RAISING money, creating awareness, challenging herself and having a lot of fun are the reasons Swan Hill local Sam Cottingham is participating in The Lottery Office Outback Air Race (OAR) 2022.
“I just love flying – there is nothing better than being up in the clouds or seeing parts of the country that people don’t generally see if they travel by road,” Mrs Cottingham said.
“You just see so much more – flying is an addictive passion.”
Held tri-annually since 1996, competitors in The Lottery Office Outback Air Race raise money for the Royal Flying Doctors Service (RFDS).
“It is basically the Variety Bash but is in the air in a plane,” Mrs Cottingham said.
Since the OAR first began, more than $3.1 million has been raised, with the funds going towards outfitting RFDS aircraft with essential medical equipment.
“The RFDS aren’t just what a lot of people believe they are – they support our community and encourage careers as much as they are there to help people,” Mrs Cottingham said.
“I think without them, Australia would be a lot poorer, with both our opportunities and our health.”
The event is a time trial, which means that all teams can be competitive regardless of the size or speed of their aircraft.
Each of the 33 teams has to provide a flight plan and race note at the beginning of each leg and submit them to the race director. For each leg of the race, teams will nominate an elapsed time interval, and a point will be lost for every second early or later they are to cross the checkpoint. Additionally, points can be lost depending on the actual passing distance from the start or finish point.
Flying is something that Mrs Cottingham has always had an interest in, but it wasn’t until her son got a scholarship to Bendigo Flying School that she became actively involved.
“I actually wanted to be a pilot when I was in school, but I felt the barriers to entry where far too great and it was very expensive… we didn’t have the opportunities as we do now,” Mrs Cottingham said.
Joined by husband-and-wife duo Linda Beilharz and Rob Rigato, Mrs Cottingham’s team name for the OAR is Hopeful Hildas, which she says is a nod to the very first Australian female pilot, Hilda McMaugh.
“She was a Red Cross nurse in France attached to the AIF in WWI, and she actually got her pilot’s licence while she was over there,” Mrs Cottingham said. “But she was never allowed to fly in Australia because females weren’t allowed to fly back then.”
Hilda has also been credited with founding Uralla’s (rural NSW) only private hospital. With a link to both flying and healthcare, the Hopeful Hildas team believed she would be the perfect namesake.
“For us that was a connection, and we thought she needed to be recognised because not many people know about her,” Mrs Cottingham said.
As for Mrs Cottingham’s teammates, Ms Beilharz is quite the adventurer, being the first Australian woman to successfully trek the North Pole with her husband Mr Rigato, and the South Pole. While completing the South Pole trek in 2004, she also became the first Australian woman to ski 1,100 kilometres from the edge of the Antarctic to the South Pole.
Ms Beilharz was inducted into the Victorian Honour Roll of Women in 2006, awarded the 2010 Australian Geographic Adventurer of the Year for her South Pole expedition, elected Bendigo Citizen of the Year in 2013, and in the same year was awarded an Order of Australia Medal.
Mrs Cottingham believes Ms Beilharz’s adventurous nature is something they all share, and is another reason they felt the need to support the RFDS.
“We’ve not been in situations thank goodness where we have needed to have help, but we are very aware in part of our planning for those adventures that the RFDS is probably going to be a really big part to come and get us,” Mrs Cottingham said.
The aircraft Mrs Cottingham and her team will fly in the event is a Club Piper Archer and has been generously donated to them for the flight by the Bendigo Flying Club, of which Mrs Cottingham is vice president and Ms Beilharz is the chief flying instructor.
Mrs Cottingham believes part of the skill needed in the OAR is adapting to outback flying, which can be deceptively more difficult than flying in highly populated areas like her and Ms Beiharz are used to.
“In flying around Victoria, you know the area really well – Lake Boga stands out, the Grampians stand out – so unless cloud base is not great, it is very hard to get lost, whereas you don’t have those natural pinpoints in the outback,” she said. “Every rock looks exactly the same.”
The Hopeful Hildas will begin their journey in Darwin on August 29, before flying to Cooinda, Adels Grove, Karumba, Shute Harbour, Gladstone, Roma, Goondiwindi, and finishing their journey in Coffs Harbour on September 12.
“For us it is not about winning, it’s just being involved,” she said. “We are doing some really crazy fun stuff.
“On the ground when all the teams meet after flight it’s a bit of a larrikin kind of environment, and I’m actually looking forward to a good laugh.”
So far Mrs Cottingham and her team have raised $13,180 of their $14,000 goal.
To donate to the Hopeful Hildas, go to outbackairrace.com.au and search ‘Hopeful Hildas’ in the fundraising leaderboard. You can also purchase tickets to the raffle with a fabulous prize of an outback tour by air worth over $20,000,
Live tracking of the event will also be available via the Outback Air Race website.
https://outbackairrace.com.au