SAPFA Air Navigation Rally Nationals Northern Leg 2024

By Andre Venter

13.04.2024


Competitors, judges and others

The Air Navigation Rally is a fun day depending on the weather, sadly this event was postponed on the scheduled day, due to the weather that was expected to reach the Highveld over the weekend. A new date was discussed and the event was moved to Saturday the 13th April 2024 which was to be held at the Brakpan Airfield.



I arrived fairly early to a sun filled airfield and found two entrants had already arrived and were sitting down to a hearty breakfast and a hot cuppa. The early birds of the day were two trikes who were out for their early tour of the countryside and a Giles G-202 that also on its way out.










Competitors and others before the start of the briefing
 


Surprise of the day

Surprise of the day was a visitor from Tel Aviv who arrived in a hired aircraft, called a Ninja, one of which I haven’t seen recently. Karl Jenkins had met up with them at Krugersdorp and politely escorted them to Eagle Creek Airfield where they got to visit Mike Puzey’s and Derek Hopkins hanger and its fine contents. Karl then suggested that they visit Brakpan the next day. And so, after a awesome breakfast they made their way back to Krugersdorp. They were to leave South Africa on Monday.

Briefing and welcome were made by Leon Boutell who is also the Competition Director and maps were distributed with all the start and finishing points marked on the map. The allotted starting times of departure was pasted on the notice board.
















Some of the competing aircraft
To give the man in the street more information about an ANR. It’s a short rally that can be held at any Airfield around the country. You are given 2 maps with a corridor already plotted on it. You have thirty minutes to prepare your map before you fly out. You may write on the headings and mark each minute on the Maps. The idea is to fly within the corridor, which is typically 04nm wide. Each second outside the corridor you get a 3 penalty points. Only the start and finished points are timed.



The pilots fly two to three rounds during on the day. The routes are short, about 30 min each and finish with a spot a landing. The spot landing results are calibrated out on the 3 landings made during the day. Frank Eckard was to be the landing judge for the day.

National and provincial colours can be earned in the ANR discipline. There will be an Air Navigation Rally held in the Western Cape in the very near future and will be combined to create the Nationals results.


ANR competition winners of the day were Tarryn Myburgh and navigator Iaan Myburgh with Fanie Scholtz and navigator Herman Haasbroek winning the landing competition.