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  • 29 Mar 2024 08:00
    Raywood Airport, 127 Borough Rd, Raywood VIC 3570

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  • 11 Jul 2017 22:48 | Anonymous member

    Tuesday 8 August – MGC Committee meeting @ Pascoe Vale (all members welcome, notify the Secretary, Michael Aldridge)

    Saturday 12 August – VSA Presidents’ meeting and AGM @ Bacchus Marsh

    Tuesday 12 September – MGC Committee meeting @ Pascoe Vale (all members welcome, notify the Secretary, Michael Aldridge)

    Saturday 16 September – MGC Annual General meeting, followed by dinner @ Bacchus Marsh (register on the website)

    Saturday 14 October – Start of the soaring season pizza night @ Bacchus Marsh - no need to register, just be there at the end of the day's flying and we'll order pizza to have at the Clubhouse

    Saturday 4 November – Tuesday 7 November – Cup Weekend Camp @ Bendigo GC, Raywood (registration available soon)

    Monday 12 – Sunday 18 March 2018 – VSA Instructor Course

  • 28 May 2017 16:41 | Anonymous member

    Head to the Club's Facebook page for a bunch of photos from today's F&F Day. We managed to fit in 10 flights before the rain moved in. Thanks to all who assisted, particularly Mark Hunt and Bob Hickman who assisted me in organising. Great to see some veteran members back out there and being able to share our passion for gliding with a bunch of friends and family. We'll have a similar event later in the year, and don't forget that you can bring anyone out for a flight any weekend - just let the duty crew know and put it in the Club's new booking system.

  • 22 May 2017 12:56 | Anonymous member


    Paul Spooner's story

    I attended the Grampians Soaring Club Wave Camp at Noelhurst farm over Queens Birthday long weekend. The intention was that if conditions were right to try for Gold Height which requires an Altitude gain of 3000 metres (circa 10,000ft). As the weekend came into weather forecast range it wasn’t looking good for mountain wave, a large high pressure producing light south easterly winds was forecast which is exactly opposite to the wind direction and strength required to produce wave conditions on the east side of the Grampians range. While the forecast was not good for wave conditions it was certainly looking okay for ridge soaring and thermal soaring in what is very picturesque country.

    Grampians Wave Camp


    Grampians Soaring Club provided advice on preparation for attendees and I have reproduced the advice here for others who may be considering attendance at this event next year:

    • have a true airspeed chart on your panel (corrected for altitude);
    • have lots of warm clothing;
    • two radios, one for glider frequency and one for area frequency;
    • a clear view panel;
    • a GPS;
    • use a maximum descent rate of about 500 ft/sec to prevent gelcoat cracking and perhaps stresses in the underlying structures;
    • have your glider lubricated with low temperature grease and oil;
    • an outside air temperature gauge would be useful; and
    • a blood oxygen indicator (fingertip clip oxymeter) almost essential to ensure that you are getting enough oxygen.

    I arrived at Noelhurst farm near Pomonal, which has a 1000m airstrip running in a North West/South East direction. The main runway is marked out down the centre of the strip with old tyres, but it is possible to land to the left and the right of the marked out strip, giving plenty of options, if multiple gliders were to return at the same time.

    The ground was remarkably firm compared to Bacchus at the moment. No mud, no wheel tracks, the locals said they have had a fairly dry autumn/winter so far.

    In total there were 10 gliders present, about five were associated with the Grampians Soaring Club, four from Geelong Gliding Club and myself in the Ventus. The faithful Call Air tug from the Grampians soaring club did the tugging.

    It was fairly chilly overnight and in the morning the gliders were covered in ice. Over the 3 days of the weekend the Saturday and the Sunday had light winds, little to no ridge lift but some weak thermals would slow the descent rate. Monday was by far the best day with Cu’s popping around midday and some longer flights were possible.


    I did a total of five flights over the weekend with the longest being on the Monday where I did an hour and half, cut short by the need to de‐rig and head for home. Some of the Grampians soaring club flew their gliders back to Ararat to save de‐rigging.

