Articles Rally (Page 33)

EASTERN PROVINCE RALLY CHAMPIONSHIPS

Port Elizabeth – 22 and 23 September 2002

By Ernie Alexander

Most pilots consider themselves lucky to have an understanding family who let them take the day off to go flying, but a two-day rally which turns into a four day affair with travelling and over a long weekend takes a little more suss. I engineered that we take a week long family holiday at Kob Inn near East London, which is a little over three hours in the 182. This would give me the opportunity to sneak off to PE for the EP rally champs.

With the family settled and after a few days relaxing on the beach I set off for PE on Saturday 21 Sept armed with my 182 and the necessary rally paraphernalia. The coastal weather was not playing the game and after being forced to land at 43 Air School in Port Alfred, the heavens really opened. Miraculously after 3 hours the weather cleared and I arrived amid overcast conditions at the Algoa Flying Club in time to meet my fill in navigator, Neil Hattingh, whom I had not even met before. I had also not flown in the PE area and was flying in a 182, as my Wag (Cub) was a little slow to make the PE trip.

Day 1 – Sunday 22 Sept

Sunday morning dawned with typical coastal rain and intermittent squall conditions with low overcast cloud over the inland high ground. It did not look like much flying would take place. All start times were postponed by 3 hours and finally the weather played ball. The experience of Dave Perelson saved the day in that he had predicted that the weather could play a major factor and had planned a short rally and a long one for the two days. Given the remaining time left the short rally was chosen which initially followed the coastal route over the picturesque Algoa Bay, before turning inland to Nanaga, Paterson, and Kirkwood, before returning to PE via Uitenhague. The two National teams of Stirk/ Schwebel and De Groot/De Klerk proved too strong for the rest of the field with both teams scoring under 500 points with Stirk/Schwebel just edging ahead.

They were followed by the rest of the pack with 3rd place going to the Van Vuurens, a local family duo scoring 2086 points. We were really disappointed with our performance and turned for checkpoint CP9 at CP7 missing two CP’s for full penalties resulting in 6th place in the Open Class. I noted a little smugness from Wally Walle who had come in ahead of us. Well done Wally!

The Sportsman Class was having a jolly time with a lot of young talent from Progress Flying School participating for the 1st time. A royal battle was taking place behind the 1st and 2nd teams scoring 1001/1048 respectively with the rest of the field trailing a further 1500 odd points adrift. A great day’s flying with 11 checkpoints including start to finish. If I thought we had been blooded on day one I would have to think again. Third place behind the national teams was still an achievable target. Watch out Wally!

Day 2 – Monday 23 September

The weather played ball for a change with sunny skys and calm wind conditions. The longer rally would take off in time. The organisers decided that a taste of international standard would prepare some competitors for the upcoming World Champs in July 2003. The navigators were set a really difficult plot with 17 checkpoints including start and finish. Some plotted throughout the route which immediately ventured inland to Kirkwood and on to the mountainous region north of Patterson eventually heading south east toward Alexandria before turning for home to intercept the coast at Blue Water. The organisers also introduced checkpoints that were not on the map and these had to be established from the plotting point, which was always a map feature. I believe that this is what can be expected at an international event, which really adds to the workload. The pilot also has to be a lot sharper in terms of timing to the checkpoint as a visual would only be established late in the leg and sometimes not at all as was evident from the number of missed checkpoints.

The top teams of Stirk/Schwebel and De Groot/De Klerk again proved too good for the others with De Groot/De Klerk just edging out their rivals on a technicality due to a logger problem.

We managed to pick up a few positions by beating Wally into 4th place, but our hope for a third place recovery was dashed by the Van Vuuren brothers, who in our view had a better local knowledge advantage – some excuse is better than none. Hats off to my navigator, Neil who plotted the whole route perfectly – Talk about being cool under pressure!

The battle in the Sportsmans class went to the Russian team, piloted by Velekorodney who managed to maintain the classy performance of Du Plessis/Viner who narrowly led on the opening day.

The rally closed with a Spitbraai held at the Algoa Flying Club. The locals were fantastic and showed their flair for good old East Cape hospitality. Dave Perelson and Chris Booysen must be singled out for their organisation and enthusiasm in what panned out to be a great aviation experience. I was disappointed at the poor showing of crews from the other parts of S.A. but I guess costs of aviation today prohibit participation at away events.

ACSA CUP NATIONAL RALLY CHAMPIONSHIPS

Bloemfontein 2002

By Dale de Klerk

Well this was an event that most of us will remember for a long time. After the postponement from last year and the difficulty for organizers to get to Bloemfontein, nobody knew what to expect.

