Articles Rally (Page 22)

The Fun Rally finally returned to Baragwanath Airfield after two years of waiting.

Holding these rallies in various venues introduces the sport to members of those clubs who have not before participated. Baragwanath is a case in point, where six local club pairs took part in this event, three of them being first-time rallyists.

Bee and Gerhardt provided a delicious breakfast along with bottomless coffee, which was in great demand in near-minus temperatures.

Once everyone had warmed up, and all ten teams had registered, map preparation began in earnest, under instruction and guidance from veteran rally pilot Frank Eckard. Although several of the teams had not flown rallies before, and some had not even planned to take part, they all managed to find most of the turn points, and even “newbies” were finding photographs with enthusiasm. First-timers Dominique Van Roey and Leon Bouttell claimed that home-ground advantage enable them to take third place, and were very encouraged by their result, so veteran rallyists should look out for this competitive pair!

With nerves on edge and pulses racing they all took off by 10h30, flying at speeds varying between 70 and 100 Knots, which are nominated by the teams themselves. By 12h20 all teams had returned, exchanging their experiences with each other and looking forward to seeing how their routes looked once Frank had downloaded their loggers onto his laptop. They also had to fill in answer sheets, which were checked by Cally Eckard.

Mary de Klerk had planned a lovely easy route, ideal for first-timers to try out the sport, and for veterans to hone their timing skills. The directions took them through 10 turn points, down to Vaal Barrage, and then over the old Vanderbijlpark Airfield and back home to Baragwanath. Maps with the turn points and route printed on them were handed to each team, who then had to fill in other details such as bearings and times.

At each rally some of the Protea team members are available to give their advice and to encourage new pilots to the sport. We urge every pilot to try out this sport, to improve their flying and navigation skills, and to enjoy a morning’s flying with other pilots.

The top 3 results were:
POSITION PILOT/NAVIGATOR
1 Henk Koster/Jan Roode
2 Esmond Erasmus/Johan Goosen
3 Dominique Smuts-Stein/Leon Bouttell

Please join us for the next Fun Rally at Nylstroom (Modimolle) on Saturday 16 July. This event will be combined with Nylstroom’s Taildragger Fly-in, and all types of aircraft are welcome to join the rally.

EVENT		Baragwanath
DATE		02-Jun-11	PLACE	Baragwanath
CLASS		Fun
POSITION	FILE	PILOT	NAVIGATOR	CALL SIGN	COUNTRY	OBS	NAV	LANDINGS	OTHER	TOTAL
1	7	Henk Koster	Jan Roode	0	Jabiru	100	5	0	0	105
2	3	Esmond Erasmus	Johan Goosen	0	Jabiru	240	55	0	0	295
3	6	Dominique Van Roey	Leon Bouttell	0	X303	200	367	0	0	567
4	2	John Shaw	Chris Shaw	0	Cessna	320	416	0	0	736
5	9	John Reeder	Dan Reeder	0	C150	360	483	0	0	843
6	1	Vaughna Russel-Smit	Keaton Perkins	0	Robin DR	240	696	0	0	936
7	5	Noel Otten	Johan Mauritz	0	C150 M	630	677	0	0	1307
8	10	Richard Smuts-Stein	Karen Bothma	0	C152	570	812	0	0	1382
9	8	Mike Cathro	Leon Wolfart	0	Storch	40	2040	0	0	2080
10	4	Ralph Hurwitz	0	0	Jabiru	680	2040	0	0	2720

My First Exposure to Fun Rallies
Johan van der Spuy

I am a student pilot who has nearly completed his PPL – for the second time (it’s a long story). I guess, like most other students, I yearn for the day that I have a license to fly – by myself, where I want to, when I want to – and to REALLY start learning. To fly accurately. To navigate confidently. To know my aeroplane.

I can’t see myself endlessly taking friends up for a ‘flip’ around the patch every weekend. Or, going ‘cross country’ by picking a destination, feeding the ICAO designator into a GPS and following the purple highway on the screen.

So what to do after the PPL? Night rating – yes. Taildragger – yes. Aerobatics – yes (limited mind you!)

Rallying – What?

Maybe… but how do I learn what it’s about?

That’s why I went to Rand Airport on the morning of the 29th January – I heard they were holding the Rand Airport Challenge Fun Rally. Hopefully I could speak to someone who could tell me what it’s about and maybe even get the route, and a copy of the “check point” photos – and sit in a quiet corner by myself and try and figure it out…… boy was I in for a surprise.

