Brits flying club hosted a SAPFA organised ANR rally on Saturday 2 December, Rob Jonkers created the route using the latest software used for international competitions. Two routes were prepared and a combined score of both of them made up the final score. The routes were approximately 25nm each and were designed to keep the teams very busy in the cockpit as the turning points arriving between one and two minutes apart.
The weather threatened to ruin the event on Friday but looked much better on Saturday morning, unfortunately some of the competitors decided to rather stay at their home bases. Nine teams finally made their way to Brits and the weather played along making for a wonderful competition. The field was divided into two groups, Unlimited and Sportsman, the routes for the groups were identical.
Preparing Maps over a tasty Brits Flying Club Braekfast
The objectives of ANR first and foremost is to be on time at both the start and finish gates, as penalties are accrued at 3 points per second for either arriving early or late. Secondly the route must be flown within the designated corridor, which is a mere 0.4 nm wide leaving very little margin for error, three points are accrued for every second spent out of the corridor.
The competitors
The first flight got airborne at 9:30 and the rest of the field left at 5 min intervals after that and all teams were back and ready to start the second round at 11:30. Mary de Klerk and Thuys van der Merwe flew both routes twice but swopped pilots for their second attempt, and it seems Mary did better as a pilot and Thys made the better Navigator on the day.
Mary and Thys
After the mammoth task of downloading the loggers and analysing all the data and then printing the actual routes of each competitor, a short prize giving ceremony was held, the banter between the teams was at times very amusing as they waited for the results.
The Sportsman class results were surprisingly good with the winners Leon Boutell and Mike Gamble, in an Evektor Aerotechnik Sportstar, also managed to beat some of the unlimited teams to take third overall.
Leon and Mike
Second place in the Sportsman class went to Pierre van der Merwe and Deon Calitz flying a Sling.
Pierre and Deon
Third place belong to Chris and Johan Shaw in their stunning Cessna 177 Cardinal.
Chris and Johan
Fourth place was achieved by Pierre Dippenaar in his Piper Cub, I say achieved because flying such a tight course solo is a massive achievement.
Pierre Dippenaar
In the Unlimited Class Rob Jonkers and Martin Meyer took top honours in their Cessna 182 followed very closely by Mary de Klerk and Thys van der Merwe in a Cessna 172. Thys and Mary came in third as well this time with Thys at the yoke.
Rob and Martin
Mary and Thys or is it Thys and Mary
Frank and Cally Eckard came in fourth place in a Cessna 150 followed in fifth by Brits locals Hans Schwabel and Roel Jansen also in a Cessna 150.
Frank and Cally in Hans' C150
Hans and Roel
The popularity of these events is definitely on the increase and it was very good to see that some newbies also took up the challenge, The team form SAPFA are planning many ANR’s and Fun Rally events in the new year so if there is one near you please take up the challenge and join the fun.
Martin and Rob 1st place overall
Mary and Thys 2nd Overall
Leon and Mike 3rd Overall
The day was closed off with a visit form Jason Beamish, Mark Hensman, Charles Urban and Kayle Wooll who popped in for some last minute practice before the Ace of Base Aerobatics competition the following day in Vereeneging.
