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Birdsville Tower in the early 1980s – an OH&S nightmare. Picture: Civil Aviation Historical Society Inc.
Birdsville Tower in the early 1980s – an OH&S nightmare. Picture: Civil Aviation Historical Society Inc.
Industry Influencers: George Lane
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Aero Circus investigates a man who has sat on both sides of the radio, as an air traffic controller and highly accomplished pilot
World War Z
All too often we come across pilots who think that all air traffic control (ATC) personnel are ‘the enemy’. Certainly, there may be a very small minority in ATC that do not hold all pilots in the same high esteem that they hold themselves. But the vast majority, at least in our experience, are totally dedicated to helping pilots wherever possible. Even when the sublime becomes the ridiculous.
One man who has epitomised this mindset is the recently retired chief issuer of clearances, expectations and weather advice at Archerfield Tower near Brisbane. George Lane has spent his whole working life in aviation, and along the way gathered a large band of dedicated followers, on both sides of the VHF radio. As Archerfield is a training airfield, he spent much of his career dealing with perhaps the toughest audience – ab initio student pilots.
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Meet the Fokkers
George always encouraged student pilots to visit the tower with their instructors. Students gained a better idea of what the various components of their radio calls were being used for, and that ATC are actually on their side. Many ATC staff are also pilots themselves. George believes that this gives them a much better insight into what the pilot is thinking (or not), and how they might react to certain instructions.
His Brilliant Career
George started learning to fly at age 15 with the aim of becoming an airline pilot. He spent five years with Flight Service, stationed in Brisbane and regional Queensland. Flight Service provided regional area radio communications back in the day before satellite technology allowed these to be consolidated into Brisbane and Melbourne Centres. During his time with Flight Service, he did his commercial training in his own Piper Arrow. After an IFR twin rating, he studied law in his spare time. As you do.
His study and work experience allowed George to get his foot in the door at ATC, where he spent the following 40 or so years. In his own words: “That was the commencement of a very satisfying career working with great people. I spent many hours working in both the old and new control towers in Brisbane plus assorted radar positions in the centre. I also did two tours of duty at Archerfield, which culminated me spending over 20 years as the tower supervisor until my recent retirement.”
The Aviator
Over the years George owned three Beechcraft Barons, two Cessna 310Rs and a Piper Arrow (hopefully not in a pear tree). And some Cessna singles. His current ‘project’ is a classic Learjet 24, which has been stuck in the US since a certain virus took control of the planet.
To date he has amassed 2,800 flying hours.
A Day at the Races
Until the early 1990s, the Department of Transport provided temporary control towers for special events. George recalls one such time in the 1980s when things did not quite go to plan:
“The Birdsville tower was just a scaffold with a floor on the top. You would eat dust and be in the elements as you controlled but it was an awesome experience. Once I was running traffic into the two runways at the same time. There was a string of aircraft on final for both runways. I had an ABC camera crew in the tower taking footage.
“Suddenly a Grumman landed nose first and knocked his nosewheel off, grinding to a halt with the tail in the air. I let out an expletive as I started sending the following aircraft around and feeding them into the one remaining runway. The camera crew came up later and said that it was awesome footage, but they had to dub out my swear word. They asked if we could shoot that bit again and replace it with ‘Oh my goodness!’ or similar.” Hope he told them to oh my goodness off.
Last Dance
“Watching a couple of million landings, most without incident, makes you aware of how inherently safe aviation can be when good flight training and professional pilot attitudes are adhered to.”
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