Member for Cootamundra Steph Cooke and Cowra Aero Club president David Shaw last weekend presented a new hangar facility to the public, after earlier plans were delayed by COVID and floods.
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With expanded capacity for lessons and briefings, as well as a symbol of the club's perseverance - the opening of the newer facilities represents more to the club than just another building.
Construction and material availability meant members and friends put up much of the labour - and the money - themselves, with more than $125,000 raised to cover the shortfalls in funding that were originally covered by a 2019 grant.
Speaking at the opening, Ms Cooke said "We're here to celebrate something that has been a long time in the making, and a lot of hard work by a lot of good people".
Markings on the ground at the aerodrome show where aeromedical evacuation staff, as well as paramedics would previously have tended to patients in Cowra's sometimes hot, sometimes cold weather whilst waiting for transferring flights, or conditions to change.
"I remember coming out here ahead of announcing the grant funding, touring the facility and scoping out areas for the RFS," Ms Cooke said.
"The need was pretty obvious right from the get go, and well supported by the community," Ms Cooke said.
She thanked the aero club president and the staff for their work adding she had followed the progress of the Cowra Aero Club since the grant was announced in 2019.
"I was out here during that time in one of the few reprieves I had to see a hangar and a patch of dirt and wondered how it was going to come together. But I didn't say that at the time, I just trusted the club and it's leadership," Ms Cooke said.
In addition to general flight training, the aerodrome supports a much needed aviation industry, which provides the region with aeromedical evacuation, agricultural support, firefighting and commercial aviation.
Ben Kinsela is a pilot at the school, and takes to the sky when he's not riding horses and says the hangar is much more than just a a place to store aircraft.
"We run the flight school, we can run conferences, kitchen, catering, a briefing room for student pilots - it's not just a hangar.
Pointing to the roller door, Mr Kinsela shows a yellow line marking the previous backup point for ambulances, where patients would be unloaded and taken care of - which now has cover for medical staff and their patients.
"For when it's wet, the air ambulance now has cover here, so they and (patients) are better protected. Before this, we were in a little room, just a tiny little office," Mr Kinsela said.
Ms Cooke praised the club's members and friends for achieving the interagency upgrade, which required cooperation between several groups.
"When you bring it all together what you have is an incredible collaboration between the aero club, (Cowra) council, the then NSW state government, the flying community and the community of Cowra more broadly to bring this facility to life. A facility that will now form part of the rich and wonderful history, and one that'll be there for generations to come," Ms Cooke said.
