The 2020 Brakpan Airport Nav Rally By Cally Eckard - Photos by Willie Bodenstein Participants and officials Frank Eckard during the Safety Briefing Rob Jonkers talked about the Aeroclub's 100th Anniversary to be celebrated during Airweek to be held at Middelburg 1st to the 3rd of May 2020 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. Von Hammon, Hans Schwebel, Andy Gouws and Ron Stirk plotting Thys van der Merwe and Sally Shaw plotting Rob Osner who flew with Hilton Wolf in the Mushack plotting Novice ladies and the only completely female team Clarissa de Costa and Kerry Mathysen only got theirs wings late last year and were looking forward to this, their first rally. They have already entered the Bethlehem Speed Rally 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. Two tracks, both scored well in navigation 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. More Plotting Martin Meyer and Rob Jonkers busy in their Cessna 182 Quentin Taylor and Derek Bird who flew the Super Decathlon getting ready Fanie Scholtz and Herman Haasbroek who flew a Sling 2 plotting Fanie and son Frederick flew their Robison R66. Willie Bodenstein went along and took photos during the flight 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. Some of the competitors taking off Derek and Quentin in the Super Decathlon Rob and Martin in their Cessna 182 Anthony and Pamela Russel who again flew up from Cape Town and rented a Cessna 172 and Jonty and Sandy in the Cessna C150 Fanie and Herman in the Sling 2 Andre Kluyts and Don Lucas in the Cessna 172 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. (That's not hard for a chopper?) Hilton and Rob taking off in Hilton's Mushack, the only of its type in the country Apart from the Robbie 66, another aircraft of interest was the Mushack, which is featured in the latest edition of Pilot's Post. Frederick just before crossing the starting line The start line was this intersection just past the Ergo Slimes Dam Then it was left to follow the highway for a while Intersections makes good turn points like this where one had to follow the left road Or this bridge, a number of which straddled that section of the railroad Was this the one or the one we have just passed or the one in the distance? Calculating arrival time between turn points is absolutely essential 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 then home via Selcourt. Von Hamman and Andy Gouws won the Sportsman Class Thys van der Merwe and Sally Shaw was placed first in the Intermediate Class Jonty Esser and Sandy Goddard took the honours in the Advanced Class Anthony and Pamela Russell took second place….. with Rob Jonkers and Martine Meyer in third place 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:

Events 2020 Power Flying SAPFA

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