[BITList] National Treasure: Australian Aviation pioneer Nancy-Bird Walton dies

[John Feltham]

National Treasure: Nancy Bird Walton (ABC News: Kerrin Binnie)

One of Australia's most famous aviators, Nancy Bird Walton, has died  
aged 93.

Born in the New South Wales north coast town of Kew in 1915, Bird  
Walton became the first female pilot to get her commercial pilot's  
licence at the age of 19.

She wanted to fly from the age of four and she was taught to take the  
controls when she was just 17 by Charles Kingsford Smith.

She went on to pioneer an air ambulance service for outback New South  
Wales and was commandant of the Women's Air Training Corps during  
World War II.

Bird Walton also founded the Australian Women Pilots' Association and  
went on to be president for about 40 years.

In 1997, Bird Walton was named a Living National Treasure by the  
National Trust.

Last year Qantas named its first A380 jet in her honour.

She is survived by her daughter, her son, four grandchildren and two  
great-grandchildren.

Speaking to the ABC's Peter Thomson in 2006, Bird Walton said she was  
thrilled by the exhilaration of flying.

"The freedom of the air. The freedom of flight," she said on the  
Talking Heads program.

"And you completely remove yourself from the world. And you can  
voluntarily remove yourself from all those ... everything that's near  
and dear to you. And you voluntarily return."

She said if her father had had his way, she would have followed in his  
footsteps and run the general store in the town of Mount George, New  
South Wales.

"He was a very hardworking man. He believed in working 16 hours a day.  
And he thought everybody else should," she said.

"When I came down to visit mother, I went out to Mascot in 1930 and  
had a trial instruction flight with Captain Leggett.

"And that convinced me that that was what I wanted to do. So I bought  
myself a flying helmet and then I went back to the country to save up  
and grow up."


ooroo

If you don't hear the knock of opportunity - build a door.

Anon.