Bill Kiernan OAM has spent his life in the air. The 83 year old is head of operations and flight examiner at Northern Rivers Aero Club (NRAC). He’s seen two wars, set up flying schools, bought planes, received an Order of Australia Medal (OAM), dropped crabs and spotted prawns from the air.

When Bill was 15 years old, he joined the Airforce to do radio engineering. On the weekends while training, he secretly started having flying lessons in a Tigermoth.

“The first time I flew, one of the propellors came off and we crashed into a chook house,” Bill laughed. 

“We were sitting in a wreck and I was looking at the instructor sitting in the front seat, with blood on his face and saying ‘I’m alive’, when the farmer came running across the field, upset about who was going to pay for his chook shed.”

It didn’t put him off flying.

Bill eventually did learn to fly and went on to get his commercial pilot’s licence and his instructor rating.

“I was in the Airforce for 11 years and would fix planes involved in World War 2 operations,” he said.

“I got some good postings overseas in places like Singapore, the UK, Philippines and Hawaii where I met lots of like-minded people and developed a respect for their cultures.

“I enjoyed the Airforce, but the sheltered, military life wasn’t really for me.

“I was a smart arse and eventually the Airforce suggested I be a civilian.”

Bill Kiernan in the cockpit.

Love in the 60s

When he left the Airforce, he was based in Townsville and started instructing people how to fly in a local club.

“Townsville was an awesome place in the 1960’s,” Bill said. “I was a young single bloke and not bad looking and had a way with words and people. I also played Rugby Union and represented Queensland.

“It was a great period – things had changed a great deal - women had discovered the pill and would knock us about and use us,” he laughed.

It was in Townsville he met his future wife to be. 

She was an air hostess and they met in a hotel, went on a date – and the rest is history.

They married and eventually moved to the Gold Coast, with their Chihuahua Biggles - to be near his wife’s family.

Career

After a brief involvement with the Vietnam war, Bill's climb up the career ladder took off when the chief instructor in the Townsville aero club was killed in an air crash.

“So, I was kicked upstairs into his job and I wasn’t terribly experienced.

“Eventually, I formed another flying company – working with business people in the meat and cattle business. 

“That was when I made my first trips to Japan in a little six seater airplane.

“I was ferrying airplanes to the Phillipines and taking casual flying jobs.”

He made a habit of forming companies. 

“I was approached to set up a different style of flying school,” Bill said. “In the US, Cessna pilot centres had been set up and offered a new perspective on the way to teach, that wasn’t military style.

“So, I set up a big operation that people said was doomed to fail, but two years later, we sold it for $2.5 million dollars.

“We were also doing charter flights and grew the business from having two planes to eight.”

Bill's first DC-3 he bought.

Crocodiles and fun

“When Crocodile Dundee came out, an opportunity to buy a baby DC-3 plane came up.

“So, we bought it and bought a property in the Gulf of Carpentaria where we had a dam with a real white crocodile.

“We called the business Crocodile Air with the motto, ‘it won’t cost you an arm and a leg’.

“We promised the yanks they would see a crocodile or there would be no charge – then we would fly them over the dam.”

Next, he bought a Neptune bomber plane for $500 after the US government grounded them all. 

“It was lots of fun,” Bill said. 

“We used fly around and did Easter egg drops and crab drops.

“There was an annual crab festival and we had cooked mud crabs wrapped in a small parachute and we dropped them into the festival.

“Another time we had 2000 Easter eggs and dropped them into the mud flats and watched the kids running round looking for eggs. The person who found the gold egg won a prize.

“I remember a time we were chasing crocodiles up and down rivers for fun in a little bubby piper Cherokee - four seater single engine plane.

“We had a dinghy in the back seat in case we fell into the water.

“We fell once, but we jumped onto the wing and a boat picked us up.”

Bill and a friend with one of the Crocodile Air planes.

OAM and prawns

“I was rung up one day by someone asking me if I’d got the letter about receiving an Order of Australia medal. 

“I said ‘piss off, you’re yanking my chain’. It was fair dinkum. I said ‘you must be short this year’.

“They said it was for service to aviation.

“Maybe it was the service I gave to the hosties and overnighters in Townsville,” Bill laughed.

“I think it was for when I was spotting prawns from the air in the Gulf of Carpentaria with a WW2 paratrooper.

“He had come to me and said, ‘I reckon you’re mad, do you want to come prawn spotting with me?’.

