Friday evening. The Aviation Junction flight school made their school facilities available for the scoring and officials' team.



The weather at one stage looking challenging.



Good weather for kite flying.


The weather outlook was looking challenging as the weekend was approaching, many warnings of severe cold and high winds predicted from a substantial cold front, and at dawn on Friday much low cloud and rain squalls made their appearance across Gauteng, which cleared later but with increasing gusty wind conditions. Having left Kitty Hawk at 10 am, caught a 30 kt tailwind to Secunda and had to deal with a 15 kt crosswind on landing. Around half the field chose rather to arrive early on Saturday, with some test flights also delayed to Saturday morning. The test flights were ably handled by Mauritz du Plessis and Iaan Myburg, with Iaan also taking up the role of scorer for this event having developed new scoring software.


At 18h30, Jonty Esser as the MC and Race Master introduced Rob Jonkers who took to the stage and provided a briefing on what to expect for the next day in terms of the planned route, how many turnpoints, distance, departure and arrivals protocol, and also how the scoring system would world work and the expected weather conditions. This year's route would include a cross-over, which would bring more spectator interaction as the aircraft came over the field at the half way mark.


Jonty Esser then took to the stage in his signature competing crew introductory theme song videos and race number handouts, and also including introductions to the team sponsors, which has picked up this year after a disastrous 2020, and great to see the sponsors returning to support their teams. A scrumptious braai was laid on by the club to end the evening with around the fire stories on a high note.



Rob Jonkers provided a briefing.


The briefing.

For Saturday the briefing started at 8h00, which was a shortened version just to cover the basics of the route, radio procedures and weather, which at least had improved wind conditions from the Friday, starting out at 10 kts with a maximum of 15 kts predicted in a westerly direction, which would at least be favourable for runway 29. Some line squalls were also in the area, with the cloud base at least more than 1000 ft, with good visibility.


 


 


 


 


 


With the briefing over, teams prepared their aircraft, while the organisers got the papers ready. Each team would then receive an envelope with a map, turnpoint photos, a minute marker and a GPS logger to record their track. Aircraft were then also scrutineered with all portable electronic devices sealed up in bags. For this event Mark & Shane from Century Avionics were on hand to also block off / seal Aircraft GPS and autopilot systems, and also checking the fuel tanks were full.


 


 


 







The Pilot Insure Scrutineer Team were on hand to seal up all portable GPS capable devices, with the papers team under guidance of Lizelle handing out papers at the allotted time, Chief Marshall Adrian Cronje and Starters Mauritz & Chareen set up at the starting line adjacent the threshold of Runway 29, who would release each aircraft at their allotted time slot. Each team then received their envelopes with their loggers at 20 minutes prior take-off time, taxi to the starting line within 10 minutes of brake release. 1st take-off was at 10h20 for the slowest aircraft which was a Magni Gyrocopter (the first time a gyro has taken part) and last take-off at 11h10, with planned arrival at 12h00.














With all the competitors off towards the south west, the route had a mix of easy and challenging turnpoints. In general the competitors found the course easy enough. At just before 12h00, the first aircraft over the line was a little early, and then followed by at least three quarters of the field within 1 minute, with tail enders after that.



1st Overall Apie and Frederick Kotzee Robinson R66



2nd Overall Quintin Kruger and Johan Whiteman Piper PA 28



3rd Overall Hendrik and Jandre Loots Sling 2



4th Michael Blackburn and Steven Briggs Sling 2



5th Dave Naude and Deidre Batchelor Jabiru 430



6th Jonty and Jonathan Esser Cessna 150C


After all teams having returned, the scoring team got to work to analyse the results, completing the individual scores by 14h00, with prize giving planned for at 15:00. In the meantime, most of the competitors being concerned over deteriorating weather decided to return to their home bases, thus a call was made at 14h30 to rather hold a virtual prize giving, which Race Master Jonty carried out at 5 PM on the WhatsApp platform. MC Jonty Esser thanked everybody in the Speed Rally series for their contributions.



