by Mary de Klerk
The first ever ANR was held on the 8th August 2015 in Brits.
Air Navigation Racing (ANR) is a recently developed aviation discipline introduced to attract more aviators into the sport that is positioned somewhere between Rally Flying and Air Racing. It has been accepted by GAC (General Aviation Commission) as a recognised sport and falls under the auspices of FAI (Federation Aeronautique Internationale) It is probably the newest most exciting International aviation competition discipline for many reasons. SAPFA (South African Power Flying Association) under the guidance of its Chairman, Frank Eckard, has ventured to introduce the very first event into South African skies.
The team consists of Pilot and Navigator. The crew is given a map with a printed corridor on. After the crew have added headings and times (minute markings) to their map, they fly to a pre allocated time slot. All aircraft fly at the same speed (normally 80kts)
The objective is for the aircraft has to pass the start gate at a specific time (Hr:min:Sec) fly the route accurately as close to the centre line as possible. Touching the borders or flying outside of the corridor will incur penalty points.. The corridor width can vary from 1nm either side of track to 200m either side of track. As the crews improve, the corridor becomes narrower to increase the level of difficulty. No timing penalties are awarded during the corridor flight, but the aircraft will be timed as they exit the final gate at the finish point. The winner is the crew with the least amount of penaties.
What makes this new sport so attractive is the fact that it’s fun, its achievable for most, its inexpensive to fly, and the rules are simple.
Frank designed the first event to be held in SA and had to modify the rules slightly to accommodate the SA landscape and scoring system. The entire route took less than 45 mins to complete and the crews returned having had a lot of fun in the air. Watch this space for the next event and be sure not to miss it.
For more information on the sport please visit : https://www.fai.org/page/gac-air-navigation-race