Hayden McDonald’s flight for change

A lifelong passion

Hayden’s interest in aviation began very early, with flights in his grandfather’s Beechcraft Bonanza from his grandparents’ farm near Esperance. “I just loved it. My sister and I used to fight whoever got to sit in the co-pilot seat, but I won that war. I guess it really sparked when I touched the controls when I was six – under strict supervision, of course,” he said. “When I was 15, I got a voucher for two trial instructional flights. I told both my instructor and my mother that I was going to go for it because I loved it that much.”

Over the next few years, Hayden worked hard and achieved his recreational pilot’s certificate at the age of 19, intending to eventually become qualified to join the Royal Flying Doctor Service. Unfortunately, that ambition was derailed when it ran up against CASA’s strict medical requirements.

“The Civil Aviation Safety Authority said no to my medical because I was autistic,” he said. “Their sole reason was that my autism spectrum disorder presents an ‘unacceptable risk to aeronautical navigation’. That wording is very much in a sort of a grey area, in terms of, is it discriminatory?”

Hayden resolved that, if there were no opportunities for him, he would make one of his own, and founded Wings Without Barriers to call attention to the lack of support for neurodiversity in aviation.

“I wanted to educate people on what it’s like to be on the spectrum, so I came up with the idea to fly around Australia,” he said. “This idea was also inspired by Bob Bromley, who flew around Australia to create awareness for mental health. I was lucky enough to meet him, and he’s a really good bloke. It took a lot of planning, and my project got recognised by ABC Trailblazers, so we got a lot of leverage and help to get this underway.”

Speaking to Australian Aviation before he set out, Hayden said that the circumnavigation would have two main aims.

“One is to speak to schools and community groups to just create understanding and acceptance by educating them, so saying ‘hey, this therapy is harmful to us, see us for who we are’, but also like, how can you help us when we have a sensory overload, that sort of thing,” he said. “The second one is more aimed at CASA – I want them to be more flexible. I’m not saying scrap the medical process, because, well, that’s compromising aeronautical safety, and we don’t want to do that.

“But realistically, that system is way too old – it was built in the 60s, it needs to modernise, it needs to have a lot more flexibility. We have a talent shortage, and it’s these sorts of practices that are holding a lot of people who want to work in the aviation industry back, and it needs to change.”

Getting underway

It was a frosty early September morning in Esperance when Hayden took off on the first leg of his journey – but in a sign of troubles to come, he was delayed by engine problems.

“It was frustrating at the start, because 7351, which is my Jabiru J120, would not start. It’s a problem with Jabiru engines – in the cold, it did not start very well, especially on a very cold morning,” he told Australian Aviation. “So, we had to get a heat gun through the air vents to sort of preheat the engine until it finally caught, and when I was taxiing out there, I was just shocked at the amount of people who showed up to watch me depart.

“I had to get going, because my first destination was the Nullarbor Motel, which is in South Australia, so you deal with the time difference as well, and when I departed, I was just cackling and laughing. I was just so glad to get on my way. I was so nervous, and that day was very stressful.”

From Esperance, Hayden journeyed through South Australia to Victoria, NSW, and Queensland, then back through the Northern Territory on his way home. As he was only certified for VFR and couldn’t enter controlled airspace, this led to some creative route planning, particularly when he neared the busy Sydney basin.

“It was overcast, so I was VFR over the top at that point,” he said. “Right over Warnervale at 7,500 feet, which is the altitude I was flying at, is class Charlie airspace, so pretty much I was looking around to find a hole, and I just went for it. It was a bit of a challenge because, somewhere like Sydney, you don’t want to muck around, and of course, the last thing you want to do is annoy air traffic control.”

Trials and turbulence

The starting line in Esperance wasn’t the only time Hayden had engine problems, he relates: “Aircraft ownership is like a marriage – it will only look after you if you look after it. It was an absolute pain up to Broken Hill. Every cold morning I spent up to two hours trying to get the bloody thing going with a jumpstarter. For a Jabiru’s engine to catch, you need to turn it to an RPM of 300, and when it was cold, it wasn’t reaching that point … it was just frustrating and so once we saw that out it was almost pretty much smooth sailing there.”

Beyond the engine trouble, Hayden had to deal with other minor issues such as cracking in the fairings and around the door, though these did not significantly hamper his journey.