Bloemfontein International Airport
Bloemfontein International

Competitors arrived from Sunday 7th March up until late on Wednesday evening in time for the official briefing. What a turnout, ten open class entries and six sportsman. Most of us had the opportunity to fly at least one practice route and get to know the area. The maps were surprisingly accurate once you got to understand what’s what.

Day one

The plot was quite easy with only nine checkpoints and the start given to us in advance. This was to avoid anyone starting at the wrong place and interfering with the scheduled flights in and out of Bloem international. We all thought Dave Perelson was joking when he said no one would find more than ten out of a possible twenty en-route photos. I think some of us are still looking for those alien dwellings. And then there was the famous church at checkpoint seven. A real church about one mile right of track distracted most of us. Some realized there mistake found the ruin at the correct checkpoint and some didn’t.

The final results for the day were:

Open class

  • 1st Nigel & Dale with 765 penalties
  • 2nd Barry & Mary with 780 penalties
  • 3rd Hans & Ron with 1332 penalties
  • 4th Frank & Quinten with 1561 penalties
  • 5th Rob & Rynier with 1587 penalties

Sportsman

  • 1st Kluyts Father & son with 1754 penalties
  • 2nd Ernie & George with 2174 penalties
  • 3rd U K team Green with 2432 penalties

What a wake up call ? The G P S loggers had taken their toll and Deon certainly didn’t make the rest any easier.

Day two

The route was a little longer with more checkpoints but still easy enough on the plot. The start was at the same place which made it easier, except for one lonely pilot and his navigator who flew off the map and eventually took thirteen minutes longer than anyone else to find it. Most of us were now wide-awake and except for two checkpoint photos in dispute we all flew a better rally. Unfortunately no one had told (or no one had read the rules) Mike Cathro and Ernie Alexander that procedure turn’s were only used in precision flying. This cost them dearly with 200 penalties per turn.

The results for day two were:

Mary de Klerk and Barry de Groot
2nd Mary de Klerk and Barry de Groot

Open class

  • 1st Nigel & Dale with 632 penalties
  • 2nd Hans & Ron with 853 penalties
  • 3rd Frank & Quentin with 972 penalties
  • 4th Barry & Mary with 1338 penalties
  • 5th Walter & James with 1764 penalties

Sportsman

  • 1st U K Team green with 1282 penalties
  • 2nd Kluyts Father & son with 1370 penalties
  • 3rd Ernie & George with 1652 penalties

Ted and Tino were convinced that the logger was cheating. The chief marshal, Thys put in some overtime and superimposed the logger track onto a map and proved yet again that these electronic devices can’t think for themselves. Sorry Ted, that T-junction looked similar but it wasn’t the correct one. The landings were done all at once at Tempe airfield on Friday afternoon. Conditions weren’t great but everybody managed their three landings and except for a few hops and bounces, all went well.

Landing results

Open class

  • 1st Nigel & Dale with 20 penalties
  • 2nd Hans & Ron with 70 penalties
  • 3rd Frank & Quentin with 110 penalties
  • 4th Ted & Tino with 160 penalties
  • 5th Claude & Francois with 230 penalties

Sportsman

  • 1st, Kluyts Father & son with 80 penalties
  • 2nd, Ernie & George with 200 penalties
  • 3rd, U K Team green with 290 penalties

Nigel & Dale had now built up a lead but the pressure was on between Hans & Ron and Barry & Mary for 2nd place.

Day three

A short route again with a very easy plot. And even the en-route photos were clearer, what a relief. This time Chris & Peter actually found the start, the finish and most of the checkpoints. It just goes to show, keep on trying. Except for the monument at checkpoint one that we all flew straight over without seeing it, we all found our way round the route and back to Bloem International. What a tough competition. One thing for sure, everybody had fun. Not to mention the evenings around the braai. Final results were made public at the awards dinner on Saturday evening.

Open class

Dale de Klerk and Nigel Hopkins
2002 South African Champions Dale de Klerk and Nigel Hopkins

  • 1st Nigel & Dale with 1673 penalties
  • 2nd Barry & Mary with 2731 penalties
  • 3rd Hans & Ron with 3111 penalties
  • 4th Frank & Quentin 3977 penalties
  • 5th Mike & Mark 6222 penalties.

Sportsman

  • 1st Ernie & George Brink 862 penalties
  • 2nd Father & Son Kluyts 3540 penalties
  • 3rd U K team Green 4242 penalties

From all the happy faces at the awards dinner one could tell that everyone enjoyed the rally. Special thanks to the organizers who set up a fantastic event and put in many hours of work. An even bigger thanks to SAPFA and our sponsors ACSA without whom we simply could not have such an event. Congratulations to all the competitors, especially Ted & Tino who were awarded their Northwest Provincial Colours.

