Emilis Prelgauskas
From WikiGlide
Interest in the sport of gliding began for Emilis through proof copies of 'Australian Gliding' lying around the studio in the family home in the 1950's. Emilis' mum Frieda (a graphic artist) was the illustrator for the magazine in the days when it was a private venture by Allan Ash, and published via bromides & letterpress, with headers & illustrations often done by hand artwork. A family deal between high school & university meant Emilis could take up gliding with family support, having achieved the necessary TER to get into his chosen course (architecture).
He started with a 5 day course at Gawler under Gordon Redway in Ka7s, soloed after joining Great Eastern Gliding Club in ES52 Kookaburra, and went on to fly Olympia. This 'first solo' aircraft had come from England in a crate with wings sawn in half, and during re-build is reputed to have had wash-out built into one wing, wash-in into the other. This meant it spun in the same direction irrespective of which direction of turn it was stalled in. He joined Balaklava Gliding Club and flew Blaniks, Ka6, Libelles. His father spun-in in Blanik VH-GXM, that wreck later mated to GYD noted below. Emilis' graduation thesis was a 21st century evolution of a major gliding centre, this scheme was to find resonances in his own gliding site later.
While doing post graduate town planning studies he was one of the founding members of the active Adelaide University Gliding Club in 1975, after years of preparatory advocacy by people such as Martin Simons. This club used Emilis' L1 instructor rating and Longwing kookaburra VH-GLZ. It operated at Whitwarta and other sites until moving to the Lochiel paddock, which had the help of local Don Nottle for whom he was designing a house, and landowner Bob McDonald. While the club evolved its fleet, Emilis added Boomerang VH-GTI to his flock. Emilis' post graduate thesis was on opportunities/barriers for sport aviation in Australian society, including a quantitive research quantifying the 'air minded' niche market.
In 1979 he moved to Sanderston, founding Adelaide Hills Soaring Group, which also operated at Goolwa, & O'Halloran Hill. This site was positioned in the parkland between Adelaide's inner & outer suburbs, jet traffic into Adelaide Airport orbited around this site's airspace bubble. During this time he operated Blanik VH-GIK & Twin Astir VH-IKW. For some decades he was an active contest pilot, with wins at state level leading in NSW 1980 contest to the National Sports Class formation by the pilots. This evolved to Club lass, and Emilis is today interested in the less stressful vintage approach to things. Dissatisfied with options on club & leased premises, in 1983 he bought Monarto gliding field and concentrated the dispersed activities there. His flock changed to syndicate ES52 Kookaburra VH-GHN, Blanik VH-GYD, syndicate Super Arrow VH-GTJ, and the unique IS32 VH-HND. The site development includes his friends' gliders and hangars and workshop support.
The Ferries McDonald Technical Library is a building and collection evolving from his mum's librarianship. She had gone on to these studies parallel with his post grad time, The Monarto Sailplaner's museum began in 2000, currently has 9 airframes from 1924 onward.
Emilis built his home office here, he continues to run his practice in environmental, passive, low energy, biological & renewable materials, construction & operating systems. As in his gliding life, he innovates, prototypes and evolves new solutions in the practice, projects for clients, teaching and seats on regulatory & advisory boards.
His gliding record is over 4000 hours, Gold C+ 2 Diamonds, recipient of both Muller & Hoinville GFA service awards, L2 instructor as well as CASA checking acceptance, airworthiness major work tickets.
