Les Sephton – Practicing Attorney
Commenced his flying in 1972 and still holds a current PPL. Residing in East London, he is the past chairman of the Power Flying Committee and is also vice-chairman of the Border Aviation Club in East London.
Committee member – 1986 to 1988
The Eastern Cape Round of the National Rally Championships was held in Port Elizabeth on 23 August 1985. Called the Settlers Rally this years event was hosted by the Algoa Flying Club at H.F. Verwoerd airport. A tremendous amount of work was put in by the Algoa Flying Club in organizing this event and it must have pleased them to receive a record entry of 25 aircraft. However, chief rally organizers Roy Waldek and ‘Budgie’ Burgers nearly saw their worst nightmare come true when the morning of the event arrived with seven eights low cloud and buckets of rain.
It was decided to push the starting time back by thirty minutes to see if the weather would improve. Although the starting point of the rally was still clampers, Verwoerd was manageable and the other checkpoints were either CAVOK or high cloud. It was decided to go ahead but to change the starting, point to the first turning point. With nervous excitement in the air the navigators started collecting their gen. This consisted of two topocatostrophe (topographical) maps, instructions, 8 photographs, a gift and a survival pack (more about that later).
The route covered a distance of approximately 250 nm which was. accurately drawn onto the maps supplied. About 60 nm of the route was curved and included outside and inverse track. Three of the eight photographs were along this curved section as well as three secret check points so accuracy here was as essential as ever. Actually, it is worth mentioning the photographs here. These were all pinpoint photographs and varied from a shot of a conspicuously shaped dam to a mind boggeling photograph of a gravel road T-junction that looked so similiar to a thousand others that you had to be alert, on track and eyeballs down to recognize it. Another of the photographs was of a farm house, which if you weren’t accurately on track, would be hidden behind large trees. And yes – the top teams did spot these.
The Rally included sixteen check-points, seven of them at turning points, seven were secret checkpoints and one each at the start and finish. These were manned by members of the Port Elizabeth Radio Hams Society as well as members of the Grahamstown Radio Hams society. The route overflew some of the scenic areas of the Eastern Cape including Uitenhage, Port Alfred, Grahamstown, Redhouse and the Port Elizabeth coastline. All the information from the checkpoints was radio’ed through to Rally control at Verwoerd where it was plotted on a board and then transferred to an Apple mini-computer for calculation. In fact a special programme was developed for the rally where competitors received a printout of ETA’s with their instruction gen. These ETA’s were then compared to the ATA’s in order to generate the result.
Oh yes, about the survival packs. These were a neat touch instituted by Roy Waldek and consisted of a generous helping of biltong, a couple of biscuits and asprins. Since Roy was the one who designed the rally route I reckon he knew he would be giving the crews a headache, hence the asprins.
That night, at the well supported prize-giving, the Pietermaritzburg Flying club delivered a message from the Mayor of Pietermaritzburg to the Deputy Mayor of PE. They also presented the Algoa Flying Club with a splendid floating trophy that they requested be awarded to the most deserving club member on an annual basis. And then it was time for the rally results. These were read from the last place upwards by ‘Budgie’ Burgers and each scoresheet was handed over with personal words of congratulations, encouragement or just plain leg pulling.
At position number six the handing out of the prizes was taken over by the Honourable life president of the Algoa Flying Club, Captain Nick Louden-Carter. Positions one to six all received cups with second place receiving R400 as well. First place received the beautiful floating trophy, a miniatures of the cup and Rl 000 in cash. Money for these prizes were donated by club members.
Congratulations to Malcolm Spence and Dave Perelson for their outstanding display of accurate flying. Their total of 218 penalty points was less than half that of second placed D Mostert and M Hatfieid who had won the previous provincial in the OFS.
Special mention – Well, Robert Pokorney and Peter van der Velden had to do a forced landing on the Uitenhage Freeway directly after completing the rally due to fuel problems. No damage to plane or pilot was sustained. At the prize giving they were presented with two bottles of vinyl seat cleaner which were deemed necessary after their harrowing experience.
Everyone I spoke to after the rally were very impressed with the running of the event and congratulations must go to the Algoa Flying Club for the very professional manner in which the event was run. Of the first six places two were from Port Elizabeth one from Jansenville and three from Pietermartizburg so it looks like there was little benefit derived from flying over ones home territory. All in all this was a very good rally that was enjoyed by everyone.
