By PAUL MILLAR
A FUND-RAISING race around the outback in a plane will be a change of pace for a local professor when he takes to the air later this month.
Geoff Nicholson is gearing up to fly from Esperance, in Western Australia, to Queensland’s Hamilton Island in the Outback Air Race, a time-trial based competition testing flying precision and airmanship.
The event, supporting the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS), runs from 23 August to 4 September
and resembles a car rally through remote parts of Australia.
“Including the flight from Lethbridge to Esperance and back home from Hamilton Island the distance we will travel will be around 10,000km,” Professor Nicholson said.
The race will be a change of pace for a man more used to writing papers and grant applications for Australian Catholic University.
“I’m competing with my brother, Peter, an ex-RAAF fighter and test pilot, as the Bald Eagles. Both of us inherited a lack of hair and a passion for flying from our father, Keith, a former Second World War combat pilot.
“Peter’s wife, Marie, is the third member of the crew despite her full head of hair.”
Team Bald Eagles aims to raise $10,000 from friends and sponsors to help the RFDS provide essential medical and retrieval services to Australians living in rural and remote areas with limited access to mainstream medical services.
Prof Nicholson has participated in six previous races.
“I started flying in 1968 after catching the bug from my father and I initially entered the race with him as my co-pilot before he took his final flight in his mid-80s.
“It’s always great fun.“
Prof Nicholson is a leading researcher at ACU’s Institute for Health and Ageing.
