Post by Dave Homewood on Sept 15, 2017 9:07:25 GMT 12
In Episode 161 of the Wings Over New Zealand Show I interview Matt McLaughlin, a Kiwi pilot who lives in Hong Kong. Matt grew up in Gisborne, New Zealand, and he joined the Royal New Zealand Air Force straight out of school. He began training as a pilot, but was hospitalised with illness. When he returned to training on a subsequent Wings course it all went wrong and he was removed from training.
He then continued flying training with a civilian flying school back home in Gisborne, and gained his commercial pilot’s licence with the plan to join an airline. However when he completed training he took a very different route, moving to Papua New Guinea, and learning the ways of a bush pilot. Matt tells some great stories about flying in and out of mountainous jungle strips, life in PNG, and the other pilots he knew there. It was extremely dangerous flying, and the stakes were high. Sadly many of the pilots Matt knew were killed in accidents.
He went on to fly with Cathay Pacific, which he is still flying with after 22 years. And Matt has recently written his memoirs looking back on those days in Papua New Guinea, in the award winning book “Flying The Knife Edge”, which he also discusses.
Here's the link to the show page:
www.cambridgeairforce.org.nz/WONZShow/2017/09/matt-mclaughlin/
He then continued flying training with a civilian flying school back home in Gisborne, and gained his commercial pilot’s licence with the plan to join an airline. However when he completed training he took a very different route, moving to Papua New Guinea, and learning the ways of a bush pilot. Matt tells some great stories about flying in and out of mountainous jungle strips, life in PNG, and the other pilots he knew there. It was extremely dangerous flying, and the stakes were high. Sadly many of the pilots Matt knew were killed in accidents.
He went on to fly with Cathay Pacific, which he is still flying with after 22 years. And Matt has recently written his memoirs looking back on those days in Papua New Guinea, in the award winning book “Flying The Knife Edge”, which he also discusses.
Here's the link to the show page:
www.cambridgeairforce.org.nz/WONZShow/2017/09/matt-mclaughlin/
