My Aviation Career To Date

In the Beginning...

I was born at Dubbo Base Hospital at 8 AM on New Year's Day, 1951, thereby inconveniencing my mother with a long labour that had apparently started just as New Year fireworks were going off.  I still have a photo, somewhere, of being walked through the mud of the Dubbo Show, 1955, soon after an historic flood, for which the record that still seems to stand. I was asthmatic too and, also apparently, I nearly died from it before my 2nd birthday,

The old treatment for asthma was that, if it occurred in the bush, you moved to the coast and, if it occurred on the coast, you moved inland.  The family therefore moved to Sydney, taking advantage of a family home that had recently been left to us in the Will of a very considerate Great Grandfather of mine. I finally overcame the asthma and it never recurred.

Anyway, of more recent times, having researched my family history quite extensively, I know that all my ancestors had their feet planted firmly on the ground. Well, unless they were on a sailing ship from England to Australia, of course!  The sailing bug struck my direct family quite hard and I was swept up in it for a time. I became fairly proficient but it didn't light my fire at all. It hit my brother quite hard and is still a passion for him - more so for my nephew. My own plans were in a constant state of flux though my parents wanted me to have a career in journalism.

My marks throughout schooling seemed to point that way - so said the High School Careers Councillor, who was somewhat disaffectionately known by fellow students as "Jack the Crab" - who had somehow managed to convey that thought to my parents. It seemed somewhat logical to me because my parents had brought me up to say the things that need to be said, which I'd always supposed was basically what a journalist should do. This lesson in life was, of course, at odds with previous learning, which said "children should be seen but not heard"!

It was one of many inconsistencies that I would encounter in later life! Still, the idea of becoming a journalist did become my mantra for a while, though it eventually took a back seat as my working life drifted semi-aimlessly into a job with the NSW Department of Motor Transport when I was 17 years old. At that stage, I had no interest in aviation and considered it merely as a means of getting from A to B fairly quickly. In those days, I lived to drive - a desire not shared by the same said Dept. of Motor Transport that cancelled my Provisional Driver Licence for failing to give way to my right! Isn't everyone allowed ONE mistake?

This was one of many lessons I would learn over the years. Despite those 3 months of inconvenience, I continued working for the employer that had taken away my licence and subsequently reinstated it. By then, I'd seen that there was a pretty good career path, in which I could advance by taking every promotion opportunity. That concept took me to my 1st post outside HQ, at Five Dock Motor Registry. From there, back to HQ, then to Tamworth as a promotion. Back to HQ and another promotion to the Dubbo Motor Registry.  It was here that my life changed direction quite dramatically, though I could never have realised quite HOW dramatically, at the time!

So What Changed?
To answer this, I need to go back a bit.  It was June, 1972, and I was a young bloke working at the Tamworth Motor Registry Office.  I'd been there for about 6 months and, in those days, the town was the sort of place with only 2 activities - fishing and fucking... and in the winter time, there was no fishing!  I'd already done all of that and boredom had settled in on my life.

Thus, on the cold, sunny morning of 24 June 1972, I was out driving and saw a billboard sign that advertised "Learn to Fly at Tamair".  I had nothing better to do, so went there to check it out with the CFI, Ken Trotter.  In seemingly no time at all after that, I was strapped into C-150, VH-TME, with Ken, for the half-hour TIF.

I loved it!  Not that I was thinking about becoming a Commercial Pilot at the time, but it seemed great to be poking holes in the sky.

I wasn't earning much money in those days and it barely covered costs of lodging (I lived in a boarding house), repayments on my new Holden Torana, something toward rego and insurance, and a few drinks after work.  The small amount left after each fortnightly pay was barely enough to afford one lesson every 2 weeks, so my progress was quite slow due to the need to revise previous lessons each time.  I was able, however, to get some cut-price lessons once a week, when Tamair held training at Gunnedah, so I got to fly between Tamworth and Gunnedah a few times, which helped a bit.

