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WING
SPAN
FEBRUARY
A lasting legacy
for one of
Free FLight’s finest modellers
GARY SUNDERLAND’S GREAT ADVENTURE
Fascinated with flight and the
dynamics of how things flew
was what first attracted the
avid aviation enthusiast Gary
Sunderland to the sport of
aeromodelling.
Finding his wings froma young age,
Gary had a long standing career in the
aviation industry as an aeronautical
engineer with the Commonwealth
Aircraft Factory, before taking up roles
as safety inspector and air accident
investigator with CASA. To add to his
impressive resume, he was a full size
glider pilot and also took on the role as
Editor and Technical Editor of Gliding
Australia and was a WW1 aviation
historian and light aircraft pilot.
Despite retiring from the aviation
industry in 1994, Gary wasn’t keen to
hang up his wings, moving to Bacchus
Marsh (the home of Victorian gliding)
to join the Bacchus Marsh Model
Aircraft Association.
Fellow clubmember, Joe Finocchiaro
said Gary had a real love affair with
flying and was an accomplished glider
pilot, previously being part of the
Australian WC gliding teamas well as
an awarded RCmodeler- winning the
2016 Free Flight Nationals at the age
of 82.
“Gary loved aviation and themany
aspects of the industry and hobby/
sport. He liked to research, build and
fly eachmodel which included free
flight and indoor,” he said.
“The WW1models were not easy to fly,
but Gary’s tenacity and determination
would not deter him.
Gary Sunderland
will be remembered as
the little fella that loved to fly WW1 models