Work on the clubhouse is well underway, and its prime time for gliding on a Saturday! here is a quick word from Rob our Treasurer
"Just a quick message to let everyone know that works on the club house are ongoing. If anyone wants to help, please give Allan, Tom E or me a call. We will be doing small stuff, one or more evenings this week, and continue working on Sundays (and Saturdays if flying permits it) - until it's finished!
The windows have new fly screens - now we only need 3 or 4 fly screen (or security) doors. If someone knows about some second hand ones please let me know!
Work on Sunday also means that there will be a winch driver and instructor available on Sundays. So if you want to do some hours, give me a call! NB: solo pilots only and you must be signed off for Daily Inspections as well. Instruction, AEF's and circuits on Saturday as usual!
Cheers - Robert"
Remember; Gliding from 10:30 every Saturday! Come out and join us in the sky!.
Monday, October 10, 2011
Thursday, September 15, 2011
ASGC Poster
The Alice Springs Gliding Club wants YOU! and our recruiting campaign has started with this poster being placed around town. With the clubhouse repairs well underway, and a prime gliding season almost upon us, make sure you come out and fly with us this Spring!
If you want a copy to print out and display at your work, back of your car, or just on your fridge door, then checkout the Facebook page for the download.
Tell your friends!
If you want a copy to print out and display at your work, back of your car, or just on your fridge door, then checkout the Facebook page for the download.
Tell your friends!
Saturday, September 3, 2011
Gliding and Working Bee this weekend
The weather is warming up again, and Saturday is looking to be another great day for soaring! Come out at 10am for the pre-flight briefing so we can take to the sky as soon as possible.
Sunday will be a club working bee, with the main goal of fixing the club house roof. Meet out at bond springs at 11am, and Allan has asked fora 240v hammer drill, an angle grinder & disks, if anyone can help out here. and for anyone else; bring a hammer + screw driver if you have one!
Sunday will be a club working bee, with the main goal of fixing the club house roof. Meet out at bond springs at 11am, and Allan has asked fora 240v hammer drill, an angle grinder & disks, if anyone can help out here. and for anyone else; bring a hammer + screw driver if you have one!
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Long weekend nothing planned ?? Go gliding with Alice Springs Gliding Club
Saturday will be soaring as per normal with the christening of Robert and Toms Astir CS and a BBQ to boot. So bring some meat and a bit of bread and chill out in the beautiful winter sun with some awesome company, and quite possibly a few tall tails, and u never know u might even turn it in to a night so bring ur swag and ur dog and let the good times roll!
Monday will also bring some soaring with it just to finish off the long weekend with a bit of style
so for those looking for a good time, great adventure, or even those looking for something new, come on out stick your head in, everyones welcome, at only 22kms from town ur in the bush with the continence of ur bed or ur swag at the end of the day so why procrastinate come and give it a go and just let the good times roll =)
need more info
ph. 0458852591 for Tom
ph. 0437861819 for Robert
or ASGC on Facebook
when ur life flashes before ur eyes,
make sure its worth watching =)
Monday will also bring some soaring with it just to finish off the long weekend with a bit of style
so for those looking for a good time, great adventure, or even those looking for something new, come on out stick your head in, everyones welcome, at only 22kms from town ur in the bush with the continence of ur bed or ur swag at the end of the day so why procrastinate come and give it a go and just let the good times roll =)
need more info
ph. 0458852591 for Tom
ph. 0437861819 for Robert
or ASGC on Facebook
when ur life flashes before ur eyes,
make sure its worth watching =)
Friday, July 1, 2011
ASGC at the Alice Springs Show
The club have organised to share a stall at the Alice Springs Show out at Blatherskite Park this Friday and Saturday. There will be a glider on display and all the information that you need to come and be a part of the fun!
Thursday, June 9, 2011
June Long Weekend
The June long weekend is traditionally a busy one in Alice Springs, with the Finke Desert Race taking over the town, but our gliding operations will still continue this Saturday as normal. There will be a couple of TIFs to take first up with a few members bringing some friends out for the experience, and providing these clouds lift, it should be a pretty standard day; which is always perfect!
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Club BBQ
The AGM has been and gone, so welcome to the new committee members - Check your emails for the minutes.
With the work on the Clubhouse getting underway, the ASGC will has decided to hold social BBQs on the 1st Saturday of each month after operations have finished for the day (around 4pm). This is a great chance to bring a friend and get involved on a regular basis. Operations start from 11am so come out for the day!
