Caboolture Airfield is an

aerodrome An aerodrome, airfield, or airstrip is a location from which aircraft flight operations take place, regardless of whether they involve air cargo, passengers, or neither, and regardless of whether it is for public or private use. Aerodromes inc ...

catering to

general aviation General aviation (GA) is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as all civil aviation aircraft operations except for commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services for other ...

and

ultralight Ultralight aviation (called microlight aviation in some countries) is the flying of lightweight, 1- or 2-seat fixed-wing aircraft. Some countries differentiate between weight-shift control and conventional three-axis control aircraft with aile ...

aircraft located in

Caboolture, Queensland Caboolture () is a town and Suburbs and localities (Australia), suburb in the City of Moreton Bay, Queensland, Australia. It is located on the northern side of the Caboolture River. In the , the suburb of Caboolture had a population of 29,534 p ...

, Australia, approximately north of the state capital

Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...

, adjacent to the

Bruce Highway The Bruce Highway is a major highway in Queensland, Australia. Commencing in the state capital, Brisbane, it passes through areas close to the eastern coast on its way to Cairns in Far North Queensland. The route is part of the Australian Natio ...

. The airfield is maintained and operated by the Caboolture Aero Club Incorporated and shares a large training area with nearby

Caloundra Airport Caloundra Airport is a public general aviation airport located in Caloundra West, Queensland, Caloundra West serving the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Sunshine Coast in the Australia, Australian state of Queensland. The airport is located on a ...

and Redcliffe Airport. The airfield is a popular site for the restoration of historic aircraft and a number of associated businesses are located onsite.

History and overview

An airstrip was first established at Caboolture prior to 1965 by Norman Douglas Thurecht who would later be a founding member of the Redcliffe Aero Club, after being denied permission to construct an airport at the present site of the Redcliffe Aerodrome owing to a lack of radar coverage in an area with close proximity to the busy Archerfield and

Eagle Farm Eagle Farm is an eastern industrial suburb of the City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. In the , Eagle Farm had a population of 11 people. The neighbourhood of Whinstanes is located in Eagle Farm (). Geography Eagle Farm is situated no ...

airports serving the city of Brisbane. Following the construction of Redcliffe Aerodrome, the Caboolture airstrip was abandoned and its operations moved to the new facility. The present site of Caboolture Airfield is held by lease from the

Queensland Government The Queensland Government is the state government of Queensland, Australia, a Parliament, parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Government is formed by the party or coalition that has gained a majority in the Queensland Legislative Assembly, ...

to Caboolture Aero Club. The Moreton Bay Regional Council acts as custodian of the land on behalf of the Queensland Government. Since its inception, the Caboolture Aero Club has owned and operated the site. The Brisbane Valley Gliding Club began operating from the airfield circa 1990, with the club changing its name to Caboolture Gliding Club in May 1991 and establishing its main base at Caboolture. The current lease arrangement for the airfield land is due to expire in 2034.

Operations

The primary user of the airport is the Caboolture Aero Club, however several other flying clubs also are based at the field. These include the Caboolture Gliding Club and Caboolture Microlights, a

Recreational Aviation Australia Recreational Aviation Australia (abbreviated to RAAus), formerly known as the Australian Ultralight Federation (AUF), is the governing body for ultralights in Australia. RAAus registers ultralight aircraft and issues pilot certificates throug ...

accredited flight training organisation. Fixed wing and helicopter flight training is available onsite through several providers including Airwork Helicopters, Aero Dynamic Flight Academy and Caboolture Recreational Aviation. In addition to general aviation, recreational and flight training users, the airport is a popular facility for the servicing and restoration of vintage aircraft. A number of organisations operate from Caboolture, including the Australian Aviation Heritage Centre (Queensland) Incorporated (formerly the Beaufort Restoration Group), and Complete Aircraft Care. The vintage aviation community has attracted fly-ins and airshow events to the airport, notably hosting the Queensland Vintage Aeroplane Group's Festival of Flight in 2001 and 2011. The airfield is also home to the Caboolture Warplane and Heritage Museum. Included in their display is a collection of

warbird A warbird is any vintage military aircraft now operated by civilian organizations and individuals, or in some instances, by historic arms of military forces, such as the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, the Royal Australian Air Force's No. 100 ...

and other vintage aircraft in flying condition. Currently, the collection includes a

P-51D Mustang Over twenty variants of the North American P-51 Mustang fighter were produced from 1940, when it first flew, to after World War II, some of which were employed also in the Korean War and in several other conflicts. Allison-engined Mustangs NA- ...

, SNJ and Winjeel as well as a French built

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

Nieuport 17 The Nieuport 17 C.1 (or Nieuport XVII C.1 in contemporary sources) is a French sesquiplane fighter aircraft, fighter designed and manufactured by the Nieuport company during World War I. An improvement over the Nieuport 11, it was a little large ...

fighter, as well as displays of aviation memorabilia and aircraft engines. Near the warplane museum is The Australian Vintage Aviation Society (TAVAS) Aviation Museum.

Airport facilities

The airfield has two grass runways, both of which operate with a

displaced threshold A displaced threshold or DTHR is a runway threshold located at a point other than the physical beginning or end of the runway. The portion of the runway behind a displaced threshold may be used for takeoff in either direction and landings from t ...

to allow aircraft to sufficiently clear the Bruce Highway and local roads. The primary strip is 11/29 which has an available landing distance measuring . A short sealed area exists at the runway 11 threshold stretching approximately 250m. A secondary strip aligned 06/24 has an available distance of for landings. Use of runway 24 is generally discouraged due to the proximity of Caboolture Hospital on this heading. Aircraft refuelling is available. There is no control tower at the airport and pilots are required to co-ordinate aircraft movements using a

Common Traffic Advisory Frequency Common traffic advisory frequency (CTAF) is the name given to the VHF radio frequency used for air-to-air communication at United States and Australian non-towered airports. Many towered airports close their towers overnight, keeping the airpo ...

