THE HISTORY OF V.A.R.M.S The Annual Diary 1990 - 2009

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the size of Camperdown and generally is flat, very flat. The local glider club is really several large
sheds with a kitchen and an East – West runway. The NSW’s scale flyers Wayne Hadkins and Tim
Nolan organised the event in conjunction with the Lockhart Glider Club with the aim of running
simultaneous operations. The club flew several full size gliders towed up by a winch while we aero
towed. This all happened on the same piece of runway and the whole thing was something to see
with real gliders on the winch. The local news crews came to get it on the TV and the newspapers
had a photographer out and about. Lockhart is quite a drive but I felt it was worth the trip just to
see the co-operation between the two groups. I hear the Germans do this type of thing frequently.
In the light wind prevailing we all took off to the West but the full size were landing from the West
and often parking the glider back in the queue at the end of the roll out. Touch down was about
halfway down the strip! Great airmanship. As you can imagine it is dry, the best part is you know
there are thermals as you can see Willy Willies spinning all around you which means thermals are
everywhere. Around midday on both days the thermals were fantastic. Lift here, there and
everywhere and not much sink. I think the sink may have been left down at High Street Rd. for the
weekend. Did I mention it was dry? I hope the rain does come because it’s very dusty, in fact I’m
still looking at the dust now as it’s in the car and then on me wherever I go after leaving the car.
The crop next to the strip was burnt a few weeks ago so I have a fair bit of the blackened wheat
stubble in the car and trailer as well.
There were a lot of models not seen by us Victorians before and the really spectacular ones
came from Bill Bland from Sydney. Big Salto, Big Fox and really big ASW28 complete with
winglets and half scale measuring a whopping 7.5 metres span. (full size is 15 metres). You would
need a kidney belt just to lift the fuselage! On the ground it looks a bit bulky amongst the other
models but in flight was completely convincing. Sadly, on the fourth flight it had a midair with a
third scale ASH26 completely wrecking both models and they were the only two models in the
air!!! Needless to say a deathly silence came over the place a bit like when John G’s Elfe went
down years ago….. not much flying was done afterwards. Meanwhile the full size were having a
great time with passenger flights and at dusk one of the Blaniks did a sunset flight complete with
beatup, coming down the strip at about 1 metre…. Through the sunset and then up into a steep
banked turn, touching down back through the sunset and then proceeding to taxi back down the
strip to the hangar….. Impressive. The ability of the Blaniks was amazing, not all that fast but they
just went on and on and on and on and on with their wings level.
Saturday nights dinner was at the Serviceman’s club with good beer, good food and warmth.
The night was topped off with a Quiz, the modellers and the fullsize pilots presenting 16 questions
to be answered by the opposition. The modellers won by 1 point and there were some great
questions—How many World champs has Ingo Renner won? – What was Fred Noinvilles Tiger
Moth called? – Who was the second man on the moon? -- All good fun aided by the usual glider
fuel!! A small price to pay for what was a great weekend of flying, flying, more flying and a lot of
socializing mixed in with good friends. We had a great time at this event and like all things new it
took a bit of getting used to the local surroundings and field procedures. Each glider pilot required
an observer during simultaneous operations so we all had a chance to buddy up with old and new
friends. From a VARMS point of view Tony Greiger flew his new glider and didn’t tow, while
Kyle Walker flew his converted ARF Stick and had his first of many tows under the guidance of
Theo Arvantakis and Steve Keep. David Hobby bought a glider from Colin Collyer and promptly
won the pilots choice award for the best model. That’s one way to win. Mark Withers, Mark Doyle
and Greg Voak hooked lots of thermal with great models and Bill and Rose Hamilton dropped in
for a visit on the way home from an east coast holiday. With folks from NSW and SA we had a
ball.
Now that we have a better understanding of how to interact on the field I feel this will be a
good even to go to as we see a lot of NSW and SA blokes and their fantastic models. We are
getting spoilt with Scale glider meetings, and the following will whet our appetites…
October – Lameroo; November – Horsham and Bendigo, March – Camperdown, April – Swan Hill,
May – Wagga. (Now that we have a State Flying field why can’t we arrange an interstate event out