Articles Rally (Page 11)

SA NATIONAL RALLY FLYING CHAMPIONSHIPS – 1994

Held at Virginia  1st to 3rd September 1994

6^th World Rally Flying Championship

Held at Northampton, United Kingdom – 7 to 12 August 1988

by Colin Jordaan

The Team was met at Heathrow by Adrian Pilling, who then drove us up to Northampton in a small bus. During the drive we were given a very thorough briefing on driving in the UK by Adrian. Flying apparently was no sweat, but roundabouts were a nightmare.

Licence validations were automatic on the grounds of our ICAO acceptable licences and we all dispersed in different directions to fetch our aircraft. Two were at Swansea, two at Granfield (one of which was subsequently grounded) and one at Rochester to the east of London. Cost of hiring a Cessna 172 is between R170 and R210 per hour (dry) with AVGAS costing around R2 a litre. Club Membership was an insurance requirement for some of the aircraft and this was provided free of charge.

Adrian also provided the flying briefings (“Watch out for Tornadoes and Hawks at around 500’AGL”). This advice was much appreciated. After our first encounter with the low-flying Royal Air Force, we realised we had very little say in the encounters. Those guys really move. If I flew VFR in those areas I would paint my plane Day-Glo Orange. In the space of two weeks all of us had at least about a dozen “close encounters”. During Stage 2 of the Rally, John and I were subjected to a head-on horizontal “bomb burst” by a team of four Hawks. One passed below, one left, and one right with the last jet pulling up in front of us not more than a thousand metres away. I hope they enjoyed it. We also came across a few A10 Thunderbolt tankbusters low-level, and Flll’s at about 2 000 feet.

VFR flying is really easy in the UK, with ATC being extremely helpful, friendly and informal while still being totally professional. One obviously has to stay clear of TMA’s and CTR’s but permission to transit is frequently given, particularly at Military Airfields. The standard of radio patter by local pilots is good, but also quite informal. I liked this. In SA we tend to be so rigid about our radio procedures that most low-time (and some not-so-low-time) pilots are scared …..less about using the blooming thing. Normal VFR navigation is done on 1:500 000 maps and two of these cover the whole of the UK. Features are limited to topography and large towns and cities. The level of detail is perfect for flying at around 3 000′ AGL. Everything you need for the flight is printed on the map, tower frequencies, the lot. Cost? Around R30 per map (covered with plastic film).

The weather, of course, is usually lousy. On most days in summer one is, however, able to get in or out of a place, but it takes a lot of patience.

Our practice sessions were rather limited because of finances, so we kept the routes short and sweet with lots of photos and short legs. Five of us also had to practise for the European Precision Championships. Amazingly, the weather held out for practice but Murphy’s legislation was sure to be applied during the competitions.

For once, Murphy struck out and we flew the Precisions in glorious sunshine. As non-Europeans (sic) our scores did not count, but I would have been in twelfth place and Andre Schoeman in twentieth with the other guys trailing not far behind. The Polish team took every single trophy that was to be had.

The question is: are the Poles beatable? I don’t believe they are for a good few years. A combination of their aircraft (the Wilga), their vast experience and of course State sponsorship makes this highly unlikely. Most serious competitors have taken to modifying the doors of their C152’s by putting perspex windows in the lower half to improve visibility. One Austrian even brought along specially blown full perspex doors with bubbles to improve downward visibility. Didn’t help him, though.

Once again we picked up a lot of tips from other competitors, such as marking conspicuous features on photos. The Polish team use a special training method for improving their memory skills (similar to the game of matching cards). It obviously works.

Our own training leaves a lot to be desired and the need for a National Coach (who knows what he’s doing, of course) is very necessary. The psychological aspect of the competition is critical and this is also an area that we can work on. It is extremely interesting to see how the different team members handle pressure, but it is very obvious that exposure to top-class competitions helps enormously. Both Andre Schoeman and Johan Swart flew individually in the Precisions and their steady performance as a Rally team showed competition maturity, despite a few stormy moments.

John Adams and I were really hoping to come in with a chance, seeing our first and third day performance in Spain two years ago had been in the top four. We had flown an old, clapped-out , Musketeer then and surely with a very nicely equipped C172 and two more years of practice we were going to give the Poles a run for their money. Heh heh!

