So come along and enjoy the soaring “festival”.

Contact John Anselmi on 03 5358 2713 or via janselmi@internode.on.net or Jim Nugent on 03 5331 1591 (BH) or via invertech@bigpond.com.

• Share and learn new skills
• Gain qualifications
• Stay current, both in the air and on the ground
• Meet up with your mates that you normally only see during the summer
• Increase the bar profits!

During the weekends, catering will be provided by various members. We aim to plan for at least one weekend of each month to be utilised. Even if you are not interested in attending a course, come down to the airfield anyway, and have that currency flight, and share stories over a beer during the evening!

Please advise the organiser of each weekend if you would like to attend and if you require catering. If you have any ideas of courses/activities that you would like to attend and/or would like to run over the winter, please let Louise know via email to ogradylouise@gmail.com

Expressions of Interest required for the following:

• Daily Inspectors course – contact: Paul Barbour: pmbdg@yahoo.com.au
• MotorFalke conversion training–Contact: Steve Hobby: stevehobby@optusnet.com.au

Dates for your Diary

All Year Gliding Simulator

The gliding simulator is available for use for members every weekend and weekdays. Please contact Graham Garlick, birdmanoz@bigpond.com to ensure that there is a suitable instructor around to ‘check you out’ if it is your first time. Please note, there  no ‘bottle to throttle rules’ apply, however, we do ask that all liquids to be kept well away from the equipment! The charge for the simulator is $10, and all additional donations would be greatly received!

May 12/13 Schedule 8 of CAR 1988 Course

Guidance for Pilots, maintenance that may be performed of class B aircraft by private pilots. This course is aimed at GA Private/Student Pilots which of course includes our Tuggies! The course will contain both  theoretical and ‘hands on’ activities. Please express your interest – email Steve Hobby.

June 23/24 – Gold for soaring Pilots

The course is pitched towards pilots with limited or no cross-country flying experience. A new course format is being introduced  to include:

• An introduction to the downloading of weather and soaring forecasts from the internet.
• The uploading of loggers.
• Flight analysis.
• The demonstration of soaring techniques and cross country flight using the new GCV simulator.
• Briefings on weather, Mc Cready concepts and soaring techniques.

Each course will be limited to 4 pilots under the direction of Graham Garlick, Alby James, and Tim Shirley. The cost of the course will be $50.00. Please advise Graham Garlick of your interest via birdmanoz@bigpond.com

July 21/22 – Gold for soaring Pilots – see above

August 25/26 – Logger familiarisation and Official Observers  Course

Logger familiarisation (Saturday 25th): A similar course has been run by John Millott in the past.  The aim will be to talk about loggers in general – how they work, what they do, as well as some practical things about how to connect to software and upload declarations and download flights.  It will cover Flarm as well as Volkslogger and other logger types, and I will be happy to have people bring along their own devices if they wish.

Different levels of logger approvals (they are not all the same…) will be discussed, and  also cover how to make sure a badge claim actually succeeds! The course will suit members who are planning to do their first X/C flights in the coming season, or those who have some X/C experience but want to know more in order to go for higher level badges or enter competitions.

Official Observers (Sunday 26th): The  OO course will in some ways flow on from the logger course.  People attending the Logger course on the Saturday are welcome to attend, even though you are not interested in becoming an OO.  It is recommended that people wishing to become an OO should attend the Logger course on the Saturday

The course will  start with revisiting the discussion of logger approval levels, because this seems to be poorly understood and has often caused problems.  The different types of evidence that are needed and accepted, how to make declarations, how to fill out claims forms will be discussed.  Official Observers should know whether a claim will succeed, so that only properly validated and documented claims go to the FAI Certificates Officer.  The ‘badge lady’ (Beryl Hartley), receives far too many claims signed by OO’s that have to be knocked back!

For anyone who wants to gain an OO rating I will have the exam paper for a test on the Sunday afternoon.  For this, candidates will need to have read and understood the relevant parts of the Sporting Code, Tim Shirley will advise closer to the date.

The course will also be interesting for existing OO’s wanting a refresher as well as prospective OO’s.

Please advise your interest to Tim Shirley via tshirley@internode.on.net

September 8 Radio Operators training

This course is aimed at all recently trained pilots, especially those looking forward to their first cross country season, when they would like to fly away from Benalla

Contact John Millot for bookings and further  details:  john_millott@hotmail.com

September 22/23 – Spring Equinox – Start of the cross country season

A prize of GCV’s finest Red wine, for the first to complete a flight of at least 100km on sat 22nd or sunday 23rd!

P.S. Charles Day will be donating the wine, which means that he cannot win it:-)

October 6 – GCV celebrates 60 years at Benalla

Hangar dance in the Aviation museum hangar, with a 15 piece big band! Details to follow.

November 11-17^th – Cross country coaching week

Held by  ‘Gee Dale’ – British and Omarama  super coach! Contact Tim Shirley tshirley@internode.on.net for details.

Solo pilots do need to have an Independent Operators rating and site familiarization flights are available in a locally-based Ximango.

Aircraft: the eTug will be towing the Duo Discus down there and we’re looking for someone to bring down a club single-seater, perhaps “pony express” style. It’s an easy 2.5 hour drive East of Melbourne with freeway for 75% of the way. You might wish to fly down; it’s only 150km with out-landing spots along the way and easy to do if lift goes to 7,000’. There is a site limit of ten gliders.

Accommodation: there is fully catered 4-star private accommodation on-site for about 20-22 people at a nominal daily cost. Rental accommodation is available within 1km and camping grounds and B&Bs within 6-8 km. Generally, most people stay onsite; some on-site camping is available.

Full details: Contact jgwyther@bigpond.net.au or call John on 0419 309 158 or see the last Airflow or visit the www.gliding.org.au and look under “events”.

First in, best dressed for both rooms and aircraft so be quick to register!

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