Planning is under way for our trip to Tassie in March. I'll be coming past Torquay on my way to Tyabb, so thought I'd take a look at it on Google Earth. I was pretty sure I found the right airfield- distance and bearing from Torquay township was about right, and some of the features matched. But the layout of the airfield, as it appeared on Google Earth seemed different from what I read in the 2009 AOPA airfield guide, or the Vic and Tas country airfield guide (13th Edition, 2006). According to AOPA, there were 2 runways aligned 18/36, with the Eastern one shorter than the western one. Yet the scene from GE shows one very long marked runway, although there is an area of grass to the west that could serve as the parallel runway- except that it appears shorter, not longer. I figure this is also a runway- as this is/was a Tiger Moth airfield.
AOPA also mentions another runway, 09/27 and the country airfield guide shows this to be near the northern end of the 18/36/runways. GE shows what looks like a runway there, and also another possible runway further to the south- same alignment. The diagram also shows a taxiway aligned roughly 13/31, but on the GE image this looks big enough to be a runway.
So, can any of you local chaps enlighten me? What's what at Torquay? If I have time, and it looks like the place is active, I may drop in and say howdy on the way past. Date and time largely unpredictable at this stage, but some time between the 21st Feb and 24th Feb. Maybe I'll see some of you chaps there.
Regards
Coop