ABOUT
WHIRLY GIRL 530
My name is Rosemarie McRae.
I first started flying in 1980 at the age of 27 as a single mother with two
daughters aged five and seven. I now have approximately 480 hours flying
time in aeroplanes and 13,000 hours in helicopters.
As a little girl growing up
on sugarcane farm outside of Nambour on the sunshine coast of Australia I always
had dreams of being up in the sky I think like all children. When I was 15
and then living in central Queensland, a career guidance officer came around to
my high school and showed me a brochure on joining the Air Force. I knew
right there and then flying was for me so as you do I wrote to the Air Force and
applied to join and train to become a fighter pilot.
This was to be my first
exposure to discrimination because I was a female. Before I opened the letter of
reply, I was so excited. This was to be the start of my flying career.
How absolutely naive of me. When I opened the letter and read that my
application had been rejected on the grounds of being a girl, my first feelings
were of confusion and disbelief. How could I have been rejected just
because I was a girl? I had never heard of anything so ridiculous.
All my life I had been running around farms and the outback of Queensland with a
bunch of other kids who were boys and girls. As far as I understood there
was nothing that made me different to anyone else. But, that was the way it was
to be.
Because I was so young, I
had no idea of where to go next to start to be a pilot so I carried on and did
what everyone else was doing and what was expected of me. I got an
education; I obtained a job, married and had two children. At this point,
I will add that there is certainly nothing wrong with any of this. I did
have good times within my marriage, I do love my children with all my heart
and being educated is vitally important.
While I was married, my
husband and I were living on cattle stations up in the Northern Territory.
During this period, I had a great deal of exposure to aircraft. The mail
plane would come in, we had the Royal Flying Doctor Service, private aeroplanes
from other stations would drop by and of course, we had the helicopter musterers
coming and going all season. With this sort of activity going on around me, I
could not help but become fascinated by the world of aviation.
While the four of us were
living on one of these stations, my ex husband and I realised that our marriage
was not working so I decided to go back and do what I had always wanted to and
that was to fly. People have often questioned me on whether the flying was
the cause of my marriage failure but I can assure everyone that it was not but
the other way around.
After the wet season had
finished at the beginning of 1980, I packed up my children, a five-ton truck
with all of our worldly possessions and headed off to Redcliffe, which is a
place just north of Brisbane where my Mum and Dad were living. I did have
a couple of issues, which needed addressing as soon as possible. One being
that the truck was unregistered and the other was that I did not have a truck
licence.
Once I had reached the main
highway I was going to drive as far as Elliott where there was a police station
and ask the policeman for a licence and a permit. By then I would have
done about 300 kilometres. The permit would get me to the Queensland
border. From there I would be on my own again until I reached Camoweal.
As luck would have it, about 5 kilometres down the main highway at Dunmurra, I
spotted a couple of police vehicles parked at the service station. I
needed fuel so decided to kill two birds or three (fuel, permit and licence)
with the one stone. I pulled in and did the fuel first, parked the truck
and then wondered into where I could see the police officers having a cool
drink. I walked up to them, introduced myself and told them that I was
headed for Queensland to become a pilot but just needed the truck licence and
permit to get myself there.
There was stunned silence
and disbelief that I would wonder in on a Good Friday with such a story.
After the two of them had settled down, and we had a bit of a chat all they said
was that if I could get the truck across the Murranjai I could certainly
get to Queensland. The permit and licence were issued and we were on our
way again. As soon as I reached Redcliffe and sorted out a few things as
in I had to sell the truck to get some money to keep the three of going, a job
needed to be found immediately, I then went out to the Flying Club and
away I went. From the time I started flying in 1980 until the about 18
months ago, I did not stop flying.
During those years of flying, I had been a mustering pilot.
At one stage, I was flying both aeroplanes and helicopters. Most days I
would depart at first light to do a muster, return around lunch or a bit before,
have lunch, then hop into an aeroplane to fly the boss wherever he wanted to go.
Most of the time the aeroplane trips would be stock buying trips.