7th Fanie Scholtz and Herman Haasbroek Sling 2



8th Phil Wakeley and Mary de Klerk Cessna 210A



9th Lourence Mathee and Christo Erasmus Beech F33A



10th Leon Boutell and Martin Meyer Evektor Harmoney



11th Leon Joubert and Sandi Goddard Lancair ES



12th Ron Stirk and Von Hammon Cessna 150M



13th Shaun Barron and Rhett Shillaw Cirrus SR 22



14th Roger Bozzoli and Nadine Brooker Piper PA 28R



15th Ryan Shillaw and Chris Shillaw Cirrus SR 22


The winners in the handicap category were Deidre Batchelor & Dave Naude in their Jabiru ZU-EBU, in second place Mike Blackburn & Steve Briggs in a Sling ZU-IBM and in third place the Evans Racing team Jonty & Jonathan Esser in their C150 ZU-BLL. The first thirteen placings were the only crews who managed a clean penalty free round.



16th The 1st Gyro entry Ben Potgieter and Reghardt Schoonraad Magni Orion M24



17th Coetzee and Stefan vd Merwe Cessna 182H



18th Hilton Wolf and Rob Osner Mushshak MFI 17



19th Adriaan and Elmie Klein Vans Rv14



20th Eric and Antoinette Addison Van Rv 7A


The winners in the accuracy category were the Gem air sponsored team of Phil Wakeley & Mary de Klerk in their C210 ZS-CNY, in second place Fanie Scholtz & Herman Haasbroek in their Sling ZU-FZF, and in third place Leon Bouttell & Martin Meyer in their Evektor Harmony ZU-FWS..


Overall Standings are in first place father and son Apie & Frederik Kotzee, in second place another father and son Johan Whiteman & Quintin Kruger in their Cherokee 235 ZS-FVV, and in third place another father & son team of Hendrik & Jandre Loots flying their Sling ZU-IHK. This is the first time the first 3 overall placed teams are all father and sons.


Many thanks to the Secunda Aero Club for hosting this fantastic event, the SAPFA team of Adrian Cronje as the Chief Marshall, Nigel Musgrave as the Safety Officer, Iaan & Tarryn Myburg doing the scoring, Mauritz du Plessis doing test flights and starting, Marc & Shane from Century Avionics for Scrutineering, Chareen Shillaw as the Event Secretary, Lizelle Kruger, Clarissa Dacostaesilva, Ariana Rompel, Leonie du Plessis for handing out competition papers to the crews, the Pilot Insure team under David le Roux for Scrutineering, Jonty & Lizelle & Sandi for putting together an awesome Friday evening launch event, and Anneke Pretorius for looking after officials lunches. Santjie & Jean Marie White were also on hand to ensure all aircraft are accounted for during and post the event.


 
ZS-CNY - third in the accuracy results and one of the tracks having gone a little pear shaped.

Krugersdorp Shelia Taylor ANR Nav Rally 08.05.2021

Krugersdorp Shelia Taylor ANR Nav Rally 08.05.2021

By Russell Dixon-Paver

 
A cool winter morning dawned fair, with a huge cloud bank, just above the horizon to the South West. Teams and aviation enthusiasts started arriving and coffee and breakfast was soon flowing from the revamped kitchen in the clubhouse. Just before 09:00 the weather closed in with a short downpour, causing spirits to sink somewhat.





Not to be put off by the typical “HMS Krugersdorp four seasons”, Francois Tolmay welcomed everyone on behalf of Krugersdorp Flying Club and Frank Eckard started the team briefing, outlining the really simple rules and stressing safety and having fun - “aviation with a purpose”. He had not been speaking long, when the weather started to clear, so he gave some “clearing time” by giving a brief background and description of the various SAPFA events and how the Air Navigation Rally format fitted in. The point was made that provincial and national colours could be earned by achievements in the ANR discipline.

