Locations NORTH of Rainbow Beach, to Capricorn

[Pij]

It seems to me, Rainbow is the dividing line. South of it is the Sunshine Coast, the Moreton area, the Gold Coast, then across the border to the Northern Beaches.

North of Rainbow is different country. On Fraser Island the landscape continues similar to Noosa-CooloolaCoast-DoubleIslandPoint-Rainbow. BUT on the mainland it all changes.

The only location in this range on the Homepage is Point Vernon.

The locations page says, "Currently this site is focussed on SE QLD flying sites. However my intention is to capture as many sites throughout Australia. If you know of a suitable site, please email the details of your flying area to [e-mail]"

I thought here might be a good place to extend the range northwards.

[Pij]

I'll start the ball rolling in a strange way. This photo shows the typical Burnett Coast. Typically, it's NOT good. Too flat, too rocky, too many trees, road too close, no backside, no beach.



(It's a thumbnail. Click on it.)

[Pij]

But the Burnett does have some possibilities.

Here's a Panorama of Hirning Park area at Elliott Heads. The pano is almost 360degrees. The backside is on the left of the view.

[Pij]

Here's the Elliott Heads slope just north of the Caravan Park. Park your car on the hill top at Stockwell Park, and carry your gear 25 metres on a bike path! Nice shape frontside, huge backside. Rocky "beach" though there is sand nearby. Beach and path can have people at times, but less in windy weather. Some trees.

[Pij]

The Elliott Heads cliffs offer a few possibilities. North of Elliott Heads is the vacant land separating it from Coral Cove. I call the vacant land Cactus Fields due to, mmmm, the cactus.

This composite shows the entrance to Cactus. Climb through the barbed wire fence, walk 600m or so, and you have the small dunes.



Not shown, also you could fly the rocky shore without climbing through the fence, but there's not much rise. Might be good in stronger weather.

[thevon]

I think there are some really good spots around the Town of 1770. If you follow the road all the way round to the point ... it goes to a lookout track at the end, but take the last turn on the right before you get there (Ocean Drive). It follows along the coast and it's a really steep drop down to the beach. Then further along that road turns right (Cnr of Tupia St) - park there and you can walk around a big sloping patch of grassy headland with big views to the south. I didn't have planes, and there was no wind when I was there (2 yrs ago) but it looked great. Probably other good spots in the area as there are coastal hills. Best winds would be E to NE I suspect.

[lucky]

Thanks for pics Pyj, I routinely go wandering around the area for new slopes also, they are a bit thin on the ground as you say.
Looking forward to chatting about them one day.

[Pij]

Thanks guys. Yes, I think 1770 looks great. As well as the rocky point, there may be some E facing dunes on the peninsula. On Google Earth it looks like a couple of big hills (small mountains?) at the base of the peninsula, too, with roads up them and clearings on top.

Today I found a slope perfect for my stage of learning! 1km north up the beach from Coonarr Beach township. It's debatable whether you are supposed to drive on the beach (the $500 penalty sign may just mean in front of the township) but people do it anyway. We used the track behind the township, which runs along behind the foredunes all the way to the point. There are a couple of tricky bits on the track which have stopped me before, but we were more determined today. Did some gliding attempts at points along the way, but had our eyes on some bare sand faces further up, so we kept going, and the track got more difficult and less used.

If you get to a part where your passenger has to get out and hold the branches up while you drive under, you're almost there.

In the end, I stopped at a slope I knew I would not get back up. But I couldn't reverse: the front wheels had gone a little over the point of no return. My kids rushed out with their spades to dig me out, but I decided on another plan. We went down that slope and took the turn to take us down onto the beach. I knew the beach had to be our return road, as I would not get back up that track. (Well, I still had my tyres on road pressures. By dropping to 15psi I might have been able.)

About 50m up the beach, there was the slope area we had been aiming for. Drove the 4wd most of the way up a steep track off the beach, let it stay where it bogged, to keep it from getting hit by the glider.

Kids played, I flew.

