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Visits Since
December 31, 1997

52nd Annual Air Rally

The Air Rally launched on June 24, 2016 to Reno/Stead (KRTS), Nevada.

Congratulations to the 2016 winners:

Tim Ronan and Michael Saboff, Race 24

with just 86 points.

Click on the links for complete information and results for the 2016 Rally

Time Until The First Starting Flag for the 52nd Annual Air Rally:

Click the image above to download the 2016 poster (PDF). Print it out and post it at your local airport!

2016 Informational Video

Scholarships to EAA Air Academy

Each year the Rally offers scholarships to deserving students to attend the EAA Air Academy. In 2015, we sent three students to camp! The scholarship includes both tuition and airfare. This is an expensive but very worthwhile aspect of the Rally - aviation education.

If you would like to support this effort, even if you can't join us for the rally, please consider making a donation to help us defray the costs. If you are a member of EAA and you or your chapter have unused Young Eagle Credits, we can use those too! Please contact us to learn how to transfer those credits to support the scholarships.

Thank you!

Digital vs. Analog Class Entries

We have two entry classes: Analog Class and Digital.

See the official Class definitions and scoring rules here. Quick scoring summary:

Analog Class (most gizmos banned): 1 point per second, 3 points for fuel for every .1% of fuel error.
Digital Class: (all gizmos allowed): 3 points per second, 6 points for every .1% of fuel error

You may now enter in Analog Class or Digital Class independently for Navigation (Timing) and Fuel. See the rules and scoring explanation pages for more information.

Whether you fly with a full glass cockpit, steam gauges or a yaw string, you get to choose which way you want to enter the Rally! Everyone is welcome!

The Rally awards much more than just 1st, 2nd and 3rd place. You can see some of the other fun awards for 2015 here.

Please use the links on the menu bar above to learn more about this annual event.

Rally Description

The annual Air Rally gives aviators a chance to test their flight planning, navigation and pilotage skills. The actual course is announced just 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 250-300 nautical miles. See the past years for example courses.

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 2011 winner accrued just 64 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? Of course, if you really want to use GPS and digital fuel flow, you can enter in the Digital Class and your scoring rules will be a little different.