This gave time for the weather to clear for a delayed start and four teams participated. Due to the small field there were two “runs”, one following features, like roads and landmarks, and one without, to add some extra challenge of skills to plan and fly. Cally distributed the map, photographs of the start and finish points, minute marker and printed team schedule of starting slots, including start point, start gate and end gate, with calculated distances and times, based on the nominated speed of each team. The small field also gave opportunity for Frank and Cally to spend time assisting each team with some coaching in their preparation, if needed.


Frank busy with the briefing.


Teams, Organisers and CAA representatives.




Let the route planning begin!


Graciously sponsored goodie bags and the floating trophies.

Cally making sure everyone has their documentation, while Frank concentrates on downloading tracking data and crunching the numbers.




Cally and Frank in action








The four teams get airborne.








Presentations of certificates, trophies and goodie bags.

Results:
Run 1:
Rank Points Pilot Navigator
1 1025 John Shaw Chris Shaw
2 1192 Gert Verbaan Francois Tolmay
3 1229 Johann Nel Susan Nel
4 3675 Leon Meintjies Tobie Weeber

Run 2:
Rank Points Pilot Navigator
1 1532 John Shaw Chris Shaw
2 1821 Leon Meintjies Tobie Weeber
3 2147 Gert Verbaan Francois Tolmay

Overall:
Rank Points Pilot Navigator
1 2557 John Shaw Chris Shaw
2 3339 Gert Verbaan Francois Tolmay
3 5496 Leon Meintjies Tobie Weeber

Thanks to Krugersdorp Flying Club for hosting the event, Frank and Cally for the event organisation, sponsors and CAA representatives for a safe, fun and well-run event.

The SAPFA SA National Rally Championships Stellenbosch 2021

The SAPFA SA National Rally Championships Stellenbosch 2021

15 to 18 April

Compiled by Willie Bodenstein


Sunrise at Stellenbosch Airfield.






Stellenbosch Flying Club and the views of the Hottentots-Holland mountain range.

After months of planning, behind the scenes work and practicing the SA Rally Nationals was concluded yesterday at Stellenbosch at what without a doubt is the prettiest airfield in SA.


The teams, marshals, planners and orginisers.

Fifteen teams entered the competition that will eventually determine who will be representing SA and the World Championships that are on track for 14 to 20 November and will again be hosted by the Stellenbosch Flying Club.


Colin Jordaan, Competition Director, left with Cally and Frank Eckard.

Working mostly behind the scenes Frank and Cally Eckard had the unenviable task of setting routes that will be worthy of world championship status. That, combined with the fact that most of the teams were flying in totally different topography and weather conditions, more like that that European and others will fly in regularly, made for challenging routes.

Cally, when interviewed exclusively for Pilot's Post said: "Frank and I , as designated route planners for the World Champs, set some challenging routes for Nationals. These routes will be used as Practise Routes for the World Champs, and it was therefore necessary to make them worthy of world class standard. Unfortunately, this was a huge level-jump, as most routes we plan are of necessity, suitable for first-time Fun Rally crews. Some of the Turnpoints were more obscure than those we use in Fun Rallies, and the plotting for the navigators was more difficult than usual. Flying over the mountains of Stellenbosch, though magnificent, was treacherous for some less experienced pilots, especially for those flying lighter aircraft. Wind of Day 2 made the route over Sir Lowry's Pass and the Caledon area exceptionally challenging, and will probably be spoken of many years from now as being the flying experience of a life time for most of the pilots. However, the timing on that route was fairly good, and did not reflect the difficulty of the conditions. The scenery was spectacular over both this "Southern Route" and Day 3's "Mountain Route", which explored the Franschhoek Mountains, over Theewaterskloof, and parts of Paarl Valley. Fortunately, Day 3, the last day of the competition, was calm and clear, and pilots did not experience any adverse weather conditions."

"Despite the frustrations, hard work and long hours of creating the routes, then checking and re-checking the routes to ensure that there are no mistakes, we are very heartened to see quite a few new crews make it into the top ten results list. This makes it all worthwhile."

