Beaches of Indian Ocean

[Vlad]

I have landed on various US oceanic beaches multiple times. I feel pretty confident with my experimental. I've been to Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic (only once) shores. So the only ocean missing from my beach collection is Indian. Do you guys have places to land on West Coast sand? Are there any restrictions?

 

 

 

[facthunter]

We have plenty of examples of where it didn't come off too well. Sometimes the actual slope down to the water is quite steep. There's some very large tides also near Broome. Nev

 

 

[Birdseye]

Tidal variation in the SW is quite small, leading to small soft beaches. Nev's suggestion, i.e. the Kimberly region, is probably your best bet. Rather remote if you get it wrong.

 

 

[rgmwa]

Be careful out there. It can be a long walk back to civilisation along the beach if you get it wrong, and watch out for the crocodiles. Here's one for the Islands collection. East Wallabi is off the WA coast and has an airstrip that is available for private operations. Very interesting history too...

 

Abrolhos Islands - Australias Coral Coast

 

rgmwa

 

 

[Dinga]

Tidal variation in the SW is quite small, leading to small soft beaches. Nev's suggestion, i.e. the Kimberly region, is probably your best bet. Rather remote if you get it wrong.

Agreed, and there lies the problem. Whilst the WA coast is covered in great beaches many are very soft and/or sloping and/or very remote (which wouldn't be in issue unless you were hanging upside down in your seat belt ). I'd say definitely possible but in your position with an RV I have to ask myself why? There lots of small dirt strips (and areas to land in general) close to the coast so I would think perhaps safer with that option (unless your in a Tundra Trike of course ).

 

 

[Round Engines]

I have landed on various US oceanic beaches multiple times. I feel pretty confident with my experimental. I've been to Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic (only once) shores. So the only ocean missing from my beach collection is Indian. Do you guys have places to land on West Coast sand? Are there any restrictions?

Go to 80 mile beach between Port Hedland and Broome. There is plenty of room and the beach is flat and wide.

 

 

[spacesailor]

And "Cable beach" Broom WA, the sand is as hard as sandstone.

 

To bad it's full of tourist, on the good flying day's.

 

spacesailor

 

 

[Round Engines]

While you are on your way to 80 mile make sure you drop in to Thevenard Island off the coast of Onslow. It's another one of my favourite spots. About a 100 metre walk from the strip to the beach. There is also accomodation available.

 

Then there is Coral Bay, another fantastic location.

 

 

[facthunter]

It's a pretty salty environment for an aeroplane. Soft sand is hard to pick and with a slope it turns uphill into the softer sand. You would want to check the tides accurately. There's some really remote hot parts of this place and without fresh water you won't last long. Nev

 

 

[Yenn]

Either Derby or Wyndham the local strip is the beach at low tide. I cannot remember which, but I talked to an ultralight flyer there.

 

Look for a beach that is flat and doesn't have runnels across it. Keep away from beaches near mangroves. Follow a falling tide is what I like to do. Tide tables are available on line. The tide drops or rises 1/12 of range in first and last hour. 2/12th in second hour and 3/12th in third hour. That might be of use to you.

 

 

[rgmwa]

The tide drops or rises 1/12 of range in first and last hour. 2/12th in second hour and 3/12th in third hour. That might be of use to you.

... especially when it comes back in. Some of those tides can be up to 8-9 metres.

 

rgmwa

 

 

[Downunder]

Well..... what about Rottnest Island. On the strip that is, not the beach. Close enough to the beach without the risks.

 

As a south west resident, I don't land on beaches here. Too many stories of mishaps and being stranded many miles from easy recovery.

 

On the right day, in the right conditions it would be ok but there is no regular or popular beach landing areas I know of.

 

 

[Bruce Tuncks]

Lovely photo Vlad.

 

Before I bought my Jabiru kit I heard about a guy who "landed" his Jabiru on a beach near Bundaberg. Some guys from the factory came out and put it back up the right way, cleaned out the sand from the carby etc, wheeled it down to the hard sand and flew it back home.

 

You sure need to be able to tell hard sand from soft huh.

 

 

[Bruce Tuncks]

They may have put on a new prop too, I'm not sure.

 

 

[Round Engines]

The hard sand is normally all shiney and wet.

 

 

[facthunter]

Mix some cement in with it and it's OK. I don't like the idea of landing on a remote beach. If I did it I would like a taildragger with slow speed capability and bigger low pressure tyres. The sea breeze can often be counted on to slow your landing speed but it's usually nearly 90 degrees to the wet sand. If the tide is coming in the isolated slightly larger wave event may make your landing into a disaster.. Nev

 

 

[Yenn]

Plenty of beach North of Bundy. Aeroplane Beach is just West of Bustard Head. I have seen several aircraft there at the same time. Just East of Cape Capricorn is OK to land on with care, but that is where Flipper got his nickname. Hummock Hill Island and Wild Cattle islands are good. A friend of mine lived on Wild Cattle and used the beach for all his comings and goings. Could be difficult in a Thruster with a strong cross wind

 

 

[spacesailor]

F.T

 

Cement's a bit heavy!,

 

Fly a slowly over the soft beach, and throw a handful of,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

 

Viagra,,,,,,,,,,,,out, it'll soon harden up LoL.

