The 2nd FAI World ANR Championships took place in Santa Cruz Portugal from 9 – 14 September 2019 with 17 nations with a total of 43 crews taking part in the competition. South Africa sent a Team of 5 crews and 2 International Judges, with Mary de Klerk as the manager of the team.
Three new Proteas, Tony Russell, Pam Russel and the youngest Jonathan Esser at the age of 16, received their national colours and now join the elite group of aviators in South Africa.
SAPFA, once again brings a new and exciting discipline to South Africa called the ANR (Air Navigation Race). This discipline comprises of two components, namely Navigation and Landings.
Navigation is map reading with the aid of DI and compass only, no GPS allowed and must be done with in a corridor of no longer than 25 nm and width of 0.4 nm at a speed nominated by the Competition Director. The start and finish gates are timed to the second and flying outside of the corridor incurs a three point penalty for every second flown outside of the corridor.
Final Days Course
Spot landing section comprises of two landings on a 1 m wide “bingo” line which earns zero penalties. Every meter before and after the “bingo” line will incur penalties. The total landing box length is 75 meters and any landing outside of this area will result in maximum penalties being scored.
This World Championship competition structure commences with two days and three routes flown to determine the top 20 in the navigation section of the competition. On the 3rd day the top 20 fly 2 routes each to determine their final navigation position. The top 2 positions in the navigation section do a “Fly-off” against each other to determine the World Champion in the navigation section.
The Landing section of the competition follows after the final “Fly-off” of the navigation. The winner of the Landing section is crowed the World Landing Champion.
The combined scores of days 1 and 2 navigation together with the landing score (multiplied by a factor of 10) makes up the 3rd part of the competition which determines the overall World ANR Champion.
We are very proud as South African aviators to have achieved world class standings in what was a tough competition due to the high winds and terrain. Mauritz du Plessis and Sandi Goddard achieved a world class 3rd place in the Landing section and received FAI bronze medals for their achievement.
We are also very proud as South African aviators to have the youngest competitor, Jonathan Esser, at the age of 16 flying as a navigator in the World ANR Championship.
Navigation results:
Jonty and Jonathan Esser were the highest ranked of the South African team in the navigation section in 17th place with Hans Schwebel and Ron Stirk in 18th place, Thuys van der Merwe and Mary de Klerk in 20th place, Tony and Pam Russell in 22nd place and Mauritz du Plessis and Sandi Goddard in 28th place.
Landing results:
Mauritz du Plessis and Sandi Goddard 3rd followed by Thuys van der Merwe and Mary de Klerk in 15th place, Jonty and Jonathan Esser in 21st place, Hans Schwebel and Ron Stirk in 24th place and Tony and Pam Russell in 39th place.
Combined overall results:
Thuys van der Merwe and Mary de Klerk earned 12th position, followed by Hans Schwebel and Ron Stirk in 15th place, Mauritz du Plessis and Sandi Goddard in 17th place, Jonty and Jonathan Esser in 21st place and Tony and Pam Russell in 35th place.
The addition of live tracking throughout the competition took this competition to a whole new level, with people from all over the world watching the action live on their smartphones or PC's. Hopefully we will see this technology in South African Navigation and Speed Rally's in the future, it makes the sport a real spectator sport.