“So, we went up and spotted the banana prawns when they boiled up at certain times of the year – then we’d tell the trawlers to come get them.

“Then the Civil Aviation Authority got into it and the air there got busy with lots of planes. 

“Then a big Russian ship came one day and sucked them all up and then the government made the Gulf into Australian waters.”

Bill receiving his Order of Australia medal.

Northern Rivers Aero Club

Bill Kiernan is 83 this year and said he never sees himself retiring.

Now the Northern Rivers Aero Club’s head of operations and flight examiner, he’s responsible for ensuring compliance with laws and teaching people to fly. 

“It’s nice to give back to a profession that has given me so much,” Bill said.

Bill was working on the Gold Coast about 12 years ago, when someone rang him and said the Lismore-based club needed a new flight instructor.

“I came and looked and thought it didn’t justify a full time role so I work here 3-4 days a week,” he said. 

He and the club’s other instructors teach people to fly. 

Bill said flying a plane is not hard, but it takes determination, self discipline and a willingness to watch, listen and follow procedures.

So you want to fly?

Being a pilot is something Bill said many people falsely revere, thinking pilots are like gods.

“People also see learning to fly as something out of their reach – that it’s too expensive - but people don’t think twice about buying a new car,” he laughed. 

“I’m a cynic, a couple of wars does that to you.

“It’s about $10,000 to learn to fly – and it’s not hard to fly an airplane – if it was, I wouldn’t do it. 

“If you make a mistake, it can be fatal, so when you are in the plane – you are the captain - it’s your responsibility.

“Never let your ego take over.

“A 14 year old boy came in to see me this morning with his mum. He really wants to learn to fly, he saved $1000 by busking because he is determined.

“If you want to fly, come and talk to me and take a discovery flight. 

“Everyone who wants to fly is different and we tailor the program to their needs - it depends on your goals and why you want to learn.

Not rocket science

“We have a flight simulator that people start in to get a feel for flying a plane. Then they learn theory and the instructor takes you in a plane. 

“Learning to fly is like rollerskating – it uses the brain and the senses. We teach you how to use your reflexes - like catching a ball.

“I’ve taught kids from PNG and Laos to fly and they learn easily. They watch and listen and can learn the theory afterwards. It’s not rocket science.

“These days, everything is automated, so you become an airborne systems operator in a plane. But computer systems can break down and you need to know what to do.

“When we teach, we give people a basic grounding and tools to build on.

Bill Kiernan, Nathan Parker and Sam Todhunter at NRAC.

The young face of flying

Now, at NRAC, Bill works with Nathan Parker.

Nathan joined the Australian Defence Force Academy and in his last year, he was in a bus that rolled over. 

“Nathan lost his left arm and was knocked about,” Bill said. 

“He wanted to continue flying but the Airforce said he couldn’t and it decimated him.

“He came to me and told me his story and I said, ‘pig’s arse – you can fly’ and we went flying. 

“So, Nathan went on to do his flying exams and got his pilot’s licence and now he’s a senior flying instructor. 

“Now, he’s going for his dream to get his commercial pilot’s licence.”

Bill with Commodore James Coward.

Ruled by books

Bill has met a few people who haven’t let misfortune stop them from achieving their goals.

He remembers when he first started working at NRAC and invited British Commodore James Coward to come and officiate at a charity event for ANZAC Day.

Commodore Coward had lost a leg in the Battle of Britain while flying his Spitfire. Under fire from Germans, his weapon jammed and backfired on him, almost severing his foot from his leg.

As his plane dived, he bailed out, deployed his parachute and used his helmet’s radio lead to tie a tourniquet around his thigh. He survived and had his left leg amputated.

“I had the pleasure of taking him flying,” Bill said. “He aerobatted the plane and told me once he rolled a spitfire from Edinburgh to London.

“People told him he couldn’t - but he did.

“When I’m taking on a challenge, I look in the rule book for a rule that says you can’t do it. If there’s nothing, then I do it.

“Too many people are ruled by books. It stops you thinking for yourself. Then people get bored and do stupid things.”

The Great Eastern Fly-in

NRAC will be having a stall at the Great Eastern Fly-in at Evans Head Aerodrome this weekend, where you can meet Nathan Parker and learn more about flying.

To find out more about the Great Eastern Fly-in, read: Soar up and away at the Great Eastern Fly-in this weekend

To contact NRAC, phone 0266 214 844, or email [email protected] or visit http://www.recreationalpilot.com.au