A PILOT'S PASSION Trish is licensed to fly!

Life after the quake KAREN’S PRECIOUS new purpose

- Julie Jacobson

When Trish Reynolds left school she had just three School Certificate passes to her name. But this shaky academic start didn’t stop her from soaring in her chosen career of aviation, with the air buff now piloting an organisation preserving military aviation history.

It’s a dream job for the 61-year-old who loves nothing more than taking to the sky in classic aircrafts, a thrill that as general manager of the New Zealand Warbirds Association she never tires from.

She says her love of aviation dates back to her childhood in Palmerston North, where as a seven-year-old she asked her dad if she could have a plane ride for her birthday. Later on, a neighbour who was learning to fly suggested it might be something Trish would also enjoy.

“I was in my mid-20s by that stage, so quite late to start. Plus I thought I wouldn’t be able to afford it, but I gave it a go and just loved it!”

She learned to fly in a single engine, two-seater Piper Tomahawk, schooling up in subjects such as physics and meteorology by reading everything she could lay her hands on. She gained a commercial licence, which allowed her to take scenic and charter flights from the Manawatu Districts Aero Club base at Palmerston North, got into competitive flying and then became an instructor.

“To get your commercial licence, you need to get your hours up. I wanted to do more than scenic flights, so to practise for the competitions [I entered] I would fly round and round doing circuits of the airfield and navigation exercises!”