Grampians Soaring Club in Ararat, Victoria | Sport & recreation

Grampians Soaring Club

Locality: Ararat, Victoria

Phone: +61 417 514 438

Address: Ararat Airfield 3377 Ararat, VIC, Australia

Website: http://www.grampianssoaring.club/

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• Sports club
• Sport & recreation
• Airport
• Recreation centre

25.01.2022 The annual wave long weekend that delivered. Several amazing wave flights of over 20,000ft were accomplished today with the best being around 23,000ft. Thanks to all that assisted. A great fun weekend had by all that attended. A special thanks for Frank Van Der Hoeven and the Bendigo Gliding Club for the services of their Eurofox. Having a second tug sure did help as the tow times for wave flights are typically longer than your average tow. Catch you all again next year

25.01.2022 Awesome clip by the juniors at this years JoeyGlide!!

24.01.2022 An interesting Saturday at the club today with poor visibility pre launch creating a lot of uncertainty in how far could be flown and how strong the thermals would be. Once airborne it was quickly evident that the thermals were quite strong under the Cu. Andrew, Brendon, Rod, Jason and Eric elected to stay fairly close to home although Trevor ventured to Raywood where he picked up the come and get it trophy that had been grabbed by Frank from Ararat a couple of weeks ago. S...o the big question now is, who will be next to collect the trophy from Ararat. Will anyone venture up from Bacchus Marsh?? Will someone from Bendigo come and get it back? A reminder that whichever club has the cup sitting on there shelf by 30th March 2020 will receive the $400 cash bonus. https://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-/gliding/flightinfo.html https://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-/gliding/flightinfo.html

23.01.2022 This video is amazingly beautiful. If you have a spare 6 mins on this Sunday night, then enjoy what would have to be one of the best gliding video compilations ...ever and was produced in 2015. Thanks to Thomas Grassegger, Germany, for posting and sharing....and keep sharing everyone!! #bestofgliding #redbullxglider See more

23.01.2022 Sooooo the trophy is still at Raywood and up for grabs. Where will it end up next???

23.01.2022 Condor Racing! Sitting at home with nothing to do? Some keen GFA members have started up Condor races. Everyone is welcome. The server will be up tonight ar...ound 6.45 for a 7.10 start (AEST). To join, go on the condor soaring website and look for the server called Australia Gliding. Racing. Flying 18m class, with default landscape (Slovenia). Racing will be every Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday at 7pm. (AEST). See you there! See more

22.01.2022 We’ve been busy organising and designing some new signage which can now be seen around the local footy/cricket oval in Ararat. Thanks to Jason for his work on this. They came up a treat and they can’t be missed!

22.01.2022 We are updating our fleet for 19/20 season, so we are selling our Astir CS77. Very good condition, flies great, only 2248 hours, good functional panel with LX ...Helios, good trailer, ground handling gear, ready to fly. Great GP F1.0 glider. $15500.00 ono [email protected]

21.01.2022 Grampians Soaring Clup winch driver/operations training weekend. Anyone is welcome. Come along for what should be a great fun filled weekend.

21.01.2022 The future of gliding!!

21.01.2022 A busy day in Ararat after some winch launching yesterday and the Christmas dinner last night. Climbs of over 7000ft and 5kts were on the cards today with a number of members taking advantage of the great conditions. Thanks to our winch driver, tug pilot and instructors. A special thanks to Lorraine for organising the food for last nights meal

21.01.2022 Today marked the end of a 34 year old chapter for our club and VH-HDR. After being purchased new in 1985, the Jantar will be soon headed for its new home at GCV. See below the last flight while being owned by the Grampians Soaring Club.

21.01.2022 A great day had by all today with multiple cross country flights flown and some great local soaring.

20.01.2022 Hi all, After the announcement from the federal government last night, the Grampians Soaring Club committee has decided to cease our normal operations for the time being. Stay safe and hopefully we will be operating as normal in time for our wave camp in June.... Thanks, GSC committee.

