SAFA Skysailor Magazine

9 January | February 2022 SKY SAILOR good organisation to be able to fly it with a decent degree of safety. The weather is normally stiflingly hot and the place tends to be quite windy a lot of the time. Very few roads, with large areas of inaccessible ground in between, means you need to know where you’re going and have a ground crew that has satellite communications. The airspace around Burketown can have many aircraft in the same general area, all trying to fly on the same wave and many of them doing so in excess of 100kt. You need to fly with VHF and actually use it! That is, beside the fact that you will be operating around a security controlled airport with RPT traffic. Apart from flying, there is not much else to do in that part of the world, unless you are into fishing, swimming, or telling grand stories over cold beverages. Morning Glory season coincides with the end of the barra- mundi season, so a lot of the available accommodation is taken up by fishos. It’s also the turtle breeding season, if you happen to be into that sort of thing… On top of all this it’s also proper croc country, so if you like to have a swim, you will either need to swim really fast, or drive a long way to find a suitable spot. One way or another, it is truly a memorable place to hang out and fly! Looking down the Burketown runway at night. Some rather nice and dark skies to be had around there Canoeing in Lawn Hill Gorge The Gregory River at Gregory – an awesome spot for a swim and camping and only just down the road from Burketown (120km away). Also the site of the annual Gregory River Race All photos: Michael Zupanc