Fly & Dine
 

Good day fellow aviators and Pprune memebers,

As the title suggests, I'm after places around Australia, where you could fly in, park your aircraft and walk into town for a nice meal.

Aware of a few limited places such as;

- Mount beauty
- Tooradin
- Apollo Bay
- Dunkeld
- Milawa

Any other suggestions will be greatly appreciated,

Thanks,

T&G :ok:

Mudgee, Narromine, Jindabyne (short taxi ride), Bankstown if your after a KFC or Hungry Jacks, Cessnock (taxi ride again, or most wineries will pick you up)

Vic:
Moorabbin
Essendon
Great Lakes, Lakes Entrance( 4.5km walk)
Phillip Island (4.7 kms to San Remo)

NSW:
Cootamundra
Narromine
Temora


It all depends on how far you are happy to walk for a meal !

WA
Leeuwin estate,
Rottnest Island

Bright
 

Porekunkah,,,great strip, cab to bright, $20, absolute beauty all round. Ovens river side restaurants, ideal fly in venue.

Oodnadatta, but the local ringers might fight you over the barmaid.:sad:

Shindy's Inn at Louth NSW. (About 100kms downstream the Darling river from Bourke with a population of 35.) Great cabin accom, meals and lots of ice cold draught beer. :ok:
We visited during March this year.

Shepparton breakfast at the Aeroclub this Sunday or the Peppermill for a good steak just up the road a couple of hundred metres.

Milewa for fine food and wines beside the airstrip. Birdsville if you want to go a tad further and don't mind the flies. William Creek or even Curtain Springs for the Outback experience (Peter Severin will pick you up from the strip in his Mercedes and his stories are worth the trip).

Kaz

Caloundra - Airport right next to town. 15 min walk into town along the bikeway/walkway behind the NE hangars.

This is a scenic flight that we do from AF 2-3 times a year via the Glasshouse Mountains.

We often do breakfast at McDonalds at the entrance to the CBD(such as it is), then on towards the town centre, right turn to the fish and chip shops and cafes/restaurants along the boardwalk which starts at Bulcock Beach, then runs along the shore and around the Caloundra Headland to King's Beach.

Afterwards, walk back from the top of the hill down the main street, Bulcock St, for more cafes and restaurants, then continue straight out of town and back to the airfield.

Dunk Island

Archerfield has a wonderful greasy spoon cafe on site, you wouldn't need to walk into town for a gourmet meal.;)

Map of airstrips within 1 kilometer of pubs, accommodation and fly in food courtesy of this guy

If the link does not work its a long way down this page: StolSpeed Aerodynamics - Performance Enhancement for Light Aircraft

If you're ever past Point Cook you can drop into my place for a beer.

Milawa - Brown Brothers
 

Excellent spot...great food

However there is a fixed price menu that includes alcohol. if you are not drinking then you get gourmet soft drinks!

To enjoy the experience next time I am going to stay the night there.

I agree with alidad - the food was really good at Oodnadatta at the Pink Roadhouse.

Also had a great feed at the Innamincka pub as well.

My mate and I usually share the flying, soon worked out why he was keen to fly the first leg, so he could have a beer with lunch and snooze as I flew the afternoon leg!

Cheers

JERR

Don't know if it's still going, but before you could fly in to Essendon, park your aircraft then hop on a DC-3 and "fly and dine"!

I'm in Central Victoria and my favourite nearby fly-away/walk-in lunch destination is Pyramid Hill, YPYD. The airstrip is 15 minutes walk from the Coffee Bank cafe in "town", where the food is good and the coffee is excellent.

The downside is that the single north-south runway has a loose gravel surface that's not at all prop-friendly. You have to power-up slowly to avoid damage, and there's nowhere to safely do engine runups. There's also a power line at the northern-end runway threshold that you need to keep an eye on.

Another option is YBIR, about 25 mins walk south of Birchip, where you can get a prize-winning vanilla slice from the famous Sharps Bakery.

Shute Harbour is good. There's a decent cafe/bar at the airport, and Airlie Beach is not far by bus or cab.