We look forward to see you all at Brits on 16 May 2002 for the Precision Championships.

Detailed Results

2002 ACSA National Air Rally Championship
OPEN CLASS
Day One Day Two Day Three
Pos. Name Reg Class Prov Mkrs Photo Flight Other Tot Mkrs Photo Flight Other Tot Mkrs Photo Flight Other Tot Land Grand Total Nav Total
1 N Hopkins         D de Klerk CNZ O NW 0 325 440 0 765 0 550 82 0 632 0 200 56 0 256 20 1673 578
2 B de Groot        M de Klerk BMZ O KN 0 650 130 0 780 50 800 488 0 1338 0 225 128 0 353 260 2731 746
3 H Schwebel      R Stirk IWD O NW 0 700 432 200 1332 0 725 128 0 853 0 600 256 0 856 70 3111 1016
4 F Eckard          Q Taylor IVK O GP 0 925 636 0 1561 0 650 322 0 972 100 750 484 0 1334 110 3977 1442
5 M Cathro          M Gregson BMZ O GP 50 650 1136 400 2236 50 650 572 800 2072 50 950 664 0 1664 250 6222 3572
6 R Gleimius       R Moolman CKE O FS 0 1025 362 200 1587 0 1075 890 0 1965 50 850 1340 400 2640 280 6472 3192
7 W Walle            J Lidderd CNZ O FS 200 1050 1392 0 2642 0 850 514 400 1764 0 900 1188 200 2288 320 7014 3694
8 T McKerchar    T Booysen GVR O NW 50 1200 1342 200 2792 0 950 1122 200 2272 50 1050 888 0 1988 160 7212 3752
9 C Hardman      F du Toit UZS O EP 50 1300 1902 400 3652 50 1250 2192 0 3492 50 1175 1556 0 2781 230 10155 6050
10 C van Hoof       P van der Velden FSH O GP 100 1400 3118 200 4818 50 1250 3890 200 5390 100 1200 2280 400 3980 340 14528 10088
SPORTSMAN CLASS
Day One – Official Practice Day Two Day Three Land Grand Total Nav total
1 E Alexander            G Brits AHM S GP 0 1150 1024 0 2174 0 850 402 400 1652 0 800 410 0 1210 200 3062 1212
2 T Kluyts                  A Kluyts FTT S GP 100 1200 454 0 1754 50 900 420 0 1370 100 1100 770 200 2170 80 3620 1390
3 N Green                  D Green KSF S UK 150 1100 1182 0 2432 0 850 432 0 1282 0 1200 1760 0 2960 290 4532 2192

 

2nd WORLD AIR GAMES

Cordoba, Spain – 23 to 29 June 2001.

By Adrian Pilling

Everybody knows about the Olympic Games, the Winter Olympics and the Paraplegic Olympics, but not many know about the Aviation Olympics. That is probably because they only started 4 years ago, the first being held in Turkey and the most recent in Spain. They even have a special name – World Air Games.

Spain was chosen as the venue for the 2nd World Air Games, because of its great climate and multitude of airfields. The events were held in the province of Andalucia at 11 airfields and represented 18 different aviation disciplines. South Africa sent teams to most of these events and in particular sent two very strong teams to the Precision Flying (single crew) and Rally Flying (two crew) events.

The combined precision and rally flying teams arrived at Madrid airport on the 15th June and then were pleasantly surprised to find out that the Spanish trains are very efficient. We caught the bullet train to Cordoba and within 2 hours were at Cordoba station where our manager picked us up and ferried us to our beautiful hotel, in the old town opposite the biggest Mosque in Europe. Unfortunately Spanish thieves are also very efficient and managed to relieve me of my laptop while waiting for the train at the Madrid main station.

Cordoba is one of those beautiful town, steeped in history and dating back to the Roman times – with the original bridge still being used – absolutely incredible. The climate was hot, in fact very hot. The team even has a photograph of an early afternoon temperature display, showing 49 degrees Celsius. One midnight the temperature was 31 degrees. Hot and dry – perfect for flying.

Saturday and part of Sunday were spent organising airplanes and getting to know the area. The countryside is most interesting. It’s either very flat (and completely cultivated with olive trees or wheat) or very mountainous and very difficult to navigate on. To make matters worse it was discovered that the map was less than accurate with complete road and farm track systems not even on the map at all. Just as this was starting to make things interesting, we were able to discover that the maps had the same symbol for a single farm house as for several hundred houses – challenging to say the least. We soon had it sorted out however, by sharing information after each days flying amongst the team at our regular evening team briefings. This allowed us to fast track the assimilation process and within a couple of days we were completely on top of things.

