2010 Course

 

View the Picture Gallery for the 2010 Rally.

Each of the Rally's two legs each include:

• 1 Start Point
• 3 Mandatory Checkpoints
• 1 Timing Point
• 1 Stop Point

The checkpoints, and therefore the course, change every year.  The required checkpoints which define the course are announced the day before the race (see the race schedule) at the briefing and are documented in the race book provided to each team.  The exact course flown is chosen by the pilot of each aircraft.  Remember, this is not a speed race, it is a proficiency race; accuracy counts.

So that prospective racers can get better idea of the materials provided during the briefing, a PDF copy of the 2010 Race Book may be downloaded here (1.4 MB) .

Checkpoints are to be overflown by race aircraft. Each checkpoint can be adequately identified from the air. The two timing points at Checkpoint Howie and Checkpoint Goering are also overflown and race officials on the ground will record the time overhead the timing line.

The 2010 course is described here to provide an example only, the 2011 course will be different, and will not be announced until the day before the race during the briefings.  The 2010 course included the following checkpoints and stops:

• Hayward (HWD) - Race Starts
• Town of Winters, CA
• Antelope Valley (4CL3)
• Richvale (07CL)
• Checkpoint Howie (40-21.894N, 122-13.038W @ 68CA) - Timing Point
• Redding (RDD) - Landing, Fuel and Lunch
• Malin (4S7)
• Town of Beatty, OR
• Christmas Valley (62S)
• Checkpoint Goering (44-05.750N, 120-56.813W) - Timing Point
  Watch the slide show movie of the 2010 fly-bys (QuickTime required)
• Bend (BDN) - Landing, Fuel, Race Ends

 

Each checkpoint has a question to be answered to ensure positive identification. A typical checkpoint question looks like this:

Checkpoint #5	Town of Beatty
Elevation ~4350'
Overfly above 5900'	Lat 42 deg. 26.50'
	Long 121 deg. 16.27'
At the northwest corner of the only four-way intersection in town, there is a :
M. pair of buildings with basketball court.
N. grassy town park with no buildings.
P. yellow-roof truck stop.

 

The checkpoint at Beatty looked like this from the air:

 

So, the answer was: M. pair of buildings with basketball court..

The winners of the 2010 Rally were David Hindi and Jeff Zalewski, Race 20, with a score of just 76 points.