In the early 1930s, graduates of the Lwów Polytechnic, Eng. Henryk Błaszczyk and Eng. Bronisław Skwarczyński, who worked at the Railway Workshops in Nowy Sącz, set about establishing a glider training center in Nowy Sącz. In 1931, an Aviation Section of the Railway Military Training was established at the PKP Main Workshops in Nowy Sącz, and a year later, after obtaining the construction documentation for the CWJ glider, members of the Gliding Circle and the Railway Circle of the Air and Anti-Gas Defence League (LOPP) in Nowy Sącz built 4 gliders. As a result, in the autumn of 1932, the first glider course was conducted on Winna Góra near Nowy Sącz, in cooperation with the Railway Section of the Kraków Aero Club. The experience gained during the training at Winna Góra prompted the Sącz aviators to find a new site suitable for glider training. As a result of the search, it was determined that the best conditions for gliding sports were in the village of Tęgoborze, located 14 km northwest of Nowy Sącz, and Rachów Hill (377 m above sea level) was selected. The assessment of the terrain’s suitability and the test flight were carried out by instructor pilot Leopold Kwiatkowski and instructor pilot Jan Skalski. The site selection was approved by the Ministry of Transport, and the Railway Workshops in Nowy Sącz built a wooden hangar on the summit of Rachów Hill.
In 1934, Colonel Pilot Bolesław Stachoń visited Tęgoborze and inspected a new site located on the neighboring hill — Jodłowiec Wielki (422 m above sea level). In his opinion, it was a better location that would allow the training level to be raised to higher categories C and D. Training for these categories required flights on training gliders, which necessitated terrain suitable for soaring flights. Following this visit, the Aviation Department issued a positive recommendation for the expansion of the Glider School. In 1936, on the acquired land at Jodłowiec, the construction of a hangar accommodating 16 gliders, quarters for 40 people, and a recreation room was completed.
In 1937, the center operating at Jodłowiec Wielki was one of 17 LOPP glider schools in Poland and enabled training up to category “D.” The Tęgoborze Glider School conducted aviation training for young people under the motto: “From gliding to powered flight,” coined by the Chairman of the LOPP Main Board, General Leon Berbecki. The school’s hangar housed, among others, 15 gliders built in Nowy Sącz. Before the outbreak of World War II, 1,155 pilots completed the training cycle.
During World War II, the school ceased its activities. The occupation authorities confiscated the gliders — information about the removal of gliders by the Germans is held in the State Archives in Nowy Sącz. Orders were also given to disassemble the hangar. After the war ended, a group of enthusiasts — Adam Bajdo, Zdzisław Hełczyński, Wojciech Koszkul, Leopold Kwiatkowski, and Jan Lupa — began work on rebuilding the school. As early as November 1945, a National Aviation and Gliding Conference was held in Grunów (now Jeżów Sudecki). The Gliding Inspector Romuald Flach, who was sympathetic to the school in Tęgoborze, emphasized in his paper on glider schools in Poland delivered there that “the Glider School in Tęgoborze, due to its good results and conditions, as well as its future role in gliding tourism, should be rebuilt.” Thanks to this positive opinion, funds and equipment were obtained, which allowed regular training activities to begin in 1947.
In 1947, training of students from the Aviation Section of the AGH University of Science and Technology in Kraków began. In 1948, the glider school came under the authority of the Universal Organization “Service for Poland.” This was associated with a strong politicization of the training — in addition to lectures on theory and aviation matters, educational and political lectures were also conducted. During the Stalinist era — in 1950 — the decision was made to liquidate the School; equipment and gear were gradually removed, and personnel were dismissed. The School ceased to exist. It was only after the changes of 1955–1956 that a public committee for the rebuilding of the Glider School in Tęgoborze was established in the Nowy Sącz region.
These transformations were accompanied by the return to aviation of many activists and instructors who had been removed in the early 1950s. It was on their initiative that, at the end of 1956, a public committee for the reopening and expansion of the Glider School in Tęgoborze was established at the District Board of the League of Soldiers’ Friends in Nowy Sącz. With the support of local authorities and organizations, detailed plans for the reopening and expansion of the school were developed and presented to the Main Board of the League of Soldiers’ Friends. On May 16, 1957, the aviation training base on Jodłowiec Wielki Hill was ceremonially opened — this time under the name Nowy Sącz Aero Club.
When beginning its activities, the Podhale Aero Club had only a steel hangar and gliding grounds on the summit of Jodłowiec Hill in Tęgoborze. The lack of a landing strip on flat terrain prevented winch-launched flights, powered aircraft training, and glider towing. In 1958, the club received free of charge, for a period of 10 years, the backwater area of Lake Rożnów near the bridge in Kurów from the Voivodeship Water Routes Department in Kraków. After laborious leveling work, these grounds served the Aero Club for glider and powered flights for 7 years. Three years later, its headquarters was moved to Łososina Dolna. It is worth noting that on the initiative of Major Pilot Jerzy Iszkowski and the Aero Club Board, a Public Committee for the Construction of an Airfield in Łososina Dolna was established in 1960, which obtained the necessary grants and assistance from the Commander of the Air Force, General Pilot Jan Frey-Bielecki. Engineering battalions dispatched by him built the airfield and 700 m of road in five days. On the sixth day, September 17, 1960, a jet fighter landed at the airfield, and on September 18, a ceremony was held to hand over the airfield in Łososina Dolna, combined with spectacular air shows. Major General Pilot Jan Frey-Bielecki took part in the ceremony.
The Sącz “Orlik” Association has begun organizing model aircraft competitions at the site of the former glider school on Jodłowiec Wielki Hill. A commemorative plaque marking the aviation activities of this site can be found there today.
