But Horsham Flying Club president Michael Sudholz said a need for fire-bombing aircraft to use the Horsham Aerodrome took precedence over coaching yesterday.
“We made the decision that there was going to be too much activity with the demand of the firefighters coming in,” he said.
“They were hoping to operate out of Nhill, but the smoke has stopped them operating out of there and they’re operating out of here now.
“We’ve cancelled the day to let them do what they need to do.”
Mr Sudholz said the club remained hopeful that coaching sessions could resume today or tomorrow if fire-bombing aircraft no longer required use of the Horsham airfield. “We’ll just take it day by day for the rest of the week with the coaching course that’s on,” he said.
But Mr Sudholz said he was confident the Horsham Week competition, due to begin on Saturday and run until February 8, would be uninterrupted.
He said club members believed the event, which is set to celebrate its 60th year in 2026, was the oldest continually running gliding competition in the world.
“There are other competitions that are older but they’ve had to stop because of wars or different things,” he said. “From what we can work out we’re the longest continually running gliding competition in the world.
“We didn’t stop during COVID. The pandemic hit just after we finished one competition and restrictions had eased by the time we started the next one, so we haven’t stopped.”
Mr Sudholz encouraged curious Wimmera residents to visit the club while competitors launched each day in order to learn more about gliding, in which pilots fly unpowered aircraft using rising air currents.
He said some of the best glider pilots in Australia would be in action.
“The last report I got was that we had 35 gliders booked in, so we could end up with a full field. The limit is 40 gliders, so we might get a full field this year,” he said.
“If people come to the terminal building there is good viewing here. They can watch the launching going on and there are certain spots they can view from.
“Launching is usually at about 1.30pm on a normal day. It takes about an hour to launch all the gliders, so if people look up and see them starting to launch, they’ve got a good hour to come out and have a look.”
The entire January 29, 2025 edition of The Weekly Advertiser is available online. READ IT HERE!
The entire January 29, 2025 edition of AgLife is available online. READ IT HERE!