Start on day I was delayed till after lunch due to low cloud and bad vis. This eventually improved to around 1 500 m and Route 3 was flown in place of Route 1. The routes were intended to get more difficult as the competition progressed and so having to start with Route 3 was a real humdinger. It got the better of us at one point and we tracked parallel to course for around ten minutes. By the time we were back on course, four photos had been missed and we were out of it. Our team mates also had their share of problems, except of course for Swart and Schoeman, because when they flew the vis. had improved to a million miles and their tiny little Cessna 152 cockpit wasn’t really so tiny and blah blah blah …..

The pressure is, of course, extremely high and I think all of us felt this to varying degrees. How to combat this without more international exposure is really the biggest challenge facing us right now.

It is extremely important to get to the right level of STRESS in a competition. Performance improves with an increase in stress, up to a point, and then it drops off sharply. Stress consists of Personality Stress, Family Stress, Work Environment Stress and Situational Stress. The trick is to get the combination of Personality, Family and Work Stress to such a position that even severe Situational Stress doesn’t push your performance over the back side of the curve. Lack of stress is just as fatal. Performance suffers badly in people who are understressed and one of the induced causes is, of course, fatigue. I believe these aspects should also be considered in the selection of a team, but the problem is how to measure this.

Our method of team selection relies on the fact that the pilot and navigator know each other well and function as a team. Is this a necessity? Should the selectors be able to select only one half of an existing team and pair individuals up according to some psychological criteria? Interesting questions, but ones that need to be addressed if we want to build up a really effective Springbok squad. For that matter, who selects the selectors?

The World Rally format is becoming a bit of a paper chase and a navigator has to be a total masochist to enjoy this type of event. The four routes were all exactly the same format as well and this actually got monotonous. I hope that the controlling body will take heed of the rumblings in England and work towards introducing a bit of spice.

Our own Rally circuit still needs a lot of building up and 1 believe the Sportsman’s class is going to help a lot. When Rally flying becomes a fun thing again, more competitive people will gravitate back to the sport. We must never discard the family element either.

We discussed holding the next World Rally in SA with many of the team managers and pilots. The reaction was not promising, simply because of the limitations that some governments would put on their teams. The teams themselves would, of course, love to come here. The next idea bandied about was the concept of a World Cup Challenge. This was received with amazing enthusiasm. I think we have a project on our hands.

1987 BMW Western Province Rally

Stellenbosch – 28 November 1987

by Johan Swart

The date – 28 November 1987. The start and finish – picturesque Stellenbosch Airfield. The battlefield – the Boland with its cornfields, the West coast with its sand dunes and the Stellenhosch area with all its winelands.

Everything was fine (including the weather) for this last air rally of 1987. With the prospects of Springbok Team selection for the 1988 World Air Rally Championships in mind, every competitor, especially the top ten, were very tense. This was really the last chance to gain those extra points to make sure nobody is overlooked by the selectors.

The rally was run under the new world rules, but we also wanted to encourage the beginners to take part and enjoy this event. For this reason we decided to run a two-in-one rally – a Sportsman Class for the not-so-experienced team and an Open Class for the more serious competitors. The course was exactly the same, the difference being that the Sportsman Class had the whole route drawn in on their maps and they received a detailed flight log.

The Open Class had to find and identify secret ground markers and calculate 3 missing checkpoints, while they only had a limited flight log. The workload for the latter class was very high. In total there were ten checkpoints, three secret checkpoints, start and finish, 15 photographs, ten ground markers and three timed turns.

At the prizegiving party the 1987 SA Air Rally Champions were also announced. For the second year running, this honour goes to Ivanhoe and Dave Perelson from Eastern Province.

Our thanks go to Roy Waldek (EP) who acted chief judge, and Kassie Kasselman (OFS),Les Sephton (EP) and Mike Hartley (Natal) who were the jury for this event.

With 18 entries for Sportsman and 17 for the Open Class, we feel that this experiment was a roaring success and we hope that the other provinces will also try this two-in-one rally system. Organizing such an event is a bit of a headache if one does not have a foolproof computer program – one that will give one class all the information and the other class only bits and pieces and then separate all the final results into the two classes. This was achieved by using a program written by Dave Perelson form Eastern Province. Dave has put a lot of hard work into this program and it is now available to the other provinces. If you need more information contact Dave Perelson.

Needless to say, the BMW WP AIR RALLY was enjoyed by all. Some of the competitors even managed to have their first flight in the BMW hot air balloon. The organisers wish to express their sincere gratitude to BMW(SA) and especially to Chris Roodt(BMW – Head Office) and Rob Kingsley (BMW – Cape, Town Office) who gave us their full support to make the rally possible.

