The present Gloucester Aero Club was the idea of my late husband, Gordon Maslen, after he'd travelled the long winding gravel road to Taree for flying lessons.
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For three weekends, Gordon made the journey with his mates, Geoff Emery, Kevin Adams and Terry Green and each time it was too windy for the students to fly.
The then 29-year-old, asked his father about building an airstrip on the family farm located just off Jacks Road on the edge of town.
He then set about blasting down some of the trees on the northern end of the chosen paddock and levelled the site.
When the airstrip had been okayed by the proper authorities, we put a caravan on the site and gave the examiners a cup of tea.
That was in 1964.
The Manning River Aero Club began training in a Cessna 150 VHMRA, a two-seater aircraft and operated each Sunday.
Harvey Else, Ray Burns and Rob Moore were the instructors and taught lots of Gloucester people how to fly.
In 1965, the ladies auxiliary was formed. Ella Emery was president, Dell Middlebrook was secretary and Dulcie Adams was treasurer.
In the men's club, John Moore was president, Peter Middlebrook was secretary and Geoff Emery was treasurer.
Both committees were very active and raised funds to build a clubhouse consisting of a 12 foot room with a small verandah.
The club was opened by the Gloucester Shire president, Ross Shaw and lots of small airplanes visited.
The men's club had a 200 club to raise funds to buy the first aircraft.
The club built a small hanger to protect the aircraft and extended the clubhouse to include a wood fire and wood floor with a runway built by Max Carson.
After 12 months, the club sold its aircraft and purchased a Cessna from a club in Canberra.The craft had only flown for 900 hours.This is still the Gloucester club plane today.
In 1973, when the Whitlam government was giving money for the Red Scheme, the club received $16,100 to extent the hanger, concrete the floor, landscape and do some fencing.
It was officially opened by Air Commodore FW Barnes on March 20, 1976. Gene Birmingham was in the army at Williamtown air force base and he began skydiving at our club. Many locals had lessons and lots of spectators visited.
In 1977, 1978 and 1979, the National Skydiving Championships was held at our club.
Our ladies arranged a roster and fed the visitors and competitors breakfast, lunch and dinner. What a mammoth task and the club benefitted each year.
The skydivers gave our club gifts over the years starting with six septic toilets followed by flyscreens for the clubhouse.
The event rotated between individual and teams championships, and ran from Boxing Day until January 13th. For skydiving at night, we held flares around the dams. It was part of their training.
Each Sunday, the pilots and their families met at the clubhouse and there was always work to do and the ladies provided a barbecue and dessert. That was a good talk time.
The ladies auxiliary raised funds with street stalls, dances, parties, balls and Hoi.
I remember our first street stall when Lucy Germon arrived with eight dozen patty cakes and Dulcie Adams was a classic with her beautiful sponge cakes.
I remember painting the floorboards when the big clubhouse was being built.
Later in the clubhouse we had table tennis and that was great to play double in a tournament.
With the high price of student flying, locals go to Taree or Port Macquarie for lessons these days.
But the club is still active and meets every third Sunday of the month.
The current president is Chris Maslen with Derek Bardwell as treasurer and Bob Francis as secretary.
On Sunday, February 21, Gloucester Aero Club is due to celebrate its 500th meeting and will hold a gathering for all former, present and future members.
Did you know? The actual very first aero club in Gloucester started in 1937 when the Newcastle club brought a Tiger Moth for training and landed on Adams Flat.
