Pioneering female pilot retires to Sunnyside
Georgina Sutton has had a career like no-one else in Australian aviation, and now has the freedom to reflect on it after 40 years.
This story is now free to read. Help Murray Bridge News tell more stories like this by subscribing today.
One of Australia’s trailblazing female aviators has called time on her career and retired to her home in the Murraylands.
Georgina Sutton made her last journey as captain of a Qantas 787 earlier this month, taking the controls for a flight from New York’s JFK International Airport – where she was afforded the honour of a water cannon salute – to Sydney, via Auckland.
She became the first woman to be appointed chief pilot of an Australian airline, Jetstar, in 2015.
During a 40-year career in aviation, she also once flew Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II to Australia, brought Australians home from trouble spots around the world during emergencies, and flew her own father on a sightseeing trip over Antarctica.
She was one of the first pilots to fly the Boeing 747-400 and also flew Qantas 767s before switching to Jetstar around the time the 787 Dreamliner set a new standard for international travel.
“It was a trip of a lifetime,” she said of her final flight, which also featured cake and balloons.
“I will miss being a part of this wonderful Qantas family and flying with my colleagues.”
Ms Sutton took her first flight as a pilot at the age of 15, when she had a go in a winch-launched, wood-and-fabric glider at Blanchetown.
She became obsessed right away.
Back then, though, she could never have imagined a career lay ahead.
“I didn’t know, when I started, that there weren’t any women in commercial airlines or the military,” she said.
“There were no role models, or no women, anyway.
“Debbie Wardley (winner of a landmark sex discrimination case in 1979) hadn’t gone through Ansett yet.”
Ms Sutton first spent five years with SA Police, saving enough money to chase her dream.
In 1985 she got her first gig as a scenic tour pilot at Wilpena Pound.
She would go on to jobs in Broome, Darwin, Leigh Creek and Adelaide before getting the call she had long dreamed about.
“I received the acceptance call when I was in transit in Port Augusta,” she said.
“I ran out and told my regular customers and we were all thrilled.”
She hoped her experiences showed any wannabe pilots in the Murraylands that it was possible to scale the highest heights, even as a kid growing up in country SA.
There were aviation courses even at some high schools now, she suggested; flight schools all over; and pathways into commercial aviation through crop dusting and tour operators.
“Go and have a try,” she urged.
“It doesn’t need to be that expensive.
“Join a gliding club, or the Air Force Cadets, go for a fly and see if it inflames your passion.
“That’s what did it for me.”
An avid water skier who lived at Sunnyside, Ms Sutton had got herself a new boat to play around with in retirement, she said.
She hoped to give back to the community in time, too, as she did around the time of the formation of the River Murray Boating and Recreation Advisory Group in 2013.
But first, that ultimate luxury for an international pilot: she looked forward to spending some uninterrupted time off the grid.
