(Left Image Credit: Aussiepom)

Credit Where Credit’s Due.

My wife, Kirrily, recently passed 30 years service with the airline for which she flies. She was presented with a pin and some words printed on paper but they hardly captured what she had achieved in that time – and I don’t mean just as an aviator.

Almost simultaneously, I was messaged about a young flight instructor being recognised in a magazine for achieving Grade One status at the age of 25. It is truly a significant milestone and this piece isn’t about comparison. However, I recalled when Kirrily became a Grade One instructor at the ripe old age of 21 and then entered the airline world at 22 with around 2,000 hours in her log books. Still, as I related earlier, it’s not all about aviation.

Over those 30 years, she has managed to juggle a very intricate work-life balance as my airline career bounced between three airlines and numerous aircraft type training courses, both at home and abroad. All the while, she was a wonderful and present mother to our four kids, who were all aged five and under at the time our youngest was born.

Rosters have always been the greatest challenge, with our personal pact being that one parent would always be at home with the kids and if we couldn’t manage that, then one of us would give airline flying away. Somehow we have managed it and that fourth baby turns 17 in the coming weeks. On occasions, grandparents were able to care for the kids on the rare times that we flew together and there were two or three child and car changeover between home and the airport as one parent was arriving and the other departing – but generally we were able to manage. And we were able to manage because of her organisational skills and a huge dose of personal sacrifice.

We have both prioritised family over career but Kirrily has taken this trade-off to a level far beyond mine. Joining at 22, her seniority at the airline could have seen a rocket paced rise to greatness. However, she has always used that seniority to find roles within the airline that afforded her the ability to control her roster with a high degree of certainty. She become the most senior First Officer on the Boeing 767 and operated the aircraft’s final flight – she could easily have been a junior Captain by then.

Kirrily on the final Qantas Boeing 767 Flight. (Image: Seth Jaworski)

When other issues challenged our family, including my major surgery, she even bid back in rank to have total control of her roster and be at home for what she has always valued the most – her family. The result? Four fully grown human beings that are good people.

She has had a remarkable journey thus far and that is not just with reference to the 747, 767 or A380. I am in awe that she has been able to achieve what she has in aviation and yet it pales by comparison to what she has achieved as a wife and Mum. As I titled this piece – ”Credit Where Credit’s Due”.