Former Cambridge High School student Rohan Redgrave, right, with his colleague Dion Roberts when they were both instructors at Flight Training Adelaide flight school. Rohan starts a new job with Air New Zealand next month, Dion with Virgin Australia.
You might say his aspirations are sky high, but there’s no doubt former Cambridge High School student Rohan Redgrave’s childhood dreams are – quite literally – taking flight.
Now he’s landed a “hugely exciting” new role as a domestic Air New Zealand pilot.
He will make his first flight in the job – at the controls of a roughly 50-seat Bombardier Q300 Dash 8 aircraft – early next month.
But not before taking a well-earned break in Cambridge.
He’s back home after a stint in Australia – most recently as a flight instructor at Flight Training Adelaide – where his role was to train students who, once graduated, would often go on to fly for airlines like Cathay Pacific.
He was also previously an instructor at the Australian International Aviation College (AIAC) in New South Wales
Rohan Redgrave – pictured at about seven – with a model airplane. Photo: Supplied
“It’s going to be so cool being home.”
“Flying is a 20-year dream I’ve had since I was about eight,” Rohan, now 27, told The News.
“From the very first time I went on a plane, I was fascinated. For me, part of the magic of flying is the combination of the technical aspects – that’s a great challenge – and the sense of adventure.”
He considered civil engineering for a time, but the skies were calling.
And, Rohan has a fair idea where his sense of adventure might come from too – his mum, Penny Pickett, is a long-standing travel agent in Cambridge.
“Her job has obviously taken her all over the world, so I’m sure that’s where I get my love of discovering new things.”
One of the biggest adjustments in his new role, he says, will be becoming accustomed to an entirely new aircraft.
As an instructor, he mostly flew a Diamond DA40, with Air New Zealand it’ll be a Dash 8 Q300.
“In a DA40, you can mostly fly by sight, but I’ll need my instruments a lot more in the Dash 8 Q300,” Rohan said.
As he looks ahead with the sky as the limit, one airport on his bucket list Rohan says he would love to fly into one day is Tenzing-Hillary, or Lukla, Airport in Nepal.
And, of course, as his career progresses, he’s not ruling out maybe eventually piloting one of the world’s largest aircraft – the A380.
