Jumbo jet pilot ready for take-off as teacher
Published on 22 May, 2009
Qantas pilot Perry McNeil has been doing a bit of moonlighting as he approaches the age of 50 and prepares to retire from the aviation industry.
He's been dabbling as a guest lecturer for high school aviation classes at Brisbane and the Gold Coast, and he's been working as a 737 trainer for Boeing.
Now with the teaching bug, Perry has enrolled in CQUniversity's Graduate Diploma of Learning and Teaching (Secondary) and spends his breaks between flying to London or Los Angeles doing prac teaching on the Gold Coast.
"Travelling is still an interesting life but the gloss comes off when you're spending 6-7 months out of Australia and living in motel rooms," he said.
"There's only so many times you can enjoy going to Magic Mountain (theme park)."
Perry, who is married with 2 teenage daughters, started flying in 1975 and worked his way up to bigger and bigger aircraft.
Since 2003, he has been captaining the 747-400, in charge of hundreds of passengers plus flight attendants, 2 second officers and a first officer.
He said he looked around at a range of teaching programs and found there was "nothing really like the GDLT" in terms of flexibility, support and feedback.
Perry said he was still young enough to plan a second career. Now he's almost ready for take-off in charge of 25 school kids.
In the meantime, most of his online contact with CQUniversity lecturers is from a Qantas lounge ... somewhere in the world!