The results were as follows:

OPEN CLASS

• 1. I Perelson/D Perelson – JCY – 839
• 2. A Schoeman/J Swart – JYU – 892
• 3 A Channing/P Norton – CIR – 1110
• 4. A Pilling/R Crosskill – IHW – 1193
• 5. M Spence/B Gibson – KSF – 1293
• 6. J Adarns/C Jordaan – KSV – 1323

SPORTSMAN CLASS

• 1. P Peter-Bowyer/A Carnegie – 1712
• 2. D Linton/M Brown – LMJ – 3591
• 3. L Nell/P Van der Merwe – IOH – 3885
• 4. S Berson/A Bane – OMR – 4164
• 5. B Bosch/D De Goede – EKE – 4369
• 6. A Verwey/A Verwey – LPP – 4401

Doug Gerneke and Doug Ayre 11th position	Rob Crosskill and Adrian Pilling 4th position	ATC Rob Russel enjoying himself
Andre Schoeman and Johan Swart – 2nd position	Colin Jordaan and John Adams 6th position	Doug Eyre What a rally!

1986 Comair W P Provincial Air Rally

Held at Stellenbosch – 29 November 1986

By Brian Ferguson

By Wednesday afternoon, it had stopped raining and the North-Wester had started to make way for the South Atlantic high. It moved in slowly over the Cape Peninsula, in other words, good weather could be expected for the Western Province Air Rally, but, the South-Easter could still be a factor to reckoned with.

I’m sorry, it’s not a weather forecast on SATV, but more like how the organizers and competitors kept a somewhat worried eye on the progress of the weather.

By Friday, most of the entrants had arrived in Cape Town and some had already put in a great deal of practice. That evening, the Good Hope Flying Club opened its doors to some 120 pilots, navigators and guests for the pre- rally reception. Snacks were served and the wine flowed as old friends remninisced and new friends were made.

Saturday, the 29th November dawned, and Stellenbosch Airfield was a hive of activity. With a record number of 44 entries, including nine Springboks, namely John Adarns, Colin Jordaan, Dave Mostert, Adrian Pilling, Dave Campbell, John Stratford, Dave Perelson, Maurice Nathan and Mike Seymour, everyone knew it was not going to be an easy rally.

The route which Martin Pollack drew up for the competitors stretched over the most scenic parts of the Western Cape and Boland. It left Stellenbosch for the start on the beach at Strand, then on to Pringle Bay followed by a curved track up the Bot River valley to Franschbock. From there the route followed the Berg River valley past Paarl, Wellington and through the Swartland wheatfields to Bokbaai. Then competitors flew Eastwards past Fisantekraal to Lynedoch and finished overhead the picturesque surrounds of the Stellenbosch Airfield. In the end 39 aircraft completed the 200 nm rally, and crews moved to the Bellville Holiday Inn for the Prize-giving function.

It was late at night when the results were announced. In first place were Dave and Anton Mostert, who with 125 penalties, have done well during this year’s rally circuit in the Mooney, LHE. Johan Swart and Andre Schoeman from the University of Stellenbosch Flying Club came second, only 9 penaties behind the winners in a Cessna 152, JYU. These two Stellenboschers were last year’s winners and came 3rd and 2nd respectively at the National Precision Flying Championships in Grahamstown this year.

Third place was taken by the Springboks John Adams and Colin Jordaan, while in 4th Place was the wife/husband team of Ivanhoe and Dave Perelson. Another husband/wife team, Peter and Di Norton came 5th, followed by Dave and John Campbell (Natal), Ernest MacDonald and Mike Seymour (WP), Frank White and James Craven (WP) Adrian Pilling and Rob Crosskill (Natal) and in 1Oth Place, Maurice Nathan and John Stratford (Tvl).

As the W.P. Air Rally is the last in the circuit, Ivanhoe and Dave Perelson (EP) are overall winners of this year’s rally circuit, with Dave and Anton Mostert (Natal) coming second.

