​THREE WISE MEN had lunch in Paarl recently.
Front:  Willie Krynauw, now well into his 80’s and still looking good.
Back:   John Calefato and Pieter Kapp.

Hope they didn't order off the Kids Menu behind them  :-)

World Aerobatic Championships 2013 – Johannesburg

After a few venue hiccups the World Championships took place at the Midvaal Racetrack near Meyerton. On my arrival I was warmly welcomed by some of my old fellow-flyers and friends. As the days and the competition progressed, I was meeting more and more old friends from abroad and locally. Some of these I had not seen for more than 30 years.

The organisers had the two flight-lines in place with all systems ready to go. With the flight-lines being 1-1/2 kilometres apart, lots of activities was happening between the two flight-lines. The ferrying of judges, score sheets, food, drinks, pilots, callers, managers etc.,  to and fro from the flight-lines, kept the organisers on their toes. All this, a massive task as it all had to comply with the F.A.I. International Rules.  F.A.I. officials were on hand to observe an ensure that the proceedings function correctly. Noise metres and weighing equipment were regularly calibrated. Bob Skinner, John Brink and their hard-working team are to be complimented for a job well done under trying conditions.

At the end of the first round it was obvious that the majority of the competitors were flying at a very high standard. Only a few percentage points separated the top 20 or so pilots. The weather throughout the competition was cold and miserable with cross-winds blowing continuously cross-line. Some of my friends were blaming me for having brought along the bad weather from the Cape ??? What amazed me was how well the pilots coped with the strong cross-winds. The models kept their line as if there was no wind at all. Credit to the pilots and callers. Flying styles varying from very slow and close-up with the use of the contra-rotating props used by Silvestri, Mayr, Mazzuchelli and Peloni leading the way. Very graceful and pretty to watch. The faster-flying styles of Peysant Le Roux (4-stroke), Onda (4-stroke), Jesky (elec.), Shulman (elec.) and Matt (elec.) seem to have a slight edge in those strong windy conditions in the end.

From the technology point of view there was lots to see and many new innovations. This year there were many bi-planes, tri-planes, contra-rotating props, 3-bladed props, 4-bladed props and beautifully finished and decorated designs that flew very quietly.

Motor-wise electrics dominated but more and more 4-strokes are appearing again, such as the latest Y.S.-types. On the radio side it was virtually all Futaba with the odd J.R. here and there.

Model designs variations was to be seen across the board but they all flew well as they all appeared to have the right ingredients built into their designs which is required for precision arobatics these days. Many discussions took place amongst reputed pattern pilots as to how to become a successful pilot with the conclusions being:

-          choose a reputable design (mono-wing, bi-wing or tri-wing)

-          choose the best power–to-weight ratio (electric or 4-stroke)

-          trim the model properly for all manoeuvres

-          choose a reputable radio with mixing facilities and good servos

-          choose a knowledgeable caller

-     practise a lot and fly in many competitions

As the days and the rounds went by the mood in the S.A. camp grew stronger in anticipation of a good result. We were not to be disappointed as our junior, Ruston Dugmore, (his father was a control-line fundi) put in a tremendous final round to win the World Junior F3A title;  South Africa’s first ever acrobatic world champion. Jubilations and celebrations were running high in the S.A. camp and reached a crescendo a few hours later when we all learned that Ruston had made the final fly-off as well, beating all 3 his more illustrious seniors. Ruston is also the first South African to reach the fly-offs at a world champion F3A championships. Wow what a day (!) as more news filters through that South Africa placed 8th out of 30+ nations. This is the highest placing for many a long year, beating powerful countries such as England, Canada, Australia, Argentina, China and the likes. That evening the booze flowed freely in celebrations. The only one not indulging, of course not, he had to have a clear head for the fly-off the next morning!!

The fly-offs (finals) were eagerly awaited and we were not to be disappointed. The standard of the 20+ finalists was awesome. They fly close-up, big manoeuvres and stay in the box. Their throttle, line and crosswind management is brilliant. The final scores and results are all on the Samaa/Maasa web-sites for all to see. More good news was received during the finals that another S.A. junior, Jason Webber, had won the World Junior Gliding Champs in Germany a week earlier. S.A. aeromodeling has made us all proud. So ended a most enjoyable 10 day programme where I and my fellow-model flyers and friends namely Peter Aldridge, Deon van Zyl, Stuart Nix, Nazeem Harris, Kobus Malan, Ossie Parenzi, Christo Rust, Andre China, Francois Viljoen, Dirkie van Rhyn jr. (ex-member living in Jhb.) watched and experienced the best the world and South Africa had to offer.

