By Peter Norton

There was thunder and lightning of all types at the recent Precision Flying Nationals held on 23-24 June at Tempe airfield near Bloemfontein. The weather-gods organised an out-of-season thunderstorm, that was matched only in ferocity by the thunder and lightning coming from the debriefing room where the provisional results were being discussed!

For those unfamiliar with power flying competitions, precision flying is for solo pilots with no navigator (as in the rallies). The National Championships consist of two “navexes” and a spot landing competition, with four man teams from each province, as well as last years “invited” winners. The navex consists of accurate flight planning, and then navigating over checkpoints at a nominated ground speed with an allowed margin of error of two seconds either way, while at the same time looking for ground markers and 10 or so photographs along the route. Up to 12 legs are fitted into an hour-and-a-half, with a couple of sneaky secret checkpoints thrown in and, oh yes, you’re still supposed to fly safely! It never fails to amaze me that the better pilots manage to get most of their photos and ground-markers and “bulls” (zero time penalties)for at least half of their checkpoints!

1989 OFS Precision Flying Team
Winning OFS team from Left to Right: Pete Norton, Johan van der Linde, Nico Gordon and Geoff Henschel

The ground marshalls seem to enjoy themselves too – one said I was flying so slow as I came in that I nearly stalled into his skottelbraal breakfast! Another accused the “red bomber” from the W.P of trying to dive underneath the 1m string gate used to take overhead times!

The first day’s rally took us out east of Bloem towards Thaba ‘Nehu chasing roads that no longer existed, and koppies that disappeared in the rain showers. An apparently unmanned checkpoint with a rather familiar looking Kombi lying stuck in the mud a few hundred metres away showed that the ground marshalls were also making heavy weather of it! Local knowledge helped when one of the Free Staters managed to read the name of a railway station on a photograph, and mark it before he even left the briefing room!

A howling 25 knot wind with a strong cross-wind component made for an interesting spot landing competition in the afternoon. Some of the old hands showed their class, but I for one was blown all over the place, and the taildraggers were just glad to be able to get on the ground, let along anywhere near the line! As if to drive home the unfairness of it all, the last few pilots flew in absolute calm. We tried to make them do night landings just to counteract the advantage but, unfortunately, the competition finished just before sunset!

Friday was a perfect day for flying, in all respects. A really memorable moment for me was just after turning at the infamous turning point 3, when a herd of springbok “pronked” in the early morning light in a field below me, bringing home the magic of flying low over the African veld.

The course was generally easier than the previous day, but had lots of timed checkpoints to catch you out and some very difficult photos. As well as turning point 3, which led to most of the fireworks in the debriefing room! Strict application of the international “off-track” rule led to a number of pilots receiving maximum penalties for the checkpoint, and much unhappiness. It is clear that, if the rules are to be applied strictly, some test situations should be accurately described in the rule book. However, the general feeling was that far too much responsibility is put on the shoulders of the volunteer ground marshalls and that, whether the rules are correct or not, they should be modified to take the pressure off these much-needed volunteers.

1989 Precision Flying Winners, Colin Jordaan, Geoff Henschel, Adrian Pilling and Pete Norton
Winners from Left to Right: Colin Jordaan (4th), Geoff Henschel (2nd), Adrian Pilling (1st) and Pete Norton (3rd)

At a very pleasant prize-giving at the Old Students’ Centre the following results were announced:-

  • 1st Adrian Pilling (Natal) 381 – 1989 S.A Precision Flying Champion
  • 2nd Geoff Henschel (OFS) 640
  • 3rd Pete Norton (OFS) 732
  • 4th Colin Jordaan (Tvl) 785
  • 5th Dave Pereison (EP) 1 009
  • 6th Johan Swart (WP invited) 1 740
  • 7th Nico Gordon (OFS) 2 148
  • 8th Jake Heese (WP) 2 285
  • 9th James Craven (WP) 2 582
  • 10th Malcolm Spence (EP) 2 919

The team prize was won by the OFS “home team”, followed by Western Province. A hearty word of thanks to Roy Waldek, Kassie Kasselman and their team of organisers, computer operators, ground marshalls and helpers for an enjoyable, if stormy, competition.

