Cadet Flight Sergeant Taylor Carlin, 18, said he had always wanted to work on fixing an aircraft.

"At home I always try to fix engines, it's a true passion of mine," he said.

"We have been fixing as much as we can with the parts we have been given, everything is pretty much original.

"it's funny that me being the tallest cadet, I was the one crawling up into the tail of the aircraft to feed the cables to the rear controls."

Expert helper Mike Coates, from the Grampians Soaring Club, said the airframe would be a great training tool for the cadets despite not being able to fly again.

"The Blanik will be a great display, something to attract new cadets, and as a training aid, even though it's not airworthy," he said.

"What better way to demonstrate the principles of flight then with the real thing sitting (above the parade ground).

"The long-term plan is to connect it to a flight simulator so when cadets sit in it the controls are linked and they can get a simulated flight sitting in the real thing."

Cadets reinstalled ailerons, flaps and the rudder to the airframe and reconnected all of those to the flight control systems.

"The previous owner, John Viney, had removed these to recover them. We have left them unpainted so the cadets can see the internal structure," Mr Coates said.

"Reinstalling the rudder wasn't a straight forward process because there are two long cables which run from the tail to the nose cone, it was a devil of a job re-threading those cables."

The Blanik glider was donated to the Warrnambool Air Force Cadets by the Viney family, after Mr Viney passed away. Mr Viney's daughters Rebecca Hovarth and Samantha Viney will attend the cadet's parade on Thurday night when the finished airframe is unveiled.

Flight Lieutenant Paul Marsland said the cadets had gained a real appreciation of the engineering inside an aircraft.

"They have been able to see the design and construction of an aircraft," he said.

"Instead of sitting in a simulator they have been able to go behind the scenes and look at the structure, it's changed their whole perspective of an aircraft.

"Because it doesn't need to be certified airworthy we have been able to let the cadets do the work themselves, they have been able to have a great hands-on approach.

"The opportunity was too good to let pass when the aircraft became available."

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