With the work on the Clubhouse getting underway, the ASGC will has decided to hold social BBQs on the 1st Saturday of each month after operations have finished for the day (around 4pm). This is a great chance to bring a friend and get involved on a regular basis. Operations start from 11am so come out for the day!
Monday, May 23, 2011
Lake Keepit Regatta 2012
Rob is looking for club members to join him in attending the 2012 Lake Keepit Regatta held just outside Tamworth on Saturday 18th till Saturday 25th of February 2012. The regatta is a good opportunity to experience flying in a different location, and great place for safe cross country flying with out-landing possibilities if required.
This year Tom Ebeling went, flying a Twin Astir with Garry Speight, and Rob was flying a G-103 with Grant Nelson. The plan is to fly from Alice Springs to Tamworth on Friday 17/02. We will be picked up from the airport by someone from the Lake Keepit Soaring Club. This will give us Saturday to get familiarised, do the necessary check flights etc. Then fly the competition from Sunday til Saturday next week, and fly back to Alice Springs Sunday 26/2. It will only cost you 6 days of annual leave.
Sofar, Rob & Tom have already booked their places again for this year, and anyone else who is interested should contact Rob ASAP.
Friday, May 13, 2011
Article in the Advocate
Thanks to the work of Jim Thomas, (and his connections in high places!) the club had an article published in 'The Centralian Advocate' on Friday about the recent club fly-in at Tillmouth Well. Below is a transcript of the article;
"The Alice Springs Gliding Club Fly-in to Tilmouth Well
After some procrastination we were on our way to Tilmouth Well to enjoy an Easter Weekend of nonstop gliding at Tilmouth Well. The club planned to fly Friday, Saturday and Sunday, possibly extending to Monday if more members arrived.
Located 200 km from Alice Springs, Tilmouth Well is a pleasant road house on the banks of the Napperby Creek and not far from Lake Lewis. Right now the lake is nearly full of water stretching out from the Tanami Highway 70 km towards Central Mount Wedge on the horizon.
The club had been given permission to fly off the airstrip by Roy Chisholm, the owner, and the club members were eager to go.
The gliders towed out from Bond Springs aerodrome were the new Twin Astir and the single Astir. We started early on Friday morning and, as you recall, it was a beautiful clear Central Australian morning. It was an interesting convoy with the winch leading the way, Alison in the Hilux and the two gliders towed by Robert and Allan.
Both gliders were rigged and ready to fly, shortly after arrival at Tilmouth Well. The airstrip was inspected for length and clearance from the grass verges. Most of the bush airstrips have been affected by the existing La Nina event and have been overgrown with vegetation. This strip was no exception. Rob Mclean very helpfully provided a staff member Dave to mow the offending edges and the strip was now in excellent condition for the launches with the winch. We had 1.2 km length to lay the wire and room enough to operate two gliders safetly.
Our new twin Astir has revitalized interest in the gliding club. It has only flown 2000 hours out of a total of 12000 hours allowable flying before the life of the glider is extended after a major inspection. For our club that represents many years flying in a beautifully maintained glider that is as good as new. The aircraft is a pleasure to fly. The controls are smooth and well balanced which is why it is an excellent aircraft to train student pilots. Incidentally, gliding is the cheapest way to learn to fly and pilot skills are honed to high level when they go solo.
The club is geared for passenger flights, called TIFs or Training Instruction Flights. Our first passengers were a couple of Geologists who had no idea what gliders were and had never seen one. They were amazed at their size and even more amazed at the way the gliders were to be launched. Nevertheless they were keen to go gliding after being involved in helping to rig them.
The single Astir was flown by an experienced cross country pilot, Sal Onga. He had seen Tilmouth Well from the air before but never on the ground. His wife Glenda and their two boys were happy to help and enjoyed chatting by the Allen and Simon’s camp fire that evening.
Friday’s excellent weather was repeated on Saturday. The club members had enjoyed a late night socializing the night before and since most had never seen Lake Lewis from the ground, decided to drive 20 km to the lake’s edge. Full of water the lake is a remarkable and fairly rare sight. From our vantage point it was possible to see it stretching south towards Mount Zeil and Mount Chapple on Narwietooma Station and west to Central Mount Wedge.
