... but one is not … in fact it is staying open, expanding and inviting pilots and aircraft owners to become part of the future of light aviation.

Cooma welcomes aircraft, no cries of “aircraft noise’ here, and Polo Flat has a huge pool of engineering expertise, used to dealing with a wide range of materials, if professional help is needed for that building project. It is the ideal place to build your dream, test fly it and keep it safely hangared at an affordable cost. It is a refuge from the problems of operating in controlled airspace with costs geared to commercial operators. It is for Canberra’s light aircraft pilots what Bunyan was for their glider pilots, a secure home.

Like many pilots, Michael and Elisabeth Apps dreamed of a life where they could get up in the morning, jump into the aircraft and go flying, without having to bother with booking aircraft, arranging clearances or even dealing with the minor irritations of using commercial airports. Their opportunity came when the Snowy Mountains Authority sold its airfield at Polo Flat, the industrial suburb of Cooma.

The first record of Polo Flat was as a polo field on the slopes of the Bushy Hill goldmine. Banjo Paterson watched the Cooma team play there, writing his verse, the ‘Geebung Polo Club’ and reciting it for the first time at the dinner after the Cooma club beat a Sydney team at Goulburn in 1893.

Polo Flat's aviation history began in the 1920s when Kingsford Smith used it as a landing ground, much to the delight of local children. Even then its proximity to Cooma and open flat surroundings made it an ideal environment for aircraft.

In the 1950s it became obvious that the Snowy Scheme would need a faster and more reliable way of getting men and materials into the mountains than road transport, especially in winter. Polo Flat was chosen as the headquarters of a network of airstrips and became the home of the biggest fleet of aircraft in Australia.

The original hangers, office complex and runways are still there, and with a little loving maintenance are still in use today, restored with heritage values in mind.

It has been the Apps’ privately owned airfield since late 1998, and has been one of the best kept secrets in the area, with a small number of light aircraft owners enjoying its facilities, virtually their own private club.

In 2000 Michael and Elisabeth Apps started running flying training for people with physical disabilities, and the airfield has been a home away from home to several groups of people who can enjoy the novelty of training on an equal basis with their more agile fellow students. Some come back from time to time to recall student days and to fly, and one who sadly died a few years after her training course elected to have her ashes spread there as it was where she spent her happiest days.

Flying groups are welcome and can stay inexpensively in the accommodation block, even using the airfield as a stepping stone to the snowfields in winter. It presently has three large hangars, administrative offices, classroom and accommodation block, an aircraft parking area with avgas fuelling, an approved GPS approach and two runways, one tarmac and one grass. Maintenance for your GA or RAAus aircraft can be arranged on site.

The three Snowy Scheme hangars are usually full and another is planned to accommodate casual visitors, but now Michael and Elisabeth have decided to sell hangar lots to owners and builders who need the peace and calm of unrestricted flying and enjoy the company of like minded people. The airfield has space for up to 20 hangars with further land for aircraft owner-builder workshops and aircraft related businesses.

RAA Article - August 2009

Snowy Aviation Academy Snowy Aviation Academy was started in 2003 out of sheer frustration. Potential pilots kept asking for local flying training but there was none around. Michael Apps had been trying to attract a GA flying school to Polo Flat for several years without any success so he decided to put decades of flying and flying training to good use and, with his wife Elisabeth, start their own school. This has grown to have four aircraft (and another on order) and five instructors, operating any day that the weather is suitable. Students just phone early in the morning and arrange a time if the weather is good, which it usually is in Cooma’s high dry climate.