In 1978 I joined No 26 Flight of the Air Training Corps (AIRTC) and experienced my first flight with our Flight Commander John Butler in the LVAC Cessna 172 VH-INU. In those days, the cadets had the opportunity to do aero club duty and after washing aircraft and sweeping floors etc, we would usually get to go flying with someone. On one of those weekends, Dave Dawson became the first person to show me aerobatics in the Victa Airtourer VH-MOI and we ended up in a “dog fight” with Peter Furlong in a Chipmunk. It was great fun but I think it took me a week to get over how queasy I felt.
After being awarded an AIRTC flying scholarship to first solo and with a personal loan from my grandmother “Dolly" Hoppner, I had my first instructional flight with Roger Vanstan at the LVAC on 17 Dec 1981 in the Cessna 172 VH-EUI. My other aero club instructors were Alex Hood, Alan Helding and Gary Chadwick. Three weeks after my first flight I passed my restricted PPL test with John Willis, the CFI, on 9 Jan 1982. The Department of Transport (the CASA of the day) did not notice that I was only 16 and a half years old and issued me with a restricted PPL and I was able to take passengers in the training area whilst still 6 months under age. After turning 17, I then completed my unrestricted PPL with the LVAC in Oct 1982. I flew a total of 150 hours at the LVAC on the Cessna 172s (VH-EUI, UGO, CMX, INU and STH) dropping parachutists, flying with the AIRTC and doing cost share flights. I learned to spin the Victa Airtourer VH-MOI and got endorsed on the Cessna 206 VH-IQH before, and to quote Don Suckling, “Joined the big government flying club”.
In May 1984 I joined the RAAF and my experience at the LVAC certainly helped me in the initial stages of pilots course. After receiving my wings I was posted to fly fighters at RAAF Williamtown with No 77 SQN, No 2 OCU, No 3 SQN and was then posted to RAAF Tindal with No 75 SQN. I began instructing in 1990 at No 2 OCU when I became a Fighter Combat Instructor (FCI) on the F/A-18 Hornet. I then qualified as an Instrument Rating Examiner (IRE) on the F/A-18 Hornet. I continued flying fighters throughout my RAAF career until joining Cathay Pacific Airways in February 1993. After moving to Hong Kong I converted to the L1011 TriStar. My current role is as a Training Captain/Check on the Airbus A330 and A340.
I hold a current Grade 1 Flight Instructor Rating (with multiple training approvals) an RAA Instructor Rating and am a CASA Delegate for low level aerobatics in the P51 Mustang to 1000ft AGL and any aircraft with an engine below 800 hp to 500ft AGL.
Flying is my passion and I always try to get airborne in anything I can whenever I am visiting the LVAC, where I first learned to fly and am still a member. I have no doubt that without my experience with the LVAC I would not have had the head start needed to kick off my flying career.
Learnt to fly with Latrobe Valley Aero Club in 1966 and subsequently gained CPL (1969) and Instructor Rating (1970). Served as a committee member between 1971 – 1974 and took up full time instructor position with LVAC in 1974. Instructed with LVAC until 1989. Left to take up employment with Augusta Airways (Adelaide) initially as an instructor and line pilot flying scheduled services between Adelaide, Port Augusta and Leigh Creek. Appointed Chief Pilot in 1990. Resigned from Augusta Airways in 1997 and moved to Canberra to become an aviation accident investigator with the then Bureau of Air Safety Investigation (now Australian Transport Safety Bureau).
My early memories of the Latrobe Valley Airport was as a child watching an RFDS King Air retrieving a patient from the local hospital. This led me to follow a passion for all things aviation. While in my early years of high school, I began my flying training at the Latrobe Valley Aero Club in 2002, after a few years weekend flying (and waiting to acheive the minimum solo age of 16) I was sent solo shortly after my 16th birthday in one of the LVAC’s Cessna 172’s. Over the next couple of years I completed my Commercial Pilots Licence, Night VFR, Tailwheel & Multi-Engine training to hopefully gain my first job in aviation.
In 2007 I moved to a remote on Elcho Island in the Northern Territory to fly Cessna 206/210’s transporting residents and staff in and out of aboriginal communities. This was a great way to build the first thousand or so hours to help me into a multi-engine job. The following twelve months I spent in Gove, NT (around 700kms east of Darwin) flying Beechcraft Baron’s on charter work. In late 2009 I spent a small period of time working at the Latrobe Valley Aero Club conducting the fire patrols and other charter work required over the fire season whist giving me a great opportunity to study the exams for the Airline Transport Pilot Licence (ATPL).
I obviously hadn’t had enough of remote living, so decided to take on a job in Derby, Western Australia flying Cessna Caravan’s on crew transfers to a remote Iron Ore mine in the Kimberley. After gaining all the turbine, multi-engine and night hours that I required to progress my career, I had an opportunity to move back to Darwin to fly Metroliners on charter operations in support of the oil/gas industry in the Timor Sea. Ultimately this led me to follow my dream of flying as an air ambulance pilot and in January 2013 I began working for CareFlight flying the King Air B200 across the Northern Territory on aeromedical retrieval flights.