Ben has been flying since 2016, completing his initial training with Canberra Aviation before going on to complete his CPL and Multi-Engine & Instrument ratings.  Ben has a PhD in Computer Science and when he's not flying he's writing code for his Canberra based start-up.  Ben owns a Duchess VH-XHT and has dreams of flying a King Air for the RFDS

Born a RAAF brat to a pilot, I have been around planes on and off my entire life. In 2014 I began my photography hobby and ventured down the road of aviation photography. It really wasn't until I had my first back seat ride and was taking photos during some close formation flying with the Red Radials (YAK52s and CJ6's) at Cowra, that the flying bug bit me as hard as ever, that I knew, flying is something that I want to do!

My interest in flying started with my father telling some of his WW2 flying exploits while on 'Special Duties" in Australia. I was the 5 y.o. who would always race outside and look to the sky for every passing plane. 60 years later, NOTHING has changed !!

I started flight training in 1993 & got to GFPT (Restricted) before life pressures caused a 24 year hiatus in my flying aspirations. Buy a motorbike, or finish my 'licence ? It was an easy decision to make & so, with my wife's encouragement, I completed my PPL in 2019 at Cowra, where I'm from. The membership keeps re-electing me as 'Club Aircraft Manager, so I guess you're stuck with me for a while !! Working with Gary Adams to keep the planes in the air is a job I really enjoy. I'm very thankful for the privilege of flight, but more so, for all the amazing people it has enabled me to meet & rub shoulders with.

First soloed at 16 as an air force cadet at RAAF Amberley in 1978. Was a RAAF air traffic controller for nine years while working on his PPL and Night VFR rating with CSU and retractable endorsements. Had CPL dreams but marriage, school fees, mortgages and postings throughout Australia and overseas brought it to a halt. Came back to flying 37 years later in 2022. Astonished to find his old planes still flying but what's this EFB thingy! Yet, still gets the same thrill from flying that he got during his first flight at Amberley when the instructor said, “Can’t see any reason why you can’t do the take-off”.

 

Evan obtained his commercial pilot’s licence in 1988. His first job was flying a piper Arrow out of Bourke. This led to an Agricultural rating flying a Thrush radial spraying cotton. He then became a station pilot in far north QLD flying a C 182 mustering brahman-cross cattle. Soon it was time for his MECIR (as it was then called) and a job out of Dubbo flying a P. 68 Partenavia on charter. Evan left flying to pursue a career in contemporary fine woodwork.  Evan is a Churchill Fellow in chair design and a Gottstein Fellow in craft education. His company is Dunstone Design.

Evan returned to flying in 2023 as an enthusiast. After the initial joy of flying again, Evan was re-acquainted with the costs, endless bureaucracy and the “hurry up and wait” of aviation.

​Craig Brown has been a club member since 2011 and secretary since early-2022. He completed his private and commercial training at Jandakot in Perth in the early-1980s. He came to Canberra for work in 1992 with the intention of making enough money to support his flying career, but never returned to commercial flying. He was out of the industry until 2010 returning to flying to support an application to join CASA in 2011. Craig worked in the aeroplane standards branch of CASA for five years before doing similar work on remotely-piloted aircraft. He retired in 2021, achieving a long-held desire to fly a circumnavigation of the country, in 2022. He is now the owner of Jabiru J230D, T2A, which he hopes to make available to club members in the near future.

Gary took his first flying lesson in 1976 and joined the Canberra Aero Club after moving to Canberra in 1984. Membership over the next decade or two was a broken due to periods working overseas, raising children etc. Gary re-joined the club (for the final time) in 2016.
Gary has been assisting the club aircraft manager for 5 years or so, and joined the board in November 2024.

Callum first started flying in 2017 after he moved to Canberra, doing his training with Canberra Aviation. He holds an RPL with an MPPC endorsement. His eventual goal will be to get a PPL and a retractable endorsement. Callum joined the board in mid-2023 and has loved to help contribute to the success of the Aero Club as well as sharing the love of aviation with everyone.

Treasurer. Cash is king.