Mary De Klerk and Frank Eckard – Professionals. They run the fantastic SAPFA Fun Rally calendar. When I introduced myself to Mary, her enthusiasm for the sport is so evident that it is instantaneously contagious. “ Let’s see if we can get you to fly with someone!” she said.

And that’s where my day, and possibly my future flying career, changed dramatically. One minute I was hoping to stand in a corner and imbibe some wisdom from the REAL pilots, and the next I was being introduced to Mike Cathro who was hitherto flying by himself, but now offering me a seat in Jabiru ZU-CHJ, owned by Esmond Erasmus. I felt apprehensive, and frankly, rather intimidated by my surroundings and company.

But I was put at ease very quickly, by everybody involved. Mike Cathro, I learnt, is and experienced pilot, instructor, and rally participant. His planning was as meticulous as his explanation to me about what was to happen. We set our clocks to the “master” clock, collected a Track Logger and headed to the plane. Even before we had started up, I was learning from Mike – he is an excellent teacher. Our scheduled take off time was 11:10B and we had to cross the start at 11:20. According to the logger, we were airborne at 11:09:58 and crossed the start overhead Rand Water (T-junction Impala Rd and Klipriver Rd) at 11:20:02 – that is how accurately Mike flew ! The whole way! Man, that cockpit gets busy. This was flying – making the plane go exactly where it is supposed to, exactly when it is supposed to.

The route took us nearly directly south. Check Point one – a farm house near Allewynspoort. Got it. Check point two – a creek confluence in Henley-on-Klip. Got it. CP3. CP4. Now, follow the Vaal River, so precisely, all the way to the Dam Wall. 11:58:16 ETA and we were 13 seconds late! It seemed to bother Mike, but I was quietly stunned at how accurately one can Fly! We turned north again at the Eastern shores of the Vaal Dam and headed to CP7, thence to the west of Suikerbosrand Game Reserve. All the while, keeping a strained eye out for the Photos we had to identify on each leg.

“There! Is that the School we are looking for?”. “Nope, not quite. And that one?” . “Yes –that’s it. Time? Distance? Mark it down.”

All in all, we – well, Mike – only had eight time penalties, and we –Mike- only missed three leg photos , giving us a total of 108 penalty points and a Win ! First Place !

So how is that for a stunning day? Went to Rand to maybe be around pilots and photograph some planes – and end up being in the winning plane of the Rand Airport Challenge! Not in my best imaginary scenario did I hope to learn as much as I actually did in one morning.

So, if you’ve ever thought that maybe you should look into joining a fun rally, DO IT ! It really is fun – but more importantly you will learn to sharpen a variety of skills, and learn a lot about flying precisely.

Thanks a million to Mike Cathro, and Esmond. And thanks to Mary de Klerk and Frank Eckard for the fantastic introduction to Rallying. Thanks also to sponsors Karcher, Avimaps and AP.

I will be doing more Fun Rallies soon, when I have my PPL.

Johan

EVENT		7th Rand Airport Challenge
DATE		29-Jan-11	RAND AIRPORT
CLASS		Fun
POSITION	FILE	PILOT	NAVIGATOR	CALL SIGN	COUNTRY	OBS	NAV	LANDINGS	OTHER	TOTAL	CP5	CP8
1	9	Mike Cathro	Johan van der Spy	ZU CHJ	0	100	8	0	0	108	13	12.5
2	10	Sean Murphy	Ernie Alexander	ZS-IRL	0	230	1	0	0	231	5	-2.4
3	3	Rudi Greyling	Peter Lonie	ZULUZ	0	420	1	0	0	421	-13	-2.3
4	2	Phil Wakeley	Scot Wakeley	ZS-LLH	0	300	167	0	0	467	-16	-33.0
5	5	Alan Stewart	Richard Cook	ZU-FGV	0	270	208	0	0	478	-4	-43.5
6	11	Rob Kennedy	Neil Voster	ZU-FHD	0	270	258	0	0	528	3	-7.0
7	8	Johan Goosen	Esmond Erasmus	ZS-RXF	0	435	247	0	0	682	9	21.9
8	7	Rob Jonkers	Elana Jacobs	ZS-KEZ	0	415	492	0	0	907	21	-25.7
9	1	Federica de’ Micheli Edwrads	Donald O’Connor	ZS-ORO	0	640	743	0	0	1383	26	69.9
10	4	Mike Harrison	Chantelle Meiring	ZU-SMP	0					Did not start
Virtual
1	16	Freek Stegman	Mary de Klerk							Virtual