The 2020 Brakpan Airport Navigation Rally
With the National Rally Flying Championships only two weeks away, most of the existing Protea rally team members took part in the Class 1, or “Open” category of the sport at Brakpan Airport. It was also encouraging to see that after all the training sessions held by Mary de Klerk, Rob Jonkers and Jonty Esser, many of the previous “Fun Rallyers” stepped up to Class 1 as well.
Disappointingly, few of the local Brakpan pilots supported this event, even though one of the training sessions was held at the club recently. Hopefully more of them will be inspired to put their flying and navigational skills to the tests, especially as this sport improves general flying safety.
Organisers Frank and Cally Eckard kept the route fairly simple, so as not to discourage the first-timers. They all managed to complete the task sheet quite easily, except for one navigator who plotted the Start point from the wrong Brakpan Airport, which found his pilot heading off to start at the Finish point, and was surprised to find another aircraft flying directly towards him.
The “follow-the-feature” (a railway line) was easily managed by most of the teams, except for one who followed the wrong railway line. Frank did not include arcs in the route, as these require more skills, and will be incorporated into the next event.
The weather cleared in time for the scheduled take-off, and the winds were light, with just a very slight cross-wind over the run-way. It was decided to judge the landings after the rally, and the results showed that a lot of practise is required before the National Champs. For the first time in a SAPFA event, a helicopter set the record by winning the landing stage of the rally.
Apart from the Robbie 66, another aircraft of interest was the Mushak, which is featured in the latest Pilot’s Post.
The route took them to a Start Point near Ergo Slimes Dam, then South towards Heidelberg, to a point along the N3, then East towards Leandra, then back North along the railway line to Delmas, and home via Selcourt.
Although the results were far from what is required from a National standard, the selectors trust that the skills the entrants will pick up at Nationals will enable them to put together five “A” team and five “B” team partnerships to give SA the best chance of a good team result.
The full results are:
Landing Competition:
Pilot Navigator Aircraft Score 1 Apie Kotze Frederick Kotze R 66 0 2 Andre Kluytz Don Lucas C 172 10 3 Antony Russell Pamela Russell C 172 20 4 Jonty Esser Sandi Goddard C 150 30 5 Von Hammon Andy Gouws C150 40
Class 3 (The Fun Rally section):
Pilot Navigator Aircraft Points 1 Von Hammon Andy Gouws C150 974 2 Hilton Wolf Rob Osner Mushak 1374 3 Roydon Gillies Justin Dorrington PA 28-140 1781 4 Clarrissa de Costa Kerry Mathysen C152 1989
Class 2 (The Intermediate Section):
Pilot Navigator Aircraft Points 1 Thys van der Merwe Sally Shaw C172 594
Class 1 (The Unlimited or Open Section):
Pilot Navigator Aircraft Points 1 Jonty Esser Sandi Goddard C150 435 2 Antony Russell Pamela Russell C172 539 3 Rob Jonkers Martin Meyer C182 709 4 Hans Schwebel Ron Stirk C150 741 5 Andre Kluyts Don Lucas C172 1085 6 Apie Kotze Frederick Kotze R66 1210 7 Hendrik Loots Jandre Loots Sling 1214 8 Derek Bird Quentin Taylor Super Decathlon 1586 9 Milan Daniz Caroline Koll TC07 1856 10 Piet Meyer Adrienne Visser Jabiru J400 1956 11 Fanie Scholtz Herman Haasbroek Sling 2 2800
A score less than 2000 indicates that with the training and discipline the pilots experience at Nationals, they should be able to be selected to represent South Africa in Stellenbosch in November.
Nationals take place from Thursday 2 – 4 April, with training at your own discretion. Look out also for our very exciting Speed Rallies. Please see our website sapfa.org.co.za for our events calendar.
By Cally Eckard
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