Edward Connellan and his girl friend Sonya, had arrived at Tilmouth Well at the same time as we arrived back from the trip to the lake. The CFI, Simon Hatfield, checked Edward for the endorsement into the Twin Astir. The next flight Sonya was his passenger. It was a short flight of 5 minutes but the next attempt they caught a thermal and climbed away to 5,500 ASL (above sea level). The flight lasted over an hour while they checked Edward’s home I.e. the southern neighbour Narwietooma.
On Sunday Robert Smits flew the Single Astir. He would have loved the chance to fly back to Bond Springs but the conditions were not good enough. To have any chance the thermals would have to be above 7,000 feet, so he had to satisfy himself with a few wingovers. We decided to de-rig the single Astir after Robert’s flight and thank the staff at Tilmouth Well for their hospitality.
That ended a great weekend of flying for the Alice Springs Gliding Club members, who are now planning for the next one.
The club welcomes new members. We fly mainly on Saturdays from the Bond Springs Aerodrome 20 km north of Alice Springs." - Jim Thomas
"The Alice Springs Gliding Club Fly-in to Tilmouth Well
After some procrastination we were on our way to Tilmouth Well to enjoy an Easter Weekend of nonstop gliding at Tilmouth Well. The club planned to fly Friday, Saturday and Sunday, possibly extending to Monday if more members arrived.
Located 200 km from Alice Springs, Tilmouth Well is a pleasant road house on the banks of the Napperby Creek and not far from Lake Lewis. Right now the lake is nearly full of water stretching out from the Tanami Highway 70 km towards Central Mount Wedge on the horizon.
The club had been given permission to fly off the airstrip by Roy Chisholm, the owner, and the club members were eager to go.
The gliders towed out from Bond Springs aerodrome were the new Twin Astir and the single Astir. We started early on Friday morning and, as you recall, it was a beautiful clear Central Australian morning. It was an interesting convoy with the winch leading the way, Alison in the Hilux and the two gliders towed by Robert and Allan.
Both gliders were rigged and ready to fly, shortly after arrival at Tilmouth Well. The airstrip was inspected for length and clearance from the grass verges. Most of the bush airstrips have been affected by the existing La Nina event and have been overgrown with vegetation. This strip was no exception. Rob Mclean very helpfully provided a staff member Dave to mow the offending edges and the strip was now in excellent condition for the launches with the winch. We had 1.2 km length to lay the wire and room enough to operate two gliders safetly.
Our new twin Astir has revitalized interest in the gliding club. It has only flown 2000 hours out of a total of 12000 hours allowable flying before the life of the glider is extended after a major inspection. For our club that represents many years flying in a beautifully maintained glider that is as good as new. The aircraft is a pleasure to fly. The controls are smooth and well balanced which is why it is an excellent aircraft to train student pilots. Incidentally, gliding is the cheapest way to learn to fly and pilot skills are honed to high level when they go solo.
The club is geared for passenger flights, called TIFs or Training Instruction Flights. Our first passengers were a couple of Geologists who had no idea what gliders were and had never seen one. They were amazed at their size and even more amazed at the way the gliders were to be launched. Nevertheless they were keen to go gliding after being involved in helping to rig them.
The single Astir was flown by an experienced cross country pilot, Sal Onga. He had seen Tilmouth Well from the air before but never on the ground. His wife Glenda and their two boys were happy to help and enjoyed chatting by the Allen and Simon’s camp fire that evening.
Friday’s excellent weather was repeated on Saturday. The club members had enjoyed a late night socializing the night before and since most had never seen Lake Lewis from the ground, decided to drive 20 km to the lake’s edge. Full of water the lake is a remarkable and fairly rare sight. From our vantage point it was possible to see it stretching south towards Mount Zeil and Mount Chapple on Narwietooma Station and west to Central Mount Wedge.
Edward Connellan and his girl friend Sonya, had arrived at Tilmouth Well at the same time as we arrived back from the trip to the lake. The CFI, Simon Hatfield, checked Edward for the endorsement into the Twin Astir. The next flight Sonya was his passenger. It was a short flight of 5 minutes but the next attempt they caught a thermal and climbed away to 5,500 ASL (above sea level). The flight lasted over an hour while they checked Edward’s home I.e. the southern neighbour Narwietooma.
