Blanik landing at Lilydale - Photo by Scott Penrose

By John Switala
President - GCV

Reluctantly the GCV Committee has had to close the Lilydale operation. The operation will continue for the rest of this season but will not recommence next season.

Most members will be aware that the GCV operates out of Lilydale airfield (north east of Melbourne in the Yarra Valley) providing Trial Instructional Flights (TIFs) for those keen to experience glider flying. Lilydale operates between November and May with a break over the Christmas and New Year period.

The Lilydale operation is manned by club members on a volunteer basis flying one or two days on the weekends. The operation requires a Tow pilot, Glider pilot, wing runner and ‘meet and greet’ person. One of that lot also has to be a Level 2 Instructor.

Unfortunately we have not been able to garner support for all the roles required to run Lilydale. There is also a reasonable amount of work that is done after hours in organising and scheduling the weekends.

From the point of view of attracting new members to the GCV, the operation was not as successful as we would have wished for. A few members joined over the years but the conversion rate was very low. I think it would be optimistic to say we gained, on average, one new member per year from the operation.

On the other hand, the Lilydale operation provided a much needed cash injection to the club at a time when cash was really, really required. So, for that outcome, the operation has been very successful and the club thanks those members who operated Lilydale during those times for the lifeline given the club.

The Lilydale operation was the brainchild of Bob Gray who was the club’s operations manager some six years ago. Bob’s vision was to have a site that was closer to the population base of Melbourne where the GCV could provide the specific service of TIF flights to those interested in the sport of gliding. There was much organising and cajoling to get a normally “powered aircraft only” airfield to accept the powerless gliders in “their” circuit area. The establishment of the Lilydale operation was due to the hard work of Bob Gray.

Over the years many members have put time and effort in operating Lilydale. Specifically the club would like to thank Carlos Varsavsky who did the Lion’s share of after hours admin over the last few years. Michael Kornhauser, who as Operations Manager, did much of the support work for Lilydale as well as much flying there. Mike took over from Carlos last season and was amazed at the amount of time required to successfully run the operation.

Many other club members have assisted over the years including Roger Harrop, Brian Bull, Bruce Nally, Bernard and Angela Barry, Robert Brown, Deniz Ture, Max Carpenter, Robert Pugh, Tim Cooke, Peter Carey, Viv Drew, Gary Allbutt, Alois Preiss, John Wharington and Denise, Scott Penrose, Robbie Burns, Don Ridgeway, Colin Collum, Darcy Hogan, Peter Martin and others.

The club thanks all those who have been involved in the Lilydale operation over the years.

As an aside to this announcement, the club has a temporary hangar at Lilydale. It is a metal frame structure with a fabric covering. This is used to hangar the Blanik, the Scout tow plane and another private powerplane, so, it’s big enough for at least three aircraft. This hangar is surplus to the club’s requirements, so if anyone wants to buy it they should make the club an offer on a “where is, as is” basis. You will need to collect it and transport it to where-ever. No airfield lease comes with the hangar. We’ll need to know in two weeks.