Articles Precision (Page 13)

BEGINNERS RALLY AND PRECISION TRAINING CAMP

Ladybrand – 12-14 May 2000

By Norman Dixie

Well, the week-end has come and gone – with great success thanks to wonderful weather and all of you who supported it.

A very special thank you to Deon van den Berg for making a special trip on Friday morning 12th May to ensure that the computer was set up correctly. Also sincere thanks to Pieter Grobler who ran the system for the first time.

Without Ron Stirk, Hans Schwebel, Nellis Nel and Walter Walle, this event would have been a flop! Thank you for your support and for the help regarding the lecture, and for flying with the beginners.

OPEN CLASS results were
1st Nellis Nel 122 Penalties,
2nd Ron Stirk 157 Penalties,
3rd Walter Walle 266 Penalties,and
4th Hans Schwebel 325 Penalties

Walter Walle was the BULL on the landings with 0 penalties.

The beginners participated in two sections:

NOVICE CLASS
1st Andre du Toit 1993 Penalties, and
2nd James Lidderd 3940 Penalties

and
BEGINNERS SPORTSMEN
1st Ben Behm 1147 Penalties, and
2nd Dana Bensch 3830 Penalties

Well done guys. Special thanks to Rob, Alwyn and Ian Stevens who flew as observers.

I was a little disappointed that we did not have more beginners, but thank you again to the Beginners/Novices. Hope to see you Brits at the National Championships, entering in the Sportsmen’s Class now that you know how the whole thing works.

Brits will give you the opportunity to improve your performance until you feel confident to enter the open class.

Happy Landings

GAUTENG INTER-PROVINCIAL
PRECISION FLYING CHAMPIONSHIPS

Vanderbijlpark – 15 April 2000

By Deon van den Berg

The unpredictable weather we have had the past four months again played its part in the Gauteng interprovicials but in the end some kind of a result was possible.

Barry arrived from Natal Friday-afternoon, Walter and Frikkie from Bloemfontein Saturday-morning, Nigel and his wife battled all the way from Grand Central in heavy mist and a bit later Hans and Ron from Brits landed with only minutes to spare before the papers were handed out. Unfortunately Jan Hanekom and Mauritz had to turn back after trying to get through rain and thunderstorms, we really missed their presence.

Everything went well until about 14h00 when a hailstorm accompanied Walter on his take-off roll and Frikkie and Barry missed their time slot. We postponed their take-off time by one hour and Frikkie took of in light rain only to return a few minutes later with technical problems. Barry could not fly because the Jabiru has a wooden prop and it was still raining. For them the competition was over.

The other pilots returned with reports of rain on certain legs of the route but did very well as the results can testify. We unfortunately had a draw between Adrian and Nigel, but after consulting the rules Adrian was placed first because he had the lowest score on navigation. In the end everybody enjoyed the well-organized competition and interesting route by Dicky Swanepoel and I would like to thank him for that.

Four marshals from Brits also braved the weather to help the local guys and they did a very good job. Thank you all for your efforts.

The hospitality of Dicky and Marinda, Tony and Lynn and Willem Brits were highly appreciated by everybody present.

Sunday-morning clear skies as we left our friends only to battle the weather ten minutes later.

Overall Result

• 1. JKN A.Pilling    52
• 2. JKN N Hopkins   52
• 3. CNZ H. Schwebel   177
• 4. CNZ R. Stirk   468
• 5. CUX W. Walle   571

NORTH WEST PROVINCE INTER-PROVINCIAL
PRECISION FLYING CHAMPIONSHIPS

Brits – 25 March 2000

By Jan Hanekom

It was a nice cool morning, overcast with the cloud base about 2000′ AGL. Twelve competitors arrived at Brits, some of them from Bloemfontein and Ladybrand. As I arrived at Brits, Mauritz phoned to tell me that our C150 has got a problem (AMO induced snag) – so I had to rush over to Wonderboom by car, flew over to Brits in a C182 to make it just in time for my papers and obviously a bit stressed because I now had to participate in the C182 at a much higher nominated speed and in a heavier aeroplane.

Dale de Klerk and his team of helpers and marshals did an excellent job in the planning and setting up of this route. We had unmarked (secret) timing points, secret markers in town where it was difficult to time yourselves and find the markers, and we had one turning point behind a koppie which also made it difficult to get ones timing right. Unfortunately we discovered an error with Dale’s distance calculation on one leg, which meant that the timing for two secrets had to be cancelled.

An indication of the difficulty was that four pilots missed a turning point marker in town. But seeing that we want to do well in the coming up World Championships, I feel that this is what we need.

After a well appreciated lunch break with Tannie Truia and her team doing the necessary providing us with meals, it was off to the landing contest. Conditions were good with a slight crosswind of about 5 Kts. The organizers decided that we have to do all four landings namely, 1) Powered approach, 2) Glide approach, 3) Glide approach (no flaps allowed) and 4) Powered approach with obstacle. This is a very crucial part of the contest and some competitors feel that it is weighted too heavily with regards to penalties. The bottom line is – one bad landing and you are basically out of the competition.

After a short wait and an impromptu airshow (with smoke and all) by Norman Dixie and his Cub, the final results were available.

Barry de Groot with his Jabiru won the landing contest with a total of 40 penalties and Jan Hanekom did the best on the navigation/observation section with a total of 120 penalties. It was a tight finish as usual with only 82 penalties covering the top five positions.

Open Class

• 1. Hans Schwebel 199
• 2. Barry de Groot 232
• 3. Adrian Pilling 236
• 4. Mary de Klerk 267
• 5. Jan Hanekom 281
• 6. Ron Stirk 392
• 7. Frank Eckard 431
• 8. Mauritz du Plessis 709
• 9. Walter Walle 916
• 10. Norman Dixie 1808

Sportsman class

• 1. Ted McKerchar 2408
• 2. Jack Onderstal 3638

A very special thanks again to Brits Flying Club for hosting this event. See you in Vanderbijlpark on the 15th of April – and please bring your friends along.