With the second edition of the Sky Grand Prix of Aerobatics taking place at Greyville racecourse just around the corner, aviation fans and the regular man on the street who have been waiting patiently for the big day, need wait no more as we hand over to the aerobatic experts to wow us with their aerobatic moves over the skies of Royal Durban Golf course.
There will be loads of action for the public to be enthralled and entertained on the day including demonstrations from our Countries famous Silver Falcons and other Demonstrations of Formation flying and loads more action in the air and on the ground.
The South African Pilots entering the Sky Grand Prix of Aerobatics are no lightweights, all five pilots are seasoned campaigners who have competed on the World stage for many years and their collective experience is phenomenal. Two of these pilots hail from Pretoria and will be in action on the 28 May at Greyville and also participated in the last event held in Durban.
Neville Ferreira has already “checked out” the course albeit from a distance, and is looking forward to performing on the day, Neville will be flying Slick 540, and 540 refers to the engine size in cubic inches. And has a 315Hp Monty Barret Precision engine. Neville flew his first aerobatic competition in December 2010; His current competition class is Unlimited. “Flying is in my blood, I grew up on my dads lap flying. From the age of 3 till I went to school I flew almost every day unless there was no open seat. In High school I manned the Radio at Vereeniging airfield for 5 years on weekends. I completed my PPL at the age of 30 and started with aerobatics 4 years laterin 2004”. Comments Neville
Neville continues, As for my aircraft “Slick” says it all. The acceleration of the Slick is the fastest of any aircraft I have ever flown. The roll rate is modest at 400+ deg. per second. From opening the throttle for take off, then climbing to 3000 feet above the runway takes only 1min 12 sec. Diving down to 50 feet above the runway at 300Mph then pull 9Gs to vertical, she will climb vertically for 3500 feet that takes only 12 seconds. I have logged over 240 hours on this plane and she has trained me well. I expect to do well at this event but as we all have seen it is he who makes the least mistakes on the day that wins. There are so many factors from the weather to how one slept the night before that will play a huge role. Unlike the previous Sky GP on the beach where the wind played havoc with the pylons and the aircraft we are better protected at the racecourse. The atmosphere inside this arena is going to be epic.”
Another pilot from Pretoria is Bertus Du Preez. Bertus is a fulltime airline pilot and has accumulated in excess of 19 000 hours of flying time. Having been involved in aerobatics for the last 18 years, his accomplishments include SA Aerobatic Champ in the Sportsman, Intermediate and Advanced Aerobatic classes and he has represented South Africa three times at the FAI World Aerobatic Championships.
“The Sky Grand Prix is an awesome exhilarating event and I am only glad to be part of it. I am really excited and looking forward in participating in this event boasting some of the top names in the World.” Comments Bertus.
The rest of the pilots participating in the event are internationals Rob Holland (USA), Artur Kielak (Poland), Aude Lemortand (France) Mikhail Mamistov (Russia) and South Africans Nigel Hopkins (Centurion) Barrie Eeles (Jhb), Mark Hensman (CT), and Patrick Davidson (PE).
To have a good competition you must have good judges and the Sky Grand Prix has top rate international judges who will be hard at work deciding who will be the Ace of Aces come prize giving on Saturday afternoon.
The Judges for this historic event are and in no particular order Nick Buckenham (UK). Nick is an experienced International Judge and Chief Judge; he is also the current President of the International Aerobatics Commission (CIVA), which in turn is part of the FAI (federation Aeronautique Internationale). Next we have Laszlo Liszkay (Hungary/South Africa) Laszlo is an experienced International Judge and is ranked highly in the International Judge rankings, he will be attending all three International FAI Contests to be held in 2016 which will be taking place in Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic. Quintin Hawthorne (South Africa) is also a highly experienced International Judge and was ranked No.1 at the recent Intermediate World Championship held in Mossel Bay. And finally we have John Gaillard (South Africa). John is a highly experienced International Judge and Chief Judge. He is currently ranked No.1. In the International Judges list and is also Chairman of the CIVA Judging Committee and Vice President of CIVA.