Sometimes they were shopping trips, which were always great fun for me
but the rest of the time it was all work.
I have been a survey pilot looking for gold, diamonds, tin, or any other
mineral, which may have been of value to a mining company.
On one of my survey trips, I happen to land in the middle of the wrong
mining camp. To make matters worse
it was in the middle of the compound, which housed all of the companies drill
samples. Luckily no one was in camp
a t the time and I had time to get out of there in a hurry when I realised what
had happened. You may ask why I landed there in the first place.
Well the settlement that I was reference from was marked on the WAC
incorrectly and this happened to be PRE GPS days.
It’s hard to actually think of a time without GPS.
During my time as a pilot I have also done aerial photography, which
included making movies and news work. I
have done tourism work, corporate charter, search and rescue, sling work.
I was awarded the great honour of receiving a heroism award for bravery
for saving lives at sea for one of my rescues.
I have done many medical evacuations.
They were done from off islands, from off ships, from off the mainland,
at day and night, during cyclones and all sors of good and bad weather.
Included in these medical evacuations, has been having to help deliver a
baby and carry bodies. I have flown
medical teams around. This also
included the flying dentist. I have
even assisted the dentist to extract teeth.
The poor patient nearly had a coronary when he saw the pilot standing
over him with the pliers.
I have built lighthouses and dismantled them. During one of these operations, I was accused of committing
the greatest act of vandalism ever perpetrated in the Australian Maritime
history. I have built power lines
and done lots of line stringing.
In amongst all of this, I have raised two children, owned my own
helicopters, and worked on some real estate deals.
I now live on a golf course on the Gold Coast with my partner Hugh.
We do a lot of travelling together which has included Hong Kong,
Singapore, the U.K., the Solomon’s, The Gilbert Islands and more of Australia.
I am becoming a golf junkie and for speed kicks, I play around on our 140
horsepower jet ski.
HELICOPTER
ASSOCIATION VICE PRESIDENT
In
December of 2004, I was elected as Vice President of the Helicopter Association
of Australasia. Being Vice
president is an enormous responsibility. The
association covers Australia, New Zealand and New Guinea.
The
Aviation industry is going through a time of huge change.
Because of this time of change, we need an enormous amount of input from
all areas of the aviation industry. This
input is to make sure our regulatory bodies know and understand what it is that
the industry need and require enabling it to expand and operate in a safe and
efficient manner through this time of growth.
In my role as Vice President of the Helicopter Association, it is my role and responsibility to assist the helicopter industry to liaise with our regulatory bodies on the changes required.
AVIATION CONSULTANTS INTERNATIONAL
Aviation
Consultants International also establishes and develops international
conferences, targeting aviation development in all spheres. They have an
international reputation and deal at the highest level of government and airline
management. In regards to both
development of short course training and conference development this is
undertaken with full support of Griffith Universities School of Aviation through
the managing director Mr. Hugh Ritchie who is also a senior lecturer in the
master’s degree course in aviation management.
The book ‘Whirly Girl 530’ was officially launched at the Sheraton
Mirage on the Gold Coast on the 11th of November 2004.
ODE TO ROSEMARIE
You stood there your sullen look
And ponder on what to cook
With course mind and weathered brow
The time to fly has come right now
No more dreams or damming knocks no broken promises
on the rocks to fly, the cry you heard within, let life now begin.
For fifteen years Rose took the knocks
Sometime falls and thrown rocks - now here Rose
stands with piece of mind having served her in flight time
Come you people try your best,
Rose will pass all the tests
A chopper pilot yes she is the best there is in the business.
If
I had no children
Would our life be bliss
Could I hold you in my arms
And share a little kiss
If I own a castle
Would you live alone
Could we share each other
And never need a phone
1 don't have a lot to offer
Just a heart of gold
This I offer to you
As
we both grow old
Take heart my sweet Rosemarie
We're
dead longer than you think
Look
at what we had
And return us from the brink
Chopper lineup!
Whirly Girl - ready for
action!
Just another days work!