The following trophies were also awarded:
Best Performance by a Lady: Ivanhoe Perelson
Best Performance by a Pilot with less than 150 hours: Pieter Rabic (WP)
Best Performance by a Pilot under 21 years: Georg Gruber (EP)
The First Family Team: Dave and Anton Mostert
The Team who succeeded in fooling all concerned. Howard Parker
First Cessna: Johan Swart and Andre Schoeman
First Piper: Ernest MacDonald & Mike Seymour
First Beecheraft: Patrick Murray & 0 Pletzer

The organizers of the W.P. Air Rally wish to express their sincere gratitude to all who assisted in making this rally possible. In particular we would like to thank the sponsors which allowed us to offer record prize money to the value of R2700,00

1986 O.F.S. Provincial Air Rally

Held at Tempe – 20 September 1986

By Renier Moolman

Bloemfontein Flying Club, Saturday September 20th. The scene was set for what must be one of the most controversial rallies that was ever held in South Africa. At the end of the day, one cannot but help to lift the hat to Glen Dell and Neil Napier, who by putting into practise their team effort of flying skill and navigational expertise, thrashed all the other teams. The initiative that these guys displayed during their preparation; the fact that they could sum up an awkward situation which they were left with and reacted with such deliberate action and success, has left both organisers and opposition stunned. The aircraft that these two okies flew, was once again the Cessna 150 IOP. But this is no ordinary 150. It carries joseph’s amazing technicolour dreamcoat and under the bonnet is tucked a twin-dipstick, double-overhead-chrome, supercharged-oil-cooler-172 engine. Believe me this thing goes.

In an amazing second place was the husband-and-wife team from P.E., Dave and Ivanhoe Perelson. Ivanhoe, who recently accompanied the Springbok team to Spain, decided that backseat-driving was for the birds. So watch out guys – here comes trouble! She has teamed up with her hubbie and in their new Cardinal JCY, have scored points in two out of two rallies so far!

Nico “Omar” Gordon with his new navigator and partner in practise, Dr Slabbert, both from Bloem Flying Club, has made it two third places in a row. So it looks like their little Cessna 150 EGY’s lucky number is three. It being only the second major rally they took part in, shows that “die ou manne” are going to have to watch their tails in future.

Fourth place and scoring team points in every rally they have taken part in is the team of the Mooney LHE and the Mostert brothers, Dave and Anton. If this young team from Pletermaritzburg carries on as they are, selection for the next National Team will only be a formality.

The fifth place of the all Springbok Team of Colin Jordaan and John Adams, have once again proved that their combined skills have made them the most experienced team ever touring the rally circuit. The success that this team has had is not luck, it is years and years of time, dedication & practise.

Springbok Adrian Pilling from ‘Maritzburg, not,only won the landings competition, but together with his navigator Robert Crosskill took sixth overall position. Adrian put down a “zero”, the only man in the competition to do so. He was followed by Andre van Kraayenberg and M Holmes each scoring 10 penalties.

1986 NAC Eastern Province Precision Air Rally

Port Elizabeth – 30 August 1986

by Les Sephton, Chairman – Power Flying

Roy Waldek organised and ran a most efficient rally at Port Elizabeth on the 30th August 1986. Thirty three (33) aircraft entered with many entrants coming from Cape Town, Johannesburg, Durban, East London and Bloemfontein, besides those from Port Elizabeth. Very heavy rains throughout South Africa prevented nine arriving at Port Elizabeth as they were all earth bound, but those 24 who did compete thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

The rally was flown in windy conditions with clear skies but very turbulent and those pilots who arrived the night before and over imbibed paid heavy a penalty that day more especially did the Navigators. Roy Waldek’s survival kit with food, cooldrinks and headache pills saved many a navigator on the return leg.

Pilots were given their maps, clues etc 45 minutes before aircraft took off and as there were ten cheek points plus five secret check points, as well as ten photographs and ground markers to identify, lead to a marked degree of pressure being placed upon pilot and more especially navigators, prior to and during the rally. Every check point was marked which is an essential aspect of a rally, as there is nothing more satisfying than arriving over a check-point and finding a ground marker plus marshals acknowledging that one has finally made that part of the leg. Twenty-eight ground marshals assisted Roy. There were timed turns on three of the check points adding a further amount of pressure to the pilot.

The first four places went to the following, namely:-

• First – Dave Perelson and his wife Ivanhoe
• Second – John Adams and Colin Jordaan
• Third – Ian MacJanet and Murray Wrench
• Fourth – Dr Steyn and Mr Grotepas

First prize – R500,00; Second – R300,00 and Third – R200,00.

In addition, Budget supplied transport, Bowring Barclays Bank supplied the miniature trophies which were awarded to successful crews and Shell the caps plus Fidelity Bank supplied engraved pens.

