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| Golf Day As you all know our club is a non-profit organisation and therefore we have to do fund raising to make our clock tick. So your committee has decided to proceed with another Annual SAC golf day to raise much needed funds, for the club and also to assist the AWAC & WAC Teams. BUT we need everyone to commit and help us please, after all this is “OUR CLUB”!! We may as well meet at a Fun Party!! As your Chairman:- I would like to make the following challenge/plea to our membership, at the very least to do one of the following:- 1) Take a Four ball (Come & Play!!) 2) Sponsor a hole (Come watch) 3) Sponsor a prize (Come hand it out) 4) Assist on the Day (Come work) 5) Donations (get out of jail free) 6) Support!! (Just for Fun) Looking forward to seeing you all on the day!! Please follow the link below for details. Barrie Eeles.
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| Ace of
Base. History was made at the recent Ace of Base contest held at Baragwanath Airfield on 9 December 2012. It had been postponed from the week before due to adverse weather conditions and as a result a number of the regular officials were not able to be there - one of them was the scorer Natalie Stark, who was in Hong Kong. The logistics of doing the scoring was a challenge to say the least, but they were produced with remarkable efficiency. Barrie Eeles co-ordinated the whole operation by taking a photo of each score sheet and emailing it to Natalie, using his smartphone. Natalie then entered the scores and sent each pilot his scores by SMS. All this done in a matter of minutes, so there was no delay in producing the overall results. "History was made" was Barrie's comment. Congratulations to Rob du Plooy, the 2012 Ace of the Base. |
| SAC to host
YAK 52 & Intermediate Worlds. South Africa has successfully bid to host the 2014 Yak 52 and Intermediate World Championships, in Mossel Bay. This will the first time that this event will be held; a combination of the Yak 52 and Intermediate classes. The event is likely to be held in November 2014. |
| New Contest
format for 2012/3. As agreed by the committee, we now have confirmed new contest formats starting after Mossel Bay. The format is as follows:- One Day Event :- The following sequences will now be flown at all contests Sportsman – Known & Free Intermediate – Known or Free & Unknown Advanced – Known or Free & Unknown Unlimited – Known or Free & Unknown Two Day Event :- The following sequences will now be flown at all contests Sportsman – Known & Free & (Free or Known) Intermediate – Known & Free & Unknown Advanced – Known & Free & Unknown Unlimited – Known & Free & Unknown |
| Barrie
Eeles elected Chairman for 2012/3. The AGM held during the Nationals in Oudtshoorn on 30 June 2012, saw Barrie Eeles being elected as chairman, replacing Nigel Hopkins. Nigel chose not to stand again after serving for five years during which time he achieved many successes for SAC and himself personally. Barrie is the first to admit that he some big shoes to fill, but he is ready for the challenge.
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| Nigel
Hopkins is the new National Champion. Flying his MX2, Nigel Hopkins took top honours in the Unlimited class to become the 2012 national champion at the Nationals held in Oudtshoorn at the end of June. Second was Patrick Davidson followed by Mark Hensman. Barrie Eeles in his new Sbach 342 won the Advanced class from Johnie Smith and Charles Urban. The Intermediate class was won by Graham Kew with Leigh Le Gonidec in second place ahead of Todd Mongomerie. Martin Venn, in only his second contest, flying a RV7 took line honours in the Sportsman class, ahead of Ben Meyer and Petri Van Zyl. See all the results on the Results page. |
| Neville
Ferreira competes at YAKWAC. The third YAK 52 World Aerobatic Championships were held in Russia in June 2012. A total of 23 pilots had entered the contest, with the majority of competitors hailing from Eastern European countries. Neville Ferreira participated in his first international contest and finished a credible 14th overall. For full results see www.civa-results.com |
| Changes to
the CIVA Catalogue. At the CIVA meeting held in Poland it was agreed to make major changes to the catalogue, including major renumbering of figures and the introduction of new figures. However when this went onto the CIVA website the Aresti Family in Spain immediately threatened legal action against the FAI and CIVA and subsequently CIVA withdrew the information from the website. CIVA have subsequently appointed me to sit on the Aresti Committee on behalf of CIVA to sort out all the issues with the Aresti Family and the Catalogue, this will meet sometime in January in Madrid. However until this is sorted out SAC should continue to use the catalogue as valid in 2011 or we risk having a complete mess with the paperwork and scoring system, so do not attempt