Tocumwal Soaring Centre

31/08/2026

We finished off the last day of winter with some magical flying.

The fog was thick in the morning. However, by 10am it opened up to a beautiful sky and glorious conditions.

The colours on earths carpet are wonderful this time of year with the Conola in full bloom and the wheat crops looking very healthy…. Go the “green and gold” 🌞

Big congratulations to Peter who went solo today. Peter flies 787’s as a day job, but has decided to try some real flying 🤣🤣. Pete made it look easy….. well done 👏🏼👏🏼

Tom tried out gliding for the first time and loved it, something he’d wanted to do for years, tick that box ✅

One of members Michael has purchased his first glider, a lovely Mini Nimbus 😁. That’s three of these in our club now, A,B and C models ….. going to be some good racing this summer !

Gliding spares. gliderstuff.com.au

Buy / sell aeromarket.com.au

30/08/2026

Congratulations to Michael and Erin on the birth of their beautiful baby girl, Birdie June Mehennitt 😍

The Mehennitt and Russell family has a long and proud association with gliding here in Tocumwal. Poppy Peter (who I’m sure most people know) has been in the Sportavia hangar from the early 1970’s.

Erin spent a great deal of her childhood in and around the big hangar and went solo herself a few years back, following the family tradition.

It’s a wonderful thing to be part of four generations of family flying and we have already got the booster seat ready for Birdie 🩷

14/08/2026

We offer our heartfelt congratulations to the Australian Junior team on their outstanding results at the JWGC( Junior World Gliding Championships)

Max and Amber have done us proud, both representing Australia for the first time, in borrowed gliders and first time flying in Europe !

Max flying an ASW20 and Amber in a LS3 flew very well together with their team flying and mutual support of each other.

Max celebrated his 18th birthday during the competition 😁, now that’s a unique birthday present.

Junior gliding in Australia is looking strong and will continue to build with the junior world championships in Australia in 2028.

Well done team 🎉🎉

11/08/2026

It’s cool here in Tocumwal but we are still flying and achieving goals.

Ian our CFI has quite a bit of experience touring motor gliders and recently added electric RES to that list.

Leigh has purchased an near new electric Ta**us and Ian was able to complete his conversion, well done Leigh 👏🏼👏🏼

Along with pilots wanting to keep their currency during the winter period, we are keeping busy.

Lumpy also spent some time in Kingaroy QLD , a great place during winter in Australia, managing a few flights over 700 kms 😁

On the way home, he was able to catch up with B1 and B2 (Bruce Taylor and Brad Edwards) for a bite to eat, always nice to catch up with mates.

We are looking forward to summer and it’s going to be a big one 😎

Gliderstuff.com.au for your glider spares

Aeromarket.com.au gliders for sale

29/07/2026

🎈For Sale

Schempp-Hirth Quintus M
“Experimental” C of A
YOM 2012
S no 03
1700 hrs approx as still flying
417 flights
Engine time 55 hrs

The awesome self launching glider is ready for a new home as new 18m glider is on the way 😁
Fresh Form 2 just completed, this 23mtr open class glider is the ultimate in performance and handling.
Finished in PU, LX9000 Gen 2, S10 with HAWK plus all the other standard instruments.
Komet glass top trailer.
One man rigger
Soaring XX wing walker
Tow out gear
$315k Au
Can assist with shipping out of Australia
Further info contact us at [email protected]

24/07/2026

Australia in Winter 🤩

The smile says it all, many new site record flown at Kingaroy Soaring Club, 577km in July (middle of Winter)! This newsletter produced through my new site records app 😊

What a week of flying at Kingaroy! Winter soared past expectations as our pilots pushed hard, smashed site records, and put some serious distance on the board. Here is the lowdown on the latest action from July 18th and 23rd.

🏆 The July 23 Record Drama: A 30-Minute Crown! July 23rd turned into an absolute thriller in the skies.

John Buchanan set the pace early in his AS 33 Es (18m), landing with a massive 547.8 km flight (524 pts, 98.3 km/h over 5h 34m). His performance broke the long-standing All-Time July Distance Record—a title Allan Barnes had held since 2011 (529.6 km).

John had about 30 minutes to savour his reign at the top before Lumpy Paterson touched down in his JS3 TJ (18m).

