A bit about the Australian Light Aircraft Championships
This iconic Australian event has been held annually in every Australian state since 1957, the Manning River Aero Club nominated as the host aero club for the Championships to be staged at the Taree Aerodrome in 2025. Taree Aerodrome is ideally suited to host the championships with parking space for more than 40 light aircraft on the grass areas in front of the aero club and terminal building.
The highly competitive Championship tests the skills of pilots in forced landings, aerobatics, formation flying, streamer cutting and on the spot landings in accordance with the Rules and Regulations of the Royal Federation of Aero Clubs Australia (RFACA). Competition flying, which is a proven method of improving a pilot’s standards and maintaining currency, is widely promoted throughout Australia by the RFACA. These Championships are the only National Flying event of their type, encompassing all facets of powered aircraft flying. In 2025, the ALACs also included the Wings International Competition.
The Wings International commenced approximately 30 years ago and is an international flying Competition held between Australia and New Zealand. It is held annually, alternately between Australia and New Zealand. In both countries teams are chosen from the winners of their national Flying Competitions.
The winners of each event in the Australian Light Aircraft Championships form the team to compete in the Wings. Pilots from all over Australia compete fiercely each year to win the honour of representing their Country. Flying NZ hold their Nationals during the year and their team is also made up of the winners of these events.
The ALAC and Wings International winners are presented with their awards on Saturday evening at the presentation dinner.
ALAC 2025
Hosted by the Manning River Aero Club April 30 – May 3, 2025
The Flying
The Flying
The ALACs and Wings International 2025 were very successful events for both the Club and the participants. The week started with the arrival of the New Zealand team over the previous weekend. In the first few days of the week, teams from the Royal Victoria Aero Club, the Royal Aero Club of WA, Phil Unicomb Aviation and Latrobe Valley arrived, some commercially and others in their own or club aircraft. By Wednesday the Club was humming with activity.
Our Club put two teams into the competition. Team 1 was Robert Allam (forced Landing), Ethan Simpson (spot landing) and David Turnbull (streamer cutting). Team 2 was Travis Goldsmith (spot landing), Bruce Harrison (forced landing) and Gary Tonkin (streamer cutting).
Individual club competitors were Aaron Hammond (aerobatics), Gary Rollings (forced and spot landing) and Peter Horsburgh (forced and spot landings and streamer cutting).
- Aaron Hammond came first in the ALAC graduate level aerobatics and won the Federation Shield. A fantastic effort from Aaron.
- Bruce Harrison came third in the ALAC forced landing, there were 33 competitors in this event. Another fantastic outcome.
- New Zealand won the Wings International competition. MRAC President Gary Tonkin got pipped at the post by one point in the Spot Landing.
- Toby Unicomb (son of our HOO Phil), won the Federation award for Streamer Cutting and came third in the individual championship.
The weather forecast was dismal for the week and the team started to think about a Plan B! In between challenging weather, participants started practice, familiarising themselves with Taree airport and environs.With adverse weather forecast, it was decided to bring forward some of the competitions to give some slack, so the Wings International Competition commenced. In particular the Aerobatics and Streamer cutting events, to take advantage of the higher cloud base.
By the end of Thursday the Wings International and the ALAC Formation events had been successfully completed. Unfortunately, the ALAC aerobatics couldn’t be completed so another schedule change provided for that event early on Friday morning, followed by ALAC Streamer Cutting and Spot landing. The Forced landing was scheduled for Saturday.
In the end all the events were completed with no incidents and participants eagerly awaited the Presentation function on Saturday evening to see the result of their efforts.
The Social and Fun bits
Wednesday evening saw the Club host a BBQ, we had around 60 persons attending. Thursday evening was the formal welcome, with members of the MidCoast Council and many Club members in attendance. A special mention is made of the amazing aeroplane Charcuterie boards prepared by Janet Tonkin, Alison Tilt and Jodie Harrison.
Saturday evening saw 100 people attend the presentation dinner at the Boathouse Cafe in Taree. The evening ran smoothly with President Gary Tonkin hosting. We also welcomed the Royal federation of Aero Club Australia President, Joseph Pilo who presented the winners their medallions and trophies.
The evening also included some entertainment from our own HOO, Phil Unicomb and John Douglas from RACWA who presented the ‘Mars Bar’ awards to persons who had established some notoriety by doing odd things during the week.
All this was made possible by a large contingent of Club volunteers who undertook the necessary tasks to make this event a success, many commencing before daylight and finishing after everyone had gone home in the evening. The tasks ranged from air judges, ground judges, marshals, scheduling (and re-scheduling) of events, runners, refuellers, caterers, photographer, bar attendants and persons to do all the odd jobs that cropped up. Truely a superb commitment from club members.