Carly Sherriff is a wee pocket rocket determined to go places. With energy to burn, an infectious personality and a steely determination to reach her goal, we know she will.

Here is her story. Join us in congratulating her on her achievement in winning one of our Scholarships. 👏

Today, we are delighted to introduce Captain Mike Bannister, British Airways Chief Concorde Pilot.

Mike flew Concorde almost from the very beginning and took on the role of Chief Pilot from 1995 until the fleet retired in 2003.

We were fortunate to interview Mike recently, and we have put together a transcript of the interview.

Grab a coffee and muffin and settle in to read this week’s article.

Let the celebrations begin as we start announcing our winners for 2025!

Today we are delighted to introduce Rocky Thom as our first winner for the year. You can read how an intense childhood has given way to pursuing his lifelong dream.

John and Des Lines (Rocky’s mentor) presented Rocky with his trophy at Des Lines’ Aviation establishment.

In the last article, we discussed retiring from flying. But what happens when you suddenly lose your job through no fault of your own?

Soon to be Captain Steve Harris gives us his story of financial survival after suddenly losing his job during Covid.

A very public announcement advising John’s last flight - out of San Francisco in 2018. An emotional moment heralding impending retirement after 40 years.

But our retirement has been a blast. What will your retirement be like? We’ve put together this guide for every pilot. But it’s message is pertinent for anyone finishing their career, regardless of industry.

Like this introduction, it’s a long article - you’ll need your feet up, a good coffee and a muffin.

Captain Emma Hamilton sits firmly in the 1% of commercial pilots globally. As a female captain, she commands the B787 for Air New Zealand.

We’re thrilled to introduce her so she can tell us her story so far.

In our last article we heard from Tom what it’s like to start in the airlines as he rises up the career ladder. This week we hear from Jeremy Burfoot, ex Qantas A380 Captain, starting again as a First Officer on Air New Zealand’s A320 fleet.

Can you teach old dogs new tricks?

For those of you reaching for the dream, one of our Scholarship supporters, First Officer Tom Koppen, has made it! A few months back he passed all his line checks and is now living his dream - a pilot flying for Air New Zealand! Here, in this article, he talks about the training he had to go through once he began with the airline. An interesting read for those rising up behind him 👍

Gemma Bray, the fourth winner of the Pauwels Flying Scholarship Special Award (2022) has secured a full time Flight Instructor role at Nelson Aero Club. We are so proud of her!

Winning a Pauwels Flying Scholarship is one thing, but getting through the essential pilot training is another.

From leaving home, to organising adult life as well as University level pilot training, it’s a huge life change.

Mason Jensen tells us how it really is.

Flying the Concorde! Perhaps the apex experience in airline flying. John got the opportunity to tick off a bucket list item and we flew to the UK so John could fly the only operational Concorde Simulator in the world.

Was it worth it? Check out the cheesy smile at the end of the article.

BTW - it’s a long article so arm yourself with a coffee and a muffin and legs on the desk.

The sooner you decide that moving overseas for your first job after qualifying either as a CPL or C-Cat instructor is a likely scenario, the sooner you will find yourself employed in a global market starved of pilots - unlike in the tiny New Zealand market that produces way more CPL qualified pilots than there are jobs for.

Captain Shemuel Low decided very early on to head overseas and has never regretted his move.

In Part Two of Jetstar First Officer Andrew Vialoux’s aviation biography, he shares with us his Flight Instructor years and how and why he transitioned to an airline role.

There are many s to routes to an airline pilot role, and it’s important that you enjoy the journey to get there. Andrew’s story certainly demonstrates that the journey can be just as interesting as the destination.

We have another Pilot Progression story for you - both today and in our next post. First Officer Andrew Vialoux has an impressive history of Flight Instructing before he recently took the step into airline flying with Jetstar.

Today, he tells us about a good summary about his aviation career. Next article, he will focus on his successful Flight Instructing career and transition to airline flying.

Good Morning! This week we have videos to show! With the tragic cancellation of the Omaka airshow this weekend, we thought we might show you the B787 ZFT Simulator going through its paces.

Captain Arthur Gatland, Air NZ B787 Sim Instructor tells us what exactly ZFT means and how they work.

Aircraft are practically bullet proof these day (if not missile proof!) and the culture on the Flight Deck is pretty much as good as it can get. But aircraft disasters still occur.

Black Swan events are always going to happen so maybe crash analysis needs to change its mindset. Rather than “What went wrong?”, the question ought to be “What went right?” - so the lessons learnt can be passed onto crew who may find themselves in a similar set of circumstances in the future.

Between October 2018 and March 2019, 346 people died in two air crashes. they shared a common cause - Boeing’s secret MCAS system installed in the new B737 MAX aircraft.

The pilots in the first crash (that killed 189 innocent people) had no clue what was going on and therefore had no way to divert disaster.

The pilots in the second crash were able to identify the threat but went on to make two critical errors and a further 157 people died.

The Swiss Cheese model had been proven. Today, Captain Bob Henderson explains the model to us.

Pakistan International Airlines Flight 8303 crash in 2020 sums up in the one event everything that Captain Bob Henderson talks about in this Part 2 of his series of 4 articles on Human Factors.

Even if you aren’t a pilot, you will learn a lot about how and why we all make errors. The consequences of which can be minimal or fatal to many.

The Tenerife Air Disaster still remains the worst air disaster in history. Two 747s collided on the runway. 583 people died. Why?

In short, the culture at the time was that the Captain was God - his word was gospel - even when wrong.

In this first article (of 4 to be published over the next 3 fortnights), Captain Bob Henderson, an authority on Human Factors addresses why this culture of God Captain had to change.

How are we doing? We’ve operating since awarding the first scholarship in 2018. We have 14 recipients so far. So how are we doing? Are we learning as we go? How are our winners going? Read on to find out.

If you are thinking of applying for a scholarship, we’ll open the next round in February – put it in your diary.

And of course – a Meri Kirihimeti/Merry Christmas to everyone. We’ll join you again each Friday from 7^th February 2025.