Turning young guns into Top Guns

As the industry looks to get more kids interested in aviation through school placements and outreach programs, author Melanie “Mac” Hill has taken a different tack – drawing on her own love of aviation and the thrill of air racing, she has penned a middle-grade novel, Jett Cooper, to show children how exciting flying can be. She spoke to Australian Aviation about her book and how it can help get more young people into the skies.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. All images supplied by Melanie Hill.

AA: Can you tell us how you got interested in flying in the first place? Was it anything like Jett?

MH: It was actually a little bit different from Jett. I’m originally from Launceston in Tasmania, and we had a lot of family that lived interstate. So, at Christmas time, we would go out to Launceston Airport and pick them up and drop them off. I would sit there and just watch the aeroplanes take off and land, and right from the viewing window – this was in the early ’70s – there was actually a replica of the Southern Cross. I used to race down there with my brothers, just stare at that aircraft, and then loved watching commercial aircraft take off and land.

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