February 2021

The 17th Rand Airport Challenge Nav Rally 27 Feb 2021

By Willie Bodenstein

Thirteen teams, twelve in the Advance Class and one in Sportsman, entered for the Rand Airport Challenge that was postponed from January because of inclement weather. Althought not perfect on Saturday conditions were flyable and the first aircraft eventually took off almost an hour after the planned time. By then Ron Stirk and Hans Schwebel had withdrawn due to bad weather forecasted on their route home to Brits.

The Aircraft Unlimited Witbank Speed Rally 2021

Text by Rob Jonkers.
Photos by Willie Bodenstein, Rob Jonkers and Russell Dixon-Paver

This first of the 3rd Season Aircraft Unlimited Speed Rallies for 2021 has been held at Witbank, organised by SAPFA and hosted by the Witbank Aeronautical Association. This event was held virtually a year ago at the same venue. The world of course has changed substantially since then, although it seems yesterday that we were last here. It has for sure been an event fraught with challenges, from the start of having to postpone it from the original planned date of 6 February as the last throes of cyclone Eloise was still drenching the Highveld, to having to line up a new support ground team (as many of the stalwarts were not available a week later), to having to ride through a number of mistakes on the day. Nevertheless, the end result was at least a safe and successful rally.