"It has been very challenging to create routes that challenge both the veteran rally crews as well as those who are flying Nationals for the first time. Added to this was the fact that most of our flyers are used to the flat topography around Johannesburg, which proved to be a great advantage to the local Cape pilots."


Colin Jordaan handled all the safety briefings.


A typical morning briefing.


Rob Jonkers and Martin Meyer plotting their route

"Having secured the 2020 World Rally Flying Championship to take place in South Africa, with the chosen venue to be Stellenbosch, and with planning already under way from 2018, we were dealt a cruel blow have all our activities scuppered in 2020, and nothing more glum than having had to cancel this prestigious event, as well as the Nationals that would have taken place in April. With the world recovery slowly taking hold in 2021, we rescheduled our 2020 events to 2021, and secured the WRFC to again take place in November of this year, and our Nationals was also rescheduled for this April, and allowing all our teams to experience the actual venue for the Worlds, it would be beneficial to have the event in Stellenbosch." Rob Jonkers, Chairman of SAPFA told us.








Some stunning in flight and ground pics by SAPFA chairman, Rob Jonkers

"My Navigator Martin and I had had limited practice opportunities this year, as such we arrived at the airfield just before midday on Wednesday the 14th April to find the aircraft we were going to use unserviceable with a broken magneto, which the local AMO was able to repair in time for us to at least get in a practice rally flight in the late afternoon, where we flew a route known as Bliksem - which was a route used as practice a few weeks prior as a local rally competition, and after having flown it - it lived up to its name, although we did initially fly it twice in the simulator, finding the turnpoints and photos still tough, especially those involving powerlines in the fading light."

"With at least one orientation flight behind us, we went into the next three competition days with some trepidation, at least the weather was good, although the wind and turbulence in the mountainous areas very hectic in places, our first route was towards the north in the mainly flat areas, the 2nd day's route was towards the South East near to Hermanus with at least 30 kts of headwind up the Shaw's Mountain Pass, and then the same tailwind going west, which is north of Shaw's Mountain thus keeping the speed constant a significant challenge. The 3rd day's mountain route took us over Bain's Kloof then to the Worcester area, thereafter keeping east of the du Toit's mountains working our way back to Stellenbosch via Franschoek. Both the Southern & Mountain routes kept us busy managing the power and altitude as we ascended and descended over the passes to keep our timing as accurate as possible. Needless to say it was difficult to do given our scores were not our best, but that is what flying in this environment entails, on top of which attempting to find photos of ground features at the same time made matters even more tough. Must say the area is for sure the most beautiful area to fly around in, just a pity we are working in the cockpit instead of enjoying the scenery…. Overall we did not have stellar performance but at least we had the opportunity to practice in the area prior to the main event planned for November."


Iaan (navigator) and wife Tarryn (pilot) Myburgh were probably the youngest team at the Nationals. They entered their first rally a month after Tarry was signed out and are hooked on the sport.

Talking to Tarryn she said, "Our first National Rally Flying Championships couldn't have been set in a more beautiful but challenging place than Stellenbosch. Having never flown much further than Mpumalanga before, the mountains and the weather in the Cape were a new experience for us. We came up a few days early to try get used to the conditions, have some fun doing old routes and figure out the lay of the land before the serious stuff started."

"Day 1 of Nationals and we arrived bright and early to a plane that wouldn't start. A bit of a stressful start to the day but we got our race time moved out and the plane sorted and enjoyed the Northern Route. We made a few silly mistakes and hoped to improve on Day 2. Day 2 was the Southern Route and the wind gave us hell all the way around the course. Timing went out the window as we bounced and blew over the mountains just hoping to stay vaguely on track. Day 3 was the Mountain Route, which was something special to see in the very few moments we had spare to look at the scenery. We had a good day, things gelled nicely, and we found all the turn points within the timing windows."


The Myburg's taking off and the final leg on Saturday.