20.01.2022 Sadly we are sharing the news of the passing of Harry McInnes. A long term member and 2nd recipient of life membership to the Grampians Soaring Club. Harry was a farmer from Willaura who learnt to glide in the late 60s early 70s with the Wimmera Soaring Club at Horsham. Harry was instrumental in the establishment of our club. Being an instructor on loan from Horsham until the club could train their own instructors. Harry along with Noel Lovell did most of the early instructin...g with the club at their site at Navarre. Harry moved back to Horsham for a few years then came back to the club once we were established at Ararat. Harry held many positions on the committee including a stint as president. Harry was also club CFI as well as a Tug pilot and our maintenance engineer for many years. Harry was also a very active cross country pilot with an uncanny knack of getting home when others had long landed out. Harry would often return home late when other gliders had long been packed away, only to announce that he had just been drifting around. He would never reveal where he had actually been it was just one of his many talents. Harry was an extraordinary instructor with a relaxed calm manner that put students instantly at ease. There are many gadgets at the club still in use today that are a result of Harry's hard work and ability to be able to see a problem and come up with a solution. None more evident than when we started winching there was a fence at the East end of the strip that was in the way. Not a problem, Harry came up an ingenius system of rolling the fence up each day to provide a longer strip for winch operations. Over the years Harry owned several aircraft mostly with Noel as a syndicate partner. First was the Hutter followed by Nymph GDX, Kingfisher 11 GLQ, LO150 GUC and finally his beloved DG 100 GME. Harry is survived by his wife Margret and sons David, Peter and Colin along with their families. Harry was a gentleman, a fantastic club member and more importantly just a ripper bloke that touched the lives of all that knew him. Below is a picture of Harry receiving the VSA state championship trophy from Noel.

19.01.2022 Day 1 of our Winching/Soaring long weekend is shaping up to be not a bad spring day. Come along in the morning for some winch launching fun and then have a soaring flight in the afternoon. Catch you then.

19.01.2022 Today the weather forecast for wave looked promising over the Grampians. Trevor and I launched early in his Arcus M with the sky already showing signs of an est...ablished roll cloud pattern and the odd lenticular cloud. With very little wind on the ground, we climbed up to 6000ft and proceeded to climb in the gentle wave lift of around 2-3 knots. Max height for the day was 13500ft. Great day out in a very picturesque sky, lift wasn't that strong but a very pleasant 3 hr flight in the wave. See more

19.01.2022 A short clip on glider lookout.

19.01.2022 Don’t forget guys, the come and get it trophy is currently at Raywood. Who will go and get it next??

19.01.2022 Perlan successes 28 August. Yesterday Perlan achieved the highest tow ever -- 46,700 feet above sea level pressure altitude at release. The photo was taken sl...ightly before release (the pilot can do only so many things simultaneously). This record was achieved because the airplane-glider tandem climbed slowly as it wandered all over the sky looking for workable wave lift that could bring the glider into the predicted strong wave high above. They did not find satisfactory lift. After release, the glider only gained about 800 feet. Takeoff was shortly after noon, landing shortly before 4 pm. Perlan 2 now has flown 60 times, totaling 127 hours. This was a useful test flight. 22 pounds (10 kg) were added to the tail, and this resulted in a CG (center of aircraft gravity) that was just about perfect. What does "perfect" mean? An aircraft must be somewhat nose-heavy, so that if it stalls, it will fall nose-first so that forward speed will increase and wing lift and pilot control regained as quickly as possible. This means that there is always a downward force produced by the tail in order to have level or climbing flight. That downward force is produced by the horizontal tail and elevator. The elevator's angle is changed by pushing or pulling on the control stick to change the angle of the wings and aircraft. Increasing the elevator's angle makes the wind flowing past bend more, which increases the wind's speed. Close to the speed of sound -- as the Perlan will be at its maximum designed altitude -- the bent wind may develop an angle in its flow (and "shock wave") that abruptly changes the force holding the nose up. The pilot will feel this as a change in the force needed to hold the nose attitude, but the change can possibly be outside the limits of control. Team Perlan, specifically Morgan Sandercock, an inventive and brilliant engineer, created a new system of sensors showing very precisely the angle of each control surface, so that pilots can understand exactly the position of each control surface. It was calculated that changing the position of the Perlan glider's center of gravity by adding tail weight would allow the elevator to require minimal deflection at its normal speed of 48 knots indicated near its maximum altitude of about 90,000 ft. This does two good things: Decreases the bending of the wind with control changes, thereby decreasing the risk of a shock wave. And decreases the force needed by the pilot to keep the glider's attitude steady. This flight showed that the elevator position and control force is exactly what was desired. Measures were taken since last season to combat the frosting of windows. Dry air can be fed to a window plenum. This greatly decreased frost, and had a useful side effect in that the air needed to feed the plenums was just about enough to balance the slight leakage of air from the cockpit. Last season, the tire lost air in the cold, meaning Jim had to land on a flattish tire in gusty winds. Many changes were made, and today the tire was well inflated after landing. There are explanatory notes with the images. Landing: I shot a hand-held video of the landing, so there's some tremor -- the wind was gusting to about 20 knots and the lens is 200mm -- breath-holding and bracing arms against the chest help, but aren't rock-solid. The gusty wind also creates fast-turning swirls of air near the ground ("in the friction layer") that is felt as turbulence in the aircraft. and because the swirling air affects each wing differently, the wings can be seen to rock. If necessary, the pilot responds to this to keep the wings relatively level and the wingtips off the runway. Landing video: https://youtu.be/2A_ZhV82Cn8

