Articles Rally

By Tarryn Myburgh 
23.09.2025
The Aero Club d’Italia hosted the 24th FAI World Rally Flying Championships in the town of Ferrara, 20nm northeast of Bologna. This was the second time Italy has hosted the Championships, the first being in Ravenna in 1999. South Africa was represented by the lone team of Tarryn and Iaan Myburgh, accompanied by Barbara Friebose as international judge, Hans Schwebel as international chief judge, and Ursula Schwebel.


This was the 3rd World Championship that Tarryn and Iaan have competed in, following on from Brits in 2022 and Macon, France in 2023. It proved to be a successful campaign, bringing back the 1st Place trophy in the Landings Competition.






The opening ceremony was a colourful affair with the 17 participating nations being paraded through the town square behind a group of flag throwers accompanied by trumpeters and drummers. The town was a hive of activity as the event coincided with the annual busker festival. After some speeches and introductions by selected dignitaries, including the competition director, president of the GAC and mayor of Ferrara, our own Hans Schwebel, acting as the chief judge, hoisted the FAI flag, declaring the championships open.


 


For the readers unfamiliar with rally flying, the scored component comprises 3 elements namely navigation, observation and landing. Each crew receives three 1:200,000 maps, a clue sheet, a timing sheet, turn point photos and enroute photos. The crew then needs to prepare the route on the maps using the clue sheet. The time allowance for preparation work is 2 minutes per turn point before the crew needs to take off. Therefore, if there are 15 turn points, including the start and finish points, the crew receives 30 minutes preparation time. The time sheet indicates when the crew needs to be at each turn point. There is a two second grace period, after which 3 penalty points are accumulated for each second early or late that you arrive at the turn point, up to a maximum of 100 penalty points per turn point.

 
The observation component requires the crew to identify whether the photo given for each turn point is true or false. For each incorrect answer, a crew incurs 100 penalty points. If the crew does not give an answer, the penalty is 50 points. In addition, the crews need to find 20 enroute photos and 5 ground markers and indicate the position of these on the route. Incorrectly identifying an enroute photo or ground marker results in 50 penalty points per photo. Not finding an enroute photo or ground marker incurs 30 penalty points.




Finally, for the landing, the pilot needs to touch down with their main wheels on a 2m wide line to score 0 points (a bingo), after which for each 5 meter away from that line, an incremental 10 penalty points are incurred. For landing short, 60 penalty points are incurred per 5 meters. A maximum of 200 penalty points can be incurred for a normal landing.

The first competition day took crews north of Ferrara, crossing the river Po. The route was relatively challenging with the third and fourth legs comprising of connected arcs. Regardless of this, three teams, two from Poland and one from Slovakia, returned with a navigation score of 0. Even more impressive was the fact that Marcin and Joanna Skalik from Poland also scored a 0 for observation, meaning they correctly identified every turn point photo, enroute photo and ground marker. The only penalties they incurred for the day was 60 for their landing. The landing was where the South African crew of Tarryn and Iaan Myburgh shone, scoring a bingo. Only one other crew achieved a bingo landing on the day. Tarryn and Iaan scored a respectable 225 points for their navigation but found the observation a challenge with 745 points.




After heavy overnight rains and waking to overcast conditions, the start to the second day was delayed. The forecast showed a tight flying window with conditions worsening again in the late afternoon. The decision was therefore made to fly the shortest of the prepared routes, which took crews to the southeast of Ferrara. In addition, the scored landings for the day were cancelled due to the parallel grass runway with the landing lines being waterlogged. To further highlight the extremely high level of the current top rally pilots, another three crews returned after Day 2 with navigation scores of 0, achieved by teams from Poland, Czech and France. This was the second day in a row that Michal Wieczorek and Marcin Kwiatosz from Poland achieved this feat. Tarryn and Iaan also had an improved day, with a navigation score of 169 and an observation score of 610. This was despite a mis-plot of a turn point resulting in flying to an incorrect feature and incurring 100 penalty points.

Day 3 arrived with high temperatures and high humidity. The route was again to the north of Ferrara and covered the longest distance of the competition. The route also featured some challenging legs, both in terms of distance and lack of features. This was shown by the results, with a third of the field scoring over 1000 penalty points on the day. Tarryn and Iaan followed this trend, scoring 253 for their Navigation, and just over 1000 points for their observation. Their landing result was decent with 30 penalty points for landing.

