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A gift voucher for a trial introductory flight has led to a career in the cockpit for Parkes-born pilot Captain Chris Finn, and now the very type of aircraft that helped shape his career has found a permanent home in Parkes.
The Fokker F100 donated to the HARS Aviation Museum at Parkes Airport is the same type of jet Chris flew during his early years with QantasLink, logging hundreds of hours as first officer.
Chris’ love of flying was cemented at just 15 years old in a Piper Cherokee Warrior.
“We gave him a gift certificate for a trial introductory fight out of Orange Aviation,” Chris’ dad Les said.
“He got out of that little plane and said, 'I’m going to do that for a living'.”
Chris had his private pilot’s licence before he even had his driver’s licence and completed his commercial pilot’s licence in Port Macquarie by the time he finished university.
“He’s always loved to fly,” Chris’ mum Bev said.
“It’s always been a passion of his.”
After university Chris worked locally as a cadet engineer with Service NSW, having completed an engineering degree at the University of New England in Armidale.
Despite earning a scholarship to work with Service NSW, his love for aviation was too strong.
“His famous quote was, ‘I’d never be a pilot wondering what it would be like to be an engineer, but I’d always be an engineer wondering what it would be like to be a pilot’,” Les said.
In 2016 he quit his job at Service NSW and left Parkes to head west after securing a position with QantasLink in Perth, flying the Fokker F100.
This was a significant leap from the propeller-driven Chieftains he had been flying for Tim Hall-Mathews at Parkes Aviation where he’d fly from Parkes to Bankstown transporting bank bags and parcels before flying back to Parkes and out to Condobolin and Lake Cargelligo.
“Unusually, he went from Chieftains straight into a jet. That was sort of unheard of.”
Chris began as a first officer on the F100, building up hundreds of hours on the aircraft before being selected to move to the A320 airbus aircraft which saw him travel to Singapore for training.
Captain Laurie Garcia, who flew the F100 into Parkes for its final landing and who also flew the Fokker F100 into Australia from Europe when it first became a QantasLink aircraft, signed Chris off on his F100 type rating in Perth.
There were hopes Chris would have been available to fly the aircraft into Parkes alongside captain Garcia but unfortunately work commitments prevented Chris from doing so.
Both Bev and Les recall the early days of Chris’ flying journey where they spent many hours in small aircraft.
“We spent a lot of time in little planes bumping around to get his hours up,” Les said.
“And air sickness,” Bev added.
By early 2017 Chris was fully established on the F100.
Around five years ago Chris transitioned to the A320s which seats 200.
Today he is a captain and a training manager for the A320s with QantasLink in Perth, and is responsible for checking and training other pilots before they are cleared to fly the aircraft.
“As far as captains go, he was also captain of Parkes Public School and Parkes High School, and is now a Qantas captain,” Les added.
