Page 46 - World Airnews Magazine December 2020

SAPFA

HOT CONDITIONS

The SAPFA landing nationals took place in
Brakpan. This report from Rob Jonkers

APFA holds a landing national championship every
Syear. This year it was to have taken place at Stellen-
bosch as part of the start of the World Rally Flying Champi-
onships but had to be postponed to next year - same time.

At least SAPFA was been able to redirect the original plan
and hold the championships at Brakpan.
With the rains earlier on in the week abated, the weather

turned to a sweltering 34 deg C. This plus the airfield elevation

at 5300 ft, resulted in a density altitude of around 8500 ft - not

the most ideal conditions for high altitude landing accuracy.

At least the wind was relatively calm although gusty at

ti mes.

There were 14 competitors in total - eight in the unlim-
The scoring team of Mary de Klerk, Frank Eckard, Sandi Goddard ited class and six in the sportsman’s class. Many of the

and Lizelle Kruger reviewing slow motion video footage competitors were out practicing for a good part of Friday

to gain proficiency in their accuracy, as the previous

week’s training camp had been winded out with high
cross-winds.

From the results it showed clearly that practice makes

all the difference. One has to create an airfield mind map
of markers, turning points and altitudes especially for

glide approaches - to get a repeatable landing point.

The competition consists of two sessions of four land-
ings, one a normal powered approach with any flap, the

second a glide approach that starts 1000 ft abeam the

landing line with any flap, the third another glide ap-

proach with no flap and the fourth a powered approach

over a 1.8m barrier located 50m from the landing line.
Jabiru ZU-CZW on a glide approach The barrier proved to be the most challenging for most
- even though the glideslope represents a normal landing
state. First up were the unlimited class in two groups of four

and thereafter the sportsman’s class in two groups of three.
The officials also tried out video recording for the first

time (high speed camera settings) as this will be the

planned standard for world competitions - an improve-

ment from the gasometer system previously used.

After the first session, lunch was had. Then the second
session commenced at 1pm when the highest density altitude

conditions were present with turbulence thrown in. The C182

turning downwind to final on the glide at best glide speed saw

more than 1000ft per minute rate of descent, which did not

leave much space to do the final runway heading line-up and

arrest the descent to stabilize for the flare - needless to say the
accuracy was not easily achievable to hit the landing line.
MFI-17 ZS-OKR on the glide approach After all the landings were completed, the officials

debriefed the scores and reviewed the video footage to
ensure the exact touchdown points were scored. In the

unlimited class, in first place multiple SA landing and

world champion holder was Hans Schwebel in a C150 ZS-
NBT, in second place Fanie Scholz in a Sling ZU-FZF and in
third Jonty Esser in a C150 ZU-BLL.

In the sportsman’s class, in first place was Andy Gouws
in a C150 ZU-BLL, in second place Hilton Wolff in a MFI-17

ZS-OKR, and in third Kevin Cloete in a C182 ZS-KDC.

Many thanks to the Brakpan Aero Club for hosting this
signature event, the SAPFA team of Frank Eckard as the

competition director, Nigel Musgrave as the safety officer,

Mary de Klerk, Sandi Goddard, Lizelle Kruger as scoring
marshals, assisted by Tarryn and Ian Myburgh, Martin Mey-

The Brakpan airfield apron busy with competitor aircraft arrivals er, Hendrik Loots as line judges and barrier holders. Q

World Airnews | December 2020
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