Conditions were perfect for the first ever Navigation Rally hosted at the Airspan Executive Airport on the morning of 20 July 2024. This event was aimed at introducing new participants to the sport of Rally flying, and to sharpen the skills of experienced crews after a long break in the rally flying calendar.
Two classes were catered for, Open Class for experienced crews and Sportsman Class for crews looking for a less stressful experience. Two crews took up the challenge in the Open Class, Fanie Scholtz and Herman Haasbroek in their Sling 2, and Jonty Esser and Sandie Goddard in their C152. Unfortunately, the third entry in the Open Class, Piet Meyer and Adrienne Visser in their Jabiru J400 could not participate due to technical issues encountered before leaving their home base in the morning.
The Sportsman class was a mix of experienced and new faces. Veteran rally flyers, Hans Schwebel and Ron Stirk swapped pilot and navigator role for this event. They also hold the record for the oldest combined age of crew still actively participating in rally type events, not just in South Africa but globally. Sean Cronin and Tarryn Myburgh flew in Sean's water-cooled Jabiru J400. Christo and Schantell Erasmus flew with their lovely yellow Ercoupe. Nick Tatalias and Henry Harmse teamed up together in the Grumman, having only met each other on the morning after breakfast. The final team was Marius van Rensburg and Stefan Erasmus in a C210, with Stefan coming all the way from the Northern Cape to join the event.
The start to the morning was relatively relaxed as breakfast and barista coffee was enjoyed by the participants as well as visitors to the airfield. Once all the teams had arrived, briefing could start with an overview of rally flying and what to expect on the route.
Rally flying tests a crew's navigation, timing and observation skills. Each crew prepares their route map from a set of clues to find the various checkpoints. Crews then use their own map to navigate to each turnpoint. Timing is tested with penalties applied for arriving at a checkpoint too early or too late or missing it completely. The observation part of the competition requires crews to identify if the turnpoint photos provided are true or false, and the note the location of en-route photos as they fly.
After briefing the Open Class crews hurried to their aircraft to start their planning, with only 36 minutes to prepare their routes from the clue sheet provided.
Sportsman class crews were given an hour to prepare their routes, with plenty of experienced help available to assist. The Sportsman class rules are also more lenient with the timing at each checkpoint and teams are provided with an indication of which en-route photos to expect on each leg.
The first aircraft was airborne at 10:45 and 45 minutes later, the last aircraft departed. The route took crews through the Olifantsnek to the south-west of the field and then westward to the Koster area. From there the route turned north-east towards Rustenburg before finishing just to the north of Airspan. The total route distance was just over 80 NM and included 10 turnpoints plus a start and finish point to total 12 timed checkpoints.
Upon arrival back at Airspan, the usual war stories were shared by the crews. Notes were compared to see if others faced the same challenges, and those who got lost analysed what went wrong.
Jonty and Sandy lifted the trophy in the Open Class with a respectable score of 579 penalty points. With a timing score of 219, it means that they averaged less than 8 seconds away from the target time at each checkpoint.
Hans and Ron won the Sportsman class with a score of 681. They also did the second best across both classes with their observation score showing that age did not affect eyesight, and experience can't be bought.
Thank you to all participants and the Airspan for making the event a huge success. We highly recommend visiting Airspan for their fantastic food, coffee and facilities. It is also one of the most picturesque airfields in the country with its lovely view of the Magaliesberg.
We are planning a series of fun training events. If you don't want to miss out on the next one, visit the SAPFA website www.sapfa.co.za or join our Whatsapp group for the latest information.
