Articles Rally (Page 6)

Superior Pilot Services hosted the annual Grand Central Rally on 6 October, and as always it was a great hit with the pilots and navigators who took part. Superior Pilot Services organise fly-in breakfasts once a month, and fly-aways every few months, as well as the annual Fun Rally. This rally is unique in that a number of their student pilots participate, providing these new pilots with a set of safety skills, habits and attitudes that are not normally taught during traditional pilot training.
Dennis Jankelow and Associates Insurance and Avimap set up tables at the airfield, which created interest for the participants between briefings, flights and scoring. A buffet breakfast was sponsored by Superior Pilot Services at the new Harvard Cafe, Grand Central.
Ian Seddon, Safety Officer from SPS, gave the safety briefing, and rally organiser Frank Eckard, gave the rally briefing as well as a short explanation of the new safety program which has been recently launched by Aero Club.
Seventeen teams took to the air, amongst them an Allouiette helicopter flown by Hugo Visser, who roped his sons into navigating for him. The weather was clear, but a strong wind challenged the stomachs of a few navigators.
The routes from Grand Central require a great deal of concentration, as the pilots need to navigate their planes through the Pinedene Route, and there is little margin for error, with Waterkloof and Oliver Tambo airspaces on either side.
Four of the teams who participated were Protea or part-Protea teams, so although all flew according to Fun rules, Frank separated the experienced teams from the fun rallyers at prize-giving.

OPEN CLASS
POSITION	PILOT	NAVIGATOR	REG	AIRCRAFT
1	Hans Schwebel	Ron Stirk	ZU-IWD	Cessna 150
2	Leonard Edwards	Leon Weiderman	ZS-LXE	Cessna 172
3	Jonty Esser	Emmie Oelofse	ZU-CTL	Qualt 200
FUN CLASS
POSITION	PILOT	NAVIGATOR
1	Leon Bouttell	ZU-FBJ	Sportstar
2	Francois Swart	Jaco Swart	ZS-MUU	Cessna 210
3	Jason Beamish	Richard Steyn and Keaton Perkins	ZS-EUO	Cessna 170B

Landing Prize Hugo Visser in the Allouette
Lucky Draw Leonard Edwards

Prizes were generously donated by Superior Pilot Services, Harvard Cafe, Dennis Jankelow and Associates, Avimap and Wavecrest Resort and Spa
The next events in the Rally calendar will be on 17th November at Brits, this will also be one of the qualifying events for selection the National Team, which will be held in both Precision and Fun Rally formats. Therefore all pilots and navigators who wish to be available for the Protea team should attend this competitions. Fun Rallyers are also very welcome at these events, and they will be catered for as well. Please find entry forms on the SAPFA website.

Pictured above are (from L to R) Winners of the Fun Class Section: Rally director Frank Eckard, the father-son team of Jaco and Francois Swart (Second Place), Veronica Joyce (Dennis Jankelow & Associates (Aviation) (Pty) Ltd, Leon Bouttell (absent his pilot Dominique Van Roey, First Place), Richard Steyn with pilot Jason Beamish and Keaton Perkins (Third Place), Frederick Morrison and Cathlen Fourie.

Winners of the Open Class Section: Rally director Frank Eckard, Leonard Edwards and Leon Weiderman (Second Place), Hans Schwebel and Ron Stirk (First Place) and Jonty Esser and Emmie Oelofse (Third Place), with Frederick Morrison.

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

The rally season started this year with the fun rally at Rand Airport. This is traditionally a well-supported event in terms of both prizes and participants, and 2012 was no exception. Thirteen teams took to the Johannesburg skies and thanks to the sponsors, all received prizes.

Rand Airport hosted the event, presented the Rand Airport Winners Trophy , and waived landing fees. Karcher donated High Pressure Cleaners. Chris Linakis donated R3000 for cash prizes on behalf of his company, ACL Construction. AviMap donated 2 map books, 6 Pilot Destinations, and 6 Airfield Directories, and African Pilot 3 annual subscriptions to their magazine.

The competition was a bit different for this year, as Competition Director Frank Eckard chose a rally that asked questions about features along the route instead of identifying photographs. This was very popular with the participants, and lead to a lot of queries and discussion about the answers.

Last year being a Precision Flying year, all teams at Rand were taken by surprise with their lack of practise in plotting the route, and the word “rusty” was bandied around to excuse such mistakes as using tools designed exclusively for Slovakia, forgetting the difference between Magnetic and True, and using kilometres instead of nautical miles. All agreed that some extra hours need to be invested in plotting before Nationals.

The flying was good, and only one team had to use Frank’s hint that if they were lost and saw the Vaal River, to turn back and not cross it. Thys van der Merwe was thrilled to receive a total score of zero for his flying, meaning that he crossed every turnpoint exactly on time. Winners Esmond Erasmus and Johan Goosen and third placers Sean Murphy and Carl Dollenberg are faithful competitors, and it is good to see their dedication to the sport rewarded.

It was also great to see that of the 26 competitors, 7 were women, and we had 2 all-women teams competing.

The results were as follows:
POSITION PILOT NAVIGATOR
1 Esmond Erasmus Johan Goosen
2 Thys van der Merwe Mary de Klerk
3 Sean Murphy Carl Dollenberg
4 Hans Shwebel Ron Stirk
The best First-timers, the father-and-son team of Dave and Aldo Naude finished in 7th. A creditable result.

This year’s fun rally fell on Saturday 24 September, the first anniversary of SPS Flying Club (Special Pilots Services Flying Club), which CFI Ian Seddon explained is an organisation managed by SPS which tries to bring aviation enthusiasts together for social occasions in order to provide a platform for them to swap ideas and gain inspiration regarding all things aviation. They organise fly-in breakfasts once a month, and fly-aways every few months, as well as the annual Grand Central Fun Rally.