    Overall it was a great weekend, the weather was good for local soaring in fantastic scenery, the operation was well run and a fair amount of behind the scenes organisation had gone into making the camp a success, with drums of fuel for the tug, toilet facilities a caravan and no doubt clearing the sheep out the paddock.

    Thank you to John Anselmi and Jim Nugent and rest of the Grampians soaring club for arranging the weekend.


  • 15 May 2017 14:39 | Anonymous member

    We invite all our members who have family, friends or acquaintances with an interest in taking up gliding to join us on 28 May 2017 for an Air Experience Flight where they can try gliding for themselves and learn about the Melbourne Gliding Club.

    Flights will be at club rates, plus the $30 GFA 9-day introductory membership, and be charged to your flying account.

    To help you and your guests plan your day, book your slot by visiting this site:

    http://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090b4caea622abfb6-mgcfamily1 

  • 09 May 2017 15:18 | Anonymous member

    Our club camps for the next season will be as follows:

    Melbourne Cup Weekend - Raywood (our hosts, Bendigo GC)
    Saturday 4 November - Tuesday 7 November

    Christmas/New Year Camp - Wangaratta
    Boxing Day (Tuesday 26 December) - Sunday 7 January (extendable)

    Easter Camp - Mt Beauty (our hosts, Mt Beauty GC)
    Good Friday (30 March) - Easter Monday (2 April) (extendable)

  • 08 May 2017 09:29 | Anonymous member

    A real-time flight log of all flarm equipped aircraft is now available on the front page of the member web site or via link on the clubs smart phone app.

    http://flightlog.glidernet.org/index.php?t=0&a=YBSS

    The site keeps flight records for about the last 30 days, beyond this data is available from this site thanks to the work of Micheal Aldridge.

    http://vmfgflightsheets.azurewebsites.net



  • 27 Apr 2017 21:46 | Anonymous member

    The airfield at Bacchus Marsh is presently very waterlogged following the sustained rain over the past 72 hours. Given the forecast rain for the next 48 hours also, any operations at Bacchus Marsh this weekend are likely to be limited (i.e. with only one or two gliders) to the bitumen runways.

    Given this, we have made a decision as early as possible to postpone Sunday's Family and Friends Flying Day. We are rescheduling this to Sunday 28 May and hope you and your friends and family can join us then. A revised sign-up page will be sent out soon.

    Thank you to all those who had registered for Sunday or were part of the organisation.

    Don't forget that our free April membership offer still has a few days to run if your friends and family would like to join the club and the GFA.


  • 24 Apr 2017 11:56 | Anonymous member

    The YBSS flarm receiver has been upgraded.

    If you would like to see the performance of individual flarm units, enter the flarm ID into the web site

    http://www.kisstech.ch/flarm-liverange/

    Flarm equiped gliders can be seen live on the members web site, OGN (Open Glider network) and on Flight radar 24

  • 13 Apr 2017 09:12 | Anonymous member

    Due to an increase in AVGAS price of 11 cents, the tow rate per minute has increased by the 11 cents to $5.89/minute effective immediately. (Note: this will practically take effect once operations resume at Bacchus Marsh after Easter, as club camps have a different tow rate).

    You may have also seen in the GFA Board news email sent on 7 April that the cost of 9-day introductory (or AEF) forms is increasing from $30 to $40 from 1 May. We will hold the price of AEF forms at $30 until 30 June of this year, before increasing to $40 in line with the increased GFA cost on 1 July 2017.

  • 13 Apr 2017 09:08 | Anonymous member
    • Thanks to Tony Carling for bringing back parachute parts from the US on a recent trip.
    • To the many people who de-rigged gliders for the Mt Beauty camp on Saturday 8 April, thank you!
    • To Allan Petersen for such a speedy (but still very thorough) Form 2 of VWR.
    • To Tom Van Blaricum for around five years of club service as the glider maintenance officer - thank you for your many years of coordinating teams, organising spares, and undertaking much of the maintenance yourself.
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