Our thanks go to those sponsors who made this rally the success it was.

In addition NAC Port Elizabeth supplied reduced fuel and service charge to competitors.

I am sure I can state on behalf of all the pilots and navigators who competed that we thoroughly enjoyed this rally which can serve as a standard by which other rallies can be measured.

1986 Transvaal Navigation Rally

Grand Central Airport – ?? January 1986

By Renier Moolman

What a Team! What a win! John Adams and Colin Jordaan scored a hands down victory by walking off with all the prizes in the Transvaal Navigation Rally held recently.

This was flown over a course of 255 nautical miles from Grand Central Airport.

Placed second was Dave Perelson and Malcolm Spence, from Algoa Flying Club in Port Elizabeth, followed by Barry de Groot and Barry Hall of the Aucor Flying Team from Pietermaritzburg.

The IRA Team taking part for the first time, scored their first team point with Tom Culver and Mike Winter taking fourth place overall.

The Aucor Team from Pietermaritzburg is the force of the future. A team that is fast becoming one of the best in South Africa. This was proven when Dave Mostert and Martin Hatfield took fifth place overall to once again be points scorers.

The rally was organised by well known airline pilot, sport aviation pilot and acrobatic instructor – Dennis Spence.

The entire route was carefully planned, flown and photographed by Dennis and his team from the Air Force Base at Swartkops, namely Dave Jackson and Keith Fryer. With this all done it was back to the drawing board and two more pilots from Swartkops – Pete Militz and Divvie Duvenhage were called in to help draw the morning and afternoon’s curved track in with painstaking accuracy onto the maps, which were supplied to the navigators for the rally.

Meantime, Dennis composed a concerto on his Hulett Packard mini-computer and all was set and ready for the day.

Thanks to Don Mackenzie, the Chairman of SAFE for kindly organising his members to do the marshalling during the rally. These guys attended the briefing and on the day of the rally, they did a splendid job under the hawk- eye of Trevor Miller.

The morning of the rally, the entire Highveld area was clouded in. Phone calls criss-crossed and pilots stranded on neighbouring airfield were given extra time and the opportunity to hedgehop over to Grand Central. Panic stations were sorted out in a jiffy thanks to Dennis’ Hulett Packard, as all take-off and overhead times had to be adjusted to the new take-off times.

After pilots’ briefing on the morning of the rally, all the guys were treated by “tannic Tess” to tea and “tekkie-buns”. With nerves running havoc, and Alan Blain from Aeronews conducting an interview here, taking a snapshot or two there, the planes took off with three-minute intervals, heading straight over the tower at Lanseria, which incidently was a secret checkpoint.

Placo Rand kindly 1oaned us a Cherokee-Six to ferry our marshalls to all the various checkpoints. The Six was skippered by Dave Jackson from 41-Squadron. Leaving the departing of the aircraft in the capable hands of Charles and Marie Wotherspoon, Dennis and I strapped on his newly finished Smirnoff Vodka Pitts 52A.

So we inverted out of Grand Central, winged-over Lanseria, looped into Rustenburg airfield and rolled to a neat halt in front of the clubhouse, much to the delight of the spectators. Dennis and I had hardly unstrapped the Pitts, when we heard Springbok Chris Kyle and Peter Lastrucci in EAD call ETA overhead – two minutes.

Soon all the planes started crowding the circuit to approach for the landings contest.

John Adams flying his old faithful Mooney Ranger (FHM), scored the best landing of the day with a total of eight penalty points. What was interesting was that the first place overall in the landings competition, was a draw between Kevin Caldwell (JTA) and Glen Dell with total penalties for the day of 30 each. The judges ruling was that because Kevin was the lesser experienced pilot and because his afternoon landing was an improvement on that of the morning, he was awarded the first prize.

Third place overall in the landings was taken by Peter Lastrucci from Krugersdorp in C-172 EAD and Dave Mostert was fourth in his Mooney (LHE). Rod Ackerman in KFF, a 161 Warrior was fifth overall.

Well of the promised sous-tannies, koekbroers and moerkoffie, little was seen at Rustenburg airfield for lunch. A sincere thanks to the organising committee who instead treated us to cold meats, salads and cold drinks.

After lunch, the real action began as this was the leg of the rally that was to sort the men from the boys!

