Be inspired as you learn about the feats of some unbelievable Australian female aviators as they take to the skies in Take Flight: Incredible stories of Australian women who reach for the sky. Photo: Supplied.
Be moved and feel uplifted by the extraordinary achievements of courageous female aviators with their magnificent journeys across our vast expanse of sky. Sense the awe and admiration. Realise the courage of these women in their aviation adventures. Imagining is effortless after reading Take Flight: Incredible stories of Australian women who reach for the sky.
Author, photographer and editor Kathy Mexted relates 10 stories of incredible Australian women who fly for fun, work and adventure. From the Arctic to England, from Sydney to a Himalayan summit, and from Melbourne to Uluru, Borneo and back. The stories cover many parts of Australia and the world, using the disciplines of helicopters, gliding, ballooning, paragliding, paramotoring, astronomy, aerobatics, skydiving, wing walking and birdman, and BASE jumping.
Mexted was motivated by her father and learnt to fly in 1991, before she became a writer. Her words in these amazing narratives easily evoke clear images, making the experience feel vividly real. She celebrates the determination, skill and expertise of these women who have beaten the odds to find success and joy in the skies.
She attributes the desire to fly as “primal”. This may not be a universal condition, but it’s true in these case studies. Mexted points out that aside from their courageous undertakings, there’s also astonishment at some of the personal stories these women disclosed.
“Despite their different pursuits, there are some close crossovers in their flying,” she writes. “Catherine the glider pilot, Kirsten the paraglider pilot, Stef the birdwoman/wing walker, and Donna the balloonist all do or did fly fixed-wing aircraft.
“Heather the BASE jumper had to learn skydiving, and Jess the skydiver wants to BASE jump. Emma the aerobatic pilot also flies some aeromedical work in NSW, as does Alida the helicopter pilot in Borneo. Krystal the Gomeroi astrophysicist, with her feet planted on the earth, is looking beyond them all at a universe so vast and colourful that her work is cut out for her just describing it.”
Take Flight tells the stories of Australian women who have leapt, tumbled and dived, and reached for the stars, from balancing on a wingtip to circling with eagles. Helicopter pilot Alida Soemawinata ascends over Kata Tjuṯa. Paramotor pilot Sacha Dench spends months in extreme conditions, following migrating swans from the Arctic tundra to the English countryside. Sacha’s story also unfolds a tragic accident in which she was seriously injured, and her great friend and photographer Dan Burton was killed. It was a devastating time, when she spent months in hospital learning to walk again.
Birdwoman Stef Walter wing walks. Hot-air balloonist Donna Tasker glides over Bristol, Myanmar and much of Australia. Gomeroi astrophysicist Krystal De Napoli studies the Seven Sisters in the night sky. Aerobatic pilot Emma McDonald debuts her solo routine at an airshow high above the glittering Gold Coast.
“There’s a broad cross-section of aviators – some powered by fuel, and some by their gumption – who have shared their stories in this book. There are common intersections in the flying, and – from studying the stars, to high-speed aerobatics – some wide diversions,” Mexted writes.
In Australian Women Pilots, Mexted wrote about fixed-wing flying, which was a dominant and logical place to start. For this book, she explores some “other” types of flight, and the adventures and careers that accompany them.
She shares a connection to these stories of the sky, and the desire to fly. There’s an almost ethereal quality in Mexted’s descriptions of paragliders launching, outlining how it was addictive.
“… I’m running, I’m running … and as the hill sloped away and the pine forest came into view, the wing gently lifted us aloft and we spent the most beautiful nine minutes hovering above the blue hills, doing a slow turn back to look where we’d just been, and then silently floating over a ridge line down to the landing zone.”
While we can draw strength and inspiration from these airwomen, their achievements should also serve as motivation and provide a powerful message of courage and tenacity!
Take Flight: Incredible stories of Australian women who reach for the sky, by Kathy Mexted, NewSouth Books, $34.99