I was in no hurry though as I still wasn't thinking about making a career change.  Returning to Sydney in 1973, I hadn't advanced very far but was now earning more money, so went to see Rex Aviation at Bankstown. My instructor there was John Brunker and, though he succeeded in impressing me with his newly-acquired Low-level Aerobatics endorsement, finally sent me on my first solo on 24 July 1973 - over 12 months and a total of 17 flying hours later.  I can't be dismissive of him because he had a gift for teaching and I actually learned a lot about "feeling" the aircraft from him.

Notwithstanding, I transferred from Rex to Navair after meeting a number of guys who flew, albeit in a private and/or "chisel charter" capacity through there.  Finally obtained my RRPL on 23 May 1974, having endured the complexity of a number of different instructors, each with their own ideas on how each sequence should be handled. Navair's CFI at the time was John Taylor, a truly great and fair-minded bloke.  Did the RPPL test with Frank Young.  My pre-licence test had been done by none other than the great Jim Hazelton.

For all of that, I think that I learned most from a subsequent instructor, Bill Vize.  He'd apparently been in PNG for a while and he taught me a lot of practical things that stood me in very good stead for my future career, though I wasn't aware of it at the time.

Anyway, I subsequently moved to Jack Brabham Aviation, under CFI John Reelaid.  Here, I was back to having just the one instructor, Phil Farrell - part-time instructor and full-time great bloke. Still not considering a commercial career but having a great time, albeit costing a lot of money.  Made it hard on the love-life but managed a number of flings, mainly with females I met at the Royal Aero Club of NSW.

Anyway, with the John Reelaid flight test behind me for an Unrestricted Licence, I felt that I'd finally achieved a major goal and could now really enjoy flying around the country.  Then I heard that I'd been selected as a "20% check" by the old DCA!  Now I was worried but the flight went well - primarily because the newly-appointed Examiner of Airmen, one Dave Twyford, got a bit anxious over a bout of carb icing as we overflew Camden at 4,000 feet, enroute to Wollongong.

I did a lot of flying after that, putting more and more money into it as time went by.  Managed quite a few "share flight" jobs to a lot of very interesting destinations - including an ag strip at Trunky Creek, somewhere between Bathurst and Oberon, using an old fastback C182.  Quite high elevation and my first experience of a one-way strip - and with power lines strung across short final!

Time went by and I became 2nd in Charge of the Motor Registry at Dubbo.  In this job, I was earning a very comfortable wage that allowed me to continue flying, which I did initially with Dubbo Flying School, whose CFI was Noel Howe.  I learned a lot about bush flying there and began to understand the real value of DR navigation, as landmarks were few and far between - and navaids were even less common.

Got a gig flying a Piper Tripacer on glider towing, at Narromine, on weekends.  It was good flying that taught a lot of bad habits but also taught me to keep my head on a swivel during descent, lest I run into a glider on the way down!  Did a lot of long distance towing too as all the Blaniks needed maintenance, from time to time, and the only place available for it was at Swan Hill.  Quite a distance from Narromine in a PA22 with a glider in tow, necessitating a refuelling stop at Griffith.

I did a Night VMC (Class 4 Instrument Rating at the time) with George Campbell at Mudgee.  The flight test was with "come again Col" - Col Rofe of the Bankstown Office.  I was amazed to have passed at the first attempt, with such a fearsome Examiner!  It started an association with Mudgee that would last for many years, though it didn't include my Commercial Pilot Licence.  I did that with John Taylor, back at Navair in Bankstown, January 1980 - and even then I hadn't been considering a commercial career.  I just did it because I thought that I needed to know more than I already knew.

Anyway, that was the start of it all. I found a bit of work, on weekends, with joy flights around Dubbo and the occasional charter through George Campbell.  Even got a couple of jobs for Dubbo Police, whenever they needed to look for a lost camper, a stolen car, a plot of marijuana... you name it and I was involved in it.  Even got shot at once!

Before leaving State Government employ, I took my first trip to the USA, to visit a former flying mate from Bankstown who was flying Lear Jets from Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport, Florida.  I'd also decided to use my time there to acquire the FAA cardboard Commercial Pilot Certificate with an instrument rating, all of which I did through a mob called Tursair at Opa Locka airport, near Miami.

