Ingo Renner, one of Australian gliding's greatest exponents, died last Saturday aged 81.
Renner was perhaps the premier glider pilot in Australia, earning him a string of national gliding championships, several international championships, an Order of Australian Medal (OAM) and in 2014 was inducted into the Australian Aviation Hall of Fame.
The impact his career and personality had on the Australian gliding community cannot be understated and his loss will be felt for many years to come.
Renner was a war baby, born in Bremen, Germany, in June 1940. His passion for soaring developed from watching models gliders in action and he soon learnt to build his own. He began gliding lessons at age 15 and after qualifying his club nominated him as an instructor.
A ship-builder by trade, Renner set out for Australia and found work at a shipyard in Brisbane. Determined to keep flying, he pitched up at the Darling Downs Soaring Club at Jondaryan. Within a week he was granted a full instructor rating. Characteristically, Renner owned his own Schneider Kingfisher before he owned a car!
In 1970 he moved to Tocumwal and began work at the newly established Sportavia Soaring Centre. He was there for the next 36 years, splitting his time between instructing in Australia during the summer months at the Oerlinghausen Gliding School in Germany for the northern summers.
Renner logged around 1000 hours each year and in 1971became an Australian citizen and represented Australia at several world gliding championship events, winning first in the Standard Class in Finland, in 1976.
Renner would win several more times on the world stage, including three consecutive wins in the Open Class in the USA in 1983, Italy in 1985 and Benalla, Victoria in 1987.
His trophy cabinet swelled with wins at several meeting around the world, including:
- 19 Australian National Gliding Championships
- Open Class Austraglide at Benalla in 1984,
- Bremen Regional competition in Germany,
- Queensland State competition (twice)
- Smirnoff Derby and Hitachi Masters of Soaring in the US
- Tour Lilienthal held in Berlin to celebrate 100 years of flight.
The record books would also carry the name Ingo Renner for many years. In 1975 he set a two-seater world distance record and in 1982 a single-seat speed record over a 10-km triangle, when he averaged 195.3 kmh. That effort saw his name added to the Guinness Book of World Records.
He has held many Australian gliding records. He has also coached the Australian Team for world competitions, helped the Japanese organise and run their very first international gliding contest on Hokkaido and coached many pilots for international competitions both here and overseas.
In 1988, the extraordinary career of Ingo Renner was recognised with an OAM for services to gliding, followed in 2000 by an Australian Sports Medal and in 2014, induction into the Australian Aviation Hall of Fame.
Renner finished his career with 36,000 hours of flying, of which about 31,000 was instructing and coaching.
The thoughts of Australian Flying are with the Renner family and the Australian gliding community.