The Family Business

Now an A320 captain with Tigerair Australia, Tony spent the traditional time in the general aviation trenches as a flight instructor before breaking into charter flying and then joining Skywest Aviation. There he flew Shrike Commanders on Coastwatch duties before moving back east to fly Queen Airs and King Airs on the NSW Air Ambulance contract. His break into the airlines came in 1992 with Ansett, flying the Boeing 727 and 767 before the airline’s untimely collapse in 2001.

Like many of his compatriots, Tony moved abroad flying for AWAS and Vietnam Airlines before settling in Hong Kong with Dragonair. Initially flying theAirbus A330, he became a check and training captain on the A320. Moving full circle, he returned to Australia in recent years to fly with Tigerair and to play a greater role in the family’s successful aviation business at the Illawarra Regional Airport. Consequently, Tony was required to undergo a biennial flight review (BFR) and who should hold his licence in his hands, but Tony’s son, Chris.

Like his father, Chris was enamoured with aviation from the outset. Growing up with a father in the business fuelled the fire as he shadowed his dad around airliners and airshows alike – he even helped him when it was time to amend his manuals and charts. Having caught the bug, the next leap forward came when he saw Janine Shepherd’s story in the movie, Never Tell Me Never and the aerobatic Robin aircraft rolling around the sky. Chris then ventured to Bankstown Airport and once he had flown his first loops and rolls, his mind was made up. Training at the then Sydney Aerobatic School, in time he moved onto the ‘Red Baron’ Pitts to continue his love of aerobatics. The school had stringent requirements for experience on type to become an instructor, but when he was offered a job as a scenic and aerobatic pilot on the Pitts he leapt at the opportunity.

After a thousand hours of seeing the world from every possible angle, Chris moved into flight instruction and ultimately became a Phase 5 aerobatics instructor, also flying the Red Bull Extra. It was during this time that Chris instructed the “most gifted pilot’ that he ever flew with – his brother, Jamie.

Unlike Chris, Jamie had varied interests growing up and wasn’t necessarily an obvious candidate to enter aviation. On leaving school heChris then ventured to Bankstown Airport and once he had flown his first loops and rolls, his mind was made up. Training at the then Sydney Aerobatic School, in time he moved onto the ‘Red Baron’ Pitts to continue his love of aerobatics. The school had stringent requirements for experience on type to become an instructor, but when he was offered a job as a scenic and aerobatic pilot on the Pitts he leapt at the opportunity.

After a thousand hours of seeing the world from every possible angle, Chris moved into flight instruction and ultimately became a Phase 5 aerobatics instructor, also flying the Red Bull Extra. It was during this time that Chris instructed the “most gifted pilot’ that he ever flew with – his brother, Jamie.

Unlike Chris, Jamie had varied interests growing up and wasn’t necessarily an obvious candidate to enter aviation. On leaving school hechasing their own horizons with varied attitudes. But that was just the beginning. . .

Five Point Aviation

Chris has always retained a grass roots, stick-and-rudder affinity with aviation. Anything that involved pure flying, looking out the window and putting the aeroplane in the right place was the style of flight he desired – and preferably in a tailwheel aircraft. In 2011, while Tony was based in Hong Kong, Chris saw the potential for classical, romantic joy-flights in an open cockpit biplane.

They set about acquiring such an aircraft and found the ideal machine in the United States, a Boeing Stearman. However, this was not just any Stearman, this aircraft had been a training aircraft for the famous Tuskegee Airmen of World War 2. The Clarks imported the beautiful scarlet aircraft and named her Lilly Warra after the Illawarra region that she now called home.

The Stearman – which AA airtested back in our November 2011 issue – soon attracted attention flying along the beautiful coastline near Wollongong, over green parklands and sweeping by the local lighthouse, Lilly soon became a familiar sight in the region, attracting attention from onlookers and the media alike. Soon interest also grew among the pilot community and Chris was continually being approached to conduct tailwheel and aerobatic training.

With that seed planted, the roots of Five Point Aviation were set to grow. From the outset, the intention was for the school to have a central focus about stick and rudder flying. In addition to the standard syllabus, aerobatics, tailwheel endorsements and formation flying were key elements. Additional courses encompassed military pilot flight screening preparation and Tony’sarea of expertise, an airline cadet grading course.

Five Point also caters for recreational, private and commercial pilot licences, but its centrepiece is the defensive flying skills course and the origins of the syllabus make interesting reading. Rather than creating an emergency manoeuvre training course similar to those already in existence, Chris and his CFI Shaun Holmes set out to do some research.

Poring over 10 years of ATSB data they found that 70 per cent of general aviation accidents occurred in the circuit area and more than half of those involved loss of control. They saw some of these issues stemming from gaps in the current private pilot syllabus and these gaps were only overcome in an aerobatic rating.

Armed with this information, they set out to design a course that specifically targeted the loss of control issue. They wanted the course to be non-threatening for those pilots not necessarily interested in an aerobatics endorsement and still relevant to the type of aircraft the trainees regularly flew. The final syllabus addressed unusual attitude recovery, angle-of-attack control, G-stalling, slipping, skidding, spinning and mishandling and handling emergencies in the circuit area. The aircraft they chose for the course is the nimble CAP-10 aerobatic aeroplane and to date, the course has proven popular with individuals and pilot groups alike.

The family firm

The family business had now most definitely grown. Its hangar now boasts a range of new aircraft alongside the Stearman. The CAP-10 is joined by an immaculate Citabria that was also imported from the United States and Cessna 172s for private hire and training, although the emphasis remains with thetremendous tailwheels.

All the while Lorry works behind the scenes putting the pieces in place and Chris and Tony both readily admit that her knowledge of the logistics required to keep the fleet well maintained and airborne is far deeper than their own.

Herein possibly lies the strength of Five Point Aviation. The fact that each family member brings their own aviation expertise to the table to contribute to the organisation gives the operation diversity, while the family element offers a degree of cohesion and understanding that exceeds commercial relationships.

This sense of family pervades onto the hangar floor and it is not unusual to see students relaxing with a cup of coffee well before or well after a lesson. Similarly they take genuine pride in their students. A school student, Riley, had ‘first soloed’ that week and done so in the tailwheel Citabria. The staff beamed at the youngster’s progress in a way that genuinely displayed that he was more than just another training file to them.

Set to a scenic NSW coastal backdrop, the Clarks have established an aviation enterprise built upon Chris’s passion for stick-and-rudder flying. Both in the courses on offer and the environment created by the people that work at Five Point Aviation, that passion is truly tangible. Aviation has encompassed the entire Clark family and yet each has made their own journey in their own particular way. Always, family and flight has remained a constant undertone.

So what began as a short trial flight on ‘borrowed’ cash developed into a passion spanning generations and aviation careers that have spanned the globe. And I’m pretty sure that Grandma would be proud.