(CTAF). The nearest radio navigation aid for aircraft is the Brisbane VOR/

DME DME may refer to: Chemicals * DME (psychedelic), 3,4-dimethoxy-beta-hydroxyphenethylamine, a psychedelic drug * Dimethoxyethane, a solvent * Dimethylethanolamine, a precursor molecule for C-choline * Dimethyl ether, a fuel and an aerosol spray pro ...

installation, to the south. While the airport charges no landing fees for visiting aircraft, a number of hazards exist which make Caboolture challenging for pilots who are unfamiliar with the facilities. Significant bird and wildlife hazards exist on the runways, due in part to the airfield not being fenced and in close proximity to a landfill site. During periods of heavy rain, the unsealed taxiways are prone to becoming waterlogged with a possibility of aircraft becoming bogged.

Accidents and incidents

*On 1 October 2012, vintage de Havilland DH.84 Dragon ''

Riama ''Riama'' is a genus of lizards in the family Gymnophthalmidae. The genus is endemic to South America. Species The genus ''Riama'' contains 16 species which are recognized as being valid. www.reptile-database.org. *'' Riama anatoloros'' *'' Ria ...

'', based at Caboolture crashed north of

Borumba Dam The Borumba Dam is a rock-fill dam, rock-fill embankment dam, embankment dam with an Spillway#Types, un-gated spillway located across the Yabba Creek, a tributary of the Mary River (Queensland), Mary River, in the Wide Bay–Burnett region of Quee ...

on the

Sunshine Coast Sunshine Coast may refer to: * Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia **Sunshine Coast Region, a local government area of Queensland named after the region **Sunshine Coast Stadium * Sunshine Coast (British Columbia), geographic subregion of the Br ...

killing all six people on board. At the time ''Riama'' was one of only four airworthy examples of the DH.84 in the world. The aircraft was returning to Caboolture from an airshow at

Monto Monto was the nickname for the one-time red light district in the northeast of Dublin, Ireland. The Monto was roughly the area bounded by Talbot Street, Amiens Street, Gardiner Street and Seán McDermott Street (formerly Gloucester Street) in ...

. The final accident report by the

Australian Transport Safety Bureau The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) is Australia's national transport safety investigator. The ATSB is the federal government body responsible for investigating transport-related accidents and incidents within Australia. It covers ai ...

(ATSB) was released on 19 December 2013. The ATSB stated that the pilot was not qualified in, and the aircraft not equipped for

instrument flight In aviation, instrument flight rules (IFR) is one of two sets of regulations governing all aspects of civil aviation aircraft operations; the other is visual flight rules (VFR). The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) ''Instrument Fly ...

and "... the pilot radioed air traffic control (ATC) and requested navigation assistance, advising that the aircraft was in cloud." They found that: "With no or limited visual references available in and near cloud, it would have been very difficult for the pilot to maintain control of the aircraft. After maintaining control in such conditions for about an hour, and being unable to navigate away from the mountain range, the pilot most likely became spatially disoriented and lost control of the aircraft before it impacted the ground." * On 22 March 2014, a

Cessna 206 The Cessna 205, 206 and 207, known primarily as the Stationair (and marketed variously as the Super Skywagon, Skywagon and Super Skylane), are a family of single-engined, general aviation aircraft with fixed landing gear, used in commercial air ...

belonging to Adrenalin Skydivers crashed shortly after take-off and caught fire, killing the five occupants on board. * On 28 July 2023 a privately owned

Jabiru J430 The Jabiru J430 is one model in a large family of two- and four-seat Australian light aircraft developed as a touring aircraft and provided in kit form by Jabiru Aircraft.Vandermeullen, Richard: ''2011 Kit Aircraft Buyer's Guide'', Kitplanes, V ...

and a

Piper Pawnee The PA-25 Pawnee is an agricultural aircraft produced by Piper Aircraft between 1959 and 1981. It remains a widely used aircraft in agricultural spraying and is also used as a tow plane, or tug, for launching gliders or for towing banners. In 19 ...

of the Caboolture Gliding Club collided at the crossing of the airfield's two runways. Both occupants of the Jabiru were killed while the pilot of the Pawnee was uninjured. The ATSB released a preliminary report on the incident but investigations are ongoing.

Gallery

File:AU-Qld-Caboolture-Airport from Bruce Highway-2021.jpg, Caboolture Airport from the western approach (2021). File:AU-Qld-Caboolture-Airport with taxiing aircraft-2021.jpg, Taxi lane (2021). File:AU-Qld-Caboolture-Airport with RFDS-2021.jpg, Old

Royal Flying Doctor Service The Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS), commonly known as the Flying Doctor, is an aeromedical retrieval service in Australia and the largest of its kind in the world. It is a non-profit organisation that provides urgent and emergency medica ...

VH-FDU 'George Simpson' de Havilland Australia DHA-3 Mk.3a Drover aircraft (2021). File:AU-Qld-Caboolture-Airport with Caribou-2021.jpg,

Caribou The reindeer or caribou (''Rangifer tarandus'') is a species of deer with circumpolar distribution, native to Arctic, subarctic, tundra, boreal, and mountainous regions of Northern Europe, Siberia, and North America. It is the only represe ...

A4-228 at the airport (2021).

References

External links

Australian Aviation Heritage Centre (Qld) Inc.

Caboolture Warplane and Heritage Museum

TAVAS Museum
{{Airports in Queensland Sunshine Coast, Queensland Airports in Queensland RA-Aus Approved Flight Training Facilities