Lumpy snatched the crown with a monstrous 577.0 km run (548 pts, 98.8 km/h over 5h 51m)! He locked in the New All-Time July Overall Distance & Duration Record, alongside the 18-Metre title.

🌟 More July 23 Highlights

Philip Ritchie (Quintus): Pushed past a huge milestone with his first 300 km flight submitted at Kingaroy—and then some! Philip logged 447.7 km at a blistering speed of 103.2 km/h (4h 20m), setting a New All-Time July Open Distance Record (surpassing Andrew Georgeson 2023 mark of 382.0 km).

O'Donnell (ASW 22): Bagged a New All-Time July Personal Best, cracking the 300 km mark with 303.0 km in 4h 06m.

🏅 July 18 Spotlight: Jim Crowhurst Breaks Club Class Record

Rewinding to July 18th, Jim Crowhurst turned in a standout performance in his ASW 20.

Jim flew 233.7 km (237 pts, 81.2 km/h over 2h 53m) to claim a New All-Time July Club Class Distance Record! He took down Todd Edwards previous July 2019 record of 226.0 km. A fantastic effort in Club Class!

✈️ Tailwinds & Reminders: Get Out There & Upload!

The mid-winter conditions prove that Kingaroy is firing on all cylinders. There is no better time to get your glider out of the hangar, prep your flight gear, and take advantage of these cracking winter days.

A few friendly reminders for everyone:

Safety First: Records are great, but safe decisions, good lookout discipline, and solid circuit planning keep us flying next weekend. Look out for each other on the airfield and in the thermals.

Upload EVERY Flight to WeGlide: Whether it's a 500 km epic record run, a 50 km local task, or a 20-minute local hop—upload it! Posting every trace to WeGlide puts Kingaroy Soaring Club on the global map and serves as free advertising for our club. Let’s show the world what Kingaroy can do!

Clear skies, land safe, and see you at the airfield!
Adam Woolley

01/07/2026

Europe tour 2026

I was really impressed with the gliding history which is available in Europe and in particular Germany.
We in Australia have very little opportunity to see this and most certainly not with the variety and volume which is on display here.

One such example is the Deutsches Segelflugmuseum in Wasserkuppe.

There are a few names which are legendary within our sport. There are those who have had the pleasure of meeting some of these and some, we will only read and hear about sadly.

One such pilot is Hans Werner Grosse who is well known for his long distance flights around the world. Many of these were done 50 years ago before the modern technology we have the pleasure of today.
Hans was an early pioneer of soaring in the remote and hostile central parts of Australia back in the 1970’s with his ASW17’s.

It was very nice to see this building and history inside dedicated to Hans Werner and his achievements. It’s fitting that building isn’t far away from the Alexander Schleicher GmbH factory as he had a very close association with these gliders.

As I’ve seen throughout my tour of Europe, the standard of these older gliders is just extraordinary and in particular the wood and fabric examples. It’s wonderful that these can be kept and displayed for all to see and appreciate, many of these I’ve only ever seen in books.

I’d certainly recommend a visit if you have the opportunity and congratulate the team on an amazing exhibition 👏🏼👏🏼



Tocumwalsoaring.com

28/06/2026

Europe tour 2026

I’ve now arrived back in Australia after two months travelling in Europe 😢 and sadly I’ve left that lovely spring into summer weather for the very cool winter in southern Australia.

I’ll continue to write a few more posts covering some of the incredible journey. I was very fortunate to have been able to visit all the major glider manufacturers which was a bucket list ✅ for me.

Most people know me as a Jonkers pilot, however I own many other brand gliders in our fleet here at Tocumwal Soaring Centre.
This consists of mostly Schempp-Hirth and LS gliders which are both very popular glider types, so I was keen to see the history behind both of these manufacturers and continue to build relationships with the teams who support these gliders. This is very important to ensure we can maintain the high standard and quality of our fleet.

