Watts Bridge – Gatton Airpark – Clifton – Warwick

Sunday 18th June 2023 was a perfect Brisbane winter’s day – and perfect for flying. Not a cloud in the sky, no wind. The forecast maximum was 23 degC, so not too hot, not too cold. Yes there was a bit of fog out west in the early morning but it had cleared by 10am. Redcliffe Aero Club had planned a “coffee hop” flyaway to a variety of small airfields west of Brisbane and when the planets aligned weather wise it was too good an opportunity to miss. We could practise those short field landings and takeoffs and a bit of VFR navigation. Brett Silvester came with me in MSF as copilot and navigator. There were 8 aircraft that took part from Redcliffe, Caboolture and Southport. The “official” course included Kilcoy, Watts Bridge, Gatton Airpark, Clifton, Boonah and Heck Field. I decided to avoid Kilcoy and Heck Field due to tight runway length for the Cirrus and diverted to Warwick rather than Boonah at the end as I’d been to Boonah a few weeks before and I wanted to meet up with Tony and Shawn, a couple who have a hangar at Warwick, and were planning a trip to the Kimberley in August. I wanted to share our knowhow of where to go when they get there.

So our first stop was Watts Bridge. Although the other seven aircraft had flown to Kilcoy, they’d left earlier than us so all eight aircraft happened to converge on Watts Bridge within about 5 minutes of each other but all managed to sort ourselves out to land in sequence without any traffic jam eventuating. https://wattsbridge.com.au

There was instant coffee and bickies provided by the airfield owners, and a chance to catch up on a few old friends from the aero club and make a few new ones.

Less than an hour later we were heading about 20 miles south to Gatton Airpark. This time I led the pack in MSF as it was the fastest bird in the flock. After we landed each of the other planes followed us in quick succession.

Gatton Airpark (https://gattonairpark.com) is an impressive setup created by a husband and wife when they subdivided their property and had it designated an airpark about 15 years ago. There are some twenty or so houses there now, each with its own hangar that they can taxi their planes up to. A group of the owners were waiting for us when we landed and had prepared a magnificent BBQ.

They also had a professional espresso machine in the hangar and were soon preparing barista coffee for us. Once again we made some new acquaintances and learned about their particular aviation adventures.

An hour later Brett and I led the way again, taking off in MSF for Clifton, about 25 miles to the south west. I thought I’d been to Clifton many years ago during my PPL training but realised on landing (after thinking on the way in that it looked nothing like I remembered) that I’d actually flown into Pittsworth before, not Clifton. Not far away but very different layout. Part of the reason I had trouble recognising it.

We had tea and cake provided by Trevor, the owner of the airfield and the Lone Eagle Flying School. https://www.loneeagleflyingschool.org.au

After a bit less than an hour we split off from the main group. After they all took off for Boonah, Brett and I flew the 5 minute hop across to Warwick where there was some confusion as a glider pilot on final called RWY 09 when he was really on RWY 27. After a quick call on the radio one of the other pilots confirmed it was really 27 that was active. We had one more cup of tea with Tony and Shawn, sitting on the deck of their hangar house located directly next to the taxiway.

By 3:30 we were heading back to Redcliffe, flying over the dividing range and directly over the top of Gatton Airpark at 3,500ft.

We were careful to skirt around the Amberley airspace that had become active in the early afternoon. It was good light as the sun descended in the west and we passed back over Lake Wivenhoe.

We touched down in Redcliffe at 4:30. The end of another perfect winter’s day in SE Qld.