“It’s not really the fault of Jabiru, it’s just the sort of thing you have to deal with when you fly an aircraft that doesn’t get used a lot,” he said. “She’s done pretty well considering the 90 hours we flew around Australia.”

More serious problems arose near Kununurra at the end of October, where widespread bushfires delayed him from making his final leg down the west coast back to Esperance.

“It was the worst visibility I’ve ever flown through,” he said. “It was getting to a point where in some areas it was just IFR, and under the recreational pilot’s certificate I can only fly under daytime VFR,” he said. “So that was causing a lot of trouble for me. I remember arguing with Mum, saying ‘The only way I’m getting back home is in 7315, not in a jet, not with my mentor’s King Air’.

“But visibility was down to zero in some places, and this is where fuel can be a bit scarce at times. We tried, I showed up three times, and I turned back because I was just like, nah, I don’t like this. And Kununurra is surrounded by ranges … so you have poor visibility and mountains, not worth it. Even down around Halls Creek, Fitzroy Crossing, visibility was down to absolute zero. The then CEO of Recreational Aviation Australia, Matt Bouttell, did say to me, ‘I reckon the decision has been made for you, Hayden’. I realised that’s it, I’m going to have to go back. If I wait, it could be up to a month of waiting.”

With Aviair looking after his plane, Hayden made the tough decision to leave, fly back home and regroup.

“The next night, I flew back to Perth and then rocked up back home the day after. And then a few days afterwards, I went straight back to work, just constantly checking, checking, checking the forecast and the fire map, as well as consulting with my mentor, because he has a cattle station up north as well,” he said. “I’m glad I didn’t continue, because the smoke was from ground level, all the way up to 16,000 feet near zero visibility. So it would have been impossible for me to fly. It was about a month’s wait, and then we came back up to reboot and start over again.”

Full circle

After all the setbacks, delays, and mechanical woes, Hayden finally touched down on 11 December – a month later than he’d planned – back at his home in Esperance, with friends, family and well-wishers waiting for him.

“I cried. It was so emotional for me because it was so long in planning, then 90 hours of flying, over 15,000 kilometres of flying, and it was all over,” he said. “Part of me didn’t want it to end, but I knew that it had to end, because otherwise I wouldn’t be able to progress with my life, and I wanted to be able to move on with my life. All these experiences along the way I might never get to experience again, and I’m thankful for that as well.

“When I got back it took me a while to shut down, because like I said before, I didn’t want it to end, and Mum was running up to me as I shut down, and there was applause from the crowd that showed up as well. So it was quite hard, to say the least.”

Hayden told us his message was well-received wherever he spoke around the country, with around 30 to 50 people turning out at each of his presentations.

“It changed some kids’ perspective – I had one come up to me saying that he changed my life. And for me who is not used to it, it was shocking to me that in the first speech, I already changed someone’s life,” he said. “During this whole circumnavigation, it was so welcoming, everyone was so friendly, and some people even opened their homes to me, and that helped me out so much. So, I want to say thank you for hearing me out, thank you for listening to me, and thank you for being so welcoming to your communities.”

Not only that – there has also been good news on the regulatory front, he told Australian Aviation.

“CASA did reach out to me, as well, when I got to Wycheproof, which was a lot sooner than I thought, and they will work with me on something like a pathway for autistic pilots,” he said. “Given that it’s early days, all I can say is they’re working on something. CASA had put in a clause in that class five medical, which I like to call the Wings Without Barriers clause. Basically, it’s saying that if you are flying up to standard already, then you’re already passed through, you already have your class five as well.

“I’m hoping that CASA will get back to me and be willing to work with us as well in terms of how we can be more neurodiverse-friendly because unfortunately, aviation is very lacklustre in terms of neurodiversity friendliness. But I do applaud CASA, thankfully, for listening.”

Hayden says that in the workplace, other employees need to show understanding and patience with autistic co-workers, who may not work in the same way that neurotypical people do.

“Also, there may be times that we need some quiet time, especially in an overly stimulating environment like aviation,” he said. “The whole community is saying, ‘listen to us, listen to the community’, because I know parents or people who are thinking autism is a disease that needs to be cured, which I don’t like, and it’s not the right way to handle things.”