It was great to get to Hahnweide and see the Castle on the hill, I did want to fly a glider around it however, the WX didn’t allow this to happen on this trip…. (I must come back 😉)

Tilo arranged a tour through the Schempp factory for me (he was racing at the GP) which was great, a lot of history inside those walls that’s for sure. I reckon the drivers need a medal for getting those trailers in and out of there ….😂 every bit of space in the area is used, the only place to expand is up ! This a very busy factory. It was nice to see a brand new glider getting ready for Australian skies 🤩

It was then off to the DG factory for more glider building knowledge. This factory was a bonus visit as it had many brands under one roof. Firstly their own DG range consisting mostly of DG1000’s being built and in many stages along with an interesting one off concept build. It’s encouraging to see manufacturers still spending $$ on R&D, as it’s us pilots who really get the benefits of this research 👏🏼👏🏼
DG are also the TC holders for the LS products, and there’s lots happening in this space to with Jet engines and Neo winglets being certified on many LS models.
JS has also teamed up with DG, so it was no surprise to see a large number of Jonkers JS2 and JS5’s getting ready for deliveries.

I would get into trouble with a few of my good mates back home if I didn’t pop into the ASW factory 😛 sadly it was closed when I was there so I didn’t get to see the inner workings, maybe that one will also be on the next trip.

Things are going full steam here in Tocumwal getting gliders ready for the summer season. Annual inspections are at the top of the list and this is a big job with around twenty gliders to be completed.

We have just had the shortest day of the year so we are building up to summer now 👏🏼👏🏼



Gliderstuff.com.au
tocumwalsoaring.com

20/06/2026

European tour 2026

There would be very few pilots who have not heard of a Libelle !!

There was around 883 of these made during their production run, this was made up of
• 601 H201 Standard Libelle’s
• 111 H 301 Open Libelle’s
• 171 H205 Club Libelle’s

Glasflügel certainly made some pretty gliders and were very innovative with some of their designs which carry on still to this day.
Including the auto control hook ups and the tailplane - elevator connection to the tail fin.

The Hornet and Mosquito were some of the first to use these great features with around 200 Mosquito’s and 102 Hornets produced.
It was also a privilege to see the prototype of the Hornet SN01 on the showroom floor, and see the changes made for the production versions.

These are all still popular gliders today and still racing in Club Class competitions around the world.

Also the timeless Kestrel’s in both 17 and 19 mtr wing spans early in the open class days looked lovely and very graceful in the sky.

I’ve had the pleasure of flying a H201B, H205 owned a H206 and I still own a 19m Kestrel in our fleet, I can appreciate the fondness.

It’s clear that these gliders have a special place in the hearts of pilots as many are owned by very loyal Glasflügel owners who have a sentimental attachment, maybe their first single seat glider, Dad had one or just love the pretty lines and feeling of flying these unique sailplanes 😁

As part of my journey in Europe I was invited by Christian Streifeneder to call in for a visit and check out the museum and find out more about the history of Glasflügel.

Christian and his team are doing a wonderful job keeping these beautiful gliders flying and airworthy assisting owners with bits and pieces as required, along with providing some performance enhancing with certified winglets and seal kits to ensure you keep getting the best from your favourite ride 🤩

Thanks for sharing your time and passion with these gliders Christian, keep up the great work 👏🏼👏🏼



https://www.gliderstuff.com.au/

16/06/2026

European tour 2026

A massive thank you to Keith Gateley and Uli Schwenk for the opportunity to fly in the ETA whilst I was in Germany.

Uli picked the best day weather wise which allowed us to go right into the Alp’s flying in four countries during the flight.

This was an amazing experience for a pilot who is used to only Australian flat land flying 🫪
The mountains still covered in snow and being able to get right up close to some rather large glaciers was truly exceptional.

We spent most of the day between 8 and 11k running along the slopes and mixing it with some other pilots. The pictures don’t really capture the scenery as you see it.

We left the mountains still needing another 2k to make it back home, heading into a gloomy overcast sky. I was keen to see this 70 to 1 in action…… just when I thought we may need the engine, Uli finds 0.7 of a knot and climbs to final glide and we land just as the rain started ! I don’t think we could of got any more from the day 🤩

I’m sure pilots in Europe are very familiar with this kind of flying, however if there are any Aussie pilots looking for a bucket list flight, I could absolutely recommend this ✅

The ETA and its 30.9 mtr wing span on its own is a sight to behold, teamed up with Uli and his local knowledge and skills…… makes for a great day out !