Five minutes before Time, navigators were given their packages containing info, maps and photographs of the curved S-track from Rustenburg to the windsock at Krugersdorp Jack Taylor Aerodrome, where Jack himself and Charles Wotherspoon were there to see the chaps over the finish line.

On finishing over the windsock, the aeries were allowed to idle back to Lanseria for the final landing competition. Well, as I said, the curved track seemed to be a little tough for some guys; so, even if they cannot be given any points for following Dennis’ painstakingly accurately drawn track, I have to give them eleven out of ten for initiative for the checkpoints they created.

By the way, some entries decided along the way that the route home is straight and shorter than to the finish line, resulting in the judges at the finish point still waiting to clock them overhead – 1986 calender in hand.

With all the participants safely home, the pilots, navigators, wives, girlfriends, mistresses, casual acquaintances etc. etc. were treated to “horse- on-the-spit”, some fine paraphernalia, liquid sandwiches and-all.

So a thousand calculations, multiplications, malfunctions, and so forth later, it was time for jubilations, indignations, I-told-you-so’s and one admirer even suffered a mild attack of Vitas Gerulaitas.

Well time for me to fly-goodbye, and to leave you with this thought. Although flying is becoming a very expensive sport, there can still be only one winner, but without you and you, taking part there won’t be any winners, so go and learn from this experience, and you too, will become a winner. C’est La Vie

Eastern Cape Settlers Rally

Held in Port Elizabeth – 23 August 1985

By B B Perkins

The Eastern Cape Round of the National Rally Championships was held in Port Elizabeth on 23 August 1985. Called the Settlers Rally this years event was hosted by the Algoa Flying Club at H.F. Verwoerd airport. A tremendous amount of work was put in by the Algoa Flying Club in organizing this event and it must have pleased them to receive a record entry of 25 aircraft. However, chief rally organizers Roy Waldek and ‘Budgie’ Burgers nearly saw their worst nightmare come true when the morning of the event arrived with seven eights low cloud and buckets of rain.

It was decided to push the starting time back by thirty minutes to see if the weather would improve. Although the starting point of the rally was still clampers, Verwoerd was manageable and the other checkpoints were either CAVOK or high cloud. It was decided to go ahead but to change the starting, point to the first turning point. With nervous excitement in the air the navigators started collecting their gen. This consisted of two topocatostrophe (topographical) maps, instructions, 8 photographs, a gift and a survival pack (more about that later).

The route covered a distance of approximately 250 nm which was. accurately drawn onto the maps supplied. About 60 nm of the route was curved and included outside and inverse track. Three of the eight photographs were along this curved section as well as three secret check points so accuracy here was as essential as ever. Actually, it is worth mentioning the photographs here. These were all pinpoint photographs and varied from a shot of a conspicuously shaped dam to a mind boggeling photograph of a gravel road T-junction that looked so similiar to a thousand others that you had to be alert, on track and eyeballs down to recognize it. Another of the photographs was of a farm house, which if you weren’t accurately on track, would be hidden behind large trees. And yes – the top teams did spot these.

The Rally included sixteen check-points, seven of them at turning points, seven were secret checkpoints and one each at the start and finish. These were manned by members of the Port Elizabeth Radio Hams Society as well as members of the Grahamstown Radio Hams society. The route overflew some of the scenic areas of the Eastern Cape including Uitenhage, Port Alfred, Grahamstown, Redhouse and the Port Elizabeth coastline. All the information from the checkpoints was radio’ed through to Rally control at Verwoerd where it was plotted on a board and then transferred to an Apple mini-computer for calculation. In fact a special programme was developed for the rally where competitors received a printout of ETA’s with their instruction gen. These ETA’s were then compared to the ATA’s in order to generate the result.

Oh yes, about the survival packs. These were a neat touch instituted by Roy Waldek and consisted of a generous helping of biltong, a couple of biscuits and asprins. Since Roy was the one who designed the rally route I reckon he knew he would be giving the crews a headache, hence the asprins.

That night, at the well supported prize-giving, the Pietermaritzburg Flying club delivered a message from the Mayor of Pietermaritzburg to the Deputy Mayor of PE. They also presented the Algoa Flying Club with a splendid floating trophy that they requested be awarded to the most deserving club member on an annual basis. And then it was time for the rally results. These were read from the last place upwards by ‘Budgie’ Burgers and each scoresheet was handed over with personal words of congratulations, encouragement or just plain leg pulling.