"When all the results were tallied, we ended 9th overall. We are both happy with our results, considering this is only our third Rally competition ever. The bug has bitten, and we will be practicing hard, hoping to be back in November."

"We have to say a huge thank you to Frank, Callie and Colin for their hard work and to Ursula and the marshals for time and effort in helping everything to run smoothly. Thank you to Mauritz for all the tips throughout the year and for the hard work over the event and to Coach Jonty, thanks for all the training, advice, guidance and spare renoster snot. We have learnt more in the last few months than we could ever have done on our own."


The electronic equipment setup at the spotlandings.

 



 


Some action during the spotlandings.


The spotlanding judges.


Piet Meyer and Adrienne Visser After competing in the SAPFA speed rally series during 2019 and 2020, decided they needed more of a challenge and decided to try their luck with the Navigation Rally and enter for the Stellenbosch National Rally Champs in preparation for the World Championship that will be in Stellenbosch in November 2021.

Piet Meyer when speaking to us said; "My navigator Adrienne Visser and I fly a Jabiru J400 and with a few friends made it our mission to practice and qualify for the World Championship. We downloaded a few routes from SAPFA and with the help of the team coach Jonty Esser started flying these routes. After a few training sessions we took the long trip down flying from Wonderboom in my trusty Jabi on Friday 9th April to have some training days in Stellenbosch before the Nationals."

"Needles to say, we bit off a little more that we could chew but stuck it out and braved the high mountains of the Cape. After a few sessions flying local routes and after months of patiently waiting, race day arrived. The route was planned to the North of Stellenbosch over flat areas with hardly any distinct features. We had a hard time flying the arc…. And if I say we, I mean me, the pilot. As I got to the beach with clear blue ocean, looking at my map to see no pretty beaches or for even a small dam that I could pretend was the beach with pretty girls, umbrellas, and cooler boxes, I knew I messed up. Luckily, my navigator finished plotting the route and could get her head up and help me get back on track. Humbling experience and I felt sorry or my navigator who did well but the pilot not so good."


Piet and Adrienne taking off for another leg of the Nationals.

"The second day took us to the South over Hermanus, some extreme mountain tops and beautiful scenery. On this day we did very well. Navigator finished plotting well ahead of time, the pilot, slight headache from some cold refreshments the night before but much calmer not too shabby on the route as well as time management."

"As for the 3rd and last day, the route was towards the mountains and over some very scary terrain. We were way out of our comfort zone as the only mountains I am used to is the northern ridge of Hartebeespoort dam. Again, my navigator did an exceptional job, but the pilot could not maintain the correct times over the turn points."

"We approached this week as a learning experience as well as some quality times with good friends all sharing the same passion. As novice competitors in navigation rallies, our bubble got so much bigger, and the learning curve was more of a straight line up than a curve. The rally championship was a great success and we, as a group of first-time competitors enjoyed it thoroughly. As newbies to the sport, our flying skills improved, our confidence levels improved, and it makes for a safer pilot. Organization was great and well done to all involved. For all who has never done this or who thinks that they are not good enough, please come and give it a try. You will not be disappointed."

"As for flying 9 days in a row, exhausted, happy, proud, team "Where the Hell is North" is signing off. Mic Drop. Piet and Adrienne out."


The marshals without who the event would not have been possible.

When we arrived at the airfield there was much to discuss and to be arranged to ensure that we all knew the tasks that was at hand to ensure that we as marshals can assist the teams .

To enable the teams to comply with the applicable rules, we as the marshals had to do the following tasks :-
Jumping a gate to place a marker. Drive the routes and put out ground markers

1. Body search all competitors

2. Check all aircraft for GPS devises

3. Paint white lines on aircraft wheels (needed for the landings)

4. Issue the competitors their envelopes on time (Minutes / Seconds)

5. Man, the landing box and verify the landings by means of visual reference / video's and electronically (Bingo Box)

6. Once returned from the route, the competitors had to give us their answer sheet that was sealed and taken to the de-brief and scoring room.


