Page 76 - World Airnews September 2020 Edition

FEATURE AIR RACE

its two flights a week in peak season using E190s aircraft time to settle. The new fleet includes 10 E190 with 98
with the technical fuel stop having been moved from Windhoek seats including a business class, 12 E170s with 74 seats including THE PILOT INSURE

to Walvis Bay which is at a lower elevation making things easier. business class seats, 11 E140s with 44 seats and 17 ERJ 135s with
The fuel stop is only necessary on the outbound leg because of the 37 seats.
prevailing headwinds in that direction. With regard to the flight up and down, I must state both the NAVIGATION SPEED RALLY

Into Madagascar on the Johannesburg- Antanarivo route, he E190 and ERJ 135 really are state of the art. The E190 has large
said, this is also doing well, operated by an E170 with 74 seats windows and glass cockpit FADEC start procedures and dual
daily. The Johannesburg- Nosy Be (also into Madagascar) route FMCs. The leg room is good. The ERJ 135 has a single FMC but By Rob Jonkers
that operates on a Sunday uses E140 equipment with 44 seats. also FADEC start for its two Rolls Royce rear mounted engines.
An all jet service has been introduced to Richards Bay, on the
KwaZulu-Natal North Coast, with three convenient flights from THE NEW AIRLINK SIMULATOR

OR Tambo. There is a business class offering using the l74 seater I had the amazing opportunity to fly the new Airlink ERJ 145 sim
E170 with a six seats available. which was out of this world. I managed to take off after a bit of

Airlink now has 55 routes around southern Africa. There has weaving while the machine accelerated on the ground in departure
been massive growth. from ORTS runway 03l. I was a bit up down on the glide slope but
under the watchful eye of Captain Tammy I did ok and managed
NEW FLEET OF EMBRAER JETS two landings. She is in my view an amazing aviator and Rodger is

Rodger said the new e jets are very pleasant to fly in, quiet, lucky to have her there.
powerful and comfortable with large windows and plenty of LODGE LINK OPERATIONS
overhead storage. They are more economical that the RJ 85s which

they are replacing and the E190 which burns 1900 kgs per hour has These operations have been expanded using the C208 Cessna
98 seats compared to the Avros 83 at 2300 kgs per hour. Caravans and this included linking Phinda into the network.

For the readers information the E170 consumes 1600 kgs per The service has great connections to Cape Town and Johannes-

hour and the ERJ 155 900 kgs per hour approximately. burg from Nelspruit (E190 and ERJ 135) and Skukuza (ERJ 135 and

Rodger is planning a period of consolidation giving the new ERJ 140).
Remember that Airlink is a full service carrier. Q

Winners Leon Bouttell (Pilot) and

(right) Martin Meyer (Nav)

race number handouts and introductions to the event and team

sponsors. As the sport increases in popularity, more and more

he season finale - the Pilot Insure Secunda navigation sponsors have come on board. There are now six teams with

Tspeed rally – saw the winners crowned at a memorable sponsorship all vying for top honors. The most recent is the The
prize giving event. Airplane Factory sponsoring the Sling team of David Ross and
James Braid and Beegle micro trackers sponsoring the team of
This format of rally has gone from strength to strength with Johan Whiteman and Quinton Kruger.

increasing entrants and popularity. An initial entry list of 23 rose to The next day the briefing started at 8h30. This was a shortened

over 40 at its peak at Bethlehem in June this year. version covering the basics of the route, radio procedures and
Entries again started out at 40, but some competitors had to drop out weather. The Speed Rally main sponsor Pilot Insure then has a slot

due to technical issues. By Friday morning 32 entries were confirmed. telling all about the benefits of Aviation Life Insurance cover for

Secunda club chairman Hardie Voges made arrangements for pilots. Beegle Micro Trackers then provided some information on

food on site and accommodation. Local members were also on available flight trackers using the Iridium satellite system and said

hand to assist with officiating, while officials were also there to six aircraft in the rally would be tracked to watch their progress on

prepare the course, finalise entries and their handicaps a screen in the clubhouse.

This event is one that is flown at full speed under handicap Low cloud started to develop in the northwest and some teams

conditions. The course is around 125 nm long, has 11 or so turning could not arrive in time to take part. Johannesburg and Pretoria

points, with each turning point identified with a correct photo- showed rainy and IMC conditions, but as the morning wore on the

graph. For this particular event the route was mostly to the north- weather improved.

east of the airfield - not the most scenic part of the country mostly The teams then prepared their aircraft, while the organisers got

dotted with power stations and coal mines. the papers ready. Each team received an envelope with a map,
The weather started out well on Friday with virtually no wind. turnpoint photos, a minute marker and a GPS logger to record their
But by noon it had started to pick up and began to gust as a cold track. The aircraft were then scrutinized and all portable electronic

front moved through. Arrivals picked up in the afternoon and the devices sealed up in bags. For this event Century Avionics were

four new teams were given some training by Mary de Klerk. on hand to block off aircraft GPS systems, hand out papers at the

After this race master Jonty Esser introduced Rob Jonkers who took allotted time and checked the fuel tanks were full.

to the stage and provided a briefing on what to expect for the next To assist the teams to get their take-off roll accurate,

day in terms of the planned route, how many turn points, distance, a different starting colour panel was assigned to each.

departure and arrivals protocol, and how the scoring system worked. This was then set up next to the start line on the run-

In the E190 SS YAY flight deck (left) Capt Tammy King Jonty then took over with his introductory theme song videos, way and chief marshal Jacques Jacobs and Mark To page 76

with Mikela Foster - Rodger’s daughter World Airnews | September 2019
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World Airnews | September 2019
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