VH-WGC is our club's Piper Pawnee that operates as a tow aircraft. Recently, a maintenance directive has affected this design of Pawnees world wide and grounded those that have minor defects in the wing's main spar. This maintenance directive by the Type Certificate holder, which is now an Argentinian company, is mainly directed at aircraft used as agricultural crop dusters but which also affects aircraft solely used as glider tow aircraft. Even though towing loads are much lighter, meaning that the defects do not make the aircraft unsafe to fly, we are forced to replace the spars in our wings in order to comply with the directive in order to make the wings legal. We need to raise funds to get our tug back into the air.

We are asking for donations from benefactors and members to fund the cost of spar replacement. We ask members in particular to ask themselves what flying is worth to them and to consider making a substantial donation to help the repair. We have for many years had the benefit of members running events at the club which has helped subsidise your flying charges. But this only covered ordinary running and routine maintenance costs. Now that we have this extraordinary event which is outside of the norm, we are asking people to step up and help the club get WGC back into the air.

The Pawnee is an ideal aircraft for glider launching. It will operate on hot days, has safe operating power, is a low wing design with good visibility for the tow pilot and is easy to fly and maintain. And once back in the air, it will provide years of reliable service for the Club. It will allow you to go flying again. We believe this to be a valuable project for the club that, in addition to the funds raised by this appeal to cover cost of materials and professional aircraft engineers, will be supported by many hours of volunteer hours.

By using the Australian Sports Foundation as the fundraising platform, every donation over $2 will be tax deductible. Please help us get WGC back into the air.