On Sunday Robert Smits flew the Single Astir. He would have loved the chance to fly back to Bond Springs but the conditions were not good enough. To have any chance the thermals would have to be above 7,000 feet, so he had to satisfy himself with a few wingovers. We decided to de-rig the single Astir after Robert’s flight and thank the staff at Tilmouth Well for their hospitality.
That ended a great weekend of flying for the Alice Springs Gliding Club members, who are now planning for the next one.
The club welcomes new members. We fly mainly on Saturdays from the Bond Springs Aerodrome 20 km north of Alice Springs." - Jim Thomas
Saturday, May 7, 2011
Saturday Gliding
Gliding operations have returned to our normal Saturday flights once again. So come out and get some air with us at the Bond springs Airstrip, ~20kms North of Alice Springs (up the Stuart Highway), every Saturday from 11am!
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Tilmouth Well - A Success!
The road trip to Tilmouth well went off without a hitch over the Easter long weekend, here is a brief overview:
The club made its way up the Tanami and flew both Friday afternoon and Saturday, after a visit to the Salt Lakes just south of the roadhouse. Friday night's camp fire with a wine under the stars wasn't too bad either! Saturday was a great day for flying with thermals to nearly 6000 feet, and Ed having a flight of nearly 1.5 hrs. There was a barbeque in the evening, with visit from Chris Connellan (a local station owner and aviation icon in the region). We de-rigged DL Saturday, but did one more flight Sunday in the single-seater (ZL) before we packed up and drove back. Tilmouth is great, beautiful lawn, swimming pool, the units are great, restaurant excellent, you can buy anything you need in the shop. It's all very well laid out. The airstrip is about 1000m long will give a 1000 feet launch with the Twin (Rob got 1600 ft with the single Astir!).
The only disappointment was that the weather wasn't good enough to fly any gliders back to Bond Springs! (More pictures to come!)
Looking forward to the next expedition!
Monday, April 18, 2011
Tilmouth Well
Plans for the Easter long weekend have been finalised, and the club will be taking all the gear for a change of scenery up at Tilmouth Well.
The trailers have been loaded and we will be heading up the Tanami Road on Friday the 22nd and operating from the airstrip behind the road house until Monday the 25th. All are welcome to come out and join the fun at any time across the weekend. The weather looks great and some good flying is expected.
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Up-coming events
The Easter long weekend is not far away and this year its a long one! That means it is prime time for more then a few days of gliding in the perfect Central Australian conditions!
The club has decided to take this opportunity and run operations over the Easter weekend Sat 23rd - Tues 26th, at either Bond Springs (per usual) or a yet to be determined location (if logistics prove viable). Stay tuned for more details!
In the mean time, we will be out at Bond Springs this weekend (April 16th) from 10am as always.
...Also, don't forget to find us on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Alice-Springs-Gliding-Club/145511888803707
The club has decided to take this opportunity and run operations over the Easter weekend Sat 23rd - Tues 26th, at either Bond Springs (per usual) or a yet to be determined location (if logistics prove viable). Stay tuned for more details!
In the mean time, we will be out at Bond Springs this weekend (April 16th) from 10am as always.
...Also, don't forget to find us on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Alice-Springs-Gliding-Club/145511888803707
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Clubhouse work
Last weekend saw the beginnings of the restoration of our existing club house. This building has seldom been used in the past few years, but we are now pushing to again return it to its former glory.
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Gliding Saturday 9th April
Gliding is happening this weekend as usual. The new Astir Twin (GDL) and the IS28 (OKR) will be on standby for flights.
There will also be a small amount of work to be done around the old club rooms to begin its restoration.
See you in the sky!
There will also be a small amount of work to be done around the old club rooms to begin its restoration.
See you in the sky!
Sunday, April 3, 2011
ASGC is online!
Welcome to the Alice Springs Gliding Club web log.
A place to find information about our operation and up coming events, photos of the clubs flying days under the blue sky of Central Australia, and note worthy achievements by club members.
Links to useful websites including local temp traces and current weather can be found at the right hand side of the page and contact information is on the 'About Us' tab at the top of the page.
please checkout the photos, and come out and join us any Saturday from 10am!
A place to find information about our operation and up coming events, photos of the clubs flying days under the blue sky of Central Australia, and note worthy achievements by club members.
Links to useful websites including local temp traces and current weather can be found at the right hand side of the page and contact information is on the 'About Us' tab at the top of the page.
please checkout the photos, and come out and join us any Saturday from 10am!
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)