Saturday 14 February

Instructor: Rob Tyler.

Students: Gordon R, Alesh R (First Solo) & Alec Jaber (New Member)

With Instructor: Chris A.

Flying: Jeff McD & Chris A.

Flights: 18 - 52 min.

Chris A, 1:59 min.

Sunday 15 February

Instructor: Rob Tyler.

Students: Aisla McM, Alf McM & John Y.

Flights: 12 - 47 min.

Thursday 8 January

Flying: Kimberley P.

Flight: 1:19 hrs.

Saturday 3 January

Instructor: Wayne M.

Students: Mike Morris & John Young

(New Member).

With Instructor: Olgy S, Mike

Welham, Alvin P & John Styles.

AEFs: 1 by Jeff F.

F&F: 2 by Jeff F.

Flying: Lucas J & Alvin P

(Conversion to XOC)

Flights: 4 - 48 min.

Sunday 4 January

Instructor: Wayne M.

Student: Geoff D.

AEF: 1 by Wayne M.

On Edge: 2 by Wayne M

Flying: Dieter L, Carl D, Jarek M,

Adam W, David F,  Chris A &

Andrew M with Jeff F.

Flights: 4 - 28 min.

Adam W, 46 min.

David F, 1:08 hrs.

Jarek M, 3:33 hrs. 

Andrew M & Jeff F, 4:34 hrs.

Jeff McDonald contributed this short, 8mm camera movie (7.5 MB) shot during the celebrations of the Geelong Gliding Club's 50th anniversary in 1979.

It shows two dual tows from Bacchus Marsh to Belmont Common in Geelong (the place where the club was established in 1929) and back to the airfield.

The first dual tow consisted of the Callair and a Bocian (with Tommy Thompson and Doug Vanstan) and an Open Cirrus.

The second one was towed by the Super Cub, MSA piloted by Dave Slater and Jeff McDonald and a Libelle and a Cirrus piloted probably by Russell Dunn.

Morten W. Haugen, a RMIT student, is a young photographer who took an AEI flight with the Geelong Gliding Club a few months ago.  Below you can read his account from his visit to Bacchus Marsh and the AEI flight .

Click on the thumbnail to see the full size picture in the gallery.  To see the entire gallery, please follow this link. 

You can view Morten's professional Gallery via this link . 

It is early Saturday morning. Too early, in fact, but I need to get up and catch the 8.08am train for Bacchus  Marsh, a small town outside the city of Melbourne. Bacchus Marsh is by some of my class mates characterised as ”where the beautiful Australian outback keeps its trash”. I’ve been told by a Mr.Buchanan at the Geelong Gliding Club that they will be flying today, and that I’m more than welcome to pay them a visit. Hungry for visually intriguing adventure, I can’t do anything but humbly accept his offer.

After an one hour train ride, I find myself at Bacchus Marsh station. With nothing but my camera and a poorly printed Google map in my hands, I find myself a taxi and a nice Indian who tells me he knows where to go. The scenery of the Marsh is just like I’ve always pictured Australia to be, with long red dirt roads, a bright blue sky and a low haze hiding the horizon. A nice day for flying, I think to myself, and decide to use that phrase as my icebreaker for the day. It’s always a bit frightening when meeting people you have never met before, so such an opening line is good to have in your back pocket. A quick and pleasant introduction is beneficial when you got only so many hours to photograph someone’s story. To my embarrassment I’m soon to find out that my opening line give me away as somewhat of a dilettante, as it is not a good day for gliding. Quite the opposite, in its mere absence the wind is being highly uncooperative.  

The 2008 edition of the Horsham Week competitions has ended on Saturday, the 9th of February 2008, after five successful and safe flying days. 

 
Rolf Buelter was the Comps Director, John Ashford and Ross Birch were the Safety Officers and Zygmunt Naharnowicz flew the SSO tug.

Eleven Geelong Gliding Club pilots competed at Horsham achieving the following results:

Sports Class (out of 12)

Jarek Mosiejewski (with Ken McAnnaly, Caleb

White and Adam Webb), 1st, Puchacz, OWL

Hans Prem, 6th, Janus A, GWQ 

John Ashford, 12th, Janus A, GWQ

Standard (out of 10)

David Meredith, 1st, Jantar Std 2, GZT

Wayne Mackley, 2nd, Jantar Std 2, IUD

Olgierd Szemis, 6th, LS4a, UKA

Andrew Grocholski, 7th, DG300, GDH

15 Meter  (out of 8)

Alan Dean, 7th, LS3, UKC

18 Meter / Open (out of 7)

Simon Brown, 7th, Discus 2/18m, IUO 

"If you want to feel what flying actually is, not just get on a plane and arrive somewhere else, gliding is magnificent. It made me feel alive and brave, neither of which I am." 

This is an excerpt from the article On a wing and a prayer published in the Selector magazine, Autumn 2007 edition.

To read the entire article click on the picture (PDF, 530KB).