The Eagles Soar at Narromine

However, Lady Luck was there to see that Klaus Breitkreutz and Ian Dolby met up with a real-life thermals ace named John Rowe.

From that point on, it was strictly up to the,m to make the idea for a Soaring Centre work.

So, on February 16, 1976, a commercial gliding school commenced operations at Narromine, near Dubbo in the mid-west of New South Wales.

Its facilities permitted more experienced pilots to further improve and refine their soaring and cross-country techni­ ques. All aircraft were available for hire seven days a week. The fleet at the time comprised two fibreglass single-seat high performance sailplanes – A Hornet and Club Libelle.

The operations were run initially by John Rowe and his wife Beryl. The other two partners were still in the process of leaving their previous jobs.

Bookings and enquiries grew in volume, and on March 5 Ian Dolby and his wife Sue arrived on the scene. Sue handled the office duties, Ian assisted John Rowe with instruction.

At this time, John Rowe’s father, Bob offered his assistance in piloting the hired tow plane. Between them they totalled over 60 years’ deep involvement with the Australian gliding movement. Father and son had represented Australia with distinction at numerous International Gliding Competi­tion. What the Soaring Centre lacked in equipment, it more than made up for in sheer expertise! The next major move was to purchase a Piper Pawnee 235. With all its crop-dusting plumbing ripped off, it was as light as a feather, and had an incredibly powerful engine – the perfect tow aircraft! A further two sailplanes also joined the fleet around the same time as the Pawnee – bath solo craft, ordered to cope with the dramatic increase in interest in the centre – a se­ cond Hornet and a Standard Libelle.

Within a few short weeks, the centre also purchased one of the local gliding club’s two twin-seater trainers.

Late in October 1976 the third partner arrived at Narromine. Klaus Breitkreutz with his wife Brigitte had returned from Germany after several months there.

Klaus had spent his time in Germany with a leading sailplane manufacturer, learning the techniques of fibreglass repair. His arrival at Narromine meant that the centre’s repair and maintenance facility was established to meet the needs of the Australian soaring community.

The Narromine sun got hotter, and the brown earth padlocks threw up some incredible thermals. The word spread, and business took care of itself. Nick Hunt, a Sydney instruc­ tor, joined the team to help cope with the ever-growing public enthusiasm.

Narromine Soaring Centre’s aims were to provide basic training with natural advancement from the early solo in training gliders, through to advanced cross country soaring in high performance fibreglass solo craft. This concept has remained basic to the present day. The basic training program was by now well organised, and the need for far more advanced training became evident. This could not be handled using existing facilities, and the decision was made to purchase the Rolls Royce of sailplanes – the Schempp-Hirth Janus. The Janus is a magnificent bird. An all-fibreglass in-line two-seater with an 18-metre wingspan, offering extraordinary levels of two-seater performance at an incredibly affordable price.

The Janus purchase enabled the centre to provide cross­ country training in a genuinely high-performance aircraft which related closely to all single-seater sailplanes in the Narromine fleet.

To overcome the bottleneck of low-time solo pilots, an all-metal Roumanian-built single-seater IS29D2 was added to the ever-increasing fleet, at the opposite end of the scale to a mighty 21 metre Nimbus (owned by a local pilot, and available to the centre).

The IS292 was remarkably docile the perfect solo trainer.

Another instructor, Mick Doyle of Dubbo joined the team, bringing in many years experience in basic training. A second Pawnee 235 was acquired, and two single-seat Astirs expanded the solo fleet.

The only gap seemed to be at the top end, between the two Hornets and the Nimbus. Towards the end of 1977, this gap was filled with a superb Schempp-Hirth Mini Nimbus, again an all-fibreglass single-seater. The Narromine Soaring Centre fleet now lines up as follows:

• 3Blaniks for ab initio instruction
• anS.28 two-seater for basic instruction and early solo conversions
• anS.29 as first solo sailplanes
• 2Astir-CS as first fibreglass high performance single­ seaters
• A Club Libelle being an easy introduction to the high per­formance Hornets
• 2Hornet high performance competition gliders
• a Mini Nimbus high performance sailplane competitive in “racing” class
• Janus all fibreglass high performance two-seater
• aNimbus, the modern super-sailplane

The appeal of this well-balanced, widely-varied fleet is the reason for the continuing response from Australian pilots and for the increasing number of overseas visitors coming to Australia for the express purpose of soaring at Narromine! And so for John Doe, Ian Dolby and Klaus Breitkreutz, the dream has been realised.

Their ambition to soar full-time has become a reality· Narromine Soaring Centre is widely respected within the soaring movement as one of the most impressive gliding training facilities established in Australia.

The honour of hosting the recent Australian National Championships was theirs, proving that when you glide at Narromine, the sky’s the limit!