EAA Chapter 322 Sun 'n Fun Brits Airfield 5 to 7 November
By Willie Bodenstein
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I hope the skies will darken soon with mass of airplanes on 124.2 for AFIS. The Brits Flying Club have been just so accommodating of our members- an exceptionally friendly welcome awaits you for EAA Sun n Fun.
Our dedicated Safety man, Nigel Musgrave, is already on site. The airfield is pristine and all facilities have been meticulously prepared. Don't forget that the BFC special price for fresh Avgas here is R20.85/litre and there is an ocean of it available."
The Sun 'n Fun setting up team from left to right Neil Bowden, Phil Scallan and Abid-Nego Matsinhe.
Karl during the day had possession of the mike and entertained those that seeked the shade inside the clubhouse or on the patio or under the huge marquee to socialise with friends or to enjoy a scrumptious breakfast or a cold beverage.
Daniel Ralefeta and Hans Schwebel sharing gliding stories.
The ATNS events team at Brits. From left to right Eugene Hlungwani FAKN, Megan Evans FAPE & Benji Phukubje.
As per almost all other aviation's events this year, aviators flocked to Sun 'n Fun with more than eighty aircraft visiting. Some camped while others opted for more luxury accommodation and stayed in town or on game lodges that abound in the Brits area. Most though opted to fly in and during the day and there was a steady stream of arrivals and departures that kept the ATNS team in the snazzy refurbished tower, now with aircon fitted, busy.
Erez Halvini, an Israeli El Al and Airforce pilot who travelled 6995 km and was awarded a special prize by Neil with Karel Jensen on the right.
Neil Bowden started flying in 1978 and joined the SA EAA in 1981 and was Chapter president in the 80's and 90's and was again elected as president in 2018. Neil is also a member of the USA EAA and the organiser of the extremely successful and now the legendary yearly tours to Oshkosh, USA, the home of the EAA's annual Fly-In and convention. Asked why he joined the EAA, Neil related that when he got his PPL, he met Brian Zeederburg who was then flying a Pitts Special from the streets in Wynberg. Brian told him about the SAA EAA's Convention held annually from 1981 in Margate. He thought it was a cool thing to do and hired a 172, flew down, camped and had so much fun with like-minded people that he was hooked, joined and became involved. Neil built a Pietenpol and a Sling kit, ZU-OSH, the Spirit of Oshkosh, the second one that the Sling factory sold.
Trevor Davies's journey started his flight at Knysa and after a three and a half hours flight in his Vans RV7, he landed at Pyramid where he and Hartog Block, who accompanied him in is Vans Rv xxx where they spent a couple of day with Peter. Their total flight time to Brits was almost five hours. Trevor is currently not an EAA member, his membership had lapsed when he had his aircraft refurbished. Trevor is adamant that he will again become a member now that he has got his wings back.
Hartog 'Horace' Block left Mossel Bay at approximately 08.45 on Wednesday in the company of Trevor Davies who had joined him from Knysna. The weather close to Baberton was hazy with a lot of smoke haze. Horace said he slowed down in case he hit something"; at least he knew he would do it slowly and stylishly. He, Peter Lea and Trevor left Barberton on Friday morning. Peter and Trevor flying directly to Brits while he stopped at Wonderboom to have a new battery fitted to the RV6 ZU-EAA built by Chalkie Stobbard. A Gauteng resident and Chapter 322 member for a long time, Horace, when he moved south, missed the camaraderie and brotherhood and the events and socials so prevalent up in the highveld, very few of which he missed so he remained a 322 member.
Nineteen-year-old Abed-Nego Matsinhe got his PPL a month and a half ago and he decided that there is no better way to 'formalise' his PPL than to fly the Sun 'n Fun and to camp under the wing of the Flitecare Sling. Not yet AA member, this youngster is a clearly a dedicated aviator will be joining the EAA soon.
Hennie Roets, (left) has for the last twenty years been a member of Chapter 870 Kroonstad. One of the reasons why he joined the EAA is because of the support that members got when starting and during new builds and projects. Hennie flew to Brits in his newest project, an EV4, (ZU-ROP,) a helicopter he built from parts of a R44 Ravin 1 with Ravin 2 blades and hydraulics.
Jeremy 'Moose' Woods who flew his absolute stunning Bearhawk Patrol built by the late Wayne Giles from Silver Creek Gorge Estate joined Chapter 322 in 1996. Silver Creek to Brits is a short 15-minute hop, but Jeremy went via Wonderboom. One of the reasons Jeremy joined is the sense of great camaraderie between EAA members, whenever you have something to do to your aircraft, somebody will have a solution to your problem. Whether it is the sourcing of parts or just advice, there is a huge amount of knowledge that members are willing to share. Another one of the big things about the EAA is the large numbers of events regularly organised by the EAA. Instead of just flying around the patch and its great fun to see your friends.
Jeremy mentioned that there are quite a few EAA members that are not pilots. Some are AP's or AMO's others are involved in some aircraft related trades and some are just pure aviation fanatics, all are welcome in this wonderful organisation.
to join the brotherhood of almost 300,000 aviators.
Saturday is the day when the all-volunteer group of marshals and the ATNS team have their hands full handling all the arrivals and departures. Fortunately, Brits' 900 metre long 02/20 runway has a grass taxi way that does help a lot. I managed to meet up with some of the arrivals. It was hot and most were eager to get out of the sun and under shade as fast as possible.
