History of the Narrogin Gliding Club
In 1964, an advertisement was placed in the Narrogin Observer and a meeting was held with 12 people in attendance. Its purpose was to investigate the possibility of forming a Gliding Club to operate on the old wartime emergency airstrip approx 10 kilometres east of the town on Clayton Road.
Enthusiasm ran high and fundraising began. This included a "Swipe" Agency, cutting and selling strainer and fence posts. Soon a hangar was erected and a Kookaburra trainer (VH-GLA) was purchased from W.A.G.A. Among the first instructors were Ray Baird, George Ozdolay and Basil Cazelet. These instructors came from the Gliding Club of Western Australia to get the new club off the ground.
Mayor of Narrogin, Doctor Zilko, accompanied by Mrs. Zilko, officially opened the club on December 12th 1964. Doctor Zilko had been a wartime pilot and was keen to try his hand at gliding.
As club membership grew, another glider was needed. In 1966 a "Grunau Baby" (VH-GLC) was purchased from W.A.G.A. The Kookaburra (VH-GLA) was sold to RAAF Pearce where a new club was forming. The Narrogin Gliding Club bought another Kookaburra (VH-GPO) from the South West Gliding Club. The Grunau was pranged, rebuilt, pranged and sold. Its whereabouts now is unknown. The Kookaburra (VH-GPO) was written off in a rather tragic accident.
During the Summer of 1967/68, Alan Errey, Graeme Humphreys and Rod Titko, drove the club's Ford Mainline ute (which was used for launching gliders in those days), over to N.S.W. to pick up (VH-GDO), a Skylark 2. This proved to be a very popular aircraft with solo pilots as it was very docile and easy to fly. Unfortunately it was written off. Some of the parts are still in the clubrooms.
Membership continued to grow and many working bees were organised to demolish old buildings and reassemble them in the form of a clubhouse. The clubhouse today is a direct result of those labours. It was completed around 1967.
Money was not easy to come by and there were many bills to be paid. Allan Hockridge, who was treasurer at that time, tells a story of throwing all the bills in the air. The ones that stuck to the ceiling were the ones that got paid.
Things were not much better on the glider front either. After the Kookaburra was written off and it was decided to buy a brand new all metal two-seater, which was going to be the answer to everything. A Slingsby T53 (VH-GUB) was bought in the summer of 1968/69. This aircraft had bad trim characteristics in the first place and when these were finally corrected, rivets started to work loose. Several repairs were made and when the finances could stand the strain no longer, it was sold back to Harry Schneider. Ironically, when it was repaired it was a very good glider and is believed to be still flying in Queensland.
On the single seater front, Graeme Humphries brought back a "Boomerang" from the east and a further decision was made to buy a Blanik (VH-GXQ), the up-and-coming trainer of the time. The boomerang (VH-GPM) was sold to a Beverley Syndicate, which was subsequently written off when it spun during a circuit after a 500k Flight.
The single seater after the Boomerang, was a KA6 purchased by the club from Peter Kayne. A visiting pilot damaged it during the Sate Comps. It was then sold to a Beverley member, who rebuilt it, but it got pranged again. The club moved to into Fibre Glass aircraft by buying a standard Cirrus (VH-GZU) from David Norman. It was pranged and sold to the Beverley Soaring Society. Some BSS members now own it privately. Then came a Club Libelle (VH-GMI), a Pilatus (VH-GJV) and an Astir 77 (VH-IKQ).
Our patron, Hal Sutton, purchased a PIK 20E (VH-GUX) in 1983. The club Pilatus (VH-GJV) was sold and Hal's Pilatus (VH-GID) was purchased. In 1983 the club also acquired an Open Jantar (VH-IUG).
The clubhouse in was extended in several directions under the guiding hand of Bob Rigby. Membership is relatively static at around 80-90. Some feel that this is about as many members as the facilities will cope with. There are private hangars for 11-12 gliders and the club has recently had power hangars added for former glider pilots.
Foundation President was Cliff Wallis, who was made life member. Other life members are Max Blight, Allan Hockridge, Peter Kayne, Denis Gorton and recently John Kenny.
A car utility was used for launching in the early days. A monster called "Glidehound", with a couple of Chevrolet motors. Later the club used aero tow. The Narrogin Flying Club carried out aero towing at first, then the Auster "Yellowbird" was obtained. She was followed by another Auster, which was later sold to a Stirlings Gliding Club member. This sale was to make the way clear for the purchase of VH-TUG, a Piper Pawnee 235 with a 265 h.p. Engine. A 150 h.p. Piper Pawnee (VH-BTY) was purchased temporarily, but it was generally considered to not powerful enough and was sold.
In the last decade or so, the club extended its rainwater catchment areas and increased water tank capacity. A new ablution block has been added providing basins, showers and toilets for three males and one for female/disabled. An extension was added to the workshop to provide a briefing room.
The club now has sound facilities and a good training fleet. We must thank the club members of bygone years, for the determination and sweat on which the basis of the club is built. But, we must not be complacent. Facilities and infrastructure deteriorate and must be maintained. More facilities are required to satisfy the higher standards now demanded by members and visitors. Income is available from visitors, who are prepared to pay premium prices for the unique experience of a flight in a glider.
(Prepared by Brian Voce mainly from information provided by NGC Life Member Dennis Gorton.)
Narrogin airfield is not connected to the town water supply and relies on rainwater catchment for all water needs. Very early on in the history of the club this caused major problems for providing water ballast for the gliders, particularly during competitions. As gliders developed and took more and more ballast, the problem got bigger. There was simply not enough water for drinking and ballast.
Fortunately, the airfield had a small bore on the South side of runway 10/28. It wasn't very deep and the permeability of the ground was pretty poor so it wasn't capable of delivering much water, but Ken Hodginson, who had more imagination and obviously more free time than was good for him decided that as long as he could develop a pump that could pump continuously at the very low rate of water inflow so the bore wasn't pumped dry as soon as you turned it on, he could probably collect enough water over a week to supply the ballast water for the following weekend.
So began the great bore pump project.