Brits Speed Rally with a Bat Hawk Twist
- Garth Calitz
- 1 day ago
- 5 min read
By Garth Calitz
Photos By Garth Calitz and Esias Riecket
The South African Power Flying Association (SAPFA) hosted the second Speed Rally of Season 7 at the always-welcoming Brits Airfield. The first round took off at Rhino Park Airfield over the Easter Weekend, where great fun was had by all. To lure in a bigger slice of the GA community pie, Iaan Myburgh created a special shorter route just for Bat Hawks and other LSA's. These slower birds are usually left out because, well, they're more tortoise than hare in the airspeed department.
The morning kicked off at the crack of dawn, and let me tell you, it was so cold when we left Pretoria that even the farmers were wearing long pants, well some of them that is. It was a teeth-chattering -2 °C! Luckily, by the time we rolled up to Brits Airfield, things had warmed up enough that we didn't need to defrost ourselves. First things first, a safety briefing for all the pilots and navigators, because, you know, staying in the sky is generally preferred. Then, David le Roux and Iaan Myburgh were giving out the official race numbers to all the teams. Iaan then gave a breakdown of the rules and regs for the day.
Early in 2018, Jonty Esser and Rob Jonkers had a lightbulb moment: "Let's liven up Rally Flying with a Speed Rally to lure in more pilots!" Little did they know, this idea would take off faster than a paper plane in a wind tunnel. Initially, they put a lid on the number of participants at forty, and events were bursting at the seams. This time around, the turnout was more of a gentle breeze than a hurricane, with only seven teams taking up the standard challenge and five taking on the 65NM LSA route; only two of these were Bat Hawks, the rest of the numbers were made up by Jabirus.
After a hearty breakfast, it was time to hit the skies. First up were the teams tackling the standard 116NM route. Leading the pack were Tarryn Myburgh and her dad, Derek Orford, in her tiny Jabiru SP470. Right behind them was the slightly quicker, liquid-cooled Jabiru J400 with Sean Cronin and Dean Nicolau on board. Hot on their trail was the Cessna 150, flown by veterans Hans Schwelbel and Ron Stirk. Next, Chris Baker took off solo in his Jabiru J430. The last of the Jabirus was Piet Meyer and Adrienne Visser in a J400. Following them were Henning Ellis and Nicolaas Fourie in a Piper PA28R Arrow, and the last team to take off was Derick Lombard and Morne Strauss in the lone RV-6A.
As the teams strutted their stuff on the course, the "fans" were gently nudged toward the clubhouse, where they could kick back and watch the live tracking. This was made very difficult for the visiting enthusiasts as the Ex SAAF Aermacchi AL-60, better known in Safrica as the Kudu, was joined by an AM.3C Bosbok, Also Ex SAAF, for a formation take off and runway inspection before leaving for a scenic flight in the area.
Brits Airfield, in my humble opinion, is one of the friendliest airfields to visit anywhere in South Africa and judging by the number of visitors throughout the morning, word has got around. Their tasty yet wallet-friendly food and favourable AvGas prices have turned into a magnet for aviators on the hunt for a Saturday morning breakfast adventure.
All day long, folks from the Kraanskop Gliding Club were heading out with a tow and coming back after making the most of the few thermals available. Karl Von Seydlitz spent the morning giving training flights to students in his "Yellow Canary", a Scheibe Falke. This constant activity is what makes Brits such a pleasure to visit.
When the Standard route competitors finally made it back, Iaan knew it was his cue to dive into the thrilling world of downloading loggers and scoring routes. The teams all seemed to have one complaint: The visibility was awful, I guess that's a common problem when flying so close to what is affectionately known as "Big Smoke" by country aviators.
Meanwhile, the shorter LSA folks strutted over to their aircraft, ready to show the crowd what they were made of. The first to get airborne was the Jabiru, crewed once again by Piet Meyer and Adrienne Visser. They were closely followed by yet another returning Jabiru, albeit with a new navigator; Sean Cronin was joined by Quintin Legrange. The first of the mighty Bat Hawks took to the skies with Dean Nicolau and Stiaan Malanan onboard, followed by Matt Human and Jerry Venter also in a Bat Hawk. The final team in the LSA category were also in a Jabiru. Tarryn changed out her navigator for the short route; she was now joined by Lloyd Mulder.
Once everyone landed safely, it was time to spill the beans on who did what during the flights. the scores are drawn from two clasifications: Handicap and Track Accuracy. These scores are then combined to figure out the overall winner. In third overall was Chris Baker in his J430, Chris did the route without the help of a navigator; this must have kept him pretty busy.
In second place was Tarryn Myburgh and her navigator/dad, Derek Orford. Tarryn will be representing South Africa in the World Rally Flying Championships with her husband, Iaan, as a navigator. The Championships will be taking place in Italy later this year.
The overall winners are yet another Protea team of Piet Meyer and Adrienne Visser, also in a Jabiru. All the teams that qualified to take part in the World Champs would love to go but sadly the costs involved are prohibative. The only thing that the national team receives from SASCOC is a letter permitting them to purchase a National Colours Blazer, no financial assistance is even offered by the Department of Sport.
The overall winners of the Bat Hawk LSA challenge were Matt Human and Jerry Venter in the slightly odd-looking "Wide Hawk". The Wide Hawk is slightly wider and has better visibility than the standard Bat Hawk. I would have loved to see a few more Bat Hawks take part, especially fitted with an E-Prop propeller, which is rumoured to improve performance by 30%.
Events like this wouldn't happen without a superhero squad of volunteers and, naturally, our wallet-wielding sponsors. So, please, give a high-five to those who keep the sport alive in our country. The following companies pulled out all the stops to ensure the Speed Rally was a blast for everyone involved!
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