No mission is impossible for Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) (Queensland Section) aeromedical pilot Andrew Chadwick, who has served more than 25 years in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) before joining the RFDS family in Townsville.
Andrew, who’s nickname is Chaddy, grew up in the sugarcane fields of north Queensland before he left school to join the RAAF as a young apprentice.
“I moved to Wagga Wagga for two years to do my technical training and was later posted to RAAF base at Amberly,” Chaddy said.
“I spent some time there and then in the mid 90s I decided to take the leap and become a pilot.
"While studying my pilot course in Western Australia, my wife Angela shared the news that she was pregnant with our first child at a Valentine’s Day dinner.
“So, I left as a pilot and as a parent, and that’s when our journey began in Queensland.”
After completing many posting around Australia, Chaddy was promoted to Executive Officer of the RAAF flying squadron in Townsville where his career and family took flight.
While flying Caribou tactical transport aircraft for the Air Force, he was balancing one of life’s greatest roles as a father to five children.
“I came to a point in my career where I would have had to leave Queensland, and I thought to myself, ‘What’s more important here?’” Chaddy said.
“Growing a family and moving them around the state wasn’t appealing to me.
“You know what they say, ‘the days are long, but the years fly by’.”
Knowing this, Chaddy followed his instincts and retired from the Air Force to join the RFDS as a pilot at the Townsville Base.
Now, nearly 15 years on, he’s still flying for the Flying Doctor.
“The Flying Doctor gave me the stability to carry on my skillset here in Townsville while doing a worthwhile job,” he said.
“Plus, I get to be part of a small team that makes a huge impact on people's lives.”
To say Chaddy knows his way around the state like the back of his hand is an understatement. In the last financial year alone, the team transported more than 2,200 patients and flew more than 1.4 million kilometres to deliver life-saving aeromedical retrievals and inter-facility patient transfers between hospitals.
While some days may feel like he is flying from black tarmac to black tarmac, he’s always ready to conquer a long-haul flight to Mount Isa or an emergency retrieval in the Cape.
“One thing that I appreciate is that we might pick up a young ringer out at Hughenden with a broken leg and he gets the care he needs, he gets surgery, he returns to work in six months and then he goes on to be a station manager, gets married, has kids and becomes a grandfather,” Chaddy said.
“If he didn’t get the care he needed, his future could have been different.
“That’s what I love about this job, you get to partake in saving lives.”
Every day, he witnesses the magic from our RFDS doctors, flight nurses, primary health care nurses, and nurse practitioners, and said it’s the team at the base that makes the job.
“I have personally observed patients get better on a flight because they are under our care and reassured,” Chaddy said.
“I am astounded by the level of skillset our doctors, nurses and engineers have – it’s truly beautiful to see.”
From landing aircraft on remote stations in the outback, to helping families light up a runway with diesel-drenched toilet rolls, to transporting NICU babies, Chaddy has done it all.
Best of all, his family still calls Townsville home, and he has now upgraded his title from dad to grandad.
To celebrate the vital work of the RFDS, we’re inviting families from Townsville and surrounding communities to Picnic with the Planes, presented by Textron Aviation, to meet the team at the RFDS Townsville hangar on Saturday 7 June.
This relaxed, family-fun event includes food trucks, lawn games, live music, facepainting and the RFDS Aeromedical simulator. To ensure you don’t miss out, book your tickets online below.
Picnic with the Planes - RFDS Townsville Base
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