Christo Rust, our chief national judge, was on the same flight as I was on the way back to Cape Town. We pondered over how successful the Transvaal aeromodeling community has been over the years. They have in recent times staged numerous world championships. All our Springbok teams that participated in aerobatics, gliding, scale, pylon, jets, indoor and helicopters, all came from the Transvaal. A sad state of affairs for us Cape Townians who in the past produced a number of junior national champions. Also, 20+ years ago the Cape produced a number of aerobatic and scale champions. Going 40+ years back our earlier free-flight and R/c teams were all predominantly from the Western Cape. As Christo and I chatted I realised that during those past years we had the likes of Andy Anderson, Willie Krynauw, Johnny Bothma, Chippy Wannenburg, Len Salter, John Lightfoot and Chris Sweatman. These were all truly strong leaders, sportsmen and visionaries. They loved involvement as leaders and were highly successful in their various leadership roles. They say that life moves in cycles; lets hope our flying cycle will start to show an upward trend inspired by the recent successes achieved by our numerous Transvaal counterparts who have made us all proud.

John Calefato

By Siegie Witte

On 04 May Walker Bay Radio Flyers hosted their second annual fun fly-in at their club close to Hermanus. The field is a lovely 80 meters runway with some nice open grounds around the runways. Eddie Bell and the team did a stunning task of preparing the field and getting some sponsors to assist with the tents, toilets and lovely plants from a local nursury. They also had some tabels set up to help with preparing smaller plans and heli's. The overall facilities were very well organised for the hungry pilots and general visitors with ample eats and drinks available.


The Walker Bay Radio Flyers club invited all the neighbouring clubs and our regular "touring" members from TMFC also decided to take the drive out to Hermanus area. The weather was questionable during the week leading up to the week-end and Eddie was quick to respond to calls to report that the weather was holding and up till the Saturday morning he was reporting a all systems go.


When we arrived at the field the temperature was cool, but with only a slight breeze the weather held up the whole of Saturday to an enjoyable flying day. On Saturday the TMFC was well represented by Tollie, Norman, Christo, Koos and Siegie all flying a few models and Martin and Deon was also amongst the visiting members. 


We also had the "regular" members from HRF and CRF teams visiting and although the number of pilots were a bit low, it was a constant flow of flights and different displays.


The morning started with the standard registration and various displays took place during the day including some helis, jets, gliders, gas, nitro and electric models taking turns. The jets put up a nice display of speed and smoke trails were left between the scattered clouds.

Each pilot had free time to play and around 12h00 Tollie and Christo did some stunning displays of their masterpieces together with the yellow cubs from CRF.

Louis Genade also did his trick and did some stunning 3D displays with his normal prop hanging stunts until touching the runway and speeding back up into the air.


Most of us only visited for the day on Saturday and had to leave after a lovely day of comaradery with the boys from the other clubs.


on Sunday Wessie and some other pilots kept the show going.


Wessie vd Westhuizen:

Walker Bay Radio Flyers (Hermanus) hosted their annual fly-in, and the TMFC guys showed everyone how its done. The chaps looked very smart in their TMCF attire, people were still commenting on it on the Sunday. On Saturday the MANY spectators were treated to some nice flying displays, including Jets, scale, and aerobatics, as reported on by Siegie.

On the Sunday, the wind dropped completely, and we had great fun with the cubs, helis, and some thermal gliders enjoyed the ideal conditions as well. Thank you to WBRF for making us feel welcome!

Danny organised a night fly, and invited other clubs to join us. We had a great time, and the lads enjoyed a braai afterwards.

 Some some solar runway lights were put up to make the landings a bit easier, and they worked great! Some of the guys even camped out for the night, in caravans and tents. By early afternoon everything was set for a great evening. Late afternoon the guys from HRF joined us in a bit of flying.

After the flying, everyone gathered around the fireside, and the stories grew taller late into the night!

Thank you Danny for organising the event, this will definitely become a more popular thing to do in the future! See you all at the next NIGHT-FLY.

By John Calefato                                                 

I first met Willie at an air show in Saldanha.   T.M.F.C. members consisting of Doc Malan (Chairman), Nico Smit, Gert Verf and John Calefato were invited to a week-end of aerial sports to celebrate the opening of the new Saldanha civil field.   Lots of flying took place over the 2 days with excellent spectator support from the West Coast inhabitants.   One of the interested spectators was Willie Krynauw and his group of friends from Vredendal.   It was not long before Willie and his group bought their planes.   R/C flying started to grow in Vredendal.   They progressed rapidly and soon formed their own club under the energetic and watchful eye of Willie.   They all soon became proficient pilots and every year we (T.M.F.C.) were invited to participate with our models at the annual agriculture show.   Year after year we would fly together at this event.   These were memorable occasions of flying, bragging, eating and drinking some of the best West Coast wines.   Our hosts,  under the leadership of Willie, were fantastic.   Many a tall story was told and every year the stories got taller and taller.

