Articles Precision (Page 16)

By Peter Norton

There was thunder and lightning of all types at the recent Precision Flying Nationals held on 23-24 June at Tempe airfield near Bloemfontein. The weather-gods organised an out-of-season thunderstorm, that was matched only in ferocity by the thunder and lightning coming from the debriefing room where the provisional results were being discussed!

For those unfamiliar with power flying competitions, precision flying is for solo pilots with no navigator (as in the rallies). The National Championships consist of two “navexes” and a spot landing competition, with four man teams from each province, as well as last years “invited” winners. The navex consists of accurate flight planning, and then navigating over checkpoints at a nominated ground speed with an allowed margin of error of two seconds either way, while at the same time looking for ground markers and 10 or so photographs along the route. Up to 12 legs are fitted into an hour-and-a-half, with a couple of sneaky secret checkpoints thrown in and, oh yes, you’re still supposed to fly safely! It never fails to amaze me that the better pilots manage to get most of their photos and ground-markers and “bulls” (zero time penalties)for at least half of their checkpoints!

The ground marshalls seem to enjoy themselves too – one said I was flying so slow as I came in that I nearly stalled into his skottelbraal breakfast! Another accused the “red bomber” from the W.P of trying to dive underneath the 1m string gate used to take overhead times!

The first day’s rally took us out east of Bloem towards Thaba ‘Nehu chasing roads that no longer existed, and koppies that disappeared in the rain showers. An apparently unmanned checkpoint with a rather familiar looking Kombi lying stuck in the mud a few hundred metres away showed that the ground marshalls were also making heavy weather of it! Local knowledge helped when one of the Free Staters managed to read the name of a railway station on a photograph, and mark it before he even left the briefing room!

A howling 25 knot wind with a strong cross-wind component made for an interesting spot landing competition in the afternoon. Some of the old hands showed their class, but I for one was blown all over the place, and the taildraggers were just glad to be able to get on the ground, let along anywhere near the line! As if to drive home the unfairness of it all, the last few pilots flew in absolute calm. We tried to make them do night landings just to counteract the advantage but, unfortunately, the competition finished just before sunset!

Friday was a perfect day for flying, in all respects. A really memorable moment for me was just after turning at the infamous turning point 3, when a herd of springbok “pronked” in the early morning light in a field below me, bringing home the magic of flying low over the African veld.

The course was generally easier than the previous day, but had lots of timed checkpoints to catch you out and some very difficult photos. As well as turning point 3, which led to most of the fireworks in the debriefing room! Strict application of the international “off-track” rule led to a number of pilots receiving maximum penalties for the checkpoint, and much unhappiness. It is clear that, if the rules are to be applied strictly, some test situations should be accurately described in the rule book. However, the general feeling was that far too much responsibility is put on the shoulders of the volunteer ground marshalls and that, whether the rules are correct or not, they should be modified to take the pressure off these much-needed volunteers.

At a very pleasant prize-giving at the Old Students’ Centre the following results were announced:-

• 1^st Adrian Pilling (Natal) 381 – 1989 S.A Precision Flying Champion
• 2^nd Geoff Henschel (OFS) 640
• 3^rd Pete Norton (OFS) 732
• 4^th Colin Jordaan (Tvl) 785
• 5^th Dave Pereison (EP) 1 009
• 6^th Johan Swart (WP invited) 1 740
• 7^th Nico Gordon (OFS) 2 148
• 8^th Jake Heese (WP) 2 285
• 9^th James Craven (WP) 2 582
• 10^th Malcolm Spence (EP) 2 919

The team prize was won by the OFS “home team”, followed by Western Province. A hearty word of thanks to Roy Waldek, Kassie Kasselman and their team of organisers, computer operators, ground marshalls and helpers for an enjoyable, if stormy, competition.

By Johan Swart

Fog and poor visibility test the precision flying champions at Stellenbosch

This year’s precision flying championships was a historic occasion for Western Province because, for the first time, the event took place at Stellenbosch. Maybe the pilots from other provinces will now appreciate the efforts that the WP pilots have gone to over the years to attend these events “very” far from home.

From 10 to 12 March, nineteen of the top precision pilots (commercial, private, new and old) in the country met at Stellenbosch Airfield to do battle for the highest honour in the sport – namely the S.A. OPEN PRECISION FLYING CHAMPION and S.A. PRIVATE PILOT PRECISION FLYING CHAMPION for 1988. Seeded through from the 1987 Championships were: Springbok Adrian Pilling, John Campbell and Springbok Dave Camphell. The other 16 pilots were from WP, EP, OFS and Natal.