This is How it Started!

For quite a while, George Campbell had been telling me I should consider an Instructor Rating.  At that stage, I was equally at home in flying from 0B and 0A and had a gig at Dubbo TAFE, teaching theory subjects.  I thought about that and, with a total of about 800 hours, decided to go for it.  I was now seriously considering a commercial career as an Instructor because it seemed to be my forte.

I did a lot of flying from Mudgee, quite apart from the Instructor Rating training.  I was taken to the second one-way strip of my life and checked for it in an A36.  I thought that a high-winged Cessna would've been a better proposition for that strip as it seemed a tad marginal for the Bonanza, with my limited experience at the time.

The flight test for my Grade 3 Instructor Rating was conducted by the great Russ Evans.  He'd hired an aircraft from Bankstown to fly to Mudgee for it, on a day when the weather wasn't fantastic - indeed, he'd shot the VOR approach to get in.  There won't be too many people for whom his book on VOR and, later, on NDB, didn't become a bible on these dark arts!  I still have a couple of the old DCA publications, but his works were so much better!  And, yes, I passed that test at the first attempt - for which I was greatly relieved because I'd really thought I'd stuffed up the full briefing.

After that came my second trip to the USA, this time to Ross School of Aviation at Tulsa, Oklahoma, where I decided to tackle the FAA CFIA and CFII qualifications.  In the end, I ran out of time to complete the CFIA as I'd concentrated on the CFII and had a few distractions along the way.  Some of those distractions were nicer than others too though my memories are mostly fond ones.

From there to South Africa to look around for work.  It wasn't all that easy to find either because the SA DCA was very much Afrikaaner at this time of apartheid.  Managed a short gig flying a C402 on Red Cross duties, bring casualties out of the Namibia war zone - I discovered that, despite the fact that the people I carried were from both sides of the fighting, the red crosses on the aircraft made enticing targets from the ground!

Returning to Australia, I worked for George Campbell as a Junior Instructor to get the old "middle 'C'.  It was good flying - pretty intense at times, but always enjoyable.  He then told me that I had an interview with CATA - the old NASA - at Cessnock.  He'd engineered it for me and I'll forever be grateful to him for it, even though I didn't stay there very long.

Some of the people I'd flown with up to this point in time included (in no particular order) Leon Ashendon, Di Goodwin, Bill Cooper (at Camden), John Wakefield (at Tamworth), Christine Kimpton, Ian Baker, Ken Goodger and Richard Katsch.

I started with CATA on 4 February 1982, when I met Chief Instructor Bob Loretan and senior instructor Trevor Weeks - the CFI's name eludes me (Frank someone?) but I liked him a lot - there was a change of CFI while I was there and, though I also liked him, he wasn't quite like the previous CFI.

I was back with George Campbell at Mudgee in July 1982.  By November of that year, I was Deputy CFI to Brian Wetless at Sydney Airways, at Bankstown.  Brian was one of nature's gentlemen - an Instructor's instructor, if I ever saw one.  He taught me a lot by way of patience and consistency, as well as being a bloody great employer, now sadly missed from GA.  During my time there, I rewrote their Ops Manual and had it approved by the Regulator (can't remember what name they were using at the time but might've been DOTA) first up.

Also during my time at Sydney Airways, I became a Grade 1 Instructor, finally gained a Class 1 multi-engine Instrument Rating (as it was called at the time), from Ray Clamback and Aminta Hennessy, (I'd had a S/E rating for a while by then) and finally succeeded in obtaining an ATPL.  I'd been trying for that over many years, back to the time when I was doing the theory for the UPPL with Barney Fernandez' school at Bankstown.

The Next Step

I'd had a few "ups and downs" up to the latter part of 1983 - more down that up, due to the whims of a Federal Labour government which seemed to see General Aviation as an unnecessary luxury.  While I was basically enjoying my flying at Sydney Airways, which also included the occasional charter that was a lot of fun, I wanted something different, though not in airlines, which I saw as being a job that took you to all the same places all the time.  I didn't know what I wanted but the answer wasn't going to be found at Bankstown.