We also used GPS Loggers in each aircraft. This tracks the position of the plane during each second of the flight. At the end of each route we downloaded our track and superimposed this onto a map of the area. Thus we could see how we were doing each and every step of the way. This feature really helped us do well and learn the map and it’s peculiarities really well.

With our six teams sharing four airplanes, it was always going to be difficult to schedule ourselves to get the maximum training in, but with the Spanish summer providing us with daylight until almost 10pm, we were able to fit in most of the training that we wanted. However afternoon siesta and very late suppers wrecked havoc with our planning. Training was further complicated by the fact that four of our crews were flying both events and had to train in two disciplines simultaneously!

The official training week went really well with our teams putting in all the practice they needed. The organisers ran an unofficial navigation day as well as a landings day. Our teams used these as the culmination of the training and did really well during these two events. It was felt that training had gone well and that the crews should have a rest day on Saturday 22nd as Sunday was the Start of the precision event. We also had to move hotel and that added to the pressure on the crews – just keeping the mind right was an exercise in itself. The Spanish had decided that the Opening Ceremony would be held in Seville and true to Mediterranean form it would be a late night affair. It was decided by the team that as the Precision Competition was first, the pilots for this event would not participate as the busses would only return at 4am.

Sunday 23rd
The start of the Precision Flying Competition.

This was a most interesting navigation day with the route taking us through the mountains. A very difficult area indeed. When the crews returned there was much moaning about the difficulty of the course and the quality of the photographs (the colours were no longer accurate!).

Some of our navigators and supporters ( Ron, Mary, Renier & Frikkie) acted as judges and helped the organisers with the event. It was fun talking to them when we returned.

We new we had done well, but as there were protests still to come in we were not sure. Still by the end of day one we were as follows; Nigel Hopkins 1st, Adrian Pilling 7th, Barry de Groot 36th, Jan Hanekom 42nd and Hans Schwebel 45th. Clearly it was a tall mountain to climb but we were in with a chance of a team medal here (the first three scores counting).

Monday 24th

Landing test. The day started off with a little fog interfering with the first four groups of planes. Several of the planes lost sight of the runway on downwind (I know I was one of them). It was decided to delay the rest of the field for an hour and pretty soon we were all flying again. The morning exercise comprised the powered landing and the glide approach. At lunch we were ecstatic as a team as Barry de Groot had scored a double bingo (perfect score) putting him joint first and Adrian Pilling ad Nigel Hopkins were in the top ten. Both Jan and Hans had done good landings ad we were looking good for the team landing prize. Then came lunch.

The afternoon slot comprised the flapless glide and the powered barrier approach landings. Things went well with our pilots getting 5 bingos between them for that session. The pressure was on. There were some protests that had to be sorted out first but after that the placings were announced: Johannes Cserveny from Austria was the confirmed landing champion with only 6 penalties, then Otto Bauer from Austria was second with 7 penalties, then Nigel Hopkins joint 3rd with 11 penalties, then Adrian Pilling joint fourth with 17 penalties and so on. Tricky wind conditions in the afternoon took it’s toll of the pilots. Barry had an unfortunate gust to give him 22nd place overall, Jan managed 31st place and Hans 39th place after a gust of wind lifted his wing and he got penalised with a skip. The results left us in a great position as prior to the landings we were fighting the British Team for the team bronze medal, and after the landings we were able to pull clearly away from them.

Tuesday 25th

The last navigation day. The day started off as usual hot and dry. We were surprised to discover that the route took us back over the mountains and into the difficult terrain. This was really a bonus for us as all we had to do was fly well and the other teams would have to do very well indeed to catch us.

The day went very well for us with all our crews flying really well. We knew we had done well when the provisionals came out but could not be sure until all the protests were in. Later the results showed that in our team the placing were as follows; Adrian Pilling 5th, Nigel Hopkins 18th, Barry de Groot 21st, Jan Hanekom 34th and Hans Schwebel 41st. We were not sure if this combined score was good enough to get us into the medals or not. We had to wait for the prize giving.

Wednesday 26th
The first Rally Competition Day.

