It has been a difficult start to the year for rally flying. Poor weather first caused the Rand Rally Challenge to be postponed and then cancelled. The South African Rally National Championships were initially set to take place at Brits Airfield on 5 & 6 April 2025 but were postponed to 12 & 13 April, also due to poor weather.
Waking up early on 12 April, it looked as if we might end up with another cancellation as the cloud hung low over the whole of Gauteng extending into North West Province. The poor weather and changing dates unfortunately meant that only 5 crews made it to Brits on the day.
The entrants all remained optimistic, and briefing was delayed to allow everyone to fly in safely as the cloud slowly lifted. One crew entered the Sportsman's/ Fun class. The other four crew were taking part in the Open class, with three hoping to qualify for the Rally World Championships taking place in Italy in September 2025.
With everyone finally at Brits and blue sky starting to peek through the clouds, briefing could start. Frank Eckard, the competition director let everyone know that we would be flying routes that some may have seen before. As a real challenge to everyone, we would be flying routes from the 2022 Rally World Championships that also took place out of Brits Airfield.
The Day 1 route, named the gold route, took the crews south over the Hartebeestpoort Dam wall, west along the Hekpoort valley, back over the Magaliesburg to the intermediate finish point at the Buffelspoort Dam wall. A scored away landing would be taking place at Silver Creek Gorge runway, just to the south of Buffelspoort Dam. The teams then continued north to Bospoort Dam before turning east again on the return to Brits. A second scored landing took place upon arrival back at Brits Airfield.
The Hekpoort Valley challenged most with lots of turbulence, difficult terrain to navigate and the photos proving rather elusive. The crews began their usual banter and war stories broke out about all the mishaps of the day. The tough route and lack of practice could be clearly seen in the Day 1 results. Both navigators and pilots had a difficult day at the office with a long plot keeping the navigators busy and a difficult timing route keeping the pilots on their toes.
Day 2 fortunately dawned sunny and calm and the day could get underway as scheduled. The Day 2 route, named the copper route, took crews north and around the Borakololo Nature Reserve with a long and challenging arc starting the return south. A follow the feature, the winding Crocodile River, took crews back towards Kokoriba's runway near the Beestekraal Dam. The runway at Kokoriba was unfortunately water-logged and uneven due to all the recent rains and the away landing became a touch and go without the touch. Another long arc would bring teams back to Brits for the only scored landing for Day 2.
The Day 2 route was another real challenge, keeping pilots and navigators on their toes at all times but a noticeable improvement in the scores was obvious. The experience from Day 1 was enough to allow teams to start finding their groove again. To add some additional excitement, after the third team landed back at Brits Airfield, a helicopter had an emergency landing, resulting in only half of the runway being useable. Fortunately, there was no major damage to the helicopter or its crew but unfortunately, the three remaining teams were unable to complete their spot landings. This meant that the landing scores for the day were removed from the days results.
With everyone safely back at Brits Airfield, each team had their turn to sit with Frank and Callie to get their scores and find out how good, bad or ugly the day went. As with every rally, you never really know how it you fared until the GPS logger reveals all. Although not without the usual mishaps and surprises, it was clear that everyone improved on Day 2.
The overall results proved rather close. Veteran team, Hans Schwebel and Ron Stirk finished in third place overall, not far behind Jonty Esser and Sandi Goddard in second place. The National Rally Flying Champions for 2025 are Tarryn Myburgh and Iaan Myburgh. Tarryn Myburgh also won the landing trophy for best landing score over the weekend, and Iaan Myburgh won the observation trophy for the best observation score over the weekend.
The national team selected to represent South African at the Rally Flying World Championships are Tarryn & Iaan Myburgh, Jonty Esser & Sandi Goddard and Piet Meyer and Adrienne Visser with Ron Stirk as the team coach.
A huge thanks to all those that made the rally nationals possible. Thanks to Brits Flying Club for the use of their lovely facilities, to Yoli and her team that kept everyone fed and watered. Thanks to competition director Frank Eckard, safety officer Cally Eckard and marshal Barbara Friebose. Thanks also to the Sean Cronin and crew judging the landings at Silver Creek Gorge, and to Dusty Stirk and his crew judging the landings at Brits Airfield.
The team will commence their practice soon and we hope to see many of our members joining to take advantage of the upcoming rally training opportunities.
World Rally Flying Championships Brits, South Africa 2022
