Tash Richardson: at 14 she was learning to fly

A VISIT TO THE ROYAL FLYING DOCTOR SERVICE, WHEN TASH WAS JUST 13 YEARS OLD, WAS THE MOMENT SHE KNEW WHAT SHE WANTED HER CAREER PATH TO BE.

On a tour of the RFDS base in Broken Hill, Tash watched the flight crew and paramedics in action; she walked around the planes and the mechanics working on the innards of a King Air; heard from the pilots about the far-flung and, often, very basic runways the planes had landed on, and the people the crews they had helped save.

As someone who’d been diagnosed with a chronic lung disease as a child, Tash had already seen her fair share of the inside of hospitals, and it had made her interested in helping others, perhaps as a paramedic.

‘The idea of flying was exciting, but here was an opportunity to fly and also be able to help people,’ Tash says. ‘I knew then, that

I wanted to become a pilot with the Royal Flying Doctor Service.’ She asked her parents for an introductory flight for her next birthday and, on the day of her 14th birthday, the family drove to the Warnervale Aero Club where Tash took her first flight. Her instructor could see how thrilled his passenger was when she was allowed to take the controls during their flight, and asked if she’d like him to do a loop-the-loop.’

‘It was the coolest thing I’d ever experienced,’ Tash says, grinning broadly at the memory. From then on, she was up at the Warnervale Airport most weekends, taking flying instructions and getting her flying hours up. She took her first solo flight after her 15th birthday, and officially got her recreational licence at 16.

Tash is sitting for her HSC this year and is impatient for her 18th birthday when she can get her commercial pilot’s licence. ‘The RFDS is not something you can get into straight away, even with a commercial pilot’s licence which requires 150 hours flying time compared to 3,000 hours for RFDS pilots,’ she says. ‘You need the extra experience to be able to cope with things like a short runway on an outback station, landing in a dust storm or heavy rain, or landing on a runway that’s not even cleared of rocks and sticks, and with kangaroos hopping across your path.’

Her parents were less sure of this new interest for the first three months, and asked a lot of, ‘Are you sure?’ but were happily her first passengers after she got her recreational licence and she was able to take them up, one-by-one, in the two-seater, Cessna 150. ‘If Dad was nervous, he didn’t show it,’ says Tash. ‘He was more excited, but he did compare it to being in the air in nothing more than a tin box.’

Tash’s mother admits to being scared on that first flight, but she is also quick to praise her daughter and to recognise the cost of all the flying lessons as an investment in Tash’s future career.

Tash loves the sense of community at Warnervale Aero Club and doesn’t miss an opportunity to sing their praises.

‘Everyone is very friendly, and we all share the pride in everyone else’s flying achievements,’ she says. ‘I initially looked at Bankstown Airport for lessons but for an hour and a half flight, you spend 30 to 40 minutes queued on the runway. They’re at capacity, so Warnervale Airport is very important in being able to train the pilots of the future.’

According to Boeing, that’s a pretty big need, with a shortage of 800,000 new pilots estimated over the next 20 years across the aviation industry. For Warnervale Aero Club, who have been training pilots for 47 years, it’s an opportunity to develop a strong skilled-employment base on the Central Coast.

‘During the bushfires, the fire-spotter planes landed at Warnervale for refuelling,’ says Tash, ‘as did some of the National Parks and Wildlife planes.

‘One of the instructors here was also able to help rescue his mother-in-law at Old Bar near Taree during the fires because he was able to take off quickly from Warnervale. They’d heard the fire was encroaching and the roads were cut off, then lost all communication with her. The water-bombing planes up there meant airspace was restricted, and he was given a seven-minute window to land. He couldn’t contact her but was able to drop his daughter off with water and supplies and, crucially, she was able to look after her elderly grandmother until the local roads re-opened.

‘That’s the sort of thing I want to be able to do: to use my flying skills to reach people in need,’ says Tash. And we know that’s exactly what she’ll do.

Central Coast Aero Club, Warnervale: ccac.com.au Royal Flying Doctor Service: flyingdoctor.org.au