This day started off with a 4 hour delay due to fog and an increase in the plotting time for the navigator from 15 to 35 minutes. It was interesting to see that the route took us over some mountains and some flat land as well. A really nice mixture. The first day had us looking for 20 photographs as well as some really tricky turning points. At the end of the day and after protests we were thrilled to find out that our placings were; Hopkins/de Klerk 2nd, de Groot/de Klerk 14th, Pilling/Moolman 20th, Churley/Macintyre 27th, Schwebel/Stirk 33rd. This stood us in really good stead as the first two crews counted for team placings and we had built a nice platform for the rest of the competition.

Thursday 27th

The second rally day went well. The organisers planned a good route but inflicted strict penalties on several of us for not taxiing in certain areas, This lead to many protests but the penalties stood. At the end of the day the exhausted crews dressed and changed for our showcase evening.

We all did our bit as ambassadors for South Africa at the South African Evening with Mr Lungile Mkuyana from the South African Embassy. Here we showed the rest of the world how good we were and of course we showcased our event for 2003 which is the World Rally Championships to be held in the North West Province, at Sun City. Jan Hanekon in his capacity as Chairman of SAPFA conducted a great evening that was enjoyed by all.

At the same time the results for day two were announced. Hopkins/de Klerk 7th, Churley/Macintyre 18th, de Groot/de Klerk 23rd, Schwebel/Stirk 25th, Pilling/Moolman 32nd. The later crews landing well after 6pm. Several of us were hit by those taxiing penalties. It was getting close but the team placing was looking strong.

Friday 28th

Final Rally Day. This was a day spent in the olive trees and the flat lands. A really difficult course with many difficult turning points and lots of photos to find. The results for the day were eagerly awaited. Eventually they were announced. Hopkins/de Klerk 6th, de Groot/de Klerk 24th, Schwebel/Stirk 26th, Pilling/Moolman 38th, Churley/Macintyre 39th. We some of us had a particularly shocking day, but well done to the rest. All we had to do now was to wait for the final results to find out how we all did. That night we all celebrated the end of the 2nd World Air Games.

Saturday 29th

The organisers had arranged for an excursion to a sherry processing factory. This was interesting and we were back in time to enjoy a swim and prepare for the prize giving ceremony to be held in a very old square in the heart of the old city.

At the prize giving it was all about relaxing and enjoying ourselves with many tense moments and crossed fingers to find out how we had done. After dinner and speeches the results were announced:

Precision Flying

Individual Results:

  • Gold Medal: Waclaw Wieczorek Poland
  • Silver Medal: Robert Verbancic Slovakia
  • Bronze Medal: Adrian Pilling South Africa
  • Nigel Hopkins 6th Place
  • Barry de Groot 30th Place
  • Jan Hanekom 41st Place
  • Hans Schwebel 45th Place

Team Results

  • Gold Medal: Chech Republic (Chilar, Jakes, Hajek)
  • Silver Medal: Poland (Wieczorek, Darocha, Wieczorek)
  • Bronze Medal: South Africa (Pilling, Hopkins, de Groot)

Well done guys – we did it – an individual and a team medal. The best we have ever done. Well done to us all.

Rally Flying

Individual results

  • Hopkins/de Klerk 4th Place
  • De Groot/de Klerk 16th Place
  • Churley/Macintyre 25th Place
  • Schwebel/Stirk 26th Place
  • Pilling/Moolman 28th Place

Team Results

  • Gold Medal – Poland
  • Silver Medal – France
  • Bronze Medal – Czech Republic
  • 4th Place – South Africa

Wow guys that was close. We were less than 50 points from being in the medals. Well we will show them on home ground in 2003.

So ended the 2nd World Air Games with all the triumph and tragedy of the Olympics. Well done to our teams and to the supporters and to everyone who helped to make our team the success that it was. Well done to Adrian Pilling for his Medal – South Africa’s highest achievement yet. Well done to the Precision Flying Team for bringing back the medal (the countries highest achievement yet) and well done to Nigel and Dale for making the top ten in Rally Flying and very well done to Nigel for being in the top 10 in two disciplines. A special thanks to Deon van Den Berg our team manager for keeping us all together.

Representing South Africa

  • Deon Van Den Berg (Manager)
  • Mary de Klerk (Navigator/Judge Observer)
  • Adrian Pilling (Team Captain / Pilot)
  • Jan Hanekom (Pilot/Logger Expert)
  • Renier Moolman (Navigator / Judge Observer)
  • Richard Churley (Pilot)
  • Nigel Hopkins (Pilot)
  • Don Macintyre (Navigator)
  • Dale De Klerk (Navigator)
  • Frikkie Lubbe (International Judge)
  • Hans Schwebel (Pilot)
  • Ron Stirk (Navigator / Judge Observer)
  • Barry de Groot (Pilot)