Days 1 and 2 were re%rved for Flight Planning, Navigation and Observation tests while Day 3 was used for the Spotlanding Competition. The route for Navigation test 1 took the competitors from the start at Stellenbosch Airfield to the east of Kuilsrivier, then over the built-up area of Durbanville, to the heart of the Swartland, past Malmesbury, then north of Wellington, over Paarl Mountain and back to Stellenbosch. Over the nine leg route of 96,7 nm the competitors had to find and identify nine photographs and 11 ground targets.

Navigation test 2 ran from Stellenbosch past Klapmutskop, right over the “Taalpaal” into Paarl. From there over Paarl Mountain (again) to the south of Perdeberg, then north of Wellington and on to Malmesbury and Atlantis. Back over Philadelphia, the Kraaifontein built-up area, over the Bottelary Hills to Stellenbosch. Navex 2 also had nine legs, a total of 95,8 nm long and there were eight photographs and 11 ground markers to identify. In total for the two navigation tests there were 25 manned checkpoints, of which five were secret.

The start of the competition each day was delayed by three hours because of fog. Thereafter, the visibility was very poor and made navigation very difficult. The provisional results for Nav 1 were issued on the Friday afternoon, while the results for Nav 2 came out on the Saturday morning. The competitors were asked not to discuss their results with the others. Because of this, tensions ran high and nobody knew who was where till the prize-giving party on the Saturday evening.

The handling of the championships was done very professionally – from the flight-planning room through to the debriefing after each test. At each checkpoint a proper timing gate was used for accuracy. For the landing competition the runway was marked every metre with side markings for the video camera, according to international rules.

The championship briefing took place on Wednesday 9th March and was followed by a cocktail party hosted by the University of Stellenbosch Flying Club. On Thursday afternoon, all competitors were invited by Doug Eyre to visit the Flight for Hope Project. Doug and Ellaine Eyre treated the participants to a super cocktail party.

The landing competition on Saturday was a bit of a nightmare for the participants, because everyone had been practising before the competition on runway 19. On the Saturday, however, the wind had swung north-westerly, with runway 01 in use for the landing competition.

The prize-giving dinner was held at Spier Jonkershuis Restaurant – a perfect setting for an occasion like this. Guests, pilots, marshalls and friends were all seated under the oak trees enjoying good food and wine from the Stellenbosch area.

Maj. Gen. James Gilliland, president of Aero Club, and Mr. Mike Hartley, chairman of SAPFA, presented the prizes to the deserving winners. André Schoeman from WP managed to hold onto his lead right through the competition to take the open crown and become the 1988 S.A. Open Precision Flying Champion. In second place overall was Johan Swart from WP, taking the private pilot’s crown to become the S.A. Private Pilot Precision Flying Champion for 1988. In third position overall was John Campbell from Natal, followed by Peter Norton from WP.

These first four competitors all belong to the University of Stellenbosch Flying Club (John Camphell – country member) and as a result, the Club Trophy went to USFC. Scoring a lst, 2nd and 4th place the Provincial Shield obviously went to Western Province with Eastern Province second, followed by Free State and then Natal.

André Schoeman received the trophy for Best Navigation, while Springbok Adrian Pilling won the Landing Trophy. The gold, silver and bronze shields went respectively to André Schoeman, Johan Swart and John Campbell.

At the prize-giving dinner the full 1988 Springbok Rally team was announced. They are: Ivanhoe Perelson and Dave Perelson; John Adams and Colin Jordaan; André Schoeman and Johan Swart; Dave Campbell and John Campbell; and Dave Mostert and Anton Mostert.

The following Precision Flying team was also announced: André Schoeman, Johan Swart, Dave Perelson, John Campbell and Colin Jordaan.

Our thanks go to Maj.Gen. Gilliland and Mike Hartley for acting as the jury, Roy Waldek for setting the route and being chief judge, John Adams and Dane Gerneke for proof-flying the route, taking the photographs and for doing all the computer work. Thank you also to Arno Neethling for the use of his computer, to Di Norton and Ellaine Eyre for preparing the cocktail parties and Ros Gibson for being a super flight-planning room examiner. Very special thanks must go to all the marshalls and helpers who did a splendid job – and, of course, the University of Stellenbosch Flying Club for the use of their facilities.

Last but not least – thank you to all the participants: we hope to see you all next year in the “VRYSTAAT”.

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.