Sealing cellphones and other electronic devices.


Handing over the route information.


Searching for devices or other items that may cause an advantage.


Right up to a body search.
Stellenbosch Flying Club organised members / student to assist the SAPFA Marshals on the day. The necessary training was given and everybody knew his designated task.

We had lots of fun, made new friends, and looking forward to marshal at the World Rally Flying Championships to be held at Stellenbosch airfield later this year.




Ron Stirk and Hans Schwebel getting ready to plot.


Steve vd Merwe and Alewyn Burger relaxing after a day's hard flying. We spoke to Alewyn Burger who together with Steve vd Merwe fly for SAFAIR and he told us that when Steve asked him if he would like to team up with him for the 2021 SA National Rally Championships he immediately said "Yes!"

"Later he send me the FAI Rally rules and I said to myself "Oh Veldskoen!," this is going to take something spectacular to not to make fools of ourselves. Two weeks before Nationals we attended a very valuable training camp held by the "Grey Beards" of the SA rally scene. The very next day we flew our first official rally together. The route was called "Bliksem", need I say more. Our results were a reality check, the learning curve steep but we were hooked."

"It was a long two weeks before Steve could fly back down to beautiful Stellenbosch, the home of the Stellenbosch Flying Club in order for us have another run at the "Bliksem". Thanks to the rally prep team there was an additional five routes worked out for this area to cut our teeth on and so, we got to work or should I say, plan, plot, cut, stick, fly, time, spot and observe. Don't forget the spot landing at the end!"


Steve and Alewyn concluding their day's leg at the spot landings.

"The competition finally arrived. We are in quarantine and all cellphones are sealed away. We will only know where we flying too in 3 hours' time. The butterflies are doing aerobatics in my stomach. For a moment I relax and reflect, asking myself why we have placed ourselves in this situation. We are out of our depths but in our hearts, we are aviators! This is what we do, flying is what we do! After day one of the nationals, it feels like the monkey is a little lighter. We are still making rookie errors. However, there are many things we are getting to grips with. In truth we can be proud of how far we have come. The camaraderie and hanging out with fellow rally folks are fantastic!"

"See you at the next rally and perhaps you too will discover and pursue this challenging sport. Thank you, Steve, for asking."


Andre Kluyts and Don Lucas


Tony and Pamela Russell


Henk and Ilse Oosthuizen, they too were newsbies.


Sandi Goddard and Jonty Esser.


Entry 9 in the competition consisted of participants Marko Nel (pilot) and Leon Bouttell (navigator), this is a new team that was formed 3 weeks before the national event with limited time to prepare. Marko the resident CFI at the school has excellent knowledge of the area and flying experience. Like most of the established competitors the team elected to use a C172 flown at 75K for the event.

"Lessons learned from day one lead us to significantly improve our performance for the later routes." Leon told us. "Of particular note was during the third routes flown we did not miss a single turn point correctly identified the photographs, this was an absolutely brilliant effort on the part of the Marko with a less than adequate map. Our navigation scores also improved with every successive day flown. However, the on-route photographs did present a real challenge to find and this was a large component of the penalties scored in the competition."


Frederick and dad Apie Kotze with umbrella girls Ursula and Leonie.


Fanie Scholtz and Herman Haasbroek. This was their first nationals.


Father and son Hendrik and Jeandre loots taking of for their final leg…….


…….they took the honours in the spot landing segment of the competition.


Jonty and the newbies. The presence and enthusiasm of these competitors bodes well for the future of rally flying in SA

After to prizegiving Jonty Esser, the RSA Team Coach made the following statement: "Firstly I would like to thank all the new Elite Rally crews that have invested their time and commitment to joining this Extremely Elite Group of Pilots and Navigators. You all did extremely well and have learnt a lot especially Windy Mountain flying to the second. I am really proud of all Crews that have gained superior flyings skills during this World class Difficult Competition. We will continue to train and do our best to prepare for the Qualification Round Two competition that will be held in June in Brits".