Squawk7700----you suggest YMMB? Where at Moorabbin? RVAC club bar is closed for renovations isn't it? Wings cafe is mediocre at best.....:ugh:

Tooradin and even Tyabb are much better....

Lilydale, grab a short 5 min cab ride to Chateau Yering station winery or maybe a 10 min cab ride to the Yarra Valley Chocolate Factory....now that's good.

There's no need to hit your head against a brick wall. Moorabbin has DFO (Direct Factory Outlets) a very short walk through the coded gate. Not a-la-carte, but convenient with lots of choice and shops for the Mrs and kids.

Kulgera NT.

Haven't flown into the strip there, but stayed in the caravan park. The Pub there is a classic Aussie outback pub. The barman said they can get 200 people there on a good night!

The night we were there, there were about 12-15 people drinking there, and a few more drinking at their caravans. Mostly people passing through on their way to/from somewhere else:)

A cool (isolated and desolate) place that is on my 'fly and dine/stay' list.

Oh yeah the DFO.........mmmmm that place!!

Next

In SA you could add Penny's Hill Winery in McLaren Vale to that list, and there is at least one other in the Barossa.

Steve

Another plus for Caloundra. Great Fish and Chip shop on the boardwalk under the Breakfree hotel!

Re: Caloundra Fish and Chip Shops - Another good one is very nearby on the cnr of Tay and Maloja Aves, which has been there for about the last forty years that I can recollect and which you have to walk past to get to the beginning of the boardwalk from the airfield anyway.

There are nearby seats and picnic tables on the Bulcock Beach boardwalk so you can sit down and eat your fish and chips while admiring the view.

YMPC
 

Porter - does offer extend to all members?! Perhaps we could arrange a fly-in to your place (if the powers that be allow!).

OP - D'Olive restaurant/accommodation, is a short walk from YMPC (I'm sure they'd pick you up too).

Ass's Ear lodge in the Grampians
 

Flew up there yesterday with 3 other aircraft and 11 souls for a great night of food and wine.

Extraordinarily reasonable cost, comfortable bed, wonderful views and a 1200' grass airstrip...what more could an Auster driver wish for?

YGMP is pretty much due west of Stawell and just on the other side of the main Pyrenees range...North of Rocklands.

Kaz

Picked a crackin` day for a flight back down today too Kaz!

Yes...not often the Auster will fly hands off for extended periods. Sunday was magnificent except as usual the wind socks at Stawell (lunch stop) were alternately pointing at right angles to one another.

The vis dropped significantly coming home because all the croppies seemed to be burning stubble and there was a massive inversion so I did the last 50 miles or so at 1500'. Little bumpy as the thermals started to bubble but still very pleasant compared to recent months.

The ARO at Shepp had very kindly agreed to let us back in while works were in progress. The runway is being widened atm and I think they are doing the taxiways too.

Kaz

The main street in Wynyard (Tasmania) is 1 block from the airport and less than a 5 min walk.

Benalla (YBLA) in northeastern Victoria. Land, walk down the street four blocks or so to Hide's Bakery. Great food and very good prices.

Phillip Island is a good one if you want to take your own BBQ....

Done an evening BBQ on the beach there, very enjoyable.

OH LPG! bottles... HAZ Goods...not a problem...a phone call will see a gas bottle arranged for your use at the other end.

Thank you all very much for replying!

T&G :ok:

I'm kinda saddened this is the only suggestions available for WA :{

Haven't been there in ten years now but the Australian Hotel in Boulia Qld is but a five minute walk from the A/D. Food was great back then.:ok:

And a Saturday night there was, shall we say, an experience!:ooh::E:D

Overnight Tilpa Hotel, NSW on the Darling River. That's on our next trip in May. :)

Peppermill Inn is good
 

I recently called in at YSHT and walked the few hundred metres, less than 10 minutes, to the Peppermill Inn (via the airport emergency gate, which appears to be permanently unlocked). Excellent venue: great food and just about as close to aircraft parking as it's possible to be. Recommended.

Cheers! Phil

Seem to remember Merimbula from my bank running days. Wasn't too far a walk, bout 3.5 ks as I remember it. The beach is just across the road from the airport.

kika