I loved it! First place so far where the glider stayed at or above the launch height. I stuffed up several times by coming too close to the slope and getting caught in the down-draft. Backside recovery looked easy, but those heathland shrubs were taller than they looked and SCRATCHY. Even so, at least they weren't TREES. Much softer when you hit them, which I did. Best flight was about 4 minutes before I stuffed up again. The break in the dunes beside the car trapped me a few times too - it was also a break in the lift, so glider just got sucked into it, and nothing I did could get it back out.

Eventually the wind dropped, and I gave my 12yo son some practice on the beach with the Duck. He'll get the hang of it pretty well by how he did today.

Anyway, GREAT day out. Some pretty serious 4wd'ing, and a flyable slope. I was so pleased flying that I forgot to check the compass bearing, but I think East.

I'll check my photos of the day and see if there's one I can post.

OK, here's a pano. Open in a new frame to see it properly. There's a little bit of text added.



See the tiny water tower on the far right? That's beyond this stretch of land, over a river, at Elliott Heads.

Here's the backside:

[jase]

i have some on my phone. i'll upload them and send them off to you tomorrow gerard.

[Pij]

Went to 1770 yesterday. Took the compass, but no camera, sorry. No glider either

The Point is called Joseph Banks Conservation Park. The headland itself is mostly too covered in trees and stuff, and cliffs are not safe. But right near the carpark is a bowl or funnel, facing E by my compass, collecting wind from NE to SE. At low tide there is a beach frontside, and backside is the carpark, grassed areas, shrubs and small trees.

www.box.net/shared/ou5nmi2gwk

Thevon was right about Ocean Drive - it leads to a spot about the width of a house block, but if you walk down from there you get a choice of slopes. There's rocky cliffs backed up by grassy slope, with shrubs and grass and some small trees backside.

In between the carpark and Ocean drive, Google Earth shows another good possibility I missed.

There's cheap accommodation at the Captain Cook Holiday Village, which has its own track to the hardly-used Eastern beach.

If you drive south out of Agnes Water along the coast by Spring Road, you can see a sign for Spring Beach. The track leads to a longish boardwalk down to the beach and Red Rock. On the Rock there's small slopes facing N and E, grass behind rock.

A little further down Spring Road is the beginning of the Deepwater N.P. 4wd track down the coast. I think that section should have some possibilities. I know there's high sandy dunes, just need to locate un-tree'd ones. You eventually get to Wreck Rock (which can be accessed from the south, at the very end of 2wd accessible road). Should be some possibilities there too.

[Pij]

Here's a type-up of my notes of the Burnett area. Most of these slopes are SMALL.

Kepnock Hill overlooking FE Walker St. N
Empty land between Mon Repos and Burnett Heads NE
Port of Bundaberg dredge pile N to W
Hummock Lookout various faces S to SE, S to SW, NW
Kelley's Inlet guard tower erosion drop E
Coral Reef Park and beach E
Homework Park cliffs (we like this one) NE
Carpark at the other end of the cliffs E to NE
No Man's Land short cliff beside vandallous development E to SE
gentle slope near No Man's Land E
Innes Park only 3m dune E to ENE
Pathway south of Jennifer Young Park (between houses) NE
Herb Müller Park E to ENE
Barolin Point N through to SE but would be treacherous backside downdraft

[thevon]

Great scouting Pij! We stayed in a house for a night on Ocean drive, and the slope and lift looked great - similar to Shorncliffe but much wider. I know the bowl you're talking about ... in a SE to E that would really pump lift. But pretty rocky and cliffy. Hmmm, wonder if it would be DSable?? Quite possible! Must get back up there! Let us know how you go when you take a plane up there sometime. Sounds like there could be quite a few good spots.

[Pij]

I need more practice in user-friendly locations before I try that one. Too close to the carpark, which usually means People. But I'd love to see somebody experienced fly it. Maybe then I'd give it a go.

[Pij]

Hey Jase, do you have any locations to share up your way? I remember some impressive headlands along the tourist drive from the Yethingy coast. Y.E.P.P.O.O.N.

[Pij]

Hey Jase, haven't seen you online for a while. Do you have any flying sites from up your way for us?