How are the Pilots Judged – All judging is done to the CIVA Regulations for Aerobatic Contests and is mainly concerned with the accuracy of the individual figures being flown in a sequence. CIVA Regulations determine exactly the characteristics of aerobatic figures and how they should be flown; each variance from these regulations is penalized according to the extent of the error. Any minor error barely noticeable may attract a deduction of .5 of a point, whereas a major error or omission may result in a Hard Zero (HZ), it is also possible to achieve a score of a Soft Zero (0.0). All the figures in the known and free programs are scored out of ten (10.0) and errors are subtracted, an HZ will result from the omission of a figure from a sequence or an error of 90 degrees or more, a soft zero would result from multiple errors where deductions have exceeded or equalled 10 points.
In the Free Style Program a different set of judging standards apply, where the entire sequence is considered instead of individual figures and marks are awarded rather than points deducted, unlike the Known & Free Programs the judges do not know what will be flown, this program is sometimes referred to as the “Air-show Sequence” where competitors set out to impress the judges rather than be judged on errors.
There will be other activities you can enjoy on the day in between the Sky Grand Prix Aerobatic competition heats such as formation. On the ground there will loads of interesting things to see such as a helicopter on display, information about learning to fly, items manufactured from aircraft parts and other points of interest. In addition there will be an array of different types of food and beverage outlets including the Galloping Gourmet Food and Beer festival. These outlets open at 08h30. The Bar service opens at 10h30.
This event is held in conjunction with the Annual Daily News 2000 horse race, The Daily News 2000 Racemeeting commences with the first race off at 13:55 and entrance to the races will be FREE from 13:00.
The event is a Federation Aeronautique Internationale (FAI), FAI Aerobatics Commission (CIVA) internationally sanctioned event and is sanctioned locally by the Sport Acrobatic Club (SAC) and the Recreational Aviation Administration of South Africa. (RAASA). This event will be held in conjunction with the Annual Daily News 2000 horse race, The Daily News 2000 Racemeeting commences with the first race off at 13:55 and entrance to the races will be FREE from 13:00.
Cost to enter Greyville Racecourse on the day will be R220 for adults and R50 for children under 12. Tickets are on sale at computicket. You can also spoil yourself and your guests with our VIP Package, which includes your entry ticket, bars, banqueting and you can watch the incredible acrobatic flying from the fully air-conditioned roof top venue at Greyville Race Course all for only R600 per person. Tickets for this package can be obtained by contacting Kirsty Newton at the Greyville Convention Centre on 031 309 1430 or email Kirsty@greyville.durban<mailto:Kirsty@greyville.
There will be a park and ride facility available on the day which will be operated by SHOFER.
Spectators will be able to park their cars at Berea Rovers Club for R20 per car. Shofer will then provide a Park and Ride facility for whole the day, this will be a continuous shuttle service to and from the Berea Rovers fields and Greyville Racecourse. This facility will be in operation between the hours 07h30 to 18h00 on the day.
SHOFER will operate a continuous flow of cars between the two venues, as well as the normal On – Demand Transport Service operated in the Greater eThekwini Region and Dolphin Coast. For more information on Shofer we encourage you to view our website www.shoferapp.com<http://www.shoferapp.com> you can also view our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/
Please note to those using the Shofer park and ride service. Riders who wish to make use of the FREE ride service from Berea Rovers, MUST have downloaded the SHOFER APP to qualify for this FREE return ride service. The app can be downloaded on IOS App store or Android Play store.
The event is supported by – Gold Circle, Royal Durban Golf Club and the Daily News, Sibaya Casino and Entertainment Kingdom and Caesarstone.
For further event enquiries contact Vivienne Holden Event Management & Stakeholder Liaison SGP, email topnotch079@gmail.com <topnotch079@gmail.com> <topnotch079@gmail.com<topnotch079@gmail.com> > Cell No: 082 8825056.