19.01.2022 Need a last minute Christmas gift? Be sure to check out our gliding vouchers! Simply go to http://grampianssoaring.club/fly-now/. Don’t forget to enter CHRISTMAS2020 in the promotion code section to receive 10% off.

19.01.2022 If you haven’t registered for our annual wave camp, now is the time! We’re lucky enough to have SkySight sponsoring us this year with a 12 month subscription up for grabs for the highest wave flight flown. We’re also lucky enough to have 3 more 3 months subscriptions up for grabs too for the longest duration wave flight flown, the longest duration flown on a non wave flight and for the winner of our spot landing contest. See you all there!!

18.01.2022 The forecast said wave and Robynne said she was keen to have a glider flight on her birthday so aviation was committed on a cold and windy day. Our visitor braved the cold conditions before thoroughly enjoying her mile high trip above the clouds and back over Ararat. This was followed by 2 launches by myself and Andrzej. Both of us found the cloud cover a bit too seven octas and the wave present but not spectacular. A bit of battling thermals near the lake and the day was done. A great day out and well worth the trip and the facing the cold.

17.01.2022 Well. What a great day today was. First launch before 9am this morning and the last one being about 4.30pm this afternoon. Wave to 10,000ft, ridge lift off Langi Ghiran and weak thermals to 3,000ft made for a really fun day had by all fortunate enough to not be in lockdown. Thanks heaps to our tug pilot and instructor. We ended the day with 18 flights. Which was a mix of solo, mutual and training, with both club and visiting pilots. If you haven’t been to Ararat and flown in the wave, definitely put it in your to do list. You won’t be disappointed.

16.01.2022 The Grampians Soaring Club will be operating again from this Saturday with some restrictions in place. We look forward to getting airborne again. Catch you all there.

16.01.2022 A cracking day in Ararat today. 15 flights for the day with a number of very happy customers. Heights of 8000’ and strengths of 5kts were on offer. Thanks to everyone who made our training and soaring weekend happen. With just under 40 flights, it certainly is great to be operating again.

16.01.2022 Na so was sieht man so oft nicht. Fotos gemacht bei Alex Lorenz, EPLU / AZM Lubin (Polen, Niederschlesien). :)

16.01.2022 Come and visit our new website!! http://grampianssoaring.club

15.01.2022 Loyal club member of over 40 years, David Lovell, has been working tirelessly to ensure the club house and hangar surrounds are mown and looking neat and tidy. I’m sure you’ll agree, they look great. Thanks Dave!!!

15.01.2022 Thanks Steve for setting this up for us!!

15.01.2022 Wave season is definitely here. Looking good for the Queens birthday long weekend.

14.01.2022 While Melbourne may be in lock down. That doesn’t stop us flying at Ararat. With social distancing, regular cleaning, sanitisation and masks provided of course. Today, Claire enjoyed an AEF, had a ball and was an absolute natural. Thanks for choosing to fly with us. We hope to see you back soon!

