Tho' the OP is concerned primarily to find work, there are other things an aspiring pilot should be doing in his spare time to broaden his appreciation of the skies we are so fortunate to take to. And the wonderful people who over many years have made it possible. The late Ossie Osgood, a revered charter operator from Darwin, had a mountain of good sense to impart to those pilots fortunate enough to be taken on to work for him.
He was big on getting his pilots to read beyond the manuals.
Here, going back, a few relevant posts on the subject -
Vale E.C. "Ossie" Osgood OAM
To all old Arnhem Pilots and other top enders,
Ossie passed away on Saturday morning in the Darwin Hospital after a long and typically stubborn fight against multiple illnesses,
including the amputation of both legs.
Ossie was a genuine pioneer after WW2 flying Tiger Moths crop dusting in Western Australia before moving up to the TopEnd. He flew a wide variety of aircraft including Catalinas, Dragon Rapides and Percival Proctors. He also was instrumental in bringing new American equipment into Australia such as the first Baron.
When he lost his licence on medical grounds in 1994 he had accrued in excess of 33000 hours in his logbook.
At times Ossie was quite volatile and was often quite eccentric but at the same time kindhearted. I well remember the time a friend's pay had been stolen by one of our indigenous passengers{they were nearly all indigenous}. Ossie went straight to the cash register and repaid him as soon as he found out.
He also had an immense dislike of bureaucracy, especially CASA,
which persisted until he died, although he often quite liked the FOIs he dealt with.
There are Arnhem pilots flying for Airlines all over the world now who progressed their careers with Ossie and I know this made him proud.
Ossie's family will be holding a ceremony at Darwin Funeral Services at 10am on Thursday, after which he will be interred at Thorak Regional Cemetery next to his beloved wife Shirley.
Thanks Ossie,
The Baron
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AIRSPACE ALPHA -
I commend to you the book “Beyond the Blue Horizon” by Alexander Frater. (Only available these days as an e-book I’m afraid). In 1983 Frater decided to replicate using modern airlines the old Imperial Airways route from London to Brisbane that was the 1930’s service. His journey variously took him through Egypt, Iraq, the Middle East and Pakistan- where he met an Air New Zealand F27 crew on detachment to the Oman air force.
The final chapters cover his route from Darwin to Brisbane. He flies in a Tillair Cessna 421 (“The Conquest is crook today mate”) and has lunch with Ossie Osgood of Arnhem Air Charter.
Apropos the way we were here is a section from his evening flight from Townsville to Brisbane on the Ansett B727:
Dinner was roast lamb, carrots, broccoli and potatoes, served with a quarter bottle of classie Aussie claret. The moonless Pacific turned from pearl grey to black, the sky to the west over Australia from an exuberant swirl of orange and plum to a faint luminous smudge, like the glow from live embers.
I sat immediately behind First Class and the voices, fuelled by free liquor, grew more boisterous, the laughter less restrained until it sounded as if an impromptu party was being thrown in the forward cabin.
I saw reflected in the dark window a first class meal being demolished by a sinewy brown arm with its sleeve rolled up and gold Rolex Oyster on the wrist. It worked its way through a giant chunk of pate encased in pastry and a pound or two of beef. Periodically the small hand of the stewardess stole into the window to refill his wine glass. He and his neighbour were conversing noisily about the State Mangroves Board and the butt of their jokes was an official referred to as the Commissioner of Mangroves. Could this be true? If so these two held the commissioner in very low esteem.
END OF QUOTE
I wasn’t in Australia at the time- in fact I was sitting on by arse in Nigeria trying not to get killed- but this to me evokes a time many talk about- the heyday of Australian airline service and of course some of the customers who used them.
BEYOND THE BLUE HORIZON
An outstanding read indeed. The bits about his early experiences in the Qantas Short Class C Empire boats between Brisbane and Fiji are brilliant. Then late in the book when flying his retrace through Queensland he sits next to a female passenger who had a silver miniature on a bracelet of the very same flying boat that he knew in his childhood. 'Coriolanus' , one of the C Class.
Also memorable was the advice he had from Ossie Osgood as to how Ossie would insist on his pilots reading a few recommended texts , all to do with the early days and the lore that past pilots wrote about tellingly.
e.g. Ernest Gann, Ann Welch ('Accidents Happen') , Mac Job, Lindbergh, Chichester. . . the list is a long one.