A Bowral pilot has marked 150 volunteer flights with Angel Flight.
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Pilot Tony Wheeler took off from Bankstown Airport to Armidale on Friday, February 18, 2022, to transport a 16-year-old passenger home.
Lotus Walker has been flying with Angel Flight since she was two weeks old. Her flight home with Tony was her 100th Angel flight.
As a volunteer, Tony has clocked up an extraordinary milestone. He marked his 100th Angel flight in 2012.
"Years ago, I thought it was something I could do and help people out," he said.
"At the time, I was working in an office job, and I wanted to get out of the office and go flying."
Despite no longer working in an office, Tony hasn't managed to go on too many flights because of the COVID pandemic.
"I've done several trips but with COVID, there has been very little call for it," he said.
"It's a bit like people with public transport; they would rather drive their car instead of going with someone else.
"Before COVID, Angel Flights would have pages of trips. Now there's only two or three. Over the last two or three years, it has been very quiet."
When Tony volunteered for the trip to Armidale, he wasn't aware of the milestone he was about to hit.
"They called and told me it was my 150th flight, and it was the 100th flight for the passenger," he said.
"It's a double milestone."
An experienced pilot, Tony has been flying light aircraft for more than 40 years.
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"I got my license when I was 18-years-old," he said.
"I've been doing it for a long time. Flying is something I fell into, I grew up doing it.
"Dad was a pilot and he flew and it was something that I enjoyed and I've been doing it ever since."
Tony's plane is a Piper Meridian and can sit up to six passengers.
"It's a fairly nice lighter aircraft," he said.
"It's a turboprop, so it's fairly sophisticated and it gets along pretty quick."
While Tony transport passengers who require medical treatment, his plane is just a transport service.
"Angel Flight don't carry people who require medical assistance on board, they only fly people who are generally quite mobile," he said.
"They may have other issues such as cancer, so it's not something you need specialist medical equipment for.
"That gets left up to the Royal Flying Doctors."
Volunteering with Angel Flights has taken Tony across regional NSW and occasionally to Victoria, with one trip requiring him to go down to Melbourne.
"The furthest I've had to travel was Mildura to Essendon," he said.
"I had to go to Melbourne, then Mildura. It was a big trip.
"I did the Far South Coast too."
Established in April 2003, Angel Flight Australia is a charity that coordinates non-emergency flights to assist country people to access specialist medical treatment that would otherwise be unavailable to them because of vast distance and high travel costs.
All flights are free and assist passengers travelling to or from medical facilities almost anywhere in Australia.
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Vera Demertzis
Journalist at the Southern Highland News covering council yarns and community news. Got a tip or a story to tell? Email vera.demertzis@southernhighlandnews.com.au or call on 0427 250 908.
Journalist at the Southern Highland News covering council yarns and community news. Got a tip or a story to tell? Email vera.demertzis@southernhighlandnews.com.au or call on 0427 250 908.
