Following the committee meeting on 20/8/10 and discussions with the builder and engineers, we have resolved the issues put to us from Council. A revised set of drawings was received and handed to Council on Tuesday 31/9/10. Until we hear more, the ball is in their court.

To view the progress of the Application go to http://portal.singleton.nsw.gov.au/eplanning/Common/Common/Terms.aspx

Remember the Application was lodged in July. Go to This Quarter and search through the applications received in July.

This year’s club dinner was a complete success, mostly due to Mark organising it and re-organising after the date had to be changed.

The photos are published in the photo gallery here: Club Dinner 2010

Last Week we had a letter form Council asking for clarification of 3 simple questions. On Wednesday this week, Brian and I meet with Council to understand more clearly what it was they wanted to know exaclty. This was a productive meeting and we should have a responce to Council early next week. They indicated that the approvals wouldn’t take long, however they have a large number of approvals to process and it may take some weeks before they can process our application.

This July I was in munich for a university short exchange program, and made sure I got the chance to go gliding the alps. To make this quick, I flew from an airfield called Kӧnigsdorf segalflugzentrum near a town called Kӧnigsdorf about 30 min drive south of munich (on the autobahn). The airfield is called “segalflugzentrum” - ‘gliding centre’ becasue there are (from memory) six clubs on the one airfield, with over 300 active pilots.
Kӧnigsdorf is about 10 Km north of the first ‘Alp’ and there are another two gliding fields between it and the alps…. I was needless to say impressed without having even left the ground.

Ok so flying! I flew with Segelflieger Club München e.V. , with a local club member in their DG-1000.

It had been really hot for about a week and a half prior to the day I flew, so the air mass was quite warm up high and it didnt look to flash early on for a good flight into the alps. As it turned out that was the case early in the day. Things were really calm when we launched at about lunch time, and we called that first ridge home (below) for a while trying three times to get off into the mountains proper. Third time lucky and things improved as we moved further into the alps and over the austrian boarder.

Looking towards Kӧnigsdorf and munich from the south side of the first ridge (above). This one I think was about 1200 feet… anyway without a running commentary to spam the Blog heres a couple of pictures, I can elaborate next time Im at the club! Pictures really don’t do the place any justice at all, you really just have to go there and see for yourself.

Im going back, ASAP and for longer…

Last week we received the final set of plans for the new clubhouse from the engineers and today we entered the approvals phase of the project with the formal submission of the Development Application and plans with Singleton Council. It’s expected to take about 4 weeks to gain council approval. After today you can follow the progress of the application via the link from the Singleotn Council’s web site: http://portal.singleton.nsw.gov.au/eplanning/Common/Common/Terms.aspx

Funding from the ANZ bank has been approved and is available once we start construction. Construction is expected to begin 3 weeks after approval.

June and July have been very busy at the club with lots of construction underway. And we haven’t even started the new clubhouse yet!
Dave’s hangar now has a full concrete floor…

Damian drove the bobcat.

Mick and Aa Li have been building “Aa Li’s Bar & Grill” as an annex to their caravan.


It has already been christened with a Hogwa party.

Along with the christening, there was also a batism, or more accuately, a Mictism. Cameron got some chilli in his eye and Mick helped him wash it out.

Dave’s caravan has a new roof…

Mark kept himself warm by the fire while dreaming about summer cross-country distances.

Then there was even some flying, with some absolutely beautiful weather on the first Saturday in July. It started out cold and blowing hard, with lenticulars forming to the east. During the middle of the day the wind died and the thermals went to more than 6000ft.

Ian, Mark and Paul have done a lot of work on XQY this weekend. Lawrie and Jordan helped too.


Paul has invested a lot of time, knowlege and specialised products in polishing the entire plane, including the fuselage as it currently sits upside down.

Having had several meetings, phone conversations and emails with Singleton Council, they have presented a few hurdles. The first was they wanted a Land Developer to control and sign off on the entire project. Since the clubhouse and the bunkhouse are not dwellings, they now consider a Land Developer is not required. The second is they are demanding we have a toilet facility for disabled. This came completely out of left field, so now the toilet block will have one half male, and the other half female / disabled. Order forms have been signed and forwarded to begin manufacturing the bunkhouse and the toilet blocks. The deposit has been paid for the clubhouse and the engineering drawings should be available in about 2-3 weeks. By that time we will be ready to lodge the application to Council.

We had a good turnout for the BBQ organised this weekend by Mark and Mick. Mark cooked some fantastic chicken and Paul’s prawns were absolutely delicious. I believe Mick was responsible for the salad and Aali provided something that had hot chillies and tasted very good. Once the translation service catches up, we’ll find out what it was called.
Scott contributed some bottles of his own wine and some good stories on how to make wine. Even the cheese and crackers was excellent but I arrived too late to get anything more than a taste of them.
Dave wants to know if this is your beer. Ian isn’t so sure.

Just a short video (1 minute) …