14.01.2022 The wave forecast for Monday is looking very promising at this stage!! See you there.

14.01.2022 Hi everyone, A quick note to let you all know that yes, we are operating now that Covid restrictions have eased Regards, GSC committee.

14.01.2022 While the weather didn’t really cooperate this weekend for flying, a lot has been happening around the club. The form 2 has been up but completed on the Puchacz. We are just waiting on the harness to return from its re web. Thanks to everyone that assisted with this. Work has started and should be completed in the coming days on the new hall way from the club house to the bunkhouse and caravan area. This will go a long way in neatening the club up and keeping the workshop separate from this area. Thanks to Eric and Mike for your work on this project!

14.01.2022 Today we would like to shout out to the cool Dad of Jed, Marlee and Ralph, and an impeccable glider pilot Brendon Lovell! Jed who is only 6 yrs old, has done 19... flights already! Marlee is too young to go for a flight with her Dad atm, Ralph is third in line Brendon - I guess the best part of gliding with my son is the pure joy and happiness he gets out of it. Not many preps can go to school on Monday and share their gliding stories! He makes me do aerobatics too, the buzz he gets from that and the laughs of enjoyment coming from the back seat are really something else. We can’t wait to hear about Marlee and Ralphs adventures with their Dad

13.01.2022 Hi all, Just a reminder that our annual wave long weekend is less than two weeks away. Operations are planned from the Friday through till the Monday. If you’ve not registered your interest yet, please let us know ASAP. Cheers.

13.01.2022 Winch launching this morning and then some weak wave in the afternoon. 22 flights for the day. Tomorrow’s wave forecast is looking absolutely awesome. If you have the chance to be here flying, you definitely should be.

13.01.2022 Another active day at the club today with Nick progressing well with his training, Henry and Richard enjoying some nice winter soaring in their Pik and then Brendon and Jed also enjoying a nice soaring flight in the Puchacz to end the day. Thanks to our tuggie, instructor and crew who made today happen.

13.01.2022 For sale. We have our Libelle for sale. http://www.sailplanes.co//glasflugel-h-201b-libelle-vh-gbl

12.01.2022 Need a gift idea for dad this Father’s Day? Why not buy him the ultimate gliding experience? Click the link to find out more info and make dads day a great one this year!! http://grampianssoaring.club/fly-now/

12.01.2022 A busy afternoon at the club today with 14 flights for the day. A mix of students, aef and single seat flying was in order. Heights of about 4000ft was on offer with some extended soaring flights had throughout the afternoon. Great to be back flying in what we now know as the new normal.

12.01.2022 Happy Birthday to the gentleman of our skies! With over 37000 hrs in gliders, you have and continue too inspire glider pilots from all over the world. A true ...legend and great ambassador of our sport. Happy Birthday Ingo !

11.01.2022 Well the winch training weekend has been and gone, and what a great success it was. Lots of launches, 2 new winch drivers trained up and another pilot converted to the Janus off the winch. All in all, a great weekend. Thanks to all that made it happen

11.01.2022 With Christmas just around the corner and restrictions easing across all of Victoria. Why not treat yourself or someone else to an amazing Gliding experience? Simply go to http://grampianssoaring.club/fly-now/, pick your flight option and enter the code "CHRISTMAS2020" to receive a 10% discount!! If you have any questions, either contact through here or go to http://grampianssoaring.club/contact-us/ for more information. We look forward to hearing from you!!

11.01.2022 Trevor and Jack launching 5 minutes ago and are off to chase the Grampians wave. Keep an eye on the OGN to see how they’re going. Forecast looks great!!

09.01.2022 Memories from 2 years ago. Let’s hope we can all get back and do this again really soon!!

09.01.2022 #GrampiansSoaringClub returns to #PortFairy #airfield just after #NewYears 02/01/2020-05/01/2020 and we are offering air experience flights over picturesque #PortFairy. Starting from $200, it sure makes for an exhilarating holiday experience. For more information, contact us via Facebook or email [email protected] Gliding Federation of Australia #Gliding #Soaring #Flying #Flight

07.01.2022 A busy day at Ararat yesterday with around 13 launches. A mix of cross country, local soaring and training were had by all involved. We said goodbye to the clubs Jantar as it’s new owner headed down the highway with it in tow. The day then finished off with a BBQ dinner with around 15 attending.