to use any of the new catalogue reference numbers or figures until further advised. In terms of the approved sequences for both Unlimited & Advanced these can still be used as approved at CIVA as they were submitted in terms of the regulations as existing in November, when the new catalogue changes come into play we will simply renumber the figures as appropriate. Another factor complicating the issue is most of us use “Olan” to design and submit our sequences, Olan has yet to update his system, as you will observe when visiting the Olan website it specifically states that the system cannot be used in Spain and any legal disputes concerning use of his system must be sorted out in the courts in Israel, so unless we all switch to Alan Cassidy’s programme we would be back to hand drawn sequences. |
| SAC goes
mobile with RESOLUTION LIFE Received from Stuart Saward: “I have found us a Caravan within Budget and sponsored by RESOLUTION LIFE. It will house the scoring, registration facilities, internet access, printers, laptops, FRIDGES, generator, microwave and awning for much needed shade! “ Elton it will not have ceiling mirrors and a dancing pole as requested! Thank you Stu for making this happen and to Rob and Resolution Life for your generous sponsorship of the SAC Mobile unit! We hope to have it ready for the Gauteng Regional contest in the New Year. Resolution Life has a really attractive Life cover benefit specifically aimed at reducing costs for Aerobatic Loading. We aim to provide them with the SAC Pilot database, but if you have objection to this please advise Annie asap. It certainly is worth looking at and of course we want to support this Sponsorship initiative. |
| Pilot
Database Revamp SAC is revamping the database of pilot records. Pilots are urged to please send the following documents to Natalie Stark: • License (PPL/CPL) - Revalidation page and picture page • Medical • SAC Membership card • Aero Club Membership card • AEROBATIC RATING CARD • Authority to Fly/Release to Service (for plane owners) • Parachute Packing Slip Regardless of whether you have sent these documents recently, they need to be sent again, either by email or fax (details below). If all the above documentation is not received, any entry forms submitted from today onwards, will not be accepted until the paperwork is received. Without these documents being on file, it makes registration before and on contest day very difficult. If all your paperwork is up to date, there will be no need to present it at registration. The new system will record and track all the pertinent expiry dates and will send you notification requesting copies of your updated documents. I feel that these changes will be of benefit to all and will help to ensure that the record keeping is comprehensive and always up to date. Natalie Stark - Contest Registar - Mobile:+27 82 492 0628 Fax:+27 86 610 0190 Email: natalie@stark.co.za |
| 2012
Contest Format Something that has concerned us over the last few years is our lack of Unknown sequence exposure and this has been confirmed in results at International contests. I put forward a proposal at last week’s Committee meeting and it was well received. Therefore the following change to the sequences will be put in place for next year’s contests. For Sportsman and Intermediate classes there will not be a published Known Sequence. Instead we will publish a list of 20-25 figures for the season. Pilots will be able to practice all the individual figures before the season and prior to contests. For each contest Pilots in these classes will fly their Free Sequence first. A “Known Unknown” sequence will be published at registration and will consist of 8-10 figures from the published Known figures. This will allow Pilots to prepare as if it was an Unknown sequence. For Advanced and Unlimited class Pilots you will fly your Free sequence at all the contests and we will alternate between the Known and an Unknown sequence for contests as the second sequence. For contests held over 2 days we hope to fly 3 sequences per class. NB! At the National contest we will now count the Q sequences for Advanced and Unlimited! |
| Club
Membership. As a result of the recent establishment of the Recreational Aviation Association of South Africa (RAASA), there have been some changes to the administration of membership. Please note that in future, members will have to obtain the following documents separately; - Aerobatic ratings from RAASA - SAC membership cards from Aero Club of SA
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Newsletter
31 December 2012
Newsletter
13 August 2012
Newsletter
30 December 2011
Newsletter
5 November 2011
Newsletter
13 October 2011
Newsletter
4 August 2011
Newsletter
24 May 2011
Read previous Newsletters in the Archive
2012 CIVA Meeting summary
Please read the detailed summary of the 2012 CIVA meeting courtesy of Nick Buckenham and the BAeA;
More CIVA news for their website www.fai.org/aerobatics.
