Articles Rally (Page 20)

width=The Nylstroom fun rally was combined with the Tail Draggers fly-in, 2012 at Modimolle airfield. A chilly 4°C start to the morning didn’t deter the early risers with a total of 14 competitors signing up for the challenge (5 Cessna 172’s, 3 Cessna 210’s, a Jora, a Qualt and an RV7 to mention a few). With breakfast, registration and the safety briefing
completed, it was time to put their skills to the test.

The route was designed as final preparation to challenge the Protea team members competing in Spain in September, yet easy enough to be enjoyed by new comers to rally flying. Making use of the beautiful area surrounding Modimolle, competitors were challenged from the start by flying the first of two arcs on the route seeking their first checkpoint, the elusive railway and river crossing.

Initially navigating the route was easy, following the many rivers and sand roads through the valley north of Modimolle. After a quick turn overhead “The Silver Building” of Cundi Ranch, the competitors turned south towards the town of Naboomspruit. Thereafter the terrain changed rapidly with one forest area looking much like the next, with even the best of the best getting lost, or rather “temporarily uncertain of their position”.

The home run was easy with all competitors finding the finish, an easy highway crossing north of the toll roads close to Bela Bela. After a total of 108 nm flown and 28 photos to identify, it was time to see if the GPS loggers had lied, if the en-route photo’s identified weren’t just an illusion and if the checkpoint photos were in fact true or false.

In the fun class, competitors are given 15 seconds to arrive over a checkpoint before being penalised. The winning team of Rob Jonkers and Pierre Dippenaar knew exactly how to use their map and stopwatch, flying within 1 second at 2 checkpoints, obtaining only 20 points for timing and 410 points overall.

This event was the final training for the Protea team’s ambitions for gold at the 2012 FAI World Rally Flying Championships. Adrian Pilling navigated his way to a world class score of just 21 penalty points for timing, arriving within the 2 seconds allowed at all but 2 of the checkpoints. Together Adrian and Mary scored a total of 51 penalties for the day.

The final standings for the event were as follows:

Fun Class
1st Rob Jonkers / Pierre Dippenaar
2nd Ryan Beeton / Gillian Beeton
3rd Kevin Phillips / Mark Strathmore

Open Class
1st Adrian Pilling / Mary de Klerk
2nd Hans Schwebel / Ron Stirk
3rd Jonty Esser / Sandi Goddard

The Protea Team comprising of Adrian Pilling, Mary De Klerk, Frank Eckard, Cally Eckard, Hans Schwebel, Ron Stirk, Leonard Edwards, Leon Weideman, Rob Kennedy and Wikus Kritzinger will be flying our nations flag high in Castellon, Spain in September. You can show your support and follow their progress on their Facebook page www.facebook.com/ SAWorldRallyFlyingTeam

By Juri Keyter & Adam Barnard with permission from Pilot’s Post

The Sheila Taylor NAV Rally was hosted by the Krugersdorp Flying Club on the 16th of June 2012 with twenty entries on the day. The event was the initiative of Bryan Belcher to honor Sheila Taylor, flying club honorary member and wife of Jack Taylor after whom the Krugersdorp Airfield is named. Jack Taylor landed his Piper Tri-Pacer (ZS-CEX) on a small Krugersdorp field in 1960 and this area is the home of one of the biggest and most active flying clubs in South Africa today.

The event was conducted under the auspices of the South African Power Flying Association and in the capable hands of Frank Eckard. As always Frank and his wife Cally planned an exciting route and had our maps, photo sheets and score sheets ready when we arrived for the event. The photo sheets had a total 23 photographs and crews had to identify each during the rally. Except for a few, most had trouble either identifying the photos or navigating correctly and just could not do both together. Andy Lawrence and I were very pleased with our navigation efforts but our inability to identify most of the photos along the way placed us in seventh position.

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Candice, Jonty, Dustin
Candice, Jonty, Dustin

Rally pilots and navigators took to the clear skies above Kitty Hawk for the first of the qualifying competitions before Nationals. Most of the Protea hopefuls competed, with the remainder having to take part in either or both of the Virginia or Parys rallies in order to be considered for participation in Nationals in May.
Nine pilot-navigator teams participated, with only one flying in the Fun Rally section. It is really gratifying to see so many serious contenders for Nationals.
Rally competition directors Frank Eckard and Mary de Klerk have been putting together rally flying and navigation workshops, and their efforts to inject ‘new blood’ into the team seem to be paying off.
The organisers were disappointed however that none of the Kitty Hawk contingent took part. Every effort is made to include everyone in these rallies, and special arrangements can be made for gyrocopters and helicopters. First-time rallyers are given plenty of help, and usually attain surprisingly good ‘first-time-lucky’ results.

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