by Jim Barton

The annual gathering - it’s very routine these days- was celebrated in the usual fashion with the collection of mature gliding types, ex Club members and friends visiting to get their annual fix of a flight or two. High temperatures persisted over the week and many were introduced, or reintroduced, to open cockpit aviation.

The Australian Gliding Museum T31B was available for us to use for the occasion, and this provided the opportunity for many pilots to experience open cockpit flying for the first time. With the high temperatures it proved a very pleasant experience compared to an enclosed cockpit. The GCV operated a T31B in the early fifties – this had been built by members from a kit.

Wednesday night dinner was a full house again, it being a great social event and a well established feature of the week. The mystery bus trip this year, with a new luxury bus, proved to be a winner when the Chief Director, John King, found Echuca and a magnificent winery in the scrub on the banks of the Murray River. The bus passengers also tried out a paddle steamer trip on the water. John’s problem this year with his new piece of machinery was the lack of a gear lever to graunch.

Numerous members from other gliding clubs were again in evidence, making it a broad gliding social event. My thanks are in order to Graham Garlick, Ken Boland, Alan Patching, Gerry Hogan and John King who assisted throughout the week, also for Kaylene for producing approximately 100 two course dinners on Wednesday evening and Rhonda who maintained her sanity whilst running the office in her usual efficient manner, plus all the attendees who helped to make this year’s event such a magnificent gathering.

Guess we will have to do it again next year!