February 1988

By Vic Kaiser

The abovementioned championship was held at Grand Central on Saturday 27th February 1988 with disappointingly few entries. Only three contestants made it to the start on a somewhat chilly and overcast morning. To add to this there was a fresh 15 – 20 knot cross wind blowing which was to play havoc during the landing competition later on.

After having some coffee and sandwiches the competitors were given a briefing on the day’s proceedings. Following this they were each given a 1:250 000 map of the Reef area with 7 turning points marked on it. They were then allowed 30 minutes in which to complete the leg distances, true headings as well as leg times using the wind of the day. After the 30 minutes they were given a correctly computed navigation log as well as 10 photographs (and allowed a further 30 minutes to prepare their maps for their allocated take off time).

Best results for the flight planning section were achieved by Benjamin Meyer.

First off was Benjamin Meyer in a Cessna 180 followed by Glen Dell in a Cessna 150 Aeirobat who in turn was followed by Frank Rehrl in a Grob.

Of the 10 photographs given only 8 were on the route and there were also 2 secret, timed checkpoints as well as 4 manned turning points. All the competitors managed to find their way around the course with only one spotting one of the secret checkpoints and all of them struggling to place the photographs correctly. The best performance for the Nav. phase came from Frank Rehri in the Gob.

The wind had dropped slightly to 12 knots when the landing competition got under way in the same order. Judged by 2 international judges, all the competitors overshot the line on all 3 landings with Glen Dell doing best overall. With each of the competitors having won one section of the championships at this stage, the final results looked like this:

• 1^st Glen Dell – 89%
• 2^nd Frank Rheri – 87%
• 3^rd Ben Meyer – 73%

Well done guys – keep it up when you represent Transvaal at the Nationals in Stellenhosch on the 10 – 12th March.

I am somewhat perturbed with the apathy with which a lot of members approach sport aviation in general. We at SAPFA go to a lot of trouble and expense to organise these events and rely on your support to make them a success. At the same time, it is all so quite easy to organise an event of this nature on a club basis and any club interested in honing its flying skills, should please contact its local SAPFA representative to assist with the running of such events. For 1,5 hours of flying in a Cessna 150 the cost surely can’t he prohibitive. Also watch the events calendar on the inside cover of Aeronews for an update of dates and venues of various events. Time and cost do not always allow us to print and distribute posters before each event.