Getting ready for the season ahead

Marta is looking forward to getting some time in the Pegase prior the competition season ahead. Marta is taking The Pegase to Ararat in December for the VSA State Comp. Marta will be flying a Discus in Benalla at the Sports Class Nationals.

Pegase ready to go

The club's Pegase has come back from it's Form 2 at Ballarat. Marta has been preparing HDJ for the up coming soaring season. Tomorrow is the big day when she flies The Pegase for the first time.

J120 & J230 Service Completed

The 25 hour service and oil change was completed on the 120 & 230 today. Thanks to Phil for about 4 hours solid work. Thanks to the other Helpers as well. The two aircraft are ready for next weekends Come n Try day.

17 / 35 Open for business

The new North South runway (17 / 35) has finally opened for business. The official opening took place on Thursday 20th October.

Joe Luciani presented with J.R (Bob) Muller Award by the GFA

Joe Luciani has been award the J.R. (Bob) Muller Award by the GFA for his contribution to the promotion of gliding. Joe is a long time member of the Horsham Flying Club and the founding President of the Ballarat Gliding Club. Now some background on the award.

Bob Muller was one of the founders of G.F.A. in 1949 and was the founder of 'Australian Gliding' magazine in December 1951. His contributions to the sport are too numerous to cover here. Bob's career was in journalism and Public Relations, so it was fitting that when the Australian Gliding Committee decided to inaugurate an award to his memory they should choose 'Promotion of Gliding'. The J.R.MULLER AWARD is presented annually in recognition of the most outstanding contribution in the promotion of gliding in Australia .The object of the award is to increase public awareness of gliding and to encourage clubs, associations and individuals to increase gliding publicity within their specific areas of influence. The award may be presented to individuals (not necessarily GFA members), clubs, state associations, media and organisations.

So congratulations to Joe for all his friends at Horsham.

New Member

The club at it's October meeting welcomed Chris Griffin (No relation
to Mark Griffin) as a new member. Chris comes from Mt Gambier and is
joining us to fly our gliders. Chris has previous experience of mountain
flying in New Zealand. When you meet Chris for the first time please
make him welcome.

Tow out gear for the Twin Astir

Finally after almost 30 years of service IUM, the Twin Astir has it's own set of tow out gear. We now have a tail dolly, wing walker and tow bar for the 'Twin'. All that walking the wing finally got to people and Max Hedt and Joe Luciani have put together a system which is practical and doesn't require 'old blokes' to walk a mile in the sun to get to the launch point. Here's a picture of the tail dolly on the Twin.

So things are being made easy for everyone and now we have no excuses for not getting the gliders out and going flying.

Gliders on track. Max has been working on the railway

Max Hedt has been busy working on a new track system to move the Janus and the Twin Astir in and out of the tug hangar (which is now the glider hangar and the old glider hanger is now full of power planes and the tug, so is now the tug hangar). Each glider will have it's own 'trolly car' and run in and out of the hangar on a track to a set point both inside and outside the hangar.

This system will allow one person to get a glider in and out of the hangar. The Pegase will still move in and out on it's existing free wheeling trolly. The system is not quite complete. Max is finishing off the 'trolly car' and tracks for the Janus. The tracks are made up of tube on a flat plate nailed to the ground. The 'trolly car' has a jack to life the glider up and down. Both gliders run easily along the track with only a minimum amount of push or pull required. The short video below demonstrates the basic operation of the 'trolly car'.

A better quality version of the video can be found here on YouTube

Workshop Looking Great

The workshop repaint continues at a cracking pace. The floor has been painted. the doors repaired and repainted. It's come up a treat. A big than you to Wayne Jackson who has lead this project and to Marta and Ziggy for helping out applying the paint.

Hats a plenty

After a number of delays. Arnold has been able to organise sample caps and bucket hats embroided with the club logo. At the recent club meeting it was decided to obtain 10 of each type from Totally Workwear Mildura for sale to members. The caps and hats are being sponsored by Dimboola Stockfeed, a fine small business and great supporter of the club. I'm sorry we don't have a photo to display here in 'The Fly Paper'. More details of what they look like and how much they will cost will be available soon.