From the pen of Barrie Eeles
View from the cockpit
Hello Everyone, would you believe that 2012 is over, it’s been a very busy year and finding my feet has been interesting to say the least, and thus I have been a bit slow with my news letters.
Well here goes for the final news letter of 2012, may you all have had a Merry Christmas, and that 2013 will be one of our best years in Aerobatics.
First of all a BIG THANK YOU to all our active members for again leading the way in such a safe & good year of Aerobatic Contest, it’s a privilege to lead you all, and share the same airspace. “Go Big - Go Safe - Go Inverted”
At this point, I would like to appeal to all those members that have not flown in a contest for some time or have not competed yet, please make 2013 that year that we get to see you again, our sport has grown somewhat since you were last around, so come on in, the “Air” is warm, Box is cold and everyone is friendly!!. Come on JOIN in the fun!!
Since my last letter we have had three contests, namely WP Regionals, NW Regionals & Ace of the Base, I will elaborate later in the letter. But some big breaking news is for the first time in our Aerobatic history we were able to do the entire scoring process remotely at the Ace of the Base. Welcome to the technological age in Aerobatics!!
We had Natalie sitting in Hong Kong and we sent her the score sheets via wi-fi and she punched the scores in, and everyone got their scores directly to their smart phones. Now being at that contest was awesome, as there was a buzz of anticipation as everyone waited for their scores, it was a bit slow at times, but that can be fixed. All in all we went green, paper – “less” scoring, and it was AWESOME!!
Watch this space for some more exciting news with regard to scoring, we intend bringing I-Pads in for the judges next – Instant scoring!!
What 2013 has in store.
We have a big year ahead, and our calendar (see web site) is Jam packed again, so let’s see you all at every competition.
We will again send a team to WAC to be held in Texas USA, good luck to the Unlimited team. Train hard – Go bigger this time lads!!
Also we have earmarked a number of guys for the 2014 Advanced Team, 2013 nationals will be a tough one, as the first cut to the squad of 12 will be announced based on position. The advanced class has never seen such a big contingent!
The Team for 2014 YakWac will also be considered in 2013, so if you flying a Yak now’s your chance to show what you got !!!
We have some new rules effective 1st of January, please see SAC website - please make yourself aware.
Yakwac 2014
If you did not know by now, I am pleased to announce that we have won our Bid to host the 2014 Yakwac & Intermediate world championships – to be held at Mossel Bay.
A big thanks to John Gailard, Stu Saward, Annie Boon, the Team from Mossel Bay Flying club led by Hans, and the Council of Mossel Bay our main sponsor, for all your efforts in making this possible – good luck to you all as we start the preparation!
(GO BIG - GO SAFE - GO INVERTED!!)!
New Rules for contests - some with immediate effect.
The new 2012 SAC Regulations booklet is available on the Briefing Room page. Please check to see if your Free sequence is legal. Effective from 1 January 2013.
RULE:- Please be aware as of our last committee meeting – the SAC has now arrived in the technological age, all your contest paperwork, including your entry form and payment have to reach the scorer (Natalie) 4 weeks prior to that contest you intend entering (Use Email, I-Phone, I-pad - whatever means!!).
REASON: - It is a tremendous effort to have this all done and ready on the day AND for the “Contest Director” to plan (fuel, accom, judges, food etc) for his /her contest, therefore we are now applying the “International rules”.
PENALTY:- If you choose to submit your paperwork late, each week getting closer to the contest will attract a R100 additional fee per week, if payment is received at the contest it will be double the entry fee. (There are more penalties but don’t go there!!) let’s be NICE!!
REQUEST FROM THE CHAIR: Come on guys lets make it simple to compete – “AFTER ALL WE ARE PILOTS” this should be easy after learning Aerobatics!!
BEWARE: Check out the new Contest Rule!! Don't say you didn't know. Also, a heads up for the new rules to flying general aerobatics, coming shortly.
Ace of Base.
Ace of Base was held on the 8th of December 2012 back at the original home of aerobatics BaraG, unfortunately the 1st of December the weather did not play it’s part and thus caused a postponement.
