Watts Bridge is a small airstrip in the Brisbane Valley near Esk. It’s home to a number of aerobatics enthusiasts and has hosted airshows from time to time. It’s also well known for its monthly “Watts for Breakfast?” flyins during normal (non-Covid) times. On 13th September 2020 they had the first one for a while. The Redcliffe aero club had organised a flyaway to Biggenden for lunch the same day. It’s only about 40 minutes by air from Redcliffe to Biggenden so it seemed a good idea to head to Watts for breakfast first and then head off to Biggenden for lunch after that so that’s what we did. Mike and I were joined by Brad Green and Brett Silvester in MSF and just after 8am we headed off over the hills from Redcliffe on the 14 minute flight to Watts Bridge. Given it’s such a short distance and we had blue skies over Redcliffe Mike decided to fly VFR and as we departed there was a great view of Redcliffe and Scarborough.

As we passed over Dayboro however some clouds gathered over the ranges and as a result we had to dodge around some of them on the way. Neither Mike nor I had ever flown into Watts Bridge before so I had a quick fly on the home simulator the day before to see what the terrain is like leading into the airfield. It helped us get our bearings. We flew over the northern end of Lake Wivenhoe and were soon overhead the Brisbane River and joining downwind.

Approximately 40 aircraft turned up, including a Spitfire that gave an awesome performance for everyone.

After enjoying the entertainment we took off and overflew the airfield.

Climbing out the course was set for Biggenden where we caught up with the rest of the group and walked into town for lunch at one of the pubs.

After a nice steak it was a 10 minute walk back to aircraft.

I flew the homeward leg. We climbed aboard and were soon soaring over the hills. A few clouds had gathered and I tried to climb above them, but eventually gave up and descended below them again.

The clouds had largely dissipated by the time we were approaching Kingaroy, where we had to land to top up the fuel. Soon we were soaring towards Redcliffe and celebrating another good day out with a few drinks at the club bar.