Australia's oldest flying school - Ballarat Aero Club - is ready to soar

And it was a feeling that only deepened as I inspected the myriad controls and buttons situated behind the steering wheel of the Piper PA-28 Cherokee I was about to fly.

"So much responsibility," I thought, "and so much scope for things to go wrong."

"You'll be fine, you're not going to die. I actually have plans to make it home tonight, too, you know," my supervising pilot Melanie Dow wryly said.

"My face must be betraying me," I thought. But being one of those people who seems to attract bad luck wherever I go, I decided it best to hedge my bets and say a quick prayer anyway, in case I was wrong about the whole God thing.

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With my conscience cleared, I quietly took a deep breath and concentrated on steering the plane down the runway.

"Try to keep it straight, and go down the middle of the line - otherwise everyone will think you've already had a drink," Dow chuckled.

By the time we'd gathered enough speed, I gingerly pulled the steering wheel towards me as instructed, and off we soared. In precisely the same moment, my stomach lurched, and fear of impending death well and truly superseded any residual excitement I'd been feeling.

"There's no way we're going to make it with me in control," I said.

"Don't worry, that's why I'm here," Dow said reassuringly.

Yet only seconds later, as we were literally afforded a birds' eye view of the entirety of Ballarat and its beautiful surrounds, all of that fear retreated like shadows in the night.

"Now I totally get why people get addicted to flying!" I said to Dow, who was only 16 years old when she took her first solo flight.

As it happens, aviation runs in Dow's blood. Not only was her father a flying instructor for nearly 40 years, but both her grandfather and great uncle were aviators in the second world war.

"You can't become a pilot unless you really have a love for aviation", she said. 'It's a lot of hard work and it is a slog - you have to really want it."

But Dow is something of a rarity. In Australia, only around five per cent of pilots are women, notwithstanding the fact that entry into the profession has ostensibly been gender neutral for over 40 years.

"There's absolutely a push to get more women into the industry," Dow said. "We can do the job as well, if not better, than the guys, so it's just about getting women to realise they can do the job."

The gender disparity within the profession is among the things Ballarat Aero Club - Australia's first flying school - is hoping to address through a fleet of new flight training programs.

The club, situated at the historic Ballarat airfield in Mitchell Park, has recently come under the management of Jan Davidson, the club's first female president.

Davidson discovered the club two years ago after her teenage son, Sam, made some enquiries on how to become a pilot.

To her surprise, they learned a university qualification in aviation wasn't necessary. All the required training and study could be completed through the flying school, which offers fully accredited recreational and commercial pilot licences.

Davidson said the view university was a prerequisite to becoming a pilot was a common misconception.

"It's not really pushed at school that you can become a pilot through a flying school," she said. "Kids are only told, 'go to school, study hard, go to university or get an apprenticeship', nothing else."

"But when we came out here, we found out that that everyone or anyone can do it - you don't have to be a rocket scientist to become a pilot."

Before Dow joined the Club as head of operations, she was an airline pilot with Tiger Air, whose fleets were permanently grounded shortly after the pandemic hit.

"I saw the job [with the Aero Club] as an opportunity to come back to my roots, because that's what I was - a flying instructor and examiner - before I became an airline pilot," Dow said.

"I also saw it as a way to not only give back to the aviation family, but to the wider community of Ballarat."

Under the instruction of Dow, who herself became a pilot through a flying school in Bacchus Marsh, the club is currently training 15 students of varying ages on how to fly, with the oldest being in his late 70s.

And over the summer break, the club is also offering teenagers bespoke flying packages, which will combine flight training and theory together with networking opportunities.

"The experience gives the kids the motivation [to pursue aviation]," Dow said. "We often find parents tell us their marks at school shoot up."

"With a global pilot shortage, there's never been a better time to become a pilot."

But both Dow and Davidson said everyone in the community was welcome to join the club, even if they preferred to just watch the planes over coffee, have a chat with some aerospace engineers or peruse the two aviation museums next door.

"No one in Ballarat knows the club exists, and I really want to change that," Davidson said. "We want this to be a really community-based space and for everybody to know they're welcome."

The Ballarat Aero Club is located at unit 4 Airport Road, Mitchell Park. Contact the club on 0438 864 082 to make a booking for an introductory flight or to visit.

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