At 89 years of age, Samuel Todhunter has lived through the Korean war, the Vietnam war and spent his whole life working in the aviation industry.

Last week, he received an Order of Australia Medal for his service to aviation – and it’s something he is passionate about, still working in Lismore as a flight instructor at the Northern Rivers Aero Club.

Why fly?

Sam: “I was born in 1932, in Margaret River in Western Australia. It was a small country town and dairying and timber were the main industries.

“It was circled by big jarrah trees and the horizon was wide. Whenever we went to the beach, there was a vast horizon and you could see sky – and at the time, the Korean war was on.

“I had the urge to fly airplanes when I was there at school. I went to school in Bunbury – it was strict and top class. Then in 1949 I graduated and jobs were available for anybody and it was a great opportunity to be absorbed into the airforce then.

“I moved into the Postmaster Generals Department (PMG), as a cadet draftsman and did engineering. But in 1953, the Korean was just ending and I thought, I’ve had enough of this - and I had the opportunity to go flying.

RAAF

“I’ve been in aviation since 1954. I joined the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) in 1954 after seeing pictures coming out of Korea.

“I remember seeing the 77 squadron, the commanding officer was Lou Spence and I admired him. He later got killed in Korea.

“I graduated from the RAAF in 1955, then spent about 18 years in the RAAF.

“Then I trained on Dakotas at Fairburn RAAF base, and I did an instructor’s course in East Sale RAAF Base in Victoria.

Then I had a wonderful tour at a weapons training establishment at Edinburgh in South Australia.

“It gave me an opportunity to fly a wide variety of aeroplanes and I spent four years there.

“It was really great flying. I flew planes like the Canberras, the Meteors and Dakotas.

NRAC flight instructors: Bill Kiernan, Nathan Parker and Sam Todhunter.

Qualified flying instructor

“I was a qualified flying instructor and was doing the air core training with cadets who had been given the opportunity to get flying experience, to get their private pilot’s licence.

“Then I went up to Amberley, flying Canberras and training staff on the operational conversion unit. That had one commanding officer and two flight commanders – each with his own flight line maintaining the aircraft .

“It was about a four month course to endorse people on the Canberra.

Vietnam

“Then I went to sixth squadron in Camden and spent a year in Vietnam flying Canberras.

“I came home after separating from my family for over a year and thought I’d had enough of this about wanted to get out and enjoy civilian life.

Papua New Guinea

“I had an opportunity to become an air safety inspector in accident and incident investigation, over in Perth. That suited me, because I was a West Australian.

“Then I had an opportunity to go to Papua New Guinea. The Civil Aviation people were still running the place, so it still had its independence then.

“With the public service was still running the place with local people on staff, I had a couple of interesting and enjoyable years.

“Then I moved across as the assistant director of operations – and oversaw the flying , air traffic control and air worthiness operations as well

“That was a great experience.

“When we moved over to Papua New Guinea, we left my daughter at university in Perth. She didn’t like that.

“My son did his final year in Port Moresby and became a navy cadet. I taught him to fly up there. So that gave him an opportunity to get selected into the naval academy as a cadet.

Australia

“In 1981, I came back to Australia and there were not many job opportunities, because I had so much experience by now.

“I moved in as an airways surveyor in a Canberra central office. It was excellent work but my wife and I didn’t like Canberra.

“When I came back from Vietnam, we were planning to settle in Perth but it didn’t happen that way – so we thought we’d go there now.

“So, I resigned, we got out and had to pay our fare and move ourselves back to Perth.

“Then a friend and myself started an aviation business called Avwest. There were great opportunities in those days and it was a great experience.

Family

“But my wife and I had two children. One was flying with Ansett over in Sydney, living at the Gold Coast and commuting for flying tasks to Sydney - and my daughter was in Melbourne.

“They were not coming over to the west, so we felt we better go to the east coast, so we moved over to the Gold Coast in 1997.

“Seven years later my wife died.

“After my wife died, in 2004, I’d go back to Perth and spend about six weeks there with the school and charter business we had there, doing the work for free.

“It kept my hand in with flying and flying training.

Murwillumbah to Lismore

“Then, instead of travelling over to Perth, I thought I’d get Murwillumbah Aero Club going as a training school

“That’s when I happened to meet Bill Kiernan from the Northern Rivers Aero Club (NRAC) in Lismore in 1998.

“Bill said ‘why not come down to Lismore’ and that opened another door with me and I started training at NRAC.

“Until young Nathan Parker came along and moved in, we were doing a hell of a lot of flying and flying training here, for recreational and commercial licences.

“Now, after being overseas for a while with Singapore Airlines, my son has come back and owns the house next door to me now.

Satisfied in retirement

“I’ve very satisfied with my life and my achievements and where things took me to.

“It just seemed the forces at work brought me to the right places - and brought me to Lismore.

“Most of the time I was in the RAAF, I was instructing and training people – and has set me up to keep going.

“Since I retired from the Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) in 1988, I’ve been flying voluntarily, still instructing people in my retirement.

“Now, I still have a hand in training at NRAC.

“Nathan mainly does the R Aus recreational aviation training – which is the bulk of the work here. I do the instruction on the VH aviation going through to commercial licences.

“VH is the signature on every Australian airplane.

“These days, you can learn to fly far more cheaply through recreational aviation in Australia.

“It’s great because the restrictions that used to apply from the Civil Aviation safety Authority (CASA) have been removed to a large extent.

“The safety element is still there, but they do provide an excellent administration. So, most of the flying that’s being done in Australia at the moment amongst general aviation people, is recreational.

Read more about Nathan Parker: Nathan's Wings Award sets his aviation career flying even higher

Scared?

“Strangely enough, I’ve never been scared when I was flying – even operating an airplane in a war time environment.

“I was also very fortunate I’ve never had an engine failure in my life.

“I always enjoyed flying. I enjoyed the theory of it. I enjoyed instructing on it. When you are in a plane, all you are concerned with is flying the airplane properly and do it well.”