While the VMFG has Bacchus Marsh as it's home site, the club makes a number of expeditions each year to different sites to offer a variety of flying to its members. Soaring in the Victorian Alps from Porepunkah and Mt. Beauty are very popular camps in November and at Easter.
After Christmas an extended camp is held at a site suitable for long cross-country flights. Sites are usually selected with families in mind and typically offer a range of activities and pursuits apart from gliding.
The club travels to Mt. Beauty every Easter and flys from the town's airfield just a few minutes from the centre of town.
From Mt. Beauty gliders are towed to either Tawonga Gap, Little Bogong or even to the summit of Mt. Bogong, Victoria's highest mountain. From here the pilot can choose either to stay over the valley and enjoy spectacular views of the high country or venture out and go cross country to various locations like Falls Creek, Mt. Hotham, Mt. Buffalo, or even Mt Buller or Mt Kosciusko.
The rest of the family can also enjoy the camp as there is plenty to do at Mt. Beauty from bush walks or cycling to trying out the local go-kart track.
Porepunkah airfield is situated at the base of Mt. Buffalo. We visit Porepunkah in early November over the Melbourne Cup long weekend.
This site is a very popular for all types of soaring pursuits. Here we share the skys, and the views, with hang gliders, trikes and paragliders.
Porepunkah also offers the same cross country opportunities as Mt. Beauty.
Christmas Camp is at Wangaratta. Here the alpine country is near-by as well as flying north into New South Wales.
On occasion club members organise small expeditions to unusual locations like Apollo Bay. Club members do have the opportunity, with the right qualifications, to take club aircraft away to competitions or other gliding sites.
Apollo Bay is not your typical location for a gliding camp but flying out over Bass Strait, in lift generated by the Otway Ranges, is something worth trying.
The VMFG enjoys good relationships with other gliding clubs around Australia and overseas and from time to time we are invited to camps held by these clubs. One of these is a camp organised by the Grampians Soaring Club at Noelhurst.
Over the Queens Birthday weekend in early June, several clubs converge on the Grampians in search of wave. Heights of over 20,000ft have been obtained here by flying in a weather phenomenon called 'wave lift'. The Grampians generates excellent wave when the weather conditions are right.
Horsham Week Competition is held every year in early February by the Wimmera Soaring Club. The competition is conducted in a relaxed and friendly environment which makes it great for pilots of all levels of experience to challenge themselves, both personally and against other pilots.