Extra special

Each year as a team we always try to create some sort of community event to launch our season. For a long time, we had an informal BBQ at our airport in Lake Macquarie. However, in 2018 we teamed with the local surf life-saving club and put on an afternoon that included an air display.

It went so well, that we did it again this year and the event got bigger.

We stepped up our game too.

This year we gave every attendee a $100 joy flight voucher to spend with us – which ended up being $35,000 in vouchers (my marketing manager tells me it was worth it. I hope that’s true!) – an exclusive joy flight with me, and we had tonnes of merchandise available. We spent money advertising the event and come the launch day we ended up with spectacular autumn weather.

That all culminated in hundreds of people packing out the surf club for the event. Some of them were our dedicated fans, others had gone flying with us before, and there were a lot of friends and family too. But most pleasing of all there were plenty of locals who heard about the event and thought they would come and check it out.

It’s the beautiful thing about aviation: it brings people from all walks of life together. At our team launch day we had fighter pilots mingling with lifeguards, our sponsors chatting with some of our biggest fans.

While I loved every minute when I was flying over the beach, it was also fantastic to get back to the surf club later and speak with so many people.

I think it’s fair to say that almost everyone in their life has thought about what it would be like to be a pilot. Many have dreamed of soaring into the clouds and that much was obvious at our launch. My team and I are in a position of privilege due to what we do by racing in the Red Bull Air Race. What I mean by that is that we operate in a very public space and what we do earns media coverage and creates a fanbase. So when we hold events such as our season launch, we’re able to attract a large group of people to share that with.

‘Many have dreamed of soaring into the clouds’

The reason I’m going down this path for this month’s column is that it’s been almost three months since our last race. In that time my calendar has been no less busy than when we are racing. It’s just that instead of flying a plane fast, I have been flying planes to different locations and engaging with the Australian aviation community. I’ve also been sharing what we do in aviation with new audiences and have been working on a few exciting projects.

For our hard-core Red Bull Air Race fans reading this, don’t worry.

There is bucket loads of racing coming your way from June. The second race will take place in Kazan, Russia and then we will race every month until the finale in Saudi Arabia in November. There are also two races planned for September. Seven races in six months. That is going to be intense and if you’re a Red Bull Air Race fan, it will be a real treat.

Since Race One of the 2019 season at the start of February, my time in Australia has seen me travel around a fair bit. First it was to Mt. Gambier for a corporate speaking event, then to Darwin for the annual Bombing of Darwin Day commemoration event – a truly unique experience (and I have to thank the City of Darwin for inviting me along to that). Soon after, I was at the Australian International Airshow at Avalon Airport and managed to chat with a lot of fans and industry professionals.

Soon after that event, we formally agreed to a partnership with aviation technology business lockr. aero, an exciting new partnership for us in the management of our operations both in Australia and abroad.

In the week after that I had an important project at home and that was getting one of my talented young pilots converted onto our Extra 300L so that she can officially become a joy flight pilot with us – not just a fixed wing charter pilot. You might have read a little about Emma McDonald on our social media pages for International Women’s this year. Emma’s dedication to flying and her preparedness to upskill and learn every facet of what’s needed to be a joy flight pilot is next level, and it’s so exciting that I’ve been able to train her up and now have her performing flights.

That week rolled into another passion of mine: my Piper Twin Comanche. I love that plane. It’s so great to take out flying for business or pleasure. So, I was thrilled to attend the Australian contingent of the International Comanche Society for their pilot proficiency program.

Just two weeks later I flew out to Gunnedah Aero Club for a guest speaking experience, and that was the beginning of a mega weekend sharing aviation. The day in Gunnedah was the day prior to our team launch, so it was a busy weekend! I flew to Gunnedah in my Twin Comanche. When I got there, it was more than just the regular aero club members there – the whole town seemed to get behind it. When you have a day like that it makes the event that much more special.

Both the events at Deniliquin and Gunnedah are great reminders of how important local airfields are to smaller communities. They create a great place for people to congregate. I shouldn’t sound surprised at how enjoyable the day was, but sometimes we all need a reminder that we have these pockets of gold called local airfields all over the country.

Among all these events I was also working with Red Bull on their ‘Red Bull Paper Wings’ project – basically, the world’s largest paper plane contest. It isn’t conventional aviation as we know it, but it’s a project that has engaged hundreds of thousands of people with aviation. As a part of that project I conducted a guest lecture at the University of Newcastle to first-year engineering students.

When I dropped the bomb that the best aerobatic paper plane in the country would win a flight with me, and that we would try and re-create the manoeuvres of the paper aerobatic plane with our plane, the place became abuzz with chatter. Fear not, aviation is not lost on the next generation – we just need to find the right triggers to engage them in what we do.

With a few months of different projects and community involvement now done, this month our focus turns back to racing. Our team will be in Europe for a portion of May testing our plane in preparedness for round two of the season in Russia. From there, the seven-race rollercoaster will hit terminal velocity.

I can’t wait. Smoke on.