The years were to pass before Willie re-located to Brackenfell to take up the post of Chief at the Western Cape Traffic Dept.   He immediately joined T.M.F.C and soon became an integral part of our flying community, bringing lots of enthusiasm and energy.   It was not long before he became Club Chairman.   The Club grew rapidly under his chairmanship.   Willie lead by example and loved leading from the front.   He was often seen (stoksiel-alleen) mowing the grass, painting, repairing and generally keeping our runway, pit area and club house spick and span.   He was instrumental in enlarging our runways and the building of our shaded pit area.   He started and edited The Flying Tyger magazine which was always eagerly awaited.  

During his leadership the Club grew to one of the biggest in South Africa.  His association with S.A.M.A.A. and particularly with Bob Skinner, was highly successful.   He also became instrumental in rounding up all the chairmen of registered R/C flying clubs in the region (gliding included) and formed the Western Province Model Flying Association with all the chairmen forming his committee.   This was a huge coupe as they affiliated the Association to the Dept. of Sports and Recreation,  so doing Western Province colours could be awarded.   Soon inter-provincials were taking place at a central venue in Bloemfontein.   The inter-provincials became a top event in South Africa with pilots feverishly competing for places in their respective provinces.   The competing provinces, being Northern Transvaal (2 teams), Southern Transvaal (3 teams), Free State (1 team),  Border (1 team), Western Province (3 teams),  Eastern Province (1 team).   All these provinces and teams met annually in Bloemfontein to see who would be the country’s provincial and individual champions, very reminiscent of the old Currie Cup format (rugby, cricket, etc.).   Willie was a very happy and proud person to see all these developments put into place.   He too obtained his Western Province colours for aerobatics, a feat he is very proud of. 

During his time as Chairman, Willie was very pleased and proud that T.M.F.C. regularly produced the bulk of the Western  Province team (6 to 7 pilots out of 9) resulting in the Western Province A team winning the South African Inter-provincial Tournament twice and also the individual title, twice.   During these years T.M.F.C. pilots were dominating major events nation-wide and locally.   Pilots such as the late Greg Casson, Johan Cronje and Johnny Calefato, regularly came home with silverware.   They were very well supported on the podiums by further T.M.F.C. pilots like Ian Goodall, Andre Baird, Ernie Smith, Roger Ingerfield, Brian Devine and Willie Krynauw.  In the junior categories T.M.F.C. pilots often filled 2 out of the top 3 places.   All these successes were by-and-large due to Willie’s introduction of good instructing, motivation, sportsmanship and rule of conduct.  Discipline amongst the pilots was paramount in Willie’s eyes.   Often, if a pilot exceeded two warnings, Willie would immediately bring him in front of the disciplinary committee.   The problem would immediately be sorted out and everybody was happy afterwards.  

Every year we would have a ‘Flying Circus’.  Lots of hard work and preparations had to be done.   Willie would lead from the front.   He would invite prominent pilots from other local clubs plus top pilots from Johannesburg.   The local Mayor and his wife would be there.   Eddie Goldberg of Radio Good Hope and Radio 5 would be there commentating on proceedings.   Invited full size pilots would join-up and fly with us.   One year our V.I.P. guest was Kallie Knoetze, our boxing champion.   That year the traffic department had to help out with the traffic congestion at the gate to the field.   Mr. Brink, owner of the farm we flew on, was called in so as to open up a back road for cars to exit out of the flying field.   Spekenham was running a Braai en Beer Garden that ran out of booze and some foods by midday.   Lots of money was generated from these ‘Flying Circuses’ , which helped us to develop our growing Club further.   There was a stage when we were regarded as the most active and winningest club in South Africa.   On two occasions the Club was honoured when one of our senior members would be invited to South West Africa to assist in organising, supervising and C.D.-ing the South West African National Championships.   All expenses were paid for.

During Willie’s many successful years as Chairman, the Club produced numerous national and provincial champions, including three Springboks namely Greg Casson, Ian Goodall and John Calefato,  and for the record, the entire Cape Province had produced only 6 Springboks.

To sum up my good friend, colleague, flying buddy, caller and fellow life member, was a highly successful Chairman, leader, motivator, worker and disciplinarian.

Willie is now happily retired in Bonnievale and regularly comes in to attend meetings;  always having the Club at heart.

Willie!  you made us all proud.
John Calefato

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