Description of the Rally
The annual Hayward Air Rally gives aviators a chance to test their flight planning, navigation and pilotage skills. The actual course is announced the day before the Rally during the briefings (the checkpoints change every year and the exact course flown is chosen by the pilot). The course consists of two legs, each up to 250 nautical miles:
- Hayward, California (HWD) to an intermediate refueling stop (RDD - Redding, California)
- The intermediate stop to the destination airport (BDN - Bend, Oregon)
Along the way there are several checkpoints which must be identified. Prior to departure from Hayward each pilot turns in estimates of their times and fuel consumption for each of the two legs.
Rally participants are scored on a combination of:
- Identifying Check Points
- Matching Predicted Time (to the second)
- Matching Predicted Fuel Used (to the tenth of a percent)
Penalty points are accumulated for misidentifying checkpoints (250 points each) and deviations from the time (1 or 3 points per second, depending on class of entry) and fuel estimates (3 points per 0.1% difference from estimated, with a 2x multiplier in the Digital Class). The lowest score wins, and our 2007 winner accrued just 98 points!
Sounds easy, doesn't it? Did we mention that for the Traditional Class, you may not use any of the following?
- GPS
- LORAN
- DME
- RNAV
- Digital Fuel Flow Meter
Now does it sound a bit more challenging?
Take a look at the rally courses and pilot handbooks for past years to get a better idea about the details of what is required.