Maryborough Gliding Club, now defunct, donated the ‘Come and Get It’ trophy to encourage cross country flying between the network of clubs surrounding Maryborough in the early 1980s.
By Denis Nolan
The first recorded claim engraved on the trophy is dated 3 April 1982, by Ted Plum and Bill Hatfield from the Bundaberg club. The most recent retrieve of the trophy was 19 February 2000 by Nigel Andrews and Ivan Teese flying an ASK7 out of Boonah to Warwick and back.
The trophy has once again gone flying. It now sits on the trophy shelf at the Warwick Gliding Club, but for how long? It had taken residence in the Boonah Gliding Club trophy cabinet gathering dust for the last 24 years. It was never meant for such a fate, and something needed to be done about it.
The Perfect Opportunity
The rules were fairly simple. Two pilots in a two-seat glider needed to take off from their home club, fly to the club wherever the trophy was held at the time, land, accept the trophy, jump back in the glider with the trophy in hand then launch and return home.
Judging from the origins and era of the trophy, we could pre-suppose that all flights were in gliders now considered vintage. In keeping with these origins, it seemed only fair to resurrect the glory of the flights in a vintage glider.
Saturday 26 October 2024, the forecast was for 8 – 9,000ft thermals west of the range near Warwick and 6,000ft east of the range near Boonah. The icing on the cake was that Amberley air space was inactive. It was the ideal opportunity to try to claim the ‘Come and Get It’ trophy.
Earlier in the week, I had asked Andres Miramontes if he would like to join me in a trophy retrieve flight and he did not hesitate to join in.
Flying in Style
We announced at the Warwick morning briefing that we would be attempting the flight. Many offers of help and assistance followed, and we were soon on the strip ready for launch.
We had to do this flight in style, not in a modern shiny plastic glider. That would be too easy and take away from the origins of the trophy. Instead, we chose a true vintage fabric and wood glider, the ASK 13.
We had an easy flight out toward the range from Warwick but, on approaching the range, conditions started to look a bit ominous for making the jump over to Boonah. So, keeping in mind the performance of a K13, we stayed back just west of the range waiting for the lift to get a bit higher. After waiting half an hour, we decided to poke our nose once again over the range and this time it looked magnificent. We made a straight line for Boonah, stopping only once to seize the opportunity for a top-up.
ASK13 GXT
ASK13 GXT, now restored and looking beautiful, was the perfect choice to attempt the retrieval and revival of the ‘Come and Get It’. This glider was a Covid restoration project for Brian Gilby, Dan Papacek, Steve Griffin and me. It is now flying most weekends at Warwick.
It has a glide ratio of 27:1 at 42 kt, not fast and not flat but a pleasure to venture out in. Our take off from Boonah for the return journey was launch number 25,550 for GXT.
Warm Welcome
We made an inbound radio call to Boonah and very soon after that we were on the ground to a wonderfully warm welcome from all the locals. They had already hunted through the trophy case to find the trophy, presented it to us and we were quickly lined up for tow. The sea breeze was due in about 14:00 so we needed to get away well before that.
Tim Burgess towed us toward Moogerah dam and into a beautiful thermal that took us all the way to 6,000ft. From the dam to the range, there are no nice landing areas and again for about 20km on the other side of the range. This may not appear too much of a challenge to many, but in our K13 with a glide ratio of 27:1 at 42kt, it is good to have some reserve. So we climbed in one more thermal east of the range and then hopped back over, all smiles and feeling quite happy about the situation.
The return journey was looking ever so easy. We climbed to 8,000ft over Maryvale, which made us 2,000ft over glide 30km away from Warwick aerodrome. All we had left to do was sit back, relax and enjoy the ride. Oops, not that easy. We were rapidly losing height and needed one more thermal to get back. This is when the limitations of a K13 manifest themselves. That one last thermal was too far away.
Spooking the Goats
We never actually found it, but selected a field 8km short of the strip. We met the lady farmer. She came out to see if we were OK and laughed about how we had spooked her goats. Our enthusiastic crew arrived soon after with the trailer and cold drinks. Not long after that we were back in the club house enjoying cold beer and tall stories.
Many people have spoken about the trophy over the years but to my surprise no one had attempted to retrieve it for the last 24. Hopefully this flight will stir up a bit more interest.
Many of the clubs from 1982 are no longer in existence, but there is still a good network of clubs in the area within a 100km range of each other. However, apart from Warwick Gliding Club, a dearth of wooden gliders are available to fly these vintage tasks. Although a 100km out and return task is hardly a magnificent achievement for an experienced pair of pilots in a modern high-performance glider, it would be a most exciting endeavour for new pilots, even if they must do it in fast glass planes.
The trophy is now proudly on display at Warwick. Please come and get it.
The Maryborough and Districts
Perpetual TWO-Seater
Come and Get It Trophy
In order as the names appear on the trophy -
April 82 Ted Plum and Bill Hatfield, Bundaberg
1983 Max Pinwell and Dan Papacek, Gayndah Blanik
1983 Bill Hatfield and I Gorlick, Bundaberg
1983 Leigh Evans and Phil Bryant, Gayndah
1983 Bill Hatfield and P Brieffies, Bundaberg
1983 J M Nelson and P J Bryant, Gayndah
There appears to have been a hiatus in the 'Come and Get It' activities until 1991 -
January 1991 Leigh Evans and Cliff Walace, Bundaberg
Another eight year rest period followed until 1999 -
January 1999 J Fairburn and M Truitt, Kingaroy
November 1999 J Fairburn and M Truitt, Southern Downs Soaring Club (now Warwick Gliding Club)
February 2000 Nigel Andrews and Ivan Teese, Boonah, K7
Now, nearly a quarter of a century later -
26 October 2024 Denis Nolan and Andres Miramontes, Warwick, ASK13