Gliding Federation of Australia
The Gliding Federation of Australia (GFA) is the governing body for the sport of gliding in Australia. It was founded in 1950. The GFA is responsible to Civil Aviation Safety Authority for the conduct of safe gliding operations in Australia. This includes the setting and maintenance of flying standards and in particular training standards. It provides services to its members such as:
- Regulatory issues covering pilot training, licencing and airworthiness handled under the delegations from the government regulatory body (CASA)
- Liaison with government agencies (such as Airservices Australia, particularly in terms of that organisation's airspace management responsibilities
- Liaison with other sporting and recreational aviation bodies on matters of mutual interest (eg through the Australian Sports Aviation Confederation)
- Arranging and managing liability insurance coverage for all members and clubs
- Awarding badges and managing Australian gliding records
- Encouraging and staging competitions at the national and international level
- Technical matters
- Promotion of gliding
- Liaison with international gliding organisations (such as OSTIV and the FAI)
- Publishing a magazine Soaring Australia
Glider pilots are exempt from holding pilot licences. The GFA is responsible for the establishment of pilot certificates which are regarded highly enough by CASA and the aviation industry to be considered as a satisfactory substitute for licences. This however does cause some difficulty to pilots when travelling overseas and there has been discussion of a more formal licence from time to time.
As the inclusion of 'federation' in the name suggests, the GFA is a tiered structure based on regional associations, which are in turn based on gliding clubs. It is only possible to be a member of the GFA if one is also a member of a gliding club which is afiliated to the GFA through the applicable regional association. The five regional associations are
- Gliding Queensland (GQ), which covers all of Queensland and the northern New South Wales border region south to Byron Bay
- the New South Wales Gliding Association (NSWGA). which covers NSW except as noted above
- the South Australian Gliding Association (SAGA), which covers South Australia and the Northern Territory
- the Victorian Soaring Association, which covers Victoria and Tasmania
- the West Australian Gliding Association (WAGA)