This rally is unique in that a number of student pilots from participate with their instructors, providing these new pilots with a set of safety skills, habits and attitudes that are not normally taught during traditional pilot training.

Stall holders from EAA, Wings ‘n Things, General Pilot’s Supplies set up their wares, which created a lot of interest from the participants between briefings, flights and scoring. Breakfast was sponsored by SPS from the coffee shop at Grand Central.

Ian opened the event with a talk about safety issues in flying, and reminded the participating pilots that during the rally they are issued with a logger, which picks up any pilot behaviour that is not within navigational regulations, and that these errors count against the teams in the scoring. For the first time, SPS set up a screen and projector, which SAPFA Rally organiser Frank Eckard linked up to his laptop, and was able to project all the routes and scores onto the screen. This provided the crowd with great entertainment, and they found it very uncanny that the logger could pick up exactly where they had flown, at what altitude, and what speed.

The rally, titled “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” took the teams through various transport-related turnpoints such as Kayalami Race Course, over the Gerotek Vehicle Testing Track, railway stations, and required a touch-and-go at Brits airfield. The weather cleared up after an initial foggy start, and the teams were all able to cross the Magaliesberg and complete the course.

Ian thanked Cathlin Fourie for putting the event together, ATC at Grand Central Jocelyn and Mashadi for bringing the pilots home safely, Mary de Klerk for her talk on flying rallies on the preceding Wednesday evening, and Frank and Cally Eckard for organising the rally. He also thanked Gary Reynolds from GC for waiving the landing fees for the event.

Zabula provided the first prize of a 2 night mid week break for 4 people at the lodge. The second prize was from General Pilot Supplies which were magnificent product hampers for each crew member worth R 500 each. Mugg & Bean at Greenstone donated the third prize of a lunch voucher worth R300. Our thanks got to the sponsors.

Full results are attached below. The podium positions are:

 

POS PILOT NAVIGATOR CALL SIGN
1 Sean Murphy Ernie Alexander ZS-IRL
2 Reino Horak Reinhardt Basson ZU-SUP
3 Roger Bozzoli Christopher Nikitov ZU-NPB

Richard Nicholson, Chairman of Nylstroom Flying Club, requested SAPFA hold a fun rally at the Taildraggers Event that he organised in July. Frank Eckard agreed to organize the rally, and 8 teams participated.

Most competitors stayed over at B&B’s, or camped at the airfield overnight. The organizers ensured that no pilot went hungry; Friday night dinner was prepared at the pub, and it was difficult to choose from a myriad of stall holders on Saturday, ranging from traditional breakfasts to curry vetkoek.
Pilots were easily distracted from their navigational tasks by all the activity at the airfield, but they were eventually airborne by 11 am, and flew a route that Cally Eckard had planned with the stark beauty of the area in mind. All pilots agreed that it was “pretty”, including one of the teams, who got lost shortly after the first turn point, and had to use their GPS to find their way back to Nylstroom.

F Eckard and L EksteenAfter the second turn point the teams had to follow a road down a steep valley to turn point three, providing spectacular scenery along the way. From there the route took them westward to an old abandoned mine, then south around a game park and back parallel to the N1, over the Finish Point, which was Nylstroom Hospital, and back to the airfield.

Long-time participants Carl and Shaun were thrilled to take first place, saying that everything just fell into place. Local knowledge, first-timers’ luck or excellent flying and navigational skills provided Nylstroom’s only team of Lukas and Leon Eksteen with second place. This pair not only found most of the check points, but also a lot of the photographs, and incredibly good timing for novices at the sport, especially considering their nominated speed was 100 knots. Hopefully this father and son team will continue in this sport and provide some stiff competition for long-time contestants.
Also taking part were Emmie Oelofse and Jonty Esser, Frank Persson and Keith Irwin, and Juri Nyssen with Francois Wuras.

Long-time veterans Ron Stirk and Hans Schwebel took part in the Precision section of the rally, in training for the World Precision Champs in October.
The results for the Fun Rally were:
POSITION PILOT NAVIGATOR CALL SIGN SCORE
1 Carl Dollenger Shaun Murphy ZS-IRL 172
2 Lukas Eksteen Leon Eksteen ZS-NFA 639
3 Ralph Hurwitz Stephan Theron ZS-FLF 754

 

	Nylstroom 2011
	16-Jul-11
	Nylstroom
	Fun Rally
	RESULTS
POSITION	FILE	PILOT	NAVIGATOR	CALL SIGN	RULES	NAV	ALT.	TRACK	TURN	OBS	LANDINGS	OTHER	TOTAL
1	5	Carl Dollenger	Shaun Murphy	ZS-IRL	Fun	52	0	0	0	120	0	0	172
2	1	Lukas Eksteen	Leon Eksteen	ZS-NFA	Fun	189	0	0	0	450	0	0	639
3	6	Ralph Hurwitz	Stephan Theron	ZS-FLF	Fun	384	0	0	0	370	0	0	754
4	2	Emmie Oelfse	Jonty Esser	ZU-LNI	Fun	720	0	0	0	60	0	0	780
5	3	Frank Persson	Keith Irwin	ZS-IOU	Fun	561	0	60	0	500	0	0	1121
6	4	Juri Nyssen	Francois Wuras	ZU-FAX	Fun	720	0	1020	0	820	0	0	2560
	Precision
	RESULTS
POSITION	FILE	PILOT		CALL SIGN	RULES	NAV	ALT.	TRACK	TURN	OBS	LANDINGS	OTHER	TOTAL
1	2	Ron Stirk		ZS-IWD	Prec	459	0	0	0	100	0	0	559
2	1	Hans Schwebel		ZS-IWD	Prec	480	0	0	0	100	0	0	580

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