Industry Influencers: Bob Tait

He reluctantly left school early due to financial pressures at home. Desperate to finish high school, he applied for and completed a teaching scholarship, which enabled him to complete his secondary education while being paid. Nice work if you can get it.

As soon as he started to earn an income, he began to spend it all on learning to fly. Most of his early training was done on a TigerMoth, which was luxuriously appointed with the most basic instrumentation. Altimeter, ASI and compass, plus some basic engine instruments. Back then, six-packs could only be found at the local bottle-o.

He even had his own flight simulator at home, which at the time was unheard of outside the military. “The simulator I had was a big cardboard box on the veranda with some wings glued to it and a broom handle for a joystick,” says Bob.

His brilliant career

Bob earned his pilot licence in 1960, then went on to complete his CPL and InstructorRating. After working as CFI Ingham Aero Club, he foundedHinchinbrook Air Services, which offered both training and licence testing for pilots.

Then Bob discovered that otherwise-competent students were dropping out of flight training because they could not pass their exams. He decided to use his teaching skills to help them through the theory side.

He started by running no-cost courses, which quickly grew in popularity. When his accountant pointed out that this was a pretty dumb strategy, he started to charge. To his surprise, the course became even more popular, as many people previously would not come along because he did not charge. Go figure. Soon the theory courses became the biggest part of his business.

After deciding that running aircraft on a line was fraught with difficulties and disappointments, Bob decided to transition from practical flight training to pure theory training. And, as they say, the rest is history.

Hall pass

In 2017, Bob was nominated for and inducted into the Australian Aviation Hall of Fame. This was in recognition of his invaluable contribution to aviation in Australia over the last 60 or so years.

As icing on the cake (but hopefully not the carby), Bob was also awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in 2020 for service to aviation education.

We think both accolades are richly deserved.

Hobson’s choice

It will come as no surprise to anyone familiar with Bob’s textbooks that his favourite aircraft is his beloved 1957 Piper Pacer. He does, however, claim to have a soft spot for the Tiger Moths that he
learned to fly in.

He originally acquired the Pacer (as a nosewheel Tri-Pacer) from a student of his who was under the threat of divorce if he did not get rid of it. It was in thousands of pieces. He then set about putting it back together and converting it into a taildragger (Pacer).

A bunch of friends, including a retired painter, helped him with the restoration and today it is possibly one of the most original and best presented examples of the type. You have probably seen it on the cover of some of Bob’s textbooks. In fact, about a decade ago the aircraft won Australian Grand Champion at Tocumwal concourse d’elegance. Even today, it is still in showroom condition.

Flying high

In 1977, Bob set a new light aircraft altitude record of 23,975 feet in a stock standard Cessna 182. ATC were advising jets inbound to Townsville that “Traffic is a Cessna 182 leaving flight level 220 on climb”.

Needless to say, there was more than one “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, say again” heard over the airwaves that day. Bob wishes (as do we) that he had kept a recording of that one.

The time machine

Bob has had his fixed wing licence for more than 60 years and rotary wing licence for more than 30 years. He has personally logged over 16,000 hours in the air and enabled the careers of thousands of pilots who themselves have logged countless millions of flight hours.

So, what does Bob consider the biggest drawback in flying? “The problem with aviation is that it does become a bit of an obsession at times.”

That reminds me, it’s time for my daily fix.