Sarah Locke was 10 when she first saw her family’s farm from the air.
Now 16, she is one of several young people who have enrolled at Western Australia’s newest flight training school, located near Esperance.
The teenager loves the different perspectives offered from the cockpit.
“If it’s been raining you see how many lakes there are,” Sarah said.
“A couple of times we’ve had missing cattle and looked to see if we can find them.”
The recreational flying school opened recently amid “pent-up demand”, largely from the local farming sector.
“It’s a great asset to have on a farm, especially with the distances that we have in WA,” instructor Phil Blyth said.
The self-confessed “aviation tragic” said it was pleasing to see teenagers like Sarah “taking up the baton”.
But the recreational flying sector has not been immune to economic challenges in recent years.
‘Huge opportunities’
Data from Recreational Aviation Australia (RAA) shows that over the 12 months to July 2023 the number of flight training schools nationwide decreased from 150 to 136.
“For those doing it as a pastime, obviously they’ve got to cut back on expenses,” RAA chairman Michael Monck said.
“So that disposable income is being more constrained and that has affected us.”
Most RAA members are in Queensland (30 per cent) or New South Wales (26 per cent),
About 7 per cent are based in the nation’s west.
“With a lower population on the west coast than the east coast, it’s not surprising,” Mr Monck said.
“The surprising thing to me is that not more people have recognised the utility of aircraft.
“For farmers and people on the land … aviation offers huge opportunities.”
‘Seeing the joy’
Mr Blyth, who learned to fly at the Royal Aero Club of WA in the 1980s, also thinks there should be more flying schools statewide.
“We’ve got the tyranny of distance — we’ve got huge distances to travel, and yet we have quite a small number of flying schools,” he said.
He said recreational flying could also be a good launch pad into the broader aviation sector, which is facing a post-pandemic skills shortage.
Research shows that for the remainder of the decade the Asia Pacific region is expected to have the largest pilot shortage worldwide.
Mr Blyth is determined to ensure the Esperance school keeps its doors open.
“I really enjoy just passing on that knowledge … and seeing the joy that it brings to students when they’re in control of a complicated machine like this,” he said.
“It’s a real achievement for people.”
