Community & Business
17 June, 2022
Congratulations Trevor Bange OAM
Well-known Clifton district aviation enthusiast Trevor Bange is being congratulated after being named among those who received a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in this year’s Queen’s Birthday Honours list.
Mr Bange has received the award for service to recreational flying and gliding.
His interest in flying has been a life-long one, a big influence being his father, Jack Bange, who made quite a name for himself when he built his own glider and enjoyed flying it and powered aircraft across the Darling Downs and beyond.
Trevor Bange became a member of the Darling Downs Sport Aircraft Association some 46 years ago.
He quickly became very active and was soon part of the Association’s committee, on which he has served for
45 years, mostly as treasurer.
In 1982 he began organising the Clifton Fly-In, an event which attracts recreational pilots and aircraft enthusiasts from a wide area of southern, central and western Queensland, as well as from New South Wales.
The event is planned as an annual one, but in some years, weather conditions prevent it from going ahead.
About 20 years ago the Darling Downs Sport Aircraft Association decided to create the Lone Eagle Flying School, which has attracted student pilots from a wide area of Queensland New South Wales.
Trevor Bange was appointed Chief Flying Instructor and Head of Aircraft Maintenance for the School in 2002.
“We do pick up a lot [of students] from the St George, Meandarra Surat area and they’re farmers coming into the Toowoomba area with children going to high schools and such like and wanting the methodology of being able to learn to fly and this becomes an opportunity for them in this area and that’s why they do it - because it’s uncluttered skies here and it effectively works out a lot cheaper for them than what it does going to other flying schools like in Brisbane,” he said.
Mr Bange is a Life Member of the Darling Downs Sport Aircraft Association, as well as being a Life Member of the Darling Downs Soaring Club, which he has served in various capacities including secretary, tug pilot, treasurer, airworthiness officer and instructor.
He has been a glider pilot since 1963.
He has been a Board Member of Recreational Aviation Australia since 2013 and Chief Flying Instructor since 2002 as well as being a Director, Engineering and Instructor for Training Courses, and Technical Officer, Airworthiness, for seven years with the Gliding Federation Australia in Queensland.
Mr Bange’s other involvement has been as Convenor, South Queensland, Regional Airspace and Procedures Advisory Committee (CASA), since 2016, and Member of South Queensland Regional Airspace and Procedures Committee (CASA) since 2002.
He has also been actively involved in the Australian Air Force Cadets, with 34 years’ service from 1969 to 2003.
He was an Instructor for the Toowoomba Air Training Corps Cadet Unit in the 1970s, and is a former Flight Commander at Gatton and Oakey Air Training Corps Cadet Units.
Mr Bange is also a former Gliding Flight Instructor with the Queensland Air Training Corps Cadets, having filled that role from 1973 to 2003.
In 2001, he received the Fred Hoinville Award, from Gliding Federation Australia.
The award commemorates the pioneering work carried out by the late Fred Hoinville, who was a leading aircraft and glider pilot in the 1930s, and is presented for outstanding service to gliding.
Trevor Bange has also had an interest in the Scouting movement.
He was a Committee Member and Treasurer of the 2nd Toowoomba Scouts, between 1986 and 1996 and has supported the Scouts’ Operation Nighthawk weekend by hosting the event on his property and airstrip, since 2007.
Mr Bange said he believes the OAM he has received pays tribute to volunteering.
“I think it’s an honour in a way for myself to get it, but it’s also a feather in the cap I think for volunteerism throughout the country, because my history and life cycle goes back through volunteering in organisations going back into the early to mid 60s
all the way through to today so it’s that volunteering and what’s behind us in volunteering that really puts us on the map,” he said.
Mr Bange said it shows that volunteering can actually be very worthwhile in the community.
A pet project for Mr Bange is the Lone Eagle Flying School’s scholarships.
“We started them in 2004 to try and encourage youth to get into aviation and
that’s the concept of it, and that’s where the club has actually tried to give back to the community some of what the community gives to the club,” he said.
“The scholarships are open to youth between 15 and 21.
“We allocate one a year, which is worth about $7,500.”
“We’ve now got a flying school that’s got five aircraft and 160 members and we’re part of the local community,” Mr Bange said.
