The launches on Mount Borah, near Manilla, were last given a revamp in the years leading up to the 2007 world championships, and the free rolls of surface came at a time when they were "desperately needed".

Manilla SkySailors Club president Godfrey Wenness said the grassy green gift helped complete a project that would have cost the club $1.2 million to do on their own - an impossible task.

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"Some of the launches were only usable in small patches where we could pin down what was left, but now these new mats have come along from Tamworth hockey, we've been able to majorly redo two of the large launches, the east and the north launch, and do a patch job on the west launch," Mr Wenness said.

"We need [the launches] to lay out the gliders and to be able to run off the mountain side, we need a consistent footing and it creates an airstrip almost on top of the mountain."

Tamworth Hockey Centre was given a $9.6 million makeover, which was finished earlier this year, and thousands of square metres of used surface material was given out by Tamworth Regional Council.

Mr Wenness said the club gratefully received about 2500 square metres of hockey field surface, but it was still only about half of what they needed.

The club had saved up for this moment so they could hire contractors, and members put in days of hard work carting rolls up the mountain and pinning down the grass with what is essentially a giant stapler.

"We knew this job would come up at some point so we saved every penny knowing wherever we could get hockey fields from the club was in a financial position to be able to do it," Mr Wenness said.

"Each roll weighs between 700 and 900 kilos."

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