 

spacesailor

 

 

[Head in the clouds]

Back in the Drifter days I did a lot of beach flying. I had a custom made fibreglass box under my knees which I carried tools and 'allsorts' in. Among those items were a quantity of fluoro-coloured golf balls.

 

I'd select an area of beach that looked firm then fly over it at about fifty feet and drop golf balls about every fifty metres or so. If they bounced it was a safe landing area and if they went 'splat' it only cost me a golf ball or two, much cheaper than an inverted plane ... Mind you - folk should keep in mind it's not legal to drop anything from a plane without a CASA dispensation, so I guess that safety precaution is actually off limits.

 

What was surprising at first, was the frequency with which a largely firm area had small very soft patches in it. After a while I could usually spot them because they were just slightly wetter than the surrounding sand. The reason they were soft was water coming to the surface. Some of them were quite active quicksands too. Flying low towards the sun helps with spotting them because the sunlight reflects more off the wetter areas.

 

I had golf buggy wheels and tyres on the Drifter, and ran them at about 8psi when flying off sand.

 

About Wyndham and Derby - neither of them have any beach at all but we did used to fly off the mud flats, you can land on the light-coloured stuff where there are vehicle tyre tracks but stay well away from the dark stuff and anything close to it or it's gooey mud or a thin layer of drying mud covering ooze beneath. Wouldn't be any fun to break through it.

 

Derby has the world's biggest tides, 14m at Springs on king tides twice a year, and over 11m the rest of the time. Derby's airport is Curtin RAAF airbase, about 15 miles inland.

 

Broome has huge tides too and Cable Beach is a perfect place to land provided there hasn't been a major storm for a while. If there has been it gets gulleys/washouts through it which can be hard to see but would rip the gear off if you hit one. Cable Beach is an optional dress beach and is also a gazetted road. It's about 10-12 Nm long and used to be quite easy to get CASA permission to land on it provided you put in a formal request at least 28 days in advance and detail your plans for safety fences/warnings, SMS and all that. For a few years I ran helicopters and plane flights off there during Shinju, the Festival of the Pearl, and it worked without a hitch because the place is so large that there's plenty of room for everyone.

 

Speaking of the largeness of it, beware the speed of the tides. They're up to 13m there and the inter-tidal zone is very flat which means the tide goes out a mile or more but because the gradient is so low it comes back in 'faster than a horse can gallop', as some of our early explorers found out to their cost. And on Spring tides it comes in right up to the dune vegetation leaving only traces of soft powdery sand which you can't even drive a 4WD on, so you need to make your flight in on the falling tide, preferably at about half tide.

 

There are plenty of large and beautiful firm beaches on the West Coast which are remote, and although it's not legal to land on them anywhere without CASA permission, because all WA beaches are Crown Land, if you do your homework on Google Earth and elsewhere, you'd be very unfortunate to be sprung but you wouldn't want to get stuck because it'd probably cost you your plane and a hefty fine. Some of the coastal cattle stations have blanket approvals for beach landings, so it might be worth contacting some of them, with the right approach they're usually very helpful.

 

 

[Kununurra]

Either Derby or Wyndham the local strip is the beach at low tide. I cannot remember which, but I talked to an ultralight flyer there.Look for a beach that is flat and doesn't have runnels across it. Keep away from beaches near mangroves. Follow a falling tide is what I like to do. Tide tables are available on line. The tide drops or rises 1/12 of range in first and last hour. 2/12th in second hour and 3/12th in third hour. That might be of use to you.

Neither both Derby and Wyndham have bitumen strips Wyndham strip has just be resealed

 

 

[Kununurra]

Head in the clouds

 

Derby has the world's biggest tides, 14m at Springs on king tides twice a year, and over 11m the rest of the time. Derby's airport is Curtin RAAF airbase, about 15 miles inland.

 

Derby has 2 airports you are correct the jets land at Curtain but they also have a very good local airport with two good runaways 11-29 and 05-23 also good fuelling facilities

 

 

[Yenn]

I think it was Wyndham and a local told me he landed his ultralight on what could be called either beach or mud flats, very close to the road but in the intertidal zone.

 

 

[Pindan]

Hi Vlad

 

I am at Gnaraloo Station on the Ningaloo Reef, and you wont get a beach much better than Gnaraloo Bay about 300m from a 900m gravel strip. there is also a hire car and accommodation available.

 

www.gnaraloo.com.au

 

 

[Round Engines]

Hi VladPindan,

 

I lived up north for over a decade and used to fly from Karratha and Hedland to Carnarvon and Geraldton on a regular basis. I wish I had known about your airstrip back then. Looks like a wonderful place. I might drop in when the Valley View fly in is on next year.

 

RE.

 

I am at Gnaraloo Station on the Ningaloo Reef, and you wont get a beach much better than Gnaraloo Bay about 300m from a 900m gravel strip. there is also a hire car and accommodation available.

 

www.gnaraloo.com.au

[Pindan]

Any time..........whats the Valley View fly in?