By Derek Royal  

REVEREND Garry Hardingham says he has the best flying job in the world, piloting his trusty Cessna 182Q around the outback and providing a vital pastoral service to an isolated population in a vast area that stretches from northwestern Queensland to the Northern Territory. Derek Royal speaks to the Flying Padre and discovers a unique human being dedicated to serving his faith and his community.

Garry Hardingham plays guitar and he sings songs. He helps build airstrips and conducts religious ceremonies such as baptisms and church services. He oversees weddings, indulges in mediation work with mining companies and on occasion, discusses succession planning with families. He also operates food drops and evacuations and even fixes the odd computer. Garry it seems, is a capable one-man band who thrives on the ad hoc nature of his calling.

“I could never see myself as a full-time professional pilot,” Garry tells Aviator. “I have the best flying job in the world. I wake up in the morning, look at the chart on the wall and say ‘Where will we go today?’ And ‘should we drive or take the plane?’ My flying rule is that if I can't drive it in two hours, I fly ... needless to say, I fly very often.”

MUCH JOY AND ZEAL
Garry’s ‘office’ is VH-MJZ (affectionately known as “Much Joy and Zeal”), a 1979 Cessna 182 with a Texas Skyways upgrade and oversized tyres.

“MJZ has a Garmin GNS530 which is extremely accurate and has many fantastic features including flight and fuel planning, terrain warning, interconnectivity with my autopilot and a big beautiful moving map display,” Garry says.
“And she's a great office and we know each other pretty well. Apart from the GNS530, I also have an EDM830 engine monitoring system which gives me all the info I need concerning CHT, EGT, fuel flow, etc. She has seat covers and lumbar support and thanks to Cessna's unique ventilation system (i.e. gaps everywhere) plenty of ventilation.”

Garry operates his trusty old bird for the Uniting Church McKay Patrol out of Cloncurry in northwestern Queensland, a service named after Reverend Fred McKay, successor to the founder of the Royal Flying Doctor Service, John Flynn.  

After his ordination in 2000, Garry began his ministry in Mt Isa, where he developed a friendship with the McKay Patrol Padre, Reverend Len Wilmington. When Reverend Len retired in 2003, the church offered Garry the opportunity to study for his pilot’s licence at their expense and to succeed the older man as the region’s new flying padre.

“I thought and prayed about this for about one microsecond,” Garry laughs, and the rest, they say, is history.
Remarkably, as a youngster Garry dreamed of being an astronaut and was always interested in flying. But deep down he figured that flying was something that other people did. “When I was working for Telecom (Telstra) on the Atherton Tablelands, we sometimes used helicopters to get to cut off properties to get the phones working again. I did a few small stints on Thursday Island and in Weipa where again we used helicopters to fly out to the islands and the occasional flight to Aurukun. But again, while I enjoyed the experience, I never thought that I would ever get an opportunity to fly myself.”
  
OUTBACK AVIATION
Now a veteran of more than 2,500 flying hours (all but 50 in MJZ), the 46-year-old padre says that while the challenges of outback flying are numerous, the satisfaction he derives from helping people in the outback is the driving force behind his chosen career. 

“Aviation in the outback is always a challenge,” he says. “In northwest Queensland you have the challenges of fast-changing weather, coupled with heat, severe thermal turbulence and the inherent dangers of long distance. Turbulence is actually a real problem. The wind can whip along the flat plains and then start oscillating when it comes in contact with a small mountain range. There is also a wide variety of surface types that cause vast changes in thermal activity, particularly below 5000 feet.

“There’s a lack of landmarks for navigation, it’s just about impossible to distinguish one jumbled river system from another. And roads are so far apart that using them as timing points is tricky. For most of the area there are no NDB references and often the ABC radio stations in Longreach and Julia Creek are your only triangulation references. Many out here talk about being IFR – ‘I Follow Road or Railway’.

“The Gulf of Carpentaria area is also notorious for unexpected and extreme weather changes. I can fly there in cloudless conditions and be caught flying back in almost non-VMC (conditions). And because most property strips are dirt and marginal at best when wet and the bitumen strips are sometimes 100 nautical miles apart, there are often few options when dealing with changing weather conditions.”

Rain showers can also render airstrips unusable in a matter of minutes, especially on the black soil plains. And while the flat plains might look smooth from 6,500 feet, they’re not so appealing much closer to the ground.

“Sometimes airstrips are chopped up by roaming cattle or you find yourself having to chase cattle off the strip in order to land,” Garry says. “Birds, particularly galahs and cockatoos offer a challenge as they often aren't as smart as the eagles and hawks at getting out of the way.

“Indeed I’m sure Australia has been blessed with what I reckon are the dumbest and most dangerous animals in the world. I've dodged cattle, kangaroos, emus, camels and horses on airstrips. Encountering a flock of emus during your flare is scary knowing that at any moment they might try to run across the runway in front of you.”

COMMITMENT
As a man of God, Reverend Garry is passionately committed to caring for the vast community in which he lives. Once a month he flies to Adels Grove and Karumba for church services but his job description is incredibly diverse and embraces more than religion.