"Thank you to the Media for covering this prestigious event and thanks our competition director and route planners."


Frank Eckard with Adrian Piling and Mary de Klerk with Colin Jordaan. Adrian and Mary took the honours at the championships

Defending one's championship title for the 8th consecutive time since 2008 is no mean task….. especially when one is competing with a lot of younger sharper and competitively hungry aviators. Well this is what I was determined to achieve at the South African National Rally Flying Championships held recently at Stellenbosch Airfield. I have not missed a National Championship competition since 1991 having flown the first 20 odd years with Barry de Groot, then with Adrian Pilling (after Barry retired), only once with Nigel Hopkins, himself a World Champion, and now in 2021 again with Adrian.

I knew the competition was going to be challenging, but actually did not realise quite how challenging, until we took off against the backdrop of the magnificent Helderberg Mountain range surrounding Stellenbosch. With 15 well trained and heavily practiced teams competing for the title, and having to best interpret and plot the challenging routes planned by the Eckard team, we were all facing 3 days of pin point accurate navigation and precision flying in order to achieve the ultimate win and possibility of selection for the South African Rally Flying Team to represent our country at the World Championships due to take place in Stellenbosch in Nov 2021. Fortunately the weather gods were smiling down on Stellenbosch and surrounds in terms of wall to wall blue with visibility to “foreverland”…..


Adrian and Mary on the way for another leg of the Nats.

Day 1 Route took us over some flat land to the north. Most teams found this route to be extremely challenging and the results for this day were not pleasing to most. Even though Adrian and I were placed first, we knew there was a lot of room for improvement. World Class teams need to return to base with only double-digit scores and ours was a triple digit.

Day 2 dawned and brought with it howling easterly winds pumping in the south. The route was taking us down south and so no crews were spared the enormous buffeting and turbulence, not to mention the fight against 30-40 knot headwinds screaming down the valley with venturial force only to turn our backs on the wind and then have to pull out all stops to slow the craft down while listening to the stall warning screaming ……. But the spectacular mountainous scenery somehow managed to overpower this sometimes rather terrifying experience. Fortunately, all crews landed safely but the experience was not over for Adrian and myself. For some unaccountable reason, both of our loggers bombed out and only fragments of the route had been logged. Despite being thrown around like a cork on a choppy sea, we knew we had flown a good route and so were bitterly disappointed to hear that we faced the possibility of no result for the day. But thanks to the supreme skills of Frank Eckard, he managed to somehow piece the entire route together between what was retrievable off both loggers and the result was delivered. This time we were placed second by a mere 2 penalty points behind the brand-new team of Marco Nel and Leon Bouttel.

Day 3 awoke to a perfect day for flying and the crews took to the skies to enjoy and incredibly magnificent mountain route that really showcased the sheer beauty of the Western Cape area. By now everyone was settling in and both the plotting and the flying seemed somehow to get easier.

Prize giving took place on the lawn in front of the picturesque club house and winners were announced with certificates, medals and trophies being handed out to all the deserving marshals, organisers and participants. Colin Jordaan had directed the 2021 South African National Championships in a most successful and near flawless event and I got to defend and retain the title of SA Rally Navigation Champion for another year.



Second time National contenders Anthony and Pamela Russel finished in second place


With Marco Nel and Leon Bouttell in third place.



The teams to represent SA are still to be announced.

I have been fortunate to cover and report on a number of SA Rally Nationals as well as the previous worlds held in SA and this year's one has without a doubt been the best organized and as far as I can remember the best supported as well. The number of new teams, not only in experience but in age, is very heartening to see.

Thank you to all at SAPFA for your hospitality. We are so looking forward the world championships!
  1. The run-up to the SAPFA Rally Nationals is in full swing
  2. My Aviation Life Navigation Rally live at Wonderboom International Airport 6 March 2021
  3. The 17th Rand Airport Challenge Nav Rally 27 Feb 2021
  4. The Aircraft Unlimited Witbank Speed Rally 2021