The Early Days

North Coast Gliding & Soaring Club

 Miscellaneous photos and notes from Max Howland's log book ...  

  Originally the winch of the North Coast Gliding and Soaring Club flying at Mooloolaba. Geoff Raph arranged and supervised the construction through two motor mechanics in Brisbane. As none of us had any practical gliding experience it was built to the "theoretical figures" ... basically a suitable run-in speed at full power. It worked perfectly and continued in use when the club moved to Kingaroy and became the Kingaroy Soaring Club.

      The winch was used at Evans Head, Mooloolaba, Oakey, and Kingaroy (including for night flying).  

Some background based mainly on information provided by Ian Aspland ...

Prior to the introduction of the nomenclature "Sunshine Coast" in 1960, the district immediately above Brisbane (centered around the Maroochy Shire with headquarters at Nambour) was known as the "North Coast" or the "Near North Coast". Similarly, the "Gold Coast" had been known as the "South Coast" until around 1954.     

The North Coast Gliding & Soaring Club was formed around 1956 ... however there were some two years of fundraising before the first flights in 1958.

The original group that formed the club mostly lived around Nambour and meetings were held in Geoff Raph's Optometry Rooms in Howard Street, Nambour.  

Originally the flying operations were based at Mooloolaba, however the the group held weekend flying camps at Evans Head and Kingaroy. 

In 1962, upon returning from an 18 month gliding and working holiday in UK and Canada, Ian (who had spent the first 21 years of his life in Nambour) settled in Kingaroy as the club had moved opererations there permanently, he was a new Instructor, and he was still single.        

The Kooka (which had a silver dope finish) was painted red and white and the club was renamed as Kingaroy Soaring Club.  

 > Go to "North Coast Gliding & Soaring Club -1958"   

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