Benalla Trip:
As you probably read in the last newsletter, Louis Trichard and I recently spent two weeks at Benalla Australia. The club has about 400 members mostly from Melbourne 200km to the south and owns about 15 gliders housed in three large hangars. There are about 5 all metal I.S. 28 two seaters, 2 Super Arrows or "Sparrows" as they call them and the rest are Hornets and Mosquitos. Tow-planes are 3 Pawnee 235's Weekend flying is on a typical club basis i.e. rostered voluntary instructors but every week Monday to Friday they run training courses with paid instructors. For about 45 flights the all-in charge including accommodation is about $A550 for members and $A650 for non-members. Their training methods are very similar to ours but seem to be more prolonged i.e. about 15 hours to first solo and about 70 hours before converting to a Hornet. However I suspect they are looking for full utilisation in fixing these limits.
Bob Struthers
April 1985.
The March newsletter editor described the trip thus:-
As most of you will be aware, Bob Struthers and Louis Trichard visited Benalla in Australia recently, hired a Hornet (prebooked) and did some flying. Louis' concerted efforts here paid off and on his first day in the Hornet he did his five hours and Silver C height gain in one flight. Two days later he declared a 300km triangle (with 50km as a back-stop, his first cross-country!) the first launch was unsuccessful but after a relight, in Louis' words "I was 10km from the 'drome and here the crucial decision was made". He arrived back at Benalla with 7000ft to spare. In crewing for Louis, Bob missed the best chance of doing his 500km as the weather never really came right again. He made it past the first turn-point one day and came back to log about 350km out and return.
On another day Bob landed out after about 350km on another attempt. Anyway, I won't tell you too much as I am sure that Bob and Louis will want to write of their experiences for everyone to share. If not we should be able to find time for them during the next AGM.
