Many of the airports she will land at, including Gove, Jandakot and Ceduna, are tiny

Flying is, unfortunately, still a bit of a boy’s club

Wind poses her biggest daily challenge, with the Cessna 172 unable to land in conditions above 15 knots

Who writes this rubbish?! Good luck to her anyway and hopefully she can find a journalist that can write a decent article about it.

Interesting time to be heading across the top end, think I'd be doing it in the dry.

She should be relieved to know she has three very smart daughters!

I have loved aviation all my life. I'm currently 36 and male. I would love to get my pilots license one day. I'm also Aboriginal, I don't know of many Aboriginal people who are pilots, there wouldn't be many as pilots working for the airlines.

My challenge at the moment is: I need to save a bit more money, as we all know, aviation is expensive.

But perhaps my biggest challenge of all is my health, I have Diabetes (Type 2), and reading the CASA website, there is quite a few hoops to get through. It his quite stringent which I understand.

Seeing Chloe Familton fly solo around Australia (VH-NCO) in the C172 Skyhawke has inspired me a bit. But it's also made me think over the past week if I should of focused on aviation when I was younger, there's been a lot of "should of done that" thoughts the past few days for me and it has got me down I must admit. I chose to focus on my cricket career as an umpire, I umpired 1st Grade WA Premier cricket in Perth, which is the Premier club cricket competition in WA (all states have a Premier club competition) and the level below First-Class/representative cricket. I left cricket unfortunately in 2016 due to the politics of it all which hurt me, so I walked away, but at the time of me walking away, I was ranked in the top 15 umpired in WA and as a rough guess probably in the region of 10th to 12th.

Anyway, probably the first step for me is to see a DAME...one of thise medical examiners and get some advice especially as I am a Diabetic. Then I could look at getting my pilots license.

Perhaps I have run out of time to fly big jets. But maybe even flying a turbine aircraft one day, even turboprops may happen. Who knows?

I just wanted to share this story with you all because I absolutely love aviation. All of my knowledge has come from being self taught, researching, reading, internet etc and having friends in the aviation industry, a few of them being pilots for the major airlines. I read a lot on here, only sometimes do I comment. There is always something to learn in aviation which I enjoy.

I appreciate all of you (male and female) and the work you do in aviation, i also appreciate everyone who isnt on this site and the work they do for aviation. This post certainly isn't a "trying to suck up to you all" post. I simply wanted to share a little bit of my journey and experiences with you all.

You're all welcome to chat anytime.

Cheers.

Thanks Saintly, what a great post to read - a timely reminder of how most of us felt embarking on an aviation career, and how fortunate we are to do this instead of having a proper job (notwithstanding all our usual complaints). I’m no expert on the diabetes situation, but my understanding is that it’s not the total showstopper it used to be, so hopefully you can find a way around it. I really wish you all the best with your aviation ambitions - there are some good opportunities right now, and it sounds like you’ve got the right attitude. Never say never!

Hey Saintly,
Don't worry about the T2 diabetes. There are T1 diabetics who I know personally holding 1st class avmed and flying big jets. As you know T2 is way easier to control and predict.
I wish you all the best in your aviation career mate. I was a jet pilot and flight engineer for 46 years and loved it. Go for it!!

As a very rough approximate estimation, how much money should I save? I know that sounds like a stupid question to ask and I certainly dont want you or anyone else to think I'm stupid but I thought I'd ask.

There is one other aspect that is stopping me. It's called confidence. I actually feel a bit out of my comfort zone explaining this to you and everyone else, so forgive me.....its just that I have this fear of failure. I've always had it....the mindset sometimes of "what if what if what if or "what if that happens"....I wouldn't want to wreck anything if I was to get my pilots license. But I hope my love of aviation will overwrite the confidence issues.

But as I said, I love aviation, I could talk aviation with all of you all day and night but I won't, you'd probably all get sick and tired of me (and rightly so).

I think there is a reason why women are under represented in aviation, they are the smarter sex and can see through the "Dream job" rubbish. Flying is not the job most think it is. GA is virtually slave labour with CASA doing everything they can to make flying safer by putting more pilots and aircraft out of the air.

Paying for employment with low hour GA pilots seems the norm now. Airlines to some might be appealing but a lot just see the maximum hours and the drudgery of scheduled flight along with companies treating you as somewhere to save money to pay the rising executive salaries. Overseas flight wears thin with short stops, maximum hours and execs cutting every cost they can.

I have known lots of pilots who went the airline route, not many have lauded it as the "ultimate" job, with most complaining of treatment from the company, especially an Australian company. The only good word they have is about the superannuation they receive when retiring.

If you go flying be prepared to put up with bad treatment, under or no pay, working weekends, non existent holidays or family life for the first years of GA.

If you are one of those that have to absolutely fly, get a job that pays well and have your own aircraft. You will be a lot more satisfied and enjoy life.

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....c0e5919c3c.jpg

I suspect that if you have the self confidence to umpire cricket at a high level then you will have the self confidence to fly planes. That said, start working on your self confidence to bolster it now. Doesn’t matter if you fly or not it will still be nice to have :)
Thanks for posting your story.

My thoughts exactly. Despite happily doing everything I could ever imagine wanting to do in aviation, the idea of umpiring cricket at a serious level would be terrifying to me. (Partly because I would be hopeless at it.)

I’ve seen a few people who were not exactly full of self-confidence, but discovered they were actually bloody good at flying aeroplanes and never looked back.

Thanks very much for this post. I appreciate it

I want to also add that I think people who work in the aviation industry, they don't get the thanks they deserve. I really do think at times it's a thankless job.....the public expect to be flown from point A to point B which is fair enough, but it doesn't take much to for example upon disembarking the aircraft just say to the cabin crew "Thank you" or "Good job" or something along the lines and if you get the chance to then also thank the pilots...even a quick thumbs up......they all appreciate it. I make sure I always thank the cabin crew (plus if I can the pilots too) when I am disembarking the aircraft once flight is over. A simple acknowledgement goes a long way. Like the general public, people who work in the aviation industry are human too - they don't deserve abuse or to be treated bad. Always treat them with respect I reckon.

Thanks very much for this...I appreciate it

I'm sure if you learnt how to umpire, you would do well. Cricket needs more umpires, like most sports.

I always offer them a tip on leaving..

Me too, normally something along the lines of “ less top rudder” or “ You’re PA was unreadable”

Hi everyone,

I'd like to wish you all a Happy New Year. I hope 2024 is a great year for you.

Cheers 🛩

You too Saintly, I hope 2024 is a great yer for you and aviation in general :)

Thanks very much and same to you.

Cheers.

Another federal government press release on this topic:
https://minister.infrastructure.gov....rs-new-heights

Encouraging girls and women to take their aviation careers to new heights

This International Women’s Day and Women of Aviation Week, the Australian Government is continuing to invest in women’s futures in transport, working in partnership with our aviation sector to deliver new activities under the Women in the Aviation Industry Initiative.

There was a highly competitive tender process and four specialised suppliers have been selected to deliver projects that will help to shift the dial on diversity, inclusion and representation in Australia’s aviation industry.

This includes forums to support our emerging women leaders in aviation, an Aviation Career Explorer program to boost aviation interest amongst high school students, and encouraging male champions in the industry to drive long-term cultural change to increase inclusion for everyone – all to be delivered by WAI Australian Chapter.

The Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology will run programs for flight instructors to foster leadership and inclusion skills, as well as for high school students to develop their interest in STEM careers in aviation.

The initiative will also support awareness and outreach activities for school students to highlight the incredible possibilities aviation can offer them, to be led by the Civil Aviation Academy of Australasia.

ThinkPlace Australia is the fourth of the successful suppliers, selected to design and pilot behavioural interventions in the industry using nudge theory to influence cultural change.

The theme for this year’s International Women’s Day is ‘Count Her In: Invest in Women. Accelerate Progress’. These projects will do just that.

I look forward to seeing these programs come to life, to make a real difference for girls and women in aviation.

The Government will support these vital activities with $1.3 million in funding, with a further $2.9 million still available under the initiative until 30 June 2026.

This builds on the momentum achieved by the release of the Women in the Aviation Industry Initiative Strategic Action Plan in September 2023, and builds on the Working for Women: A strategy for Gender Equality focus on addressing industry gender segregation.
Media release
Friday 08 March 2024