Ten years ago a then ten years younger Di Marshall was asked to represent the Aero Club of South Africa in the Western Cape. In those days Aero Club was not as streamlined as it is today and poor Di not only looked after power flying but also hang gliding, parachuting, ballooning, etc. It was also Di who brought us the lst Western Province Air Rally.
What a Rally that was! It was going to be the biggest flying do the Western Cape had ever seen. Plans were well on the way to making it a real humdinger of an air display cum rally and a great deal of money was being spent on the strength of the committee’s dreams and visions. Then the law struck – fuel restrictions! The axe fell. Dreams and visions do not put money in the bank. The Controller of Petroleum Products said no air show, no gate money and no public. Somehow or another the show went on without the public and gate fee which we needed to bail us out of the mire.
The whole world came to that rally, including Sheila Scott from the U.K. The day dawned and true to Cape Town weather form, it was foul and the alternate route had to be flown. All 45 aircraft did a two leg trip to Oudtshoorn and a two leg trip back to Fisantekraal. There were no secret check points, no ground markers and no photographs. We had not yet thought of such nasties. Our timing devices – Pidgeon Clocks! When the clocks came home they all read different times – what a calculation. However, help was at hand, Nigel Forrester had a real live digital watch and he kindly loaned it to us to time the aircraft on the home leg. By the way the master clock also got heat stroke!
The flying side of the rally was a little unexciting but the function went according to plan. A Friday night pre-rally party was held in Rondebosch, most of the pilots and navigators were still there in the early hours of the next morning. The wine always tastes better in the Cape. The, lunch at Oudtsboorn, was smashing and the gala dinner at Fisantekraal in a marquee was a party that few people will ever forget.
Di had to face the Aero Club Central Committee and ask to be bailed out of a debt amounting to R 1 500 and that was a heap of bread way back in 1974. In 1975 we repaid our debt.
Some things never seem to change. You still have to get permission from the Controller of Petroleum Products to host a rally and Di Marshall still helps with the Western Province Air Rally.
Today, I feel that our Rally is very close to world class. We still have excellent rally parties (also world class) both before and after the event. This year’s pre-rally party was a winner and Stellenbosch Farmers’ Wineries were not shy in helping us make it a sparkling affair.
On the flying side we try to make it as challenging as possible. The crew have become so expert at time keeping that if there were no photographs or ground markers, the winner would be extremely difficult to find.
As this was our tenth year, I tried to make the route as scenic as possible and took the risk of crossing the mountains. Once in a while we are lucky with the weather, this was it, our gamble paid off.
Leg 1 and 2 took the competitors towards the west coast and up past Darling. By the time check point 2 had been reached they were timed three times and should have seen three ground markers and two photographs. Leg 3 was an unrestricted leg – there were seven railway stations circled on the maps and two carefully taken photographs of two of the stations. On this leg circling etc. was allowed, all that was required was that the photographs should be matched with the correct stations and that check point 3 should be reached on time. This leg went across from the west through the Gouda Gap and down the valley to Worcester. Leg 4 was straight on down the valley. Leg 5 was a 105 nm curve on out of the valley over Stormsviei over Stanford and the Hermanus lagoon, along the Hermanus coast line, over the Botrivierviei lagoon through the Botriver valley, over the Threewaterskloof Dam and ended at the top of the Franschhoek Pass – the most scenic curve ever flown. (Some competitors forgot that it was a rally and opted for a scenic drive.) Leg 6 down the Franschhoek valley to an intersection 5 nm east of Fisantekraal. Leg 7 – 5 nm long back to Fisantekraal, just to sort the men from the boys.
When they landed back at Fisantekraal our intrepid aviators should have seen 10 photographs, seven ground markers and had been timed at seven points. Finally the pilots had to land in a demarcated box for bonus points.
This year’s rally was won by the superb team of Eric Stratford and Colin Jordaan from the Transvaal. Second were Jury Steyn and Frans Grotepass, local pilots, and third place went to an old guest of ours Malcolm Spence and Tony Downs from the Eastern Cape.
At the end of the day and through all the post mortems we always say how grand it is to be able to meet with our old flying friends and to welcome the new. It is my hope that come what may we will always be able to conjure up something new and a little different and that our rallies will go on and on and on, and that we shall in some small way be able to contribute to aviation by setting a high standard for all pilots who love flying.
See you next time.