07.01.2022 Our clubs Jantar is for sale. Check it out. http://www.sailplanes.co//single-seat-sailplanes/vh-hdr-sz

06.01.2022 Andrew on tow yesterday in search of wave off the Grampians. Only 5 days now until the start of our annual Queens birthday wave weekend.

06.01.2022 The answer is YES. F1GP is going ahead. If you haven't entered, there's still plenty of time to beg / borrow / steal an eligible steed and get your racing boots on....

05.01.2022 It's been a tough year. We did it! Now it's time to fly! The Victorian Regional Team would like to wish you, your family and friends the very best for the upco...ming holiday season. We thank our clubs and members for their support during the year and hope that 2021 will bring you a successful, safe and healthy year to remember. We have lots of things planned for 2021, so watch this space! See more

05.01.2022 Well it’s only 6 weeks until our annual Wave camp. Check out this little teaser video from our mates in the NZ of the type of flying you can experience if you were to join us this year. To secure your spot, send us a PM. https://youtu.be/VhDpoM5k2Qg

05.01.2022 Hi everyone. Our new refreshed club logo. Give it a like

05.01.2022 Wow. What an amazing last 2 days enjoyed by many of our members while unfortunately some of us had to work. Yesterday saw Trevor and Jack do 865km @132kph which we believe to be a record distance from Ararat and then backed it up today with 620km @115kph. Andrew and Kevin smashed around Kevs triangle yesterday in the Janus. 320km @115kph. Others enjoyed the 10,000ft+ heights and stayed more local. Thanks to Mike for the towing and to the ground crew for their help.

04.01.2022 The Grampians Soaring club have arrived in Port Fairy. We are operating from 10am daily from Port Fairy airfield until Sunday and are offering air experienced flights. Flights start from $200. For more info, call is on 0417 514 438 or send us a message on here. Cheers.

04.01.2022 Frank Van Der Hoeven from the Bendigo Gliding Club ventured to Ararat today and picked up the VSA come and get it trophy. Hopefully this sparks some interest from other clubs and we can see this passed around a bit this season. Well done Frank!!

03.01.2022 Come and visit us at Grampians Soaring Club and experience wave flying first hand. The Grampians mountain range is located just 30km to the west of Ararat airfield which sits us nicely in line with where the tertiary wave can form. Heights of 25,000ft+ were flown last winter!!

02.01.2022 Melbourne cup Regatta

02.01.2022 First self-launch of the AS 34 Me https://www.alexander-schleicher.de/erstflug-der-as-34-me/

02.01.2022 Not a bad day for May!!!

01.01.2022 A busy day in Ararat today with 12 flights for the day. Both aerotow and winch launches with training and solo flying. A great day had by all. Operations are planned for tomorrow and Sunday with instructors available on both days.

01.01.2022 GPC Pilots show us your wings!! Available in Go Membership for GPC pilots - the first 500 are free so get in fast! Badges are available through Go Membership, click on the Events & Courses tile and find them in the GFA Shop.https://bit.ly/3gKHsjc

01.01.2022 It was great to have our junior members Tristan and Jensen out at the club flying on Sunday. Both having a few flights each and continuing to build their skills. If you haven’t been to the club in a while, be sure to pop in and check out the upgrades #juniors #gsc

01.01.2022 Saturday saw a return to operations at Ararat with over 12 hrs air time logged for the day with 5 gliders taking to the sky’s. Convergence just south of the field made for some pretty fun and spectacular soaring flights with climbs to 6500ft on offer. Thanks to our tug pilot, instructors and ground crew for making it such a great day!!

01.01.2022 First launch for the day

01.01.2022 It's R U OK?Day, our national day of action and a reminder to Trust the Signs, Trust your Gut & Ask R U OK? any day it's needed. Today we're calling on Australi...a to learn when and how to start a conversation that could change a life. Learn the signs and how to ask and help us move closer to our vision of a world where we're all connected and protected from suicide: www.ruok.org.au