At some stage during my time at Sydney Airways, I apparently flew with a trainee who was impressed with me and had passed on a recommendation to another bloke.  I only learned this on a day, in very late 1983, when a bloke by the name of Yorke Mendoza showed up to talk to me.  He was a partner in a PNG-based company called PNG Aviation Services.  He and his partner, Doug Valentine, were also on the Board of Directors of Central Air Services, also in PNG.  He pitched me the idea of starting a flying school at Port Moresby, due to the recent closure of flight training at the South Pacific Aero Club.  He said he'd heard good things about me from one of my students of his acquaintance, and that I'd also be able to do line flying with Central Air Services.

I soon found myself in PNG, going through the hoops with the PNG Dept. of Civil Aviation, which was then under the stewardship of Gordon Howe, in Flying Operations.  I passed all their tests - by far, the most lengthy and demanding in my career - even having to go through the process of writing an Ops Manual for the new flying school.  I got CFI, initial twin and flight test approvals, the initial twin only came after a full day of testing, and the flight test approval was primarily given so that I'd handle the "politically sensitive" folk that DCA didn't want to touch, including a bloke who sometimes still makes news - for at least some of the wrong reasons.

I flew with some national citizens who subsequently ended up as airline captains in Air Niugini - one as an expatriate A380 captain now.  In between times, I flew quite a lot with Central Air Services, in C206s and a particularly grotty C-310, P2-PVT, which a certain Darren Moore acquired and restored some years later.  I didn't know him then, but got to know him much later through PPRuNe, and met him in person for the first time in 2002 - we were firm mates from then on.

During my time with PNGAS, I was able to put an Aztec on the flight line - privately owned F model with a Robertson STOL conversion.  I did a hell of a lot of flying in P2-SDM by way of charters, initial twin endorsements, IFR training and IFR recurrency.  Also took it to Sydney - and beyond - while conducting the UPPL training for the owner, Peter McNab, after being endorsed on it myself by an Air Niugini B707 co-pilot by the name of Rob Wood, who owned the only Pitts Special ever to have been in PNG.

I really thought that I'd finally found the flying that I wanted to do, but it all went pear-shaped before I was ready for it.  My job at PNGAS and CAS came to an end when Yorke Mendosa told me, one day in late 1985, that there was no money to pay my wages.  I'd just then returned from a 5-day DCA Airports charter around West and East New Britain - one of many such jobs that I'd secured through my own efforts and which always brought in a shedload of money.

To say that I was pissed off, puts it very mildly indeed.

Over the preceding few months, Gordon Howe had been regularly sounding me out on a job with PNG DCA.  I hadn't wanted it then because I was enjoying flying too much.  Now that the flying had ceased, I needed a way to stay in PNG and continue flying - the thing I loved most!  Now that I was clearly without a job, due to the lack of a pay packet, I went to see him.  My initial plan had been to take a job there that would give me time to look around for another real flying job.

He immediately offered me a position as Examiner of Airmen.  I said that I'd already done quite enough flight testing of pilots - not said so far is that I'd had flight test approval in Australia for Night VMC while I was with Sydney Airways.  Also unsaid so far is that I'd become the "Training and Competency" section of Central Air Services, following the departure of both their senior pilots - each named Rick Johnson, by coincidence.  I'd checked quite a few pilots into airstrips in the Goilala district, where CAS operated - mostly guys flying at the then rejuvenated South Pacific Aero Club, but also a few new guys for CAS.

I therefore said to Gordon that I'd done as much flight testing as I ever wanted to do and he countered by saying that there's also a position available for an "Airways Surveyor".  I had to ask him what that was and his answer changed my life, yet again, forever.  He also added that there might be a time or 2 when he'd ask me to undertake a flight test and I said that, so long as it was only once in a while, I'd be okay with that.  This started a whole new chapter in my aviation career.

