End Of An Era

So why did such an illustrious organisation that was so good at achieving results finally close down? Before we answer that question, let’s look at some history. Join us as we strap into the DeLorean, fire up the flux capacitor, set the destination for 1974 and accelerate down the runway to 88 miles per hour…

Back to the past

On March 29 1974 Gil Layt, along with his bride Sue, decided to help meet the then massive demand for new pilots by opening their own flying school. Gil obtained his Instructor Rating at Archerfield in 1968. Four years later, at the age of 28 he was told by the airlines the he was too old for a career with them.

At that time, most flying schools were run by ex-air force pilots, with an accompanying formality and structured approach. Gil wanted to provide a school with a more relaxed atmosphere and pioneered the concept of ‘flying without a tie’. That format was intended to appeal to the Outback pilots who were not big on the formal dress code imposed by other schools.

At its peak, the school boasted 19 aircraft on the flight line and nine instructors. Some quite famous – and infamous – names in aviation have been through its doors over the years.

From day one, the school had been open every day except for Christmas Day. Even then, you could organise aircraft hire with Gil beforehand.

Gil was always ready for a chat about the aviation industry and the latest mishaps. Before the internet and facebook, that was how we found out what was going on in the world of flying.

‘The heyday of bad haircuts, flared pants, pet rocks and a booming general aviation sector’
Living in the 70s

The decade that was the 1970s was the heyday of bad haircuts, flared pants, pet rocks and a booming general aviation sector, both in Australia and around the world. GA aircraft production reached a peak in 1978 with almost 18,000 new deliveries. A decade later, production had almost ceased by comparison. To put the frenzy at that time into perspective, in each of the past 10 years (2009 to 2018) fewer than 2,500 new GA aircraft were sold worldwide. Sales had been picking up prior to the Global Financial Crisis, but that event brought everything back down to earth where it has stayed firmly ever since.

Meanwhile, back in the 1970s, almost everyone wanted to learn to fly. In 1969 man had walked on the Moon and the Jumbo Jet and supersonic Concorde had hit the skies for the first time.

Aviation generally had enjoyed massive growth since the end of WWII. Jets had replaced propellers in the larger airlines. More and more people were flying rather than using more traditional transport alternatives. While the size of airliners increased and the cost of long-distance air travel reduced, it was still cheaper to fly yourself in a light aircraft.

All these factors contributed to a booming aviation training environment that, sadly, has been in decline ever since.

Back then, learning to fly was a much more social pursuit. Most flying schools and clubs had a bar at which tall tales were exchanged over a beer or three when the flying day was done. Many lifelong friendships were forged and networks developed.

The building that houses Gil Layt’s Flying School was built in the late 70s and many visitors are amazed at how well it has captured, and retained, the essence of that era. Walking through the flying school door for the first time, one is instantly transported back to when everything was brown and/or orange, everyone smoked indoors (including in aircraft), and ‘latest technology’ was a phone sitting on the desk that was not black with a rotary dial.

It took some time to get used to the ‘time machine’, but I think we are all going to miss it in some way or another.

Some former students
Of the thousands of graduates of this flying school, there are some who have become a little better known than the others. Here are a few that spring to mind.

Barry Hempel
After ‘leaving’ Ansett, perhaps with some signs of boot polish on his posterior, Barry Hempel worked for Gil as an instructor in the early days of the business. Barry was what you might call a ‘colourful flying identity’. He was always getting into trouble with the powers-that-were. One day after yet another phone call from the regulator about Barry’s latest exploits, Gil politely suggested to Barry that he might like to go and open his own flying school. Apparently, Barry had been spotted flying up the main street of a certain Queensland country town. At 50 feet AGL. Inverted. Again.

Whether or not the term ‘go and open his own flying school’ was intended as a euphemism is not clear, but Barry did in fact open his own school. Unfortunately, his tendency to flaunt the rules increased with age, until his death in 2008 when his Yak crashed into the waters of South Stradbroke Island.

Andrew Warland-Browne
Andrew became an instructor at the school, and ultimately the chief flying instructor. If you don’t know the name you might know the face – he has appeared in CASA information videos such as the OnTrack series. He spent more than 14 years with CASA, often presenting their AvSafety seminars around the countryside. He was also largely responsible for the private pilot’s favourite publication – the Visual Flight Rules Guide. He was last seen working as a safety manager for a group of flying schools in Melbourne.

Gordon Bradberry
Another of Gil’s one-time instructors was Gordon Bradberry, who also left to start his own flying school – Arena Aviation – at Archerfield. That lasted for 30 years before moving to Redcliffe in 2006. Sadly, the school only survived for another 6 months before the costs of relocation took their toll on the business. Gordon then returned to Archerfield for a brief stint with AV8 Flying School.