With this we only had 11 entries, and it also caused other problems such as no scorer, shortage of Judges and no registration person.
Anyway we managed to get things under way, at this point I must say a big thanks to Helm & Trish for coming to judge for us on such short notice, that was really awesome to have them on board again and much appreciated.
Registration went well, as most of this was done the week before by Natalie, Thanks Nat’s.
Flying got under way around 9am, and the box was really well marked so that helped everyone a lot, I decided to take a huge leap of faith and do the scoring remotely with Natalie in Hong Kong, thank goodness that worked well, Big Thanks to Natalie here, but also well done as we managed to get it all done.
Well we saw some good flying, and the scores were flowing, and in no time we were through the first half of the day, we had a quick break for the Judges and then back to it for the Free’s, by 14h00 the competition was complete, and Nigel then did an impromptu display for all in attendance, just in time, as he landed the heavens opened and let us have a proper highveld thunder shower, complete with hail, very scary for the pilots!! Big thanks here to all the guys that got soaked while trying to get planes under cover!!
We all scuttled to the club house for cover and we were served with an awesome spit braai lunch sponsored by the light plane club, big thanks to Noel and all the guys. While we were taking lunch, I sent all the score sheets of to Natalie, and by the time we were done eating, the scores were in.
Just as the rain stopped we started the awards, the winner of Ace of Base Rob Du Plooy Congratulations, also to Pierre Du Plooy & Ben Meyer for Second and third respectively. Also to all the pilots for making a huge effort to get to Bara G. See the Web site for all the results.
At this point I would like to thank all the judges and scribes for assisting on the day, and a big thank you to my Son Tristan who helped with the scoring & registration paperwork with out him I would not have managed, also to everyone from BaraG for being such great hosts, we hope to be back for next year.
Well, with all the days events done, most of the guys made a quick dash for home, to miss the next thunder storm that was in bound.
Best Regards
Barrie.
North West Regionals
The day started off with some low cloud and we all thought we were not going to fly, but thank goodness the cloud started lifting.
With that Cliff started the briefing and thanked everyone for their efforts, he then handled the briefing matters and the flying got under way, we had 16 pilots competing due to the weather.
We had a whole bunch of new judges in the capable hands of chief judge John Gaillard, which was really good to see, and of course we must make mention of Mike, Charlotte & Natalie, for making the trip, a big thanks!.
During the day we had to make a mad dash for cover as a big thunder storm came across, in that time a couple of guys made a mad for home, giving up in case they got closed in. Well it wasn’t long and we pulled the aeries out and flew the last few sequences, which then brought the day to a close.
The results were tallied, and the overall winners declared by Cliff. Well done to Steve Brown on winning the overall spot to become the North West Champ, and to Leigh Le Gonidec on get a well deserved second place, also not to mention our stalwart Bertus Du Preez who came third a mean feat considering he was flying Advanced, well done. See all the results on our website.
In closing a Big thanks to all the pilots, officials, Cliff & Len and his volunteer helpers for again making it another awesome event at the Klerksdorp – North west Regionals.
PetroSA Cape Regionals
The Cape Regional Aerobatic competition was held in Mossel Bay on the 29th September 2012 with 10 competing pilots. Bad weather in true Cape Style was a big worry for many pilots, with most of the guys sneaking in on the Friday and early Saturday morning. Friday night, we were all entertained by the aero club with a fantastic delicious spit braai at the club.
Saturday kicked off with a visit by the Mayor of Mossel Bay and the Cape Minister of Sport and Cultural Affairs. The weather was beautiful, with clear skies… but, winds now started to plague the competition. After waiting for the wind to die down, briefing took place and consensus was reached to go ahead.
Dick Henry kicked off the flying, and flew no less than 5 times during the day as we had graduate students to take care of. Thankfully, Uncle Dick managed to get through everything and complete his 3 sequences for Sportsman too without being too tired! Flying continued throughout the day and we eventually finished up around 5:30pm. The day ended with a few flips and a fantastic display by Patrick in his Extra300L and Martin Venn in his RV7.Stu Saward
This site was last updated 11 March, 2013
