I started flying in the UK in 1980 at Husbands Bosworth. In 1987 I came to Australia and joined Beverly Soaring. However after a few years I leant about how critical your launch and landing site is in Western Australia. It is surprising how if you travel a little further North and East how much better the conditions become for Soaring. In addition how important it is to be at a site that is not effected buy the afternoon sea breeze, and further more how if your club is located where the low pressure trough develops, how much better the soaring conditions will be.

As my interest was to achieve long distance flights I moved to Cunderdin the home of the Gliding Club of WA, and together with other pilots flying from Cunderdin have since totalled
14,   750 kilometre flights
 12,   800 kilometre flights
  5,   900 kilometre flights
  3,  1000kilometre flight

Why fly at Cunderdin.  

Once you have made the decision that you wish to take up Gliding as your sport, the decision as to which club to join can be difficult to the uninitiated. What may initially appear to be a decision clincher could well be quite irrelevant once you have learnt to soar and wish to spend many years cross country flying. At the Gliding Club of Western Australia Cunderdin we believe we have the perfect mix to make gliding attractive for the beginner to the top competition pilot.

 We have been established since 1944 and are based on perhaps the safest gliding airport in the country, we have two very long tarmac strips allowing flying with all wind directions, this also reduces damage to gliders caused by dirt strips. We are not obstructed by bush that can cause some unpredictable wind turbulence at lower level, in addition we have plenty of large paddocks surrounding the airstrip should we have an unlikely cable break. Or should you be flying cross country and not be able to get home there are plenty of big flat paddocks in the area that can make good landing areas.

 It is surprising how a small distance can make a significant difference with the weather. Cunderdin rarely gets effected by the sea breeze that cuts off thermal activity, thus allowing us to soar locally later than other clubs in addition to us being able to fly longer distances. At the Gliding Club of Western Australia 5 pilots have achieved.

16 flights of 750 kilometres and a considerable number of flights over, with one 1000 k flight. Virtually all single seater WA records have been flown from Cunderdin. These achievements attract the best pilots in the state who can in turn pass their knowledge to you.

With regard our club gliding fleet we have 2 two seater aircraft that are perfect for training new pilots, they are basic gliders that handle very sweetly but have the ability to do spin training and having flaps and retractable undercarriage allow us to train our students in these aspects of flying in preparation to move to more advanced single seater aircraft. It is generally the case that once pilots go solo they would prefer to fly single seater gliders, therefore we have four single seater, so it would be rare that a pilot could not take a single seater cross country on arriving at the club. It is our policy to keep it that way. Should a pilot wish to fly a high performance two seater we can access the most advanced two seater motor glider with 25m wing span, the Stemme 10 that you can fly with one of our coaches.

 So come and join the friendly gliding family at Cunderdin. Look at our web site www.glidingwa.com.au or ring 0409 683 159 And speak to us.

We look forward to seeing you at Cunderdin.

For more information on the Gliding Club of WA go to there web site www.glidingwa.com.au