St George

igot a call from i an m iller sometime in July 2022, he said he was keen to go to a fly-in at St George. i said, “Where the hell is St George? But i could be in.”

Back in the late 80’s and early 90’s I was based in Perth and spent most weekends over 3 years static line towing an hours drive inland. I really enjoyed it but it gave me my fill of hot dry conditions with flies. So I haven’t made a habit like some to get to Aussie, but I thought maybe this time I should go. It’d been a long time with very little flying for me after shoulder issues so I took Ian up on it.

St George is a town of about 3000 people, 7 hours inland from Brisbane. One very keen hangie, a certain Don Cramer AKA Dogstar happens to live there. Don had advertised a fly-in over a long weekend and Dalby happened to be on the way there.

The cunning plan was to spend a weekend in Dalby, have a couple of days sightseeing then fly in St George for 5 odd days. Unfortunately the weather slightly upset our plans. Saturday at Dalby dawned fine. I know this because we were at the aerodrome to see it! The plan was for Ian to do some tows to achieve his aerotow rating early. Ian had bought a Moyes wing from Geoff Christophers which he hadn’t yet flown. It took him some tows to get tuned in, the first couple were a little wild but there was steady progress till he was tracking pretty good behind the Dragonfly.

And I felt I needed some calm air tows so we both missed flying on the best day, the Saturday. All the regular Dalby crew were there and made the most of the day, heading off downwind some 100km or so.

Sunday dawned nice but alot more stable and neither Ian or myself were able to do much but practice tow. Some of the guys were proving it possible though and climbing out OK.

The Dalby club is quite extraordinary - definitely the most experienced aerotow crew I’ve known. I learnt a lot about the finer points of aerotow in the short time I was there. And you won’t find a group of people more hospitable or accommodating. Too many names to single out but they’re a great crew.

On to St George on Monday but the weather was closing in - rain was forecast. Here I was in Aus thinking it doesn’t rain here? Hmmm. Don decided to cancel the fly-in. Pretty hard to fly from a boggy paddock. But Don had a back-up in mind - a small jaunt down to Manilla (must have been at least 6 hours drive, no small commitment). But it allowed us to outrun the rain band for a couple of days. We left St George the next morning when most respectable people were still sleeping to get to the hill in time to fly that day.

I’d heard a little about Mt Borah but didn’t realise it really wasn’t that high, roughly 800ft. It made some of our local sites here actually look quite good! But it is obviously pretty reliable most of the time. The main launch faces west, wide enough to launch a half dozen gliders simultaneously, (not that you’d want to do it), and is covered in artificial turf. There’s also an east and NE launch so directions are fairly well covered. The three of us had an afternoon fly off the west launch, Ian drawing the short straw and after working light lift for a good while went down in front, Don and myself slowly climbed out and enjoying a tiki tour over the back to the farm, landing on the pristine mowed grass at Godfreys campground.

Don had booked us into the Manilla pub in town. I don’t think you’ll find a more genuine classic aussie pub. A bit of local beer sampling and some good food completed the day.

The next day was forecast to be pretty reasonable and it was, though the hill proved it took no prisoners. This time both Ian and Don succumbed to the sink after looking like getting up. I managed a climb-out and tiki tour back to the far side of Manilla, taking a nice uphill landing by the road. Cloud cover beat me, and while I saw it happening, I couldn’t outrun it. While derigging I was buzzed by some clown in a plane - turned out Ian had scored a ride in a local pilots machine, a very slick motor glider.

The weather was catching up with us again though and it started raining that night, so it was a cruisy drive back to St George the next morning.

The next few days were spent having a go at various sports and experiences. I think us kiwis proved we could hold our own at smallbore target shooting, but the tennis matches that evening was where the Cramer family showed their strength. If it’s suggested you should partake in a friendly game of tennis with Don, look out!

It turns out that St George is in an area of fairly intensive agriculture, nothing like I was expecting. The area is one of the biggest cotton growing regions, and we got to have a real good look at the surrounding area, not by hang glider but by Gyro. Just one of Dons many toys but a very impressive one at that. Anyone who has flown in a gyro can attest to the weird ability to do a 180 degree turn on a dime. Freaky, scary but undeniably a cool fun machine. Way too soon it was back to Coolangatta and flying back to NZ but with some pretty cool memories. Many thanks to the cool group at Dalby, Viv for the flights on your beautiful green machine and especially Don the engineer extraordinaire for looking after us at St George.

Right;

Below right; Seems like you have to own a landcruiser around here? Carpark, Nindigully Pub. The oldest pub in Queensland and just down the road from St George