Solo pilot Samuel Logan, 15, his flying instructor Fred Burke (left) and pilot dad Daniel Logan with Fred’s trusted Aussie-made Jabiru 160 plane at Wagga Airport. Photo: Marguerite McKinnon.
A 2024 Christmas present has changed the life of Samuel Logan, 15, and in doing so has proven one of his teachers wrong.
“I never thought I’d actually see the day where I’d be flying over the very school that I was told by two separate teachers that I’ll only get as far as Maccas in life, in an aircraft that I’m piloting on my own,” he said.
Last Christmas, Samuel was given a flying lesson. In March he cashed it in, and by November, he had completed his first solo flight on his 15th birthday.
“Me being in control of the aircraft? That was an incredible feeling,” Samuel said.
It was a big help that the instructor who taught Samuel is one of the region’s longest-serving and most gifted pilots.
Fred Burke has been a licensed pilot for 54 years and an instructor for 35 years. Exuding calmness that only comes from a mountain of experience, Fred dials up the cool factor by turning up on his motorbike dressed in leathers.
It’s next level to driving a car, so handing over the keys to his beloved plane to a 15-year-old to fly solo is Top Gun worthy.
“My philosophy is I don’t like it to be a big deal; in fact, normally my students are unaware that I’m about to get out of the plane and tell them to piss off,” Fred said.
“In terms of Sam, he pretty well knew it was going to be [on his birthday], but I don’t generally like to hype it up. It’s like, ‘Well, you’re flying the plane, so you don’t need me. See ya.”
Making this truly remarkable is that Samuel has both autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), which, on paper, would put any hope of learning to fly, let alone solo, in the too-hard basket.
The ace up his sleeve, though, is Samuel’s support network, and his lifelong familiarity with flight thanks to his dad, Daniel, who is a pilot for Rex Airlines and a former instructor.
Born to fly. Samuel Logan as a toddler in a plane flown by his pilot dad above Wagga, with Lake Albert in the background. Picture: Daniel Logan.
“Sam basically learned to walk on the hangar floor,” Daniel said.
“There’s a photo of him in the aeroplane with Lake Albert in the background, and in 2010 when I was restoring that plane, I would bring him down to the airport in a little walker before he could actually walk and he would toddle around the hangar and the hangar doors have a bit of a dip, so I knew he couldn’t get out, so he could just, you know, toddle around, so he grew up with it.
“As an engineer, I would restore planes and I’ve got a career as an instructor, but now that I’m flying for Rex [Airlines], my instructor certificate has lapsed and it has to be renewed every two years.
“I have a family history with Fred and totally trusted him.”
Samuel with his flying instructor Fred Burke at Wagga Wagga Airport. Photo: Marguerite McKinnon.
Despite many variables to contend with, Samuel’s birthday arrived with perfect flying conditions. It was then all down to the pilot.
“Takeoff’s actually one of the easiest parts of flying. It’s the landing that’s difficult,” Samuel said.
“I’m trying to get it all to line up. You’ve got specific markers you’re supposed to be landing on to be able to get down safely. You’ve got to manage your altitude, your speed, and you’ve got to get it to stop before the end of the runway.
”You’ve got to be constantly looking at your instruments, Are you lined up on the satellite? Are you going to get too low to houses? Are you going to get too low to the road? Well, thankfully, my instructor taught me to handle all that.”
Watching below, Daniel’s fatherly instincts were getting a hit of adrenaline.
“I’ve sent solos before [as an instructor] and that was probably the most nervous I’ve ever been,” Daniel said.
”As soon as he got airborne, yeah, there were a few tears. It’s freedom. They say a mile of road will take you a mile; a mile of runway will take you anywhere.”
It was a textbook flight and landing.
“Once you get down on the ground and you shut it down, you feel all those emotions come rushing back in and fill you up, and then you get quite happy and excited.”
While that would usually be it, Fred gave Sam the green light to have another go, and have fun.
“Traditionally, most people do one circuit, which is a takeoff and landing, but Sam ended up doing six, which was incredible,” Daniel said.
Fred added: “If it’s your first time, you might as well enjoy it and do it for an hour or so instead of three minutes.”
Carrying Samuel safely on his first solo flight was a Jabiru 160, which the men explained was a real Australian manufacturing success story.
“They’ve been making them out at Bundaberg [in Queensland]. It’s the other good thing that comes out of Bundaberg,” Fred said.
“They’ve exported the Jabiru to over 40 countries. In small aircraft, they’re the second-largest behind [Austrian BRP’s] Rotax, who are No. 1 on the world scale.”
For Samuel now, the sky really is the limit.
“Ideally, I’d like to end up in the RAAF as a transport pilot, and with my background as a volunteer communications assistant in the Rural Fire Service, I wouldn’t mind being a fire-bombing pilot,” Samuel said.
The young pilot’s favourite quote is 525 years old, from the Father of Flight himself, Leonardo da Vinci: “For once you have tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards, for there you have been and there you will long to return.”
