Facilities
Clubhouse
The clubhouse was designed and constructed by club members in late 2022. It houses the main briefing area, specialised aviation training room, large commercial kitchen and dining area for more than 50 people. The north-facing side features a sheltered verandah area for enjoying summer evenings outside. Disabled parking and wheelchair access are located on this side. WIFI is available in the clubhouse and surrounding facilities.
Just west of the clubhouse is the BBQ area and the original clubhouse, which is now used as a social area (with a pool table) with three bunk rooms for accommodation. Two toilet blocks provide four toilet/shower units, with one for disabled toilet access.
Hangars
There are three main club-owned hangars on site, one for the twins, one for the single-seat aircraft and one for the two tug planes. Also, along the runways are many privately owned hangers that house the member’s personal gliders. Sharing the site is a hangar used by the Beverley Flying Club for its Cessna 150.
Mobile Control Center
The “Eagle’s Nest” is the launch point operations center on most days. This solar-panel powered control center provides a space for the duty pilot to oversee all operations, record flight times, complete visitor paperwork, and monitor cross country flights on the VHF radio.
Workshops
In May 2022, club members teamed up over two weeks to build a new larger maintenance workshop to support the club’s growing membership. This new workshop also includes a separate bench-work area, parts store, and admin office. Members, who are trained and qualified as Airworthiness Inspectors, use the workshops to carry out maintenance and annual inspections on both club and private gliders. The new workshop can comfortably accommodate up to three gliders (with wings and tailplanes disassembled) while the older one can fit just one at a time.
Launch Point Shelters
These have been constructed by the members at the two main launch points on runways 16 and 34. The Shelters provide seating, shade, and water access points for people waiting to fly or just watching the operations.
For the curious: the runway numbers are the orientation of the takeoff and landing direction in compass bearings divided by 10. Runway 16 is 160 degrees clockwise from North and thus faces almost due south.
Local Birdlife
The bushland surrounding the west side of the airstrip is home to a wide variety of native birds and plants. However, a multi-generational family of Stone Bush-Curlews has resided around the clubhouse for many years. These birds, while not the smartest members of our flying fraternity, are regular visitors keeping the place clear of ground-based small insects. Their coloration is designed to help them blend into the natural bush floor and, as a result, they think that if they just stand still you can’t see them!