At position number six the handing out of the prizes was taken over by the Honourable life president of the Algoa Flying Club, Captain Nick Louden-Carter. Positions one to six all received cups with second place receiving R400 as well. First place received the beautiful floating trophy, a miniatures of the cup and Rl 000 in cash. Money for these prizes were donated by club members.

Congratulations to Malcolm Spence and Dave Perelson for their outstanding display of accurate flying. Their total of 218 penalty points was less than half that of second placed D Mostert and M Hatfieid who had won the previous provincial in the OFS.

Special mention – Well, Robert Pokorney and Peter van der Velden had to do a forced landing on the Uitenhage Freeway directly after completing the rally due to fuel problems. No damage to plane or pilot was sustained. At the prize giving they were presented with two bottles of vinyl seat cleaner which were deemed necessary after their harrowing experience.

Everyone I spoke to after the rally were very impressed with the running of the event and congratulations must go to the Algoa Flying Club for the very professional manner in which the event was run. Of the first six places two were from Port Elizabeth one from Jansenville and three from Pietermartizburg so it looks like there was little benefit derived from flying over ones home territory. All in all this was a very good rally that was enjoyed by everyone.

10^thWestern Province Air Rally

Held in Fisantekraal – 1985

By Mike Seymour

Ten years ago a then ten years younger Di Marshall was asked to represent the Aero Club of South Africa in the Western Cape. In those days Aero Club was not as streamlined as it is today and poor Di not only looked after power flying but also hang gliding, parachuting, ballooning, etc. It was also Di who brought us the lst Western Province Air Rally.

What a Rally that was! It was going to be the biggest flying do the Western Cape had ever seen. Plans were well on the way to making it a real humdinger of an air display cum rally and a great deal of money was being spent on the strength of the committee’s dreams and visions. Then the law struck – fuel restrictions! The axe fell. Dreams and visions do not put money in the bank. The Controller of Petroleum Products said no air show, no gate money and no public. Somehow or another the show went on without the public and gate fee which we needed to bail us out of the mire.

The whole world came to that rally, including Sheila Scott from the U.K. The day dawned and true to Cape Town weather form, it was foul and the alternate route had to be flown. All 45 aircraft did a two leg trip to Oudtshoorn and a two leg trip back to Fisantekraal. There were no secret check points, no ground markers and no photographs. We had not yet thought of such nasties. Our timing devices – Pidgeon Clocks! When the clocks came home they all read different times – what a calculation. However, help was at hand, Nigel Forrester had a real live digital watch and he kindly loaned it to us to time the aircraft on the home leg. By the way the master clock also got heat stroke!

The flying side of the rally was a little unexciting but the function went according to plan. A Friday night pre-rally party was held in Rondebosch, most of the pilots and navigators were still there in the early hours of the next morning. The wine always tastes better in the Cape. The, lunch at Oudtsboorn, was smashing and the gala dinner at Fisantekraal in a marquee was a party that few people will ever forget.

Di had to face the Aero Club Central Committee and ask to be bailed out of a debt amounting to R 1 500 and that was a heap of bread way back in 1974. In 1975 we repaid our debt.

Some things never seem to change. You still have to get permission from the Controller of Petroleum Products to host a rally and Di Marshall still helps with the Western Province Air Rally.

Today, I feel that our Rally is very close to world class. We still have excellent rally parties (also world class) both before and after the event. This year’s pre-rally party was a winner and Stellenbosch Farmers’ Wineries were not shy in helping us make it a sparkling affair.

On the flying side we try to make it as challenging as possible. The crew have become so expert at time keeping that if there were no photographs or ground markers, the winner would be extremely difficult to find.

As this was our tenth year, I tried to make the route as scenic as possible and took the risk of crossing the mountains. Once in a while we are lucky with the weather, this was it, our gamble paid off.

Leg 1 and 2 took the competitors towards the west coast and up past Darling. By the time check point 2 had been reached they were timed three times and should have seen three ground markers and two photographs. Leg 3 was an unrestricted leg – there were seven railway stations circled on the maps and two carefully taken photographs of two of the stations. On this leg circling etc. was allowed, all that was required was that the photographs should be matched with the correct stations and that check point 3 should be reached on time. This leg went across from the west through the Gouda Gap and down the valley to Worcester. Leg 4 was straight on down the valley. Leg 5 was a 105 nm curve on out of the valley over Stormsviei over Stanford and the Hermanus lagoon, along the Hermanus coast line, over the Botrivierviei lagoon through the Botriver valley, over the Threewaterskloof Dam and ended at the top of the Franschhoek Pass – the most scenic curve ever flown. (Some competitors forgot that it was a rally and opted for a scenic drive.) Leg 6 down the Franschhoek valley to an intersection 5 nm east of Fisantekraal. Leg 7 – 5 nm long back to Fisantekraal, just to sort the men from the boys.