Charles Urban.
Richard Nicholson and Jason Breamish.
And Gareth Gill, all flew in from the Coves Estate, a short hop from Brits.
Dr. Mike Brown flew up from Cape Town and was given a lift to Brits by Eugene Couzyn in his immaculate Allouette II.
Jeff Earle got a lift from Coen Swart. Both hangar at Vereeniging.
The sponsors obviously want their message to be seen by as many people as possible. Up to now, the Flying Lions sponsored by Puma Energy has had a presence at smaller legal events and on Saturday, they again thrilled the legal appreciative crowd.
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by Rob Jonkers (photos by Martin Meyer & Rob Jonkers)
EAA Brits Sun n Fun 2021 Adventure Rally
There were 12 entries, with 10 who eventually took part which is a good field given the busy day at Brits with many arrivals and departures attending Sun & Fun.
This rally is about teams enjoying the more relaxed and fun kind of event mostly involving observation out of the window recognition of ground features and learning about the area being flown over.
For this year, the theme was "a bit of everything" that the North West could offer, bushveld, rivers & mountains in terms of scenery with some accurate flying thrown in.
The format was in the form of a pre-defined route map that was available prior to the event starting for everybody to either plan their route with traditional map plotting tools or to program their GPS's - if they were more at home following the magenta line.
For this year, as was done in 2019, navigation accuracy was also a criteria in the scoring, where a 1 nm wide virtual corridor was established, where the teams had to make sure that they did not stray outside these boundaries as time penalties would be applied for the period outside the corridor.
This year the format was made a little easier, and somewhat shorter, just under 60 nm, with all turn point photos shown as correct, and 4 photos provided along the last leg - which was a follow the river leg where the location of these photos had to be marked on the map.
A booklet was also provided with details of each turn point, and a number of questions to be answered, some answers could be obtained from a section of wiki notes - with a warning - "Don't read at your peril….", and guess what…., some forgot to find the answers in the most obvious place…. or were too busy trying to keep on track, some answers had to be found on the map, and some answers had to be answered by looking out the window.
After the briefing, the first competitors took to the skies at 09.30, with the last off at 11.20. The weather was windy and brewing hot, with plenty turbulence over the route, but otherwise an excellent clear day for flying.
Everybody found their way around, and in general the scoring was good, some tracks however showed some loss of positional awareness.
Some of the competitors waiting for the briefing to commence.
With everybody successfully home, it was time for marking the exam papers which was left to Martin Meyer to carry out, while Rob downloaded the loggers and scored the Navigation Accuracy.
On returning, the competitors had to carry out a spot landing where landing line judge Dave Lister and Kevin Marsden was on hand to adjudicate, also trying out some new video recording equipment.
First place in landing went to Fanie Scholtz in his Sling ZU-FZF, 2nd place went to Sean Cronin in his Bathawk ZU-IGI and in 3rd place Neil Bowden in his Sling ZU-OSH.
When all was tallied up, Pierre Dippenaar took home the trophy, this being the 2nd time since 2015 flying the Piper Cub ZS-PCX on his own, something to be said to fly slow enough not to miss the navigation points. In 2nd place was Fanie Scholtz with his sister Carla Haasbroek in their Sling ZU-FZF, and in third place was Sean Cronin and Marie Reddy in their Bathawk ZU-IGI, Marie having got a full house on all the questions.
1st in the rally - Pierre Dippenaar
The Sling floating trophy was handed over to Pierre Dippenaar, this being the 6th event where this floating trophy has been awarded, the Sling factory continues to support the Sun & Fun event and also the Adventure Rally. Thus, came to the end of a hopefully enjoyable day for everybody who took part.
Many thanks are extended to Roel Jansen & the Brits Flying Club for organising space for the briefing, Martin Meyer & Iaan Myburg for assisting in marking the answer books, DJA Aviation, Pilots Post & Wings & Things, Atlas Shell for goody bags for the competitors.
One of the better tracks and one of the tracks having got a little of course in places.
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Sun 'n Fun has for long been established as one of the aviation events not to be missed. Originally held in Rustenburg for a number of years, it then moved south to Bloemfontein before making its way up north again this time to Brits, where it seems it has now found a permanent home.
The Brits Flying Club as always pulled out all the stops and hosted what has been one of the best at the venue. The Flying Club managed all food requirements for the weekend, including the favourites - pannekoek and a barista on Saturday and other food stalls. The club house bar was open for the weekend and refreshments were on sale. A weather Cam was installed, the restaurant and most traders had facilities to accept both cash and credit cards and to share in the Oshkosh type experience of on field "living", a supplier has been contracted to hire out tents and sleeping gear.
However, organising a successful venue is not possible without the support of sponsors. Please support the following whose sponsorship has made this year's Sun 'n Fun passive: Absolute Aviation, Aero Club of South Africa. Air Adventure Tours, Aircraft Covers, Atlas Aviation and Aero Shell, Aviation Direct (Easy Plan / Easy Cockpit), Aviation Webcams (Aviation Direct), Century Avionics, Comet Aviation Supplies, DJA Insurance, PUMA Energy & the Flying Lions Team, RNAV Leather Bags, Sling Aircraft, Sport Plane Builders, Ukushisa Services and Wings and Things.
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