A Whole New Chapter

I found myself as THE designer of instrument flight procedures in PNG.  I had to come to terms, very quickly, with trigonometry - a dark art for me at the time - as it was the basis of creating protection areas for every type of instrument arrival, holding, approach and departure procedure.  I sought advice from a Kiwi expat surveyor in the PNG Department of Lands and Physical Planning, Stuart Thompson.  He was able to bring me up to speed with Sine, Cosine and Tangent, etc.  In those days, there weren't computers to do the designs, one had to draw them up on tracing paper, using some very complex formulae to create the protection areas, and apply the tracing paper over a very carefully joined set of topographical charts in 1:100,000 scale.

My initial training was handled by the previous encumbent of that job, Darryl Toepfer, who'd been the designer in PNG for about 6 years, I think.  The only procedure design that we worked on together was a NDB/DME approach for Gurney airport at Alotau, using an 80/260 reversal procedure at about 15 DME, if memory serves.

Without blowing my own trumpet too hard, I became pretty good at it.  My first published design - 2 designs in fact, were modifications of the design that I'd worked on with Darryl and resulted in NDB and NDB/DME procedures using a base turn reversal at 4 minutes and 12 DME respectively, which shortened the approach a bit and made it more comfortable to fly.  Both approaches were flight checked by me in the jump seat of an Air Niugini DHC-7, which was commanded by then then DHC-7 Fleet Captain, Ray Ross - I used PX because they were more interested in it than anyone else and, as usual, our own Kingair (a C-90 at the time) was U/S for one reason or another.

I went on to design, or redesign, almost every approach in the AIP Flight Supplement (the PNG equivalent of CASA DAP).  Indeed, I recently learned that there's been no new designs since my time as the procedure designer - and that there is still a long list of procedures, which I designed, that are still awaiting flight test.

I did flight tests for all the procedures that are I published.  As a slight hijack of my own topic, I well recall the day I entered the "temple of aeros" to be greeted by the great Jasper Maskelyne.  His opening statement in his booming voice, as soon as I arrived, was "I've been flying DME Arrivals to Nadzab all day!".  This bloke was always VERY economical with praise and this was one of those rare occasions.  It had taken me weeks to get those sorted out after the sudden closure of Lae airport to civil airline ops and, in the meantime, all that traffic had been sent to Nadzab.  Yes, he was appreciative of my efforts and wanted everyone in the bar to know it... I was deeply honoured!

There were many other instances, such as the newly built Moro airpstip, which needed approaches.  Then the even more newly built Gobe airstrip that proved to be equally as challenging as Moro, due to the proximity of very bloody inconveniently close and high hills.  The Mount Hagen NDB/DME approach might be my best achievement - it was certainly the only approach ever to be flown by a Boeing 707!  Yes, it was flown by the then out-going commander of the RAAF transport squadron, one Ian Mallett, who became the guru of all things GPS/GNSS/RNP at CASA Australia.

He was also the bloke who gave me the first endorsement in PNG on GPS NPA approaches.  The test was done in the then CAA aircraft, B-200 P2-CAA, along with the then Manager of Flying Operations, Mark Willcocks, using GPS approaches at Horn Island and Bamaga, as there were obviously none in PNG at that time.  I subsequently introduced GPS approaches to PNG, having had many published over the years and many more that still await flight testing.

Toward the end of my time with CASA PNG - though I didn't realise it as the end at the time - I had several talks with my good mate Darren Moore about a FOI job.  There were plenty of vacancies and I thought that he would fit right in.  He certainly did!  His knowledge of Dangerous Goods was far more thorough than mine, or of any of the other FOIs, including the Flying Ops Manager.  He quickly became a very great asset to CASA PNG and I knew that I'd done the right thing by encouraging him to apply for the job.

I also tutored him on the sort of questions that might be asked at the interview though, in the end, no such questions were asked and it seems he got in on the strength of saying that he knew me to be a ratbag!

One of the most hair-raising things I've ever done - apart from flight testing CPL applicants in PNG (yes, I ended up doing a few of those in my time with the Regulator) - was to intercept, ramp check and ground a foreign-based cargo aircraft at Port Moresby, in the dead of night.  The intel we'd received in advance of this activity was that the crew of the subject aircraft - Philippines registered Boeing 727 - might be armed and prepared to resist.

