Pohlmans range rd- possible site?

[jirvin4505]

Just back from soaring at Bundy - got to talking about watching the DS a couple of weeks ago.

Gary Jordan (long term lover of fast sailplanes) who now lives up Kingaroy way suggested a site worth investigating.

Pohlmans Range Rd off Gegors Ck. Rd it is west of Kilkoy - access via Somerset Dam Road. Access by road - landing on road possible. Gary suggests it is a bigger site than Withcot (?spelling) up in the Toowoomba range.

Anybody had experience with this site?

cheers jeff
Gary may chime in here and give a more detailed read of the site

[ezza]

Great tip Jeff and Gary! Thanks for posting. Always looking for better/more sites. Shame it is even further away than Withcott for me.

Looks like a big range and it may work on many different directions. I can feel a mission coming on. ;D

As always, the challenge will be getting strong winds out there. Withcott has a nice flat expanse out in front with a bit of a funnelling effect. However, the Toowoombah range is so high right behind it, this tends to keep the wind below 20knots.

Eric

[sean]

Hey Jeff,

Sounds promising. What direction does it face? As Ezza says the hardest thing about finding a good DS site is finding one that regularly sees strong, smooth wind.

I'm pretty keen to drive there and have a look first chance I get...

PS How'd you go at Bundy?

[portfox]

There are a few possible sites around the back road of somerset, I ride around there on the bike and almost run off the road looking for houses that might own the hills.
Next time i'm out that way, i'll drop in and ask a few people.
Problem is though, the further inland you get the longer the sea breeze take to reach it, so your mainly looking at thermal activity or if a breeze is running from the west. i think Vander has the same probs with the range he fly's at, the seabreeze take a while to get inland?

Keeps you guys posted if i find something though!

Steve

[kymbo]

If someone had access to rpdata it would very easy to locate who owns particular land and what their contact details where.

[thevon]

I drove out there again recently (via Kilcoy - Blackbutt) and was impressed with the hills in that area. I used to work in Kilcoy as a vet for a coupla yrs (20yrs ago) and used to drive around the area, up Gregors Ck and even up into those hills, and they're big but I didn't fly there. It's hard to sus out whether the site will work just looking from below - you really need to get there.

There's also a great looking range between Kilcoy and Villeneuve. There's a spot which I know works as I flew there both E and W sides when I lived there, but unfortunately the owner of that spot is a cranky fella and won't give permission to go there. But the other (southern) end of the range looks like it could be really promising too. I'd like to get there and have a look. Being in a wide valley between the Mt Mee range and the hills to the north, there's a good funnelling effect for east to west winds.