Briefly tell us about your book
Ten true stories of Australian women who fly. It begins in the 1930s with pioneer aviator, Nancy Bird and follows through to the current day, finishing with an RFDS pilot.
Each story is an exciting adventure.
What was the research process like?
FASCINATING. I loved the long conversations with the pilots, learning about their particular area of aviation and the timeframe in which it sits.
It took me to the Supreme Court in Melbourne, Henley Beach in Adelaide, a few Australian Women Pilots’ Association conferences, libraries, news archives, into peoples’ lounge rooms to delve into their memories and photo albums, to hear stories that were rarely told. I’d stop and admire an aeroplane I’d previously looked past, listened to a pub conversation about New Guinea. My friend said ‘Oh, I can see you are bored’ and I replied, ‘No! I’m listening carefully because I’ve just written a book and it features a story of flying around New Guinea. There were many cross overs, with some people who pop up in a few peoples’ stories. I learnt about social and economic change; such as we are forced to face now and how it has influenced aviation over the last century.
Tell us about your background and what led to writing this book.
I learnt to fly in 1991 and continued my interest in aviation from there. I started writing magazine articles around 2008 and was encouraged to submit to aviation magazines. 98% of pilots were men and so I was always drawn to any women in the aviation sector. Now as a magazine editor for the Sport Aircraft Association Australia (SAAA), I am still mostly talking to men about their experiences of building and flying their own aircraft. In 2016 I heard Patricia Toole speak about her experiences of flying in New Guinea in the early 50s. She had a forced landing onto the Keang River and was rescued by a young Australian Patrol Officer; Jock MacGregor. Pat told the story of him and his police assistants walking out of the jungle in the dark and the drizzle, lit by a hurricane lamp. As she had been dropped some supplies of a luger pistol and a bottle of rum, the first thing Pat said was, ‘Jock. Would you like a rum?’ and they sat under the wing of the aeroplane and debriefed. As she uttered those words in her understated and humorous manner, I immediately saw a film flicker before my eyes. ‘Out of Africa in New Guinea’. I knew I wanted to tell Pat’s story and I’m so glad we got to spend a couple of days with each other as she sadly passed away a couple of weeks later. My interest was piqued in these stories of a time before employment contracts, weather reports or sophisticated aircraft. I knew if there was this wonderful story, there had to be more and I chose a cross section of experiences, attitudes and timelines.
Most challenging parts of writing the book?
Facts. There are so many! How do you verify all these facts? Airspeeds, altitudes, distances, aircraft types, geography, weather, rules, versions of events, reputations and nuances, historical context and factual accuracy. Tracking down records, lost log books, getting a handle on places such as where Gaby Kennard flew on her around the world journey, where exactly in the Pacific did Lyn Gray ditch, untangling Deb Lawrie’s court cases, the entire history of the Air Transport Auxiliary in WW2, the procedures on Georgia Maxwell’s training as an ag and firebomber pilot, what were the roles of Nicole on the cattle station other than pilot, where did Esther fly in the NT and what were the best and worst experiences, the geography of Marion’s Dawn to Dusk challenges, what the competition is all about and physical description of the RAF Club in London.
Time. Getting the headspace to write uninterrupted and getting away from home to go and interview people and research.
Were you able to switch off at the end of a day of writing?
Is it sad to say that almost nothing was more inspiring than what I was writing about? It completely consumed me and my thoughts and interests for the whole three writing years. It made me look at and think about things differently.
One of the best books that I have read for a long time. Each story was fascinating to read, I didn’t want to put the book down.