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Deb’s first flight with Ansett was on a Fokker F27 Friendship, similar to this one pictured at Essendon in 1970. (RuthAS via Wikimedia Commons/CC BY 3.0)
‘Well done, Deborah Jane’
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In this extract from her memoir, “Touching the Sky”, Deborah Lawrie recounts her history-making inaugural flight as Australia’s first female commercial pilot at a major airline.
On the morning of 14 January 1980, I was up early. I was thrilled to finally be putting on my uniform, such as it was: black trousers, sky-blue male shirt with a black tie, clodhopper work shoes and an oversized hat. The jacket was still a work in progress. I was to passenger on an Ansett Boeing 727 to Alice Springs with my training captain, Alan Reid. There we’d pick up a Fokker F-27 and fly what was known as “the milk run” through to Tennant Creek, Tindal and Darwin.
Media had expressed keen interest. Alan, a pilot of immense experience and wisdom, had been specially chosen to train me for what had been described as a delicate undertaking. Later I discovered that when cautioned by senior management not to speak to any newspapers, his curt reply was that he was only training me on the proviso that the company hadn’t already decided to fail me at the end.
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