General News
25 May, 2023
Never too young or old to fly like a bird
There appears to be a significant interest in learning to fly in the region, following a huge response to a ‘Trial Introductory Flight’ weekend hosted by the Warracknabeal Aero Club over the last weekend. Students as young as 14 and 15 up to...
There appears to be a significant interest in learning to fly in the region, following a huge response to a ‘Trial Introductory Flight’ weekend hosted by the Warracknabeal Aero Club recently.
Students as young as 14 and 15 up to their 60’s took advantage of the opportunity to learn to fly or extend their flying skills.
The response from the region was such that the planned two day exercise ended up being held over four days, Friday through to Monday afternoon.
The Warracknabeal Aero Club hosted qualified and highly experienced Nicholas Christie, from Light Aircraft Academy as the instructor for the four days.
Mr Christie brought his Jabiru 160 to Warracknabeal for the exercise, which was kept extremely busy, despite the less than ideal weather with cross winds on Saturday and Sunday, while Friday and Monday were far better.
Students came to learn to fly from across the region, ranging from Hopetoun and Beulah through to Horsham and of course Warracknabeal.
Warracknabeal Aero Club president David Ward said, “It was pleasing to see the amazing response to the planned weekend with 18 potential pilots signing up to do the Trial Introductory flights. There were all ages and skill levels keen to take to the air, some with prior experience while most had no experience at all, but loved the opportunity to get into the air,” he said. A number who had booked for the previous training were tied up with cropping and will do a TIF at a later date, but Mr Ward said the response to the offer of providing trial introductory flights by the club and the Light Aircraft Academy had exceeded all expectations and showed a strong future for the Aero Club with all ages interested.”
The event was also quite a social affair with over 30 people meeting with the instructor on Friday night for an informal get together and some fellowship, while club members provided a barbecue lunch for guests each flying day.
“Unfortunately the original date for the TIF weekend in early April had to be postponed due to the instructor being ill, with that original date enjoying perfect flying weather. The weather over the weekend wasn’t so kind, with strong cross winds, but that’s flying, you can’t have the weather on order,” Mr Ward said. Mr Christie with the Flying Academy hopes to provide his training at Warracknabeal on an ongoing basis if all goes to plan, as he has had a positive response from the weekend with a good number of students wishing to take up training to gain their pilot's licence.