Lucky to be Alive.
Lucky to be Alive. Recently, my wife and I sat in the front row as Wendy Matthews captivated the audience with her songs from the 1990s. As music is prone to do, her words cast me back to a time in my life that is …
Where to Now?
Where to Now? For the last 14 months, I have worked towards the goal of returning to the flight deck. It was not the prime motivator, as my family and my health took pole position in that category. Nevertheless, flying again was a long term …
Chocks In and Checklist Complete.
Chocks In and Checklist Complete. The sounds of the engines shutting down have faded. The final formal words of checklists have been book-ended with farewells. Now the Boeing 787 sits in relative silence until the next crew starts its drills to stir the jet into …
A World Away.
A World Away. Returning to flying after such a long absence has been an extremely motivating experience – in stark contrast to the preceding year of mixed frustrations. From taking those first tentative steps following surgery, it is almost surreal to be sitting at …
A Hawker Hurricane and a Pilgrimage.
A Hawker Hurricane and a Pilgrimage. There’s a place north of London that is special to me for many reasons. I first visited there decades ago but have returned time and again. It was the airfield where I launched my first book, “Down to Earth”, …
Fate is the Hunter.
Fate is the Hunter. In the classic aviation book, “Fate is the Hunter” by Ernest Gann, Gann says we must believe in our own personal fortune and destiny in order to have any chance of survival. Fate itself is indeed the hunter and when …
415 days.
415 Days.. It had been 415 days since I last strapped into the flight deck and it is difficult to put the emotions of my return into words – but I will try. The pandemic saw me grounded for even longer and yet that seemed …
A Stable Approach.
A Stable Approach. Any absence from the cockpit comes with not only the need to refamiliarise oneself with the world of flight but to recover any lost ground due to the passage of time. Retraining in simulators and the aircraft, passing flight checks to revalidate …
A Privilege.
A Privilege. I have written books in the past but when I was approached by the Air Force to write about RAAF operations in the Korean War, it was an absolute privilege. My involvement with the subject dates back to my childhood when veterans of …
One Year On.
One Year On. It’s both difficult to believe and somewhat unpleasant to recall that one year ago I was on the operating table undergoing major surgery. Now I am back training to fly once again. As I reflect upon the past 12 months, I prefer …
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