The last competition day was also the most scenic of the competition. Crews flew in a north easterly direction towards the Adriatic Sea, with one of the arc legs over the water. With a continuously changing heading, and only time and groundspeed to rely on, this made for an interesting challenge. The day was won by the Czech team of David Cerny and Jan Havik with a score of 45 penalty points (15 for Navigation, 30 for observation and 0 for landing). Competition fatigue started showing as small mistakes started creeping in for most teams. Tarryn and Iaan found the day very challenging in both the navigation and observation and scored a total score of 1,481 penalty points, including missing a couple of turn points however, the flight was followed by another bingo landing.



With the competition days finished, all that remained was the “International Evening” and closing ceremony. The International Evening is a tradition at the World Rally Flying Championships where each participating nation showcases food or drink from their country, and competitors get the chance to socialise with each other and exchange war stories from the competition. Tarryn prepared some Melktertjies (the drink, not the tart) and most who tried it simply had to come back for more. Also on offer was pasta from the Italians, salmon from the Norwegians and an assortment of cheeses from France. Since all the flying was completed, alcohol was however the preferred way to showcase your country, with beer on tap from the Czech team, Jägermeister from Germany, Vodka from Poland and various wines and other spirits.

The airfield was transformed for the closing ceremony with the town of Ferrara joining in the fun with stalls of food, drink, gelato and coffee on offer for both participants and visitors. In addition, trampolines and flight simulators were set up to provide entertainment. Prizes were handed out during the closing ceremony followed by an excellent four course Italian dinner including local breads, cheeses, cold meats and pasta. Teams also hand out gifts from their countries to thank fellow competitors and officials and the Rooibos tea from South Africa was well received.

 

The various categories and the winners were announced as follows:
Best all female team: Dorthe Grubek & Alexandra Kirchner (Germany)
Best young team: Matous Adam & Stepan Sedlacek (Czech)
Best observation: Marcin Chrzaszcz & Michal Chrzaszcz (Poland)



Best landing crew:
Tarryn Myburgh & Iaan Myburgh (South Africa)
Adele Schramm & Francois Hatrisse (France)
Krzysztof Wieczorek & Kamil Wieczorek (Poland)
Overall Championship:
Petr Jonáš & Marek Velát (Czech)
Marcin Chrzaszcz & Michal Chrzaszcz (Poland)
Lukáš Behounek & Kryštof Bobek (Czech)
Team:
Czechia
Poland
France

Throughout the championship, Tarryn and Iaan received countless messages and well wishes from friends, family and the extended aviation community. They would like thank everyone for the extraordinary support throughout the practice and competition. They would also like to thank Jonsson Workwear for donating team shirts, Rooibos Limited for donating boxes of rooibos tea to give as a thank you to competitors and officials, and the South African Power Flying Association for their support.

South African Rally National Championships 2025

By Tarryn Myburgh
 

12 & 13 April 2025

 

It has been a difficult start to the year for rally flying. Poor weather first caused the Rand Rally Challenge to be postponed and then cancelled. The South African Rally National Championships were initially set to take place at Brits Airfield on 5 & 6 April 2025 but were postponed to 12 & 13 April, also due to poor weather.

 



Waking up early on 12 April, it looked as if we might end up with another cancellation as the cloud hung low over the whole of Gauteng extending into North West Province. The poor weather and changing dates unfortunately meant that only 5 crews made it to Brits on the day.Read More →

The Aero Club of East Africa in Nairobi, Kenya, has a long history of promoting aviation. The club was founded in 1927.

After a long break from their last rally, they decided to “Rekindle the Spirit of Classic Aviation” with an up to date NAVEX AIR RALLY.

With a little help from the GAC, they arranged a Navex Rally from the Amboseli National Park Airfield which sits at the foothills of Mount Kilimanjaro. An amazing backdrop for the rally.

Look out for next years rally!

Arrivals, Briefing and Preparations

The Navex

Celebrations

Flying aces Alewyn Burger and Steve van der Merwe piloted the ‘Bok plane’ to the various city parades

17 NOVEMBER 2023 by MARK ETHERIDGE

Captains, my captains: Capt Alewyn Burger, left, with Springbok captain Siya Kolisi and Capt Steve van der Merwe. Picture: TANJA LUGG/SAFAIR

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The 23rd FAI World Rally Flying Championships 2023

The 23rd World Rally Flying Championships was held in Mâcon, France, from 31 July to 04 August 2023. A total of 45 teams from 12 countries were present, and South Africa was represented by 4 teams, Alewyn Burger and Steve van der Merwe, Tarryn and Iaan Myburgh, Tony and Pam Russell, and Apie and Frederik Kotzee. They were accompanied by team manager, Leon Bouttell and 3 international judges, Rob Jonkers, Martin Meyer and Barbara Frieböse. Hans Schwebel was also present as the President of the General Aviation Commission.

The competition kicked off on Monday with a challenging route to the west of Mâcon. This wine region is a mix of vineyards and disjointed forestry areas subdivided by numerous small agricultural villages and farm roads. Navigation is difficult and the route includes a scored away landing at Montceau-les-Mines as well as a scored landing at the home airfield, Mâcon Charnay. The South African team ended the day with mixed results. Alewyn Burger and Steve van der Merwe finish the day in 14th position. Apie and Frederik Kotzee had a difficult day where everything that could go wrong, did. A respectable navigation result from Tarryn and Iaan Myburgh contribute to South Africa now in 5th position in the Team Standings behind the Czech Republic, France, Poland and Spain.

The competition day on Tuesday had to be suspended due to a medical emergency for the Competition Director. Thanks to the speedy reaction from trained competitors a tragedy was averted, however, the organisers considered it prudent to cancel the day and reconvene on Wednesday for the second competition day.

High wind conditions started on Tuesday and continued into Wednesday as a cold front passed through the area. The Day 2 route took us to the west again. As the competing crews prepared for a challenging day, the organisers also included an adjustment to the timing of each leg to accommodate for the windy conditions. If the wind remained constant, the adjustment of 15 knots wind from 210° should have made the flight much easier as you now need to maintain your selected airspeed rather than ground speed. The wind certainly did not pay along, increasing in strength all day with strong gusts of over 35 knots. All the South African teams found the conditions extremely challenging, as was reflected by the scores for the day. As the wind continued to increase in strength and turn into a direct crosswind during the afternoon session, the landing scores at the home Mâcon Charnay Airfield also got cancelled for the day.

After the unfortunate cancellation of flying on Tuesday, Thursday would be the third and final day of competition. The route for Day 3 finally took us to east and would include two scored landings, an away landing at Bourg on Bresse and a home landing at Mâcon-Charnay. The winds remained strong, but largely improved from the day before. Despite this, an adjustment to the timing was still made, this time for 10 knots from 250°. The South African teams all dramatically improved their navigation scores from the previous day but other mistakes for landings, altitudes or observation proved costly.

Alewyn Burger and Steve van der Merwe flew the South African flag high and finished in 3rd place overall for Landings. They accumulated a mere 40 penalty points overall for the 4 scored landings, resulting from one bingo, two 10 pointers and one 20 pointer. This is only 20 points behind the winners from the Czech Republic, Lukas Behounek and Krystof Bobek, who scored two bingos and two 10 pointers.

The overall winners of the competition Petr Jonas and Marek Velat of the Czech Republic with an incredible total score of 553. The were followed by two French crews, Olivier Riviere and Jerome Jireau, and Alexis Fuchs and Jean-Baptiste Trouche. France was crowned the team winners, followed by the Czech Republic and Poland.

The results for each day, as well as overall, teams and landings can be found on the website: 

RESULTS

If you would like to re-watch the live tracks, they are available (Days 1, 2 and 3) on the website:

TRACKING

The next World Rally Flying Championships will be held in Ferrara, Italy in 2025. A truly unforgettable experience, we hope to see our many new friends there and fly the South African flag high once again.

National Rally Championship 2023 – Western Cape Leg

By Pete van der Spek

11.03.2023


A view across the airfield

A grey morning greeted the competitors at Stellenbosch airfield on Saturday 11 March. A cold front had moved over Cape Town and the remnants were just moving over when we arrived for the Western Cape leg of the National Rally competition.


Frank gives a thorough briefing

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The Arrivals and Training week for the 22nd WRFC 2022

By Rob Jonkers (photos Rob Jonkers & others)

 

 

The 22nd World Rally Flying Championships has been a protracted postponed event after having planned to take place in 2020 in Stellenbosch with a 2nd attempt in 2021, and then eventually a third attempt in 2022 but this time in Brits in the height of the summer rainy season, and knowing full well that weather may be a factor here in the North-West area, however expected would normally have been afternoon thundershowers, and daily schedules were such that flying would be avoided in the afternoon.


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