“I basically do anything,” he says. “I like being able to offer free medical flights to Townsville so that a bloke who needs to be away from his property for four days to see a specialist can go down and back in a day,” he says. “It’s a real joy to be able fly in food and medical supplies when properties are cut off for weeks or sometimes months. Or to set up a computer wireless network so the kids can access the internet in the school room.

“To preside over a baptism or a wedding, or even a funeral and to see the whole area swarm in to share in the celebration or to mourn the passing of a mate, is to be part of the fabric of this community. I doubt many ministers of the church could walk into a home and see pictures of their predecessors on the wall marking the significant journey of a particular family. It makes what I do feel so worthwhile.”

So much so that when a station family passed on a note that read: “If it wasn't for Garry, there was no-one”, the good Reverend was moved by the sheer simplicity and sincerity of the message. “People out here appreciate the small things,” he says. “That’s what makes this job so satisfying.” 

JOB SKILLS
So what skills do you need to do this kind of flying?

“You need to be good at being yourself, whatever that might be,” Garry says. “Outback people, like most Aussies, can spot a phoney a mile off. If you are a personable person, willing to be yourself and to accept both your limitations as well as to be willing to learn then you will get on doing what I do. You need to constantly ask yourself ‘Whose needs are being met here?’

“And, I suppose flying out here is just the same. You need to know your limits and be willing to stand on your digs. I once turned back from flying up the Cape (York) with a lady when the conditions started to become marginal and said, ‘We are landing in Karumba and I'm going to the pub.’ She said that she really needed to get to her destination. I handed her the keys and said, ‘Go ahead’.  You know he who turns and flies away, gets to fly another day.”

Married to Teresa and the father of four children between the ages of 15 and 22, Garry says the most crucial skills a bush pilot needs include preparation, knowing the aircraft’s limitations and the consequences of pushing the envelope; and accurately monitoring fuel burn.  

“You must be a long way ahead of your aircraft,” he says. “But the number one consideration is having plenty of fuel. Never miss an opportunity to fill the tanks. If you have the fuel to fly out of a situation then chances are, you won’t run out of options.   

“Knowing what will happen if I accidentally land with a tailwind on a really hot day with a full plane and a lot of fuel is vital. Many strips have no windsock and no trees to give a clue ... and windmills lie. It helps to know what you might be faced with by understanding your aircraft's idiosyncrasies.”

As a precaution for any nasties that might present themselves, Garry practices a lot of short field take offs and landings, particularly during the wet season.

“You have to be good at reading the weather reports and understanding what is likely to happen in five hours’ time,” he says. “Don't let day after day of endless sunshine fool you. Learn to know what every code on that weather and Notam bulletin means.”

He also swears by the value of a night licence.

“Because the distances are so vast, I often need to leave before daybreak to get to my destination with any chance of spending a useful day,” Garry says. “And there is nothing worse than flying east in the afternoon and realising that you are going to miss last light at your destination. But you need to be mindful that night VFR out here is really IFR as you can fly many hours without seeing any reference points of light. So you must be confident, disciplined and well practised. Its not good enough to get a night VFR and then use it on that one occasion a year when you get caught out. If that's all you're using it for, stop doing it. Understand that Night VFR requires the discipline of IFR and you must keep your skills up. Flying can be very unforgiving. And the night is doubly so.”

SEARING TEMPERATURES
Temperatures in Australia’s northwest can often hit 50 degrees Celsius and most days in January and February average around the mid-to-high 40s. Such searing temperatures affect the performance of both the aircraft and the pilot so due diligence is a critical requirement. “In really hot conditions it’s always a slow climb, another reason why night flying has its attractions,” Garry says. “I always fly an extended downwind to give myself a long final so I can be sure what lift quality I have in case of a go-around. It’s amazing how quickly a descent can get away at 47 degrees Celsius.

“I often do eight hour-plus flying days, particularly when I fly School of the Air teachers to the most remote corners of the Patrol. These days often start with a 5am takeoff from Cloncurry and an 8pm return. Because the distances are so vast, I tend to fly a lot at 7500-plus feet to reduce the issues from turbulence. The downside of this is the issue of hypoxia.”

“For me, combating fatigue starts with recognising the signs. My usual first sign is finding my glasses irritating. Once this happens, I start drinking plenty of fluids and descend to levels with more oxygen component in the air. I have been known to tune into UHF frequencies of cattle stations I am passing over for a short chat.  And, if required, I land at the nearest strip and get out for a walk up and down the strip or a small kip if its not too hot in the cockpit. It’s better to be sleepy on the ground than in the air. And I carry gear in case I need to overnight beside a bush strip.”

It’s obvious that Reverend Garry Hardingham derives a great deal of satisfaction from helping this small community tucked away in Australia’s vast and rugged northwest. But what are the Flying Padre’s personal goals and ambitions?

“I would love to ferry an aircraft across the Pacific,” he says. “Or to hire a float plane and do the lakes of Canada. And I still wouldn't mind being an astronaut! But seriously, I really just want to do what I do as well as I can and make sure that what I do is really what I am meant to be doing. Life is too short to be just 'doing the stuff' hoping for the future. I have buried too many people younger than me to know that you need to be able to wake up in the morning, ask yourself the question, “If I died today, would it have been worth it?” and say, “Yep ... so far so good.”