When they landed back at Fisantekraal our intrepid aviators should have seen 10 photographs, seven ground markers and had been timed at seven points. Finally the pilots had to land in a demarcated box for bonus points.

This year’s rally was won by the superb team of Eric Stratford and Colin Jordaan from the Transvaal. Second were Jury Steyn and Frans Grotepass, local pilots, and third place went to an old guest of ours Malcolm Spence and Tony Downs from the Eastern Cape.

At the end of the day and through all the post mortems we always say how grand it is to be able to meet with our old flying friends and to welcome the new. It is my hope that come what may we will always be able to conjure up something new and a little different and that our rallies will go on and on and on, and that we shall in some small way be able to contribute to aviation by setting a high standard for all pilots who love flying.

See you next time.

Jansenville Air Rally

Held at Jansenville – 23 March 1985

By Frikkie Moolman

Well guys, the word is out. If you’re a lover of air railies, there’s a venue that should not be missed – Jansenville. OK, I know you’ve just juggled all your one in a millions, and couldn’t find it, so I’ll tell you. Jansenville is between Graaff Reinet and Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape, and the town is so small that the name appears an both sides of the signboard. But this town has a great big heart! There is no flying club as such, just a bunch of guys who love flying, with spirit and enthusiasm to make our. slick city type “flying clubs” look like they need a major overhaul.

Peter Wotherspoon and I arrived at Jansenville at around 1600 hours on Friday, and as we came overhead we saw Flip van der Merwe’s Bonanza on the field, so we knew we had found it. On landing we were welcomed by Ray, and almost immediately after by Flip in his bakkie stacked with cold beer. For the occasion the guys had bulldozed an enormnous piece of real estate as a parking area, and drums of fuel, boxes of oil and compressed air laid on for the big day. The hangar had been cleared and set up with tables, chairs, a PA system and serving tables for food and drinks. Not bad, huh. Shortly after, John, Jenny and George and Rea arrived from Cape Tovvn in the Baron, and also the Robinson brothers from ‘Maritzburg. The rest of the competitors were due the next morning.

While we stood around talking flying, Boetie Beeker and Arabier van der Merwe arrived from Robertson, as well as Barry (Pa), Willem, Piet and Andre from the Swellengrebel Gliding Club, by car. Yes, by car. They weren’t competing but they just came across for the fun. Now if that is not spirit, then I’ll trade my licence for a used movie ticker.

Rally day dawned, crisp, clear, promising to be hot. And it was! Briefing was scheduled for 1000, but some competitors arrived late so Flip delayed a bit. This caused some bunching as takeoff times could not be altered. Anyhow, with most of the planning done, we took off with ‘jors troelie’ still doing some homework on his lap, and navigating at the same time. The rally was a six leg exercise with secret check points, ground markers and photographs all thrown in. There was an interesting twist in the tail, in the form of some untimed hopping from place to place over rugged terrain, to find some of the photos and then return to the airfield to complete the timing run. Very interesting.

After landing back, everyone was treated to lunch, etc, by the girls who supplied coffee, tea and snacks all day long in the hangar. But dig this! The hangar also had a temporary licence for the day, so beer was available! This must be the only iicenced hangar in the world! That night the prizegiving and party was held at the showground, also licenced! Everyone was treated to prime beef, tremendous bar service and a disco.

At 21 00 Flip finally put us out of our misery and announced the results. Prizes were in the form of cash and some other vice goodies, and we all had a great party. My congratulations to Flip van der Merwe, Louis Nel and all their helpers, for a very vvell organised rally. If one considers that these guys are technically “in the sticks”, their efforts are even more laudable. Whether you’re a serious hot shot looking for points or whether you fly for fun, the Jansenville Rally is well worth it. Mr Dave & Mrs Ivanhoe Perelson from Port Elizabeth in a Piper Super Cub, ZS.DJR took first place with P. Wotherspoon and F.J. Moolman from Johannesburg in a Cessna 177 RG, ZS-JMW in second place.