The thread does ask - aviation- so if I may seek the indulgence of the mods generosity to not only pay homage to OZ's most famous fixed wing aviatrix, who died very recently, even tho respects have been posted on Jet blast and elsewhere, I thought that a bit of one of her innumerable interviews really struck a chord with this thread.
Speaking to the ABC's Peter Thomson in 2006, Ms Walton said she was thrilled by the exhilaration of flying.
"The freedom of the air. The freedom of flight," she said on the Talking Heads program.
"And you completely remove yourself from the world. And you can voluntarily remove yourself from all those ... everything that's near and dear to you. And you voluntarily return."
She said if her father had had his way, she would have followed in his footsteps and run the general store in the town of Mount George, New South Wales.
"He was a very hardworking man. He believed in working 16 hours a day. And he thought everybody else should," she said.
"When I came down to visit mother, I went out to Mascot in 1930 and had a trial instruction flight with Captain Leggett.
"And that convinced me that that was what I wanted to do. So I bought myself a flying helmet and then I went back to the country to save up and grow up."
Vale Nancy Bird Walton, taught to fly by Smithy at age eighteen. One of Qantas' latest aeroplanes is named in her honour.