Navy helicopter pilots hold a highly coveted position in the Australian Defence Force, sought after for their priority in rescue missions, medical evacuations, and disaster relief.
The Navy has a slightly higher female gain than the Army, 16 per cent compared to 13.5.
Despite the desirable nature of flying, there are just three female helicopter pilots in the Navy’s entire fleet.
However, scattered around the country and within the walls of the Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA), 13 young women are in the training pipeline. If each can make it, the number of female Navy pilots may flourish within the next decade.
Midshipman Sophee Turner, with her soft country smile, grew up in the rural town of Kurmond, NSW.
From age seven, she lived with her parents beneath the flight path of an Air Force Base, where the C-130s flew over their roof from the day Sophee moved in, to the day she moved out to join the ADF at just 17.
While the planes were what she calls her ‘catalyst’, she ultimately chose the helicopters Navy had to offer.
“I liked that you could do a lot more humanitarian support. You can go so many places that fixed-wing aircraft can’t because you don’t need a runway.
“Flying at sea would just be incredible,” she smiled.
She rocked up to basic training with her heart set, and no shampoo.
“My parents had to mail it to me,” she laughed. “You don’t get too much time to shower anyways.”
Her greatest obstacle was still to come. “Picking yourself up when you fail. It can be really hard when your team around you isn’t struggling, and you feel like you’re falling behind.
“You’ve just got to learn to reassure yourself that even though you feel like you might be falling behind, no one’s ever going to leave you behind.”
After graduating from the New Entry Officers’ Course, Sophee was posted to HMAS Sirius for six months of work experience where she travelled around Southeast Asia for the first time.
Now she attends ADFA, studying military history and law in the morning, and her regular science degree classes in the afternoon. She eagerly awaits finally being able to fly.
Sublieutenant Alison Smith says there was no cinematic moment when she decided to join Navy.
“I was thinking about what I wanted to do after school. I knew I wanted to get a degree, but we would have struggled to pay for university.
“While looking around for options to have my degree compensated, I found Defence.”
“The moment I was sure was after my ‘You session’ – that’s the first step in joining. You go in and do a maths test, some literacy tests, and afterwards I was given the list of jobs that were open to me.
“Every job in Defence had been available to me because of my scores. The amount of choice is what made me think, ‘This is what I’m going to do.’
“Aviation had always been in the back of my mind. It would be such an amazing career to have. I wanted to fly jets initially, but as I was going through final testing, I realised there were no female fast jet pilots in the Air Force.
“‘My odds are zero,’ I thought. No women have ever done this before.”
“At the time, I chose helicopters. Now I believe there are two female fast jet pilots in the Air Force. If they’d been there when I was going through, I know I would have given jets a try.
“It makes me happy that there aren’t going to be any future situations where women like me cut ourselves off from certain options, because we see there are no women there at the moment, and don’t think we can be the first one.”
“Representation can determine where you end up in life, which makes it so important.”
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