Gordon also served as chief pilot for Skytours, a small charter airline that operated services between Archerfield and Lord Howe Island.

Steve Tadduecci
Steve is one of the few true ‘career instructors’ who has worked for many of the flying schools at Archerfield over the years. He worked for Gordon Bradberry and Barry Hempel as well as Brian Westin at Sunland. However, for the past 20 years he has worked at Gil Layt’s, with most of that time spent as CFI. There would not be many people around Archerfield who have not crossed paths with Steve at some point.

GLFS graduates have achieved enormous success in the aviation industry over the years. The alumni who have emerged from the cocoon to fulfil their flying dreams (and were present on the last day of the school’s existence) include a current A320 captain, a Polair pilot, a Learjet captain for Lifeflight, a Royal Flying Doctor Service pilot and the entire Aero Circus team.

The last waltz

For the last-ever flying lesson conducted by Gil Layt’s Flying School, a couple of Aero Circus clowns took to the air in VH-UGF. This Cessna 150 had been part of the school since it was first wheeled off Noah’s ARK all those years ago. Not many people know that ‘ARK’ is an acronym for ‘AiRcraft Karrier’. True!

My first three flying lessons were in this very aircraft in 2002, and it was no spring chicken back then. But neither was I. In fact, UGF rolled off the Wichita production line about the same time as Gil opened the flying school. It already had 28 years of student pilot abuse under its belt when I first climbed aboard to terrorise the Brisbane skies. Seventeen years later, it might be showing its age cosmetically, but it is still as reliable as ever.

Because the instructor for the lesson was rumoured to have some French heritage, the call sign for the flight was changed to ‘Yoplait One’. Fortuitously, as we taxied one last time to holding point Bravo 5 for a few circuits on Runway 10 Left, the entire class D airspace around Archerfield was suddenly devoid of traffic. The whole zone was ours, and we planned to make the most of it.

‘The whole zone was ours, and we planned to make the most of it’

Back at the flying school, the crowd gathered around the radio to listen to the proceedings. Just like we used to do before TVs relieved us of the need to actually think about what was going on.

We started with a short field takeoff, hanging a few inches above the runway until we reached the downwind threshold. With just over 90 knots on the ASI, we pulled back smartly on the yoke and zoom-climbed to about 300 feet in a couple of seconds. Levelling out, we turned quickly to overfly the school and the assembled guests at low level. That flightpath is rarely available due to other traffic and especially helicopter training, so we were very fortunate with the timing.

As we had arranged for some photographers to gain access to the control tower to record this historic occasion, we next made an approach to Runway 04 Right, flying past the tower on late final. As the grass runways were out of service due to recent rain, we executed a go-around and headed back to Runaway 10 Right for another tower flypast.

Then it was time for a one-wheel landing (the kind you need to use when you have a blown tyre, for example), then one last attempt at the record for the quickest circuit. At 1 minute 33 seconds from touchdown to touchdown, it was a new record, and one we won’t be trying to outdo for some time. It sure beats those long and tedious circuits, following some ill-informed pilots who think every circuit is a navex.

We finished with a nice long landing using the Night VFR technique, and taxied off the runaway at Bravo 1 and back to the flying school flight line for the last time.

Another one bites the dust

Parts 141 and 142 of the Civil Aviation Safety (we prefer sabotage) Regulations 1998 have effectively forced all flight training organisations into one of the following courses of action.

1. Introduce a bureaucratic management structure into their perfectly functioning organisation, just to satisfy a larger bureaucracy that at times appears to exist purely to weave an ever more tangled web without actually achieving any quantifiable benefits.

2. Move their training business to the recreational sector under RA-Aus where they can continue to function as in the past but with a few limitations such as a 600kg MTOW and maximum two-seat aircraft.

3. Hoist the white flag and close the doors.

Gil Layt’s Flying School has closed down. Not because the owner is running out of money. Not because of quality of the instructors (the last three were all grade one). Not because of health issues.

The school has closed because of the changes forced upon it in the name of … we are not sure what. It is not safety, as other flying schools keep turning out the same (often poor) results. It is definitely not efficiency.

Time marches on. The world changes, and to survive any business must change with it. But forcing change for no apparent gain does not seem to be the smartest move.

Perhaps the government would be better served by trying to find a solution to the growing problems in GA. Time is running out, and it appears that those with the power to make changes for the better do not have any idea that a problem even exists.

Meanwhile, good people are just giving up.

Aero Circus was formed by a group of pilots with different experience levels from RPL to Grade 1 Instructor. Their aim is to bridge the gap between what the CASA syllabus teaches and what a truly safe or employable pilot needs to know. They achieve this by regularly publishing articles on various aspects of flying skills at aerocircus.com.au as well as providing detailed assessments of a pilot’s practical flying skills.