SAPFA aviation navigation rally
After so many months of lockdown and not being able to fly, my heartiest congratulations to Rob Jonkers and the South African Power Flying Association (SAPFA) for organising what so many described as a ‘most successful day’ of competitive sport aviation.
Due to the COVID-19 lockdown restrictions, aviation in South Africa, especially Sport Aviation has been almost non-existent during a major part of 2020, with tragic economic fallout consequences as a result. Since April, the lockdown restrictions curtailed flying operations severely. However, with concerted efforts together with the regulator, parts of General Aviation were able to re-open to a limited extent flying, firstly for maintenance, then for proficiency and shortly thereafter the means to hold events. This Brakpan ANR was the first aviation sporting event held under COVID-19 conditions, where specific compliances were required to be in place to uphold social distancing and personal protection.
First aviation sporting event in months Once the date was decided and published, the competition slots were
snapped up within a day to make up 20 aircraft which was the maximum number on which the committee had decided which would result in 40 competitors along with 10 officials and photographers would make up the 50 as the maximum allowed. Nigel Musgrave was the safety and compliance officer for the day and he also organised and ran the spot landing competition, ably assisted by Derek Hopkins. As it turned out there were eventually only 16 competitors as four dropped out with aircraft problems or were not happy flying in the strong wind, which was blowing at 15-20 knots and gusting up to 35 knots. The briefing venue was Brakpan Flying Club’s delightful restaurant and club house run by Brian and Patricia Crane, which provided for non-alcoholic refreshments and delicious Boerewors rolls, whilst a coffee vendor parked his trailer on the lawn outside the venue. I was impressed at the levels of COVID-19 sanitising that took place including the recording of temperatures of all people involved. Incidentally, Brakpan’s restaurant is open every day of the week except Monday, for brunch and lunch. Please support it. An introduction to the ‘new rules’ by Rob Jonkers was followed by a detailed briefing by Frank Eckard who described the style of this relatively new aviation sport. Frank went to great lengths to describe how both pilot and navigator were in fact both navigators ensuring that the aircraft remained within the narrow corridor that had been planned.
Aviation Navigation Rallies (ANR)
At least 30 minutes before the scheduled departure time, route maps and a sheet containing photographs were handed to the crews. The idea was to fly within a narrow half nautical mile corridor ensuring that the aircraft remained on an exact course at an exact speed whilst recognising ground features to stay on course. The first of the two courses flown was relatively easy, because the turn points were distinctive ground features such as a small dam, crossroads, or a rather noticeable ground feature. However, the second ANR flown was more difficult, because the turn points were over featureless areas and the corridor had been reduced to only 0.3 nautical mile. For the spot landing competition, the runway had a major line painted across it, which was the ‘bingo line.’ Thinner lines had been painted before and after the spot landing point at one metre intervals up to 10 metres and then at five metre intervals. Points were deducted
for every metre that the aircraft landed either before or after the spot landing line. Initially I positioned myself close to the start of the take-off point, but when there was a lull in proceedings, I moved my video and still cameras to the north of the ‘bingo line’ so that I could capture the actual spot landings as well as competitor take-offs from a greater distance.
Challenging flying conditions
The two short ANRs prepared by Frank and Cally Eckard were challenging, especially with the strong northerly wind that certainly provided the field of 16 teams an opportunity to show their navigation, observation and flying skills. Once the briefing was over, the teams began plotting on the maps provided and the first aircraft was off at 10h15. This was the now well recognised bright green Cessna 150 flown by father and son team Jonty and Jonathan Esser, followed by the rest of the field at five-minute intervals, all flying at 80 knots. The visibility was not great due to the dust being whipped up by the strong wind, whilst flying at the required speed proved to virtually impossible. Headings did not feature much whilst flying, as aircraft had to ‘lay off’ off due to the strong wind. It was best just to fly on map features. As Frank Eckard said in his earlier briefing, in an ANR, the two-man crew are in fact both navigators; the pilot navigating the left-hand
corridor boundary and the navigator navigating the right-hand corridor boundary. Maps provided were ones with a scale of 1:200 000 which were last updated in 2015. This resulted in the route being difficult to recognise as there had been considerable urban development since that time with many new informal settlements springing up. After the first route was completed and most teams scored well the teams prepared the plotting for the second route at around 13h00, with the wind picking up even more, which made this route particularly tough with the twisty turns, which the scores would reflect.
After each round, the flight finished with the spot landing competition and in the gusty conditions prevailing it was tough to achieve good landing scores, but some pilots were at least were able to ‘bingo’ the line. After every aircraft had landed, the scoring started, but with some logger and software challenges, it took some time, with the prize-giving taking place at around 15h30.
The results were separated into two classes: Sportsman class and Unlimited with the Unlimited teams being Proteas. Overall winners in the Sportsman Class were Apie and Frederik Kotzee flying a Robinson R66 ZS-HRS. Second place went to Eugene van Staden and Munaf Mubarak flying a Sling ZU-IBH and third place went to Hendrik and Jandre Loots also flying a Sling ZU-IHK.
In the Protea class, first place went to Jonty and Jonathan Esser flying the Cessna 150 ZU-BLL with second place going to Hans Schwebel and Ron Stirk flying a Cessna 152 ZS-NBT. In third place were Mauritz du Plessis and Sandi Goddard also flying Cessna 150 ZU-BLL.Well done to the winners and many congratulations and thanks to all who participated in those ‘trying’ conditions.
Photography and videography
Although the ANR sport is not essentially a spectator sport, several aviation media personnel were present to record the events of the day. The organisers had planned for excellent positions where the media could be stationed to capture the finest images and video footage. Fortunately, Brakpan airfield is relatively flat and provides for endless opportunities for great photography, but of course the dust filled winter air and strong wind had its effect on picture quality.
Next SAPFA event
After the success of this event and especially now that the COVID-19 lockdown risk level has been reduced to Level 2, The South African Power Flying Association will be staging a Speed Rally at Secunda airfield on 12 September.