6th World Rally Flying Championship

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

by Colin Jordaan

1988 South African Rally Team

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.

1988 State President’s Trophy Air Race

Margate, 27 to 30 May 1988.

By Vic Kaiser

With clear skies virtually throughout the country the first of the competitors arrived at Margate as early as Thursday afternoon. Friday morning we looked set for yet another cloudless day and the official route was released at 08h00. The rest of the competitors arrived during the course of the day, the last registration being at 16h30.

Everybody proceeded to San Lameer where the sponsors BMW (S.A.), hosted a cocktail party and a warm welcome was extended to all by Mr. John Jessup (member of the Management Board – Marketing) of BMW (S.A.).

Pre-race briefing was held early on Saturday morning and already there were signs of low cloud drifting up from the south. By 08h30 the skies could no longer bear their load and we were treated to some of the heaviest winter rains seen in years. The first leg was postponed till Sunday and while some competitors returned to their rooms to prepare the alternate route, others ventured to the gambling dens of the Wild Coast Casino.

Sunday morning we were greeted by warm and cloudless skies and the Lear 25d was first off on the route to Underberg – Ladysmith – Weenen and then back to Margate – taking only 38 minutes to complete this course. Next off was the Cessna Citation 11, also requiring only 50 minutes to complete the course. The rest of the field followed at 10h30 at one-minute intervals after both jets had returned safely.

The first feedback came from our Marshal at Ladysmith, Des Tarboton, who overheard the following conversation between Durban AIC and an S.A.A. Airbus – “We’re overhead Ladysmith at a groundspeed of 460 kt and we have an unidentified light aircraft below us, that is out accelerating us”.

The whole field returned safely with only four competitors missing the turning point at Underberg. As one of the competitors was unable to depart from Lanseria on Saturday morning due to weather, he only arrived after the start of the race and was then sent round the course with a video camera. The video recording was superb and undoubtedly confirmed his flight to all the checkpoints.

The two jets were again sent off first on Monday proceeding to Magwa Tea Estates, then on to Barkley East, Kokstad and then back to Margate. The rest of the field was started at 10h25 with the first aircraft off being the Cessna 170. Drama struck when the Beechcraft Sundowner developed engine trouble shortly after take off and was forced to return to Margate whilst the start was still in progress. Unfortunately, two of the Bonanzas were delayed by one minute whilst the Sundowner returned to land.

First across the line was the Beechcraft Baron of last year’s winners, John Sayers and Chris Kyle, followed also by previous winners Peter Walker and Marius Els in their Beechcraft Baron. The rest of the field followed shortly afterwards with the last aircraft returning at 13h45.

A special mention should be made of the one overseas entry – a Beech 23 G-BDYL piloted by T. Rose (U.K.) and navigator E. de Villiers (S.A.). More overseas entries should he encouraged.

The prize-giving banquet was held in a marquee at San Lameer, magnificently decorated in an aviation theme by BMW (S.A.). Unfortunately, the Natal Mercury Trophy for the First National Pilot was erroneously awarded. After reconciliation, the trophy was awarded to Chris Proctor and Andrew Campbell of Pietermaritzburg.

On behalf of the organisers, I’d like to express my thanks to the following people: BMW (S.A.), Gill Kaiser, Peter Wood, Graeme Conlyn, Margate Municipality, Refuellers, Air Traffic Control, André Steyn, Sue MeGlashan, Schwartz Jewellers, National Airways Corporation, all the Marshalls, Time Keepers, Airport Management, Department of Civil Aviation, San Lameer staff, Handicapping Committee and Aero Club of South Africa, all the competitors for another safe, incident-free race.