Regional perspective

I have since gone on to teach aircraft ground school, perform aircraft type endorsements as a simulator instructor and line training. I have developed a real passion for passing on my knowledge and experience through training other pilots.

At Skywest I flew the Fokker 50 for one year before transferring onto the Fokker 100 at the first available opportunity.

After flying the Fokker 100 for the last nine years and having my command on it for the last two years it is still my favourite aircraft that I have flown so far.

There are now several operators flying the Fokker 100 around Australia but with the mix of both charter and RPT flying under the Virgin Australia banner, I really enjoy the variety.

What are the attractions of regional airline flying?

My father was a diplomat and I grew up living overseas in the Solomon Islands, New Zealand and Fiji and went to more schools than I can mention on one hand. In my quest to gain work as a pilot I ended up living in Cairns, Townsville, Brisbane, Sydney, Wyndham and Darwin and while working for a survey company we were based in many outback and country towns throughout Australia for months at a time.

I found myself having a real desire to settle down and live in one place and not spend my life travelling and living out of a suitcase. I met my lovely wife in Perth and decided this was where I wanted to settle down and have a family. Working for a regional carrier provided me with the stability to stay in Perth, reduce time away and spend more time with my family.

And the challenges?

One of the key challenges to regional flying would be flying to ports with very few facilities. The main way to overcome this is through prior preparation. Ensuring you dispatch from Perth fully prepared for the challenges of the day that lie ahead is the key.

It might be a little thing like ensuring the potable water is topped up or making sure you have extra fuel to divert if necessary. It’s very different to flying between major ports where fuel is always available and engineers and spare parts are on hand.

Flying to regional ports also sees high performance jet aircraft mixing with general aviation traffic from farmers, crop dusters and students learning to fly, often with no ATC services.

As professional pilots who have also flown these smaller/slower aircraft we can generally get a better picture of any potential issues, so we can work with these smaller aircraft in organising traffic separation and remain conservative. TCAS (traffic collision avoidance system) is an invaluable tool in these environments.

Do you have aspirations to leave regional flying for mainline domestic or international work?

At the moment I have no aspirations to leave regional flying for domestic or international work. Our longest sectors are three and a half hours and that is a really appealing part of the job for me.

The lifestyle is great with most of our shifts being either in the morning or the afternoon, which means I get to spend more time with my family. It’s also the people I work with that make this job enjoyable.