By Garth Calitz

The annual Rally Flying Club competition took place at the Secunda Flying Club on Saturday, 30 September 2017. This enjoyable rally coincided with the Secunda Spring Festival, held at Umuzi Lake, located just north of the airfield. The Spring Festival will continue until 9 October.

Jonty Essrer, Chairman of the South African Power Flight Association, along with Sandy Goddard, organized the course, which included a "Start Point," eight "Turning Points," and a "Finish Point." Additionally, there are fourteen enroute photos that need to be identified.

The teams, consisting of a pilot and navigator, fly the route and must pass over each point within a fifteen-second window and no more than one mile in diameter from the point. Each team selects a speed at which they feel comfortable, and their times are calculated accordingly. The speeds range from 80 to 120 mph, depending on the aircraft type.

The first team took off at 10:00 am, with subsequent teams departing every five minutes for the next hour or so. All competitors carry a GPS logger on board and can be tracked on LiveTracks24 via their cell phones, making the competition much more exciting for spectators on the ground as they can follow the competitors in real time.

Besides the turning points and photo identification, participants are also evaluated on their landings. A score of 0 is awarded for landing on the designated line, with penalty points increasing the further they land from it.

Rob Jonkers and Martin Meyer, both competitors from the SA National team, were the only entrants flying under the Unlimited rules. Unlimited is much more demanding, allowing only a four-second window at turning points, and the gate is also narrower.

Top honors in the Fun Rally competition went to JP Swart and Jan Hendrik Jacobsz in a Cessna 182, achieving an impressive score of 165. JP and Jan fly out of Ellisras.

Johan van Eden and Cor Esterhuizen secured second place in an RV7A. They were also the leading team from Springs, achieving a commendable 300 points.

Riaan Kamffer and Jaco Groenewald secured a close third place, trailing by just 12 points with a score of 312, proudly upholding the Secunda name.

Jaco Groenewald Jnr and Lourens Human scored 441 points, securing fourth place. They also operate from Secunda.

Local Secunda instructor Christoff la Grange and his wife Zina received the award for the best landing of the day.

Leon le Roux was deemed to have executed the poorest landing in his Sling 2, as he briefly ran along on the nose wheel.

Arnie Meneghelli, Scully Levin, Ellis Levin, and Dewalt Lourens captivated everyone with an aerobatic display above the festival area in the Puma Energy Flying Lions Harvards.

Jonty and Rob were completely astonished by the improvement from the previous year's Club Challenge and urged everyone to participate in more rallies nationwide.