I was certainly apprehensive about it, especially as none of the requested PNG Police had been brave enough to turn up,  In the event, however, nothing of the sort transpired and we were able to have a very civil discussion with the crew, both before the ramp check and during (and after) the subsequent grounding.  Darren was also involved in that episode, being equally nervous, and was a great help.

I was gutted to learn of his death after I'd left CASA PNG.  I was still there when he started on the Cessna 550 endorsement and I'd encouraged him in doing it, though he didn't much encouragement of course!  He'd completed the basic endorsement on the "lil jet" as he called it - and was at the threshold of completing his command rating on it, when the aircraft crashed on the Misima Island airstrip in 2010.

For a very long time, I blamed myself for his death because I'd had to prevail on him twice, before he agreed to apply for the job.  It took me a very long time to realise that he never did anything he didn't want to do and, while that helps me a lot, it still hurts that my best mate became the first FOI to die on duty there.  Who could ever have expected to be hurt, much less killed, in a FOI job?

Included among the other things I did while I was with CASA PNG (as it finally became known) was establishment and conduct of the first regular flight checks of T-VASIS and PAPI facilities. I was also the Liaison Officer for periodic flight checks of navaids that, at the time, were still conducted by AirServices Australia in an F28.  Also did a Lead Auditor course and was subsequently involved in quite a few aerodrome and operator audits, including audits at a few international airports used by Air Niugini.

I never did get to look for that next real flying job in PNG but I flew DCA's first Kingair, a C-90 P2-DCA, and the replacement aircraft, P2-CAA which, in its' previous life had been the subject of a story about the Moresby Gliding Club.  I also helped in restarting flight training at the SPAC and was allowed to instruct there on weekends and public holidays, so I suppose that I didn't miss out on much real flying.

I absolutely loved the B-200 - a real gentleman's aeroplane with few vices of any note.  Perhaps the most versatile aircraft too, as it was easily capable of replicating the performance of Category "C" aircraft during flight checks of approach procedures.

The Beginning of the End, or the End of the Beginning?

The reason that so many approaches still await flight testing is that I left CASA PNG in March 2010, after a long period of dissatisfaction, together with the belief that I'd already been in PNG too long - yes, the white paper had turned black!  By the time I left, P2-CAA had been sitting in a hangar for 4 years and I couldn't even get funding to charter an aircraft for the remaining flight-check jobs.

In my lengthy time with CASA PNG/CAA PNG/OCA PNG/DCA PNG, I gained a few qualifications.  For instance, CAA PNG sent me on an ICAO procedure design course in Singapore, in 2003.  I was there for 2 months, doing both the basic and advanced courses so that my employer could satisfy an ICAO audit that I had all the right credentials for the job, after having been doing it for about 18 years!  I was sent to a shorter "workshop" course in Singapore in 2007, so that I'd have all the knowledge needed to undertake the more advanced RNP approaches.  I was, therefore "street legal" to undertake instrument procedure designs that I'd been doing since the end of 1985!

Since leaving PNG, I now live in Cairns, Queensland, where I can happily follow State of Origin, amongst my other sporting passions that include cricket.  I have also established a consultancy business providing expertise in all matters relating to regulatory affairs, procedure design of course, and surveillance and audit.  The company is called OpSpec International and, though it doesn't have a website of its own, has managed to gain work from private sources within Australia, as well as CASA PNG, CASA Australia and, most recently, Papuan Oil Search Limited.

That's the story so far.  Although I no longer have any interest in flying, I retain a very deep-seated interest in aviation and this is reflected in everything I've done so far in my consultancy capacity.  I hope it continues for many years because I believe in being able to make a difference for all those who still fly.  I'm not sure how relevant any of the above will be to anyone who has just embarked on a career in aviation but I can say with confidence that it takes perseverence and a good measure of luck to get into the industry and then to change from one aspect of it to another.

One also needs skills, of course, but that alone is not enough.  There's no way to know how far you'll go or what you'll achieve without also having the determination to get there - and a healthy dose of luck!