Dingle Burn

Lake Hawea

Despite the challenging winter conditions, ERW still managed to clock up 24 hours during June. Pilots included Dave Burke, Gary and Russell towing, Jeremy Smith, Dave King, Pauline Hogue, Greg Foster, Nick with a good number of students, and myself.

On todays flight I have Emily Tyrrell with me. She is one of our Scholarship students undergoing flight training with Nick. It is great to be able to help our students to gain operational experience and for them to get an insight as to what Scenic flying is like.

After departing from Alexandra, we flew through the gorge to Cromwell. After a brief check on the runway condition, it was back in the air and climbing to our planned altitude of 7500ft. However, with the wind a lot stronger than was forecasted, we held our climb at 3500ft until we were closer to the Dingle Burn valley.

The Dingle Burn is a popular tramping area. It is a sizeable valley being over 30km long and about 2km wide. The walls rise sharply 5000ft on either side. The valley floor has a steady slope dropping over 4000ft into Lake Hawea . It’s one of those valleys that you should take care if you are flying up it.

Flying down Lake Hawea, we passed Timaru Creek. This is another popular tramping area, especially if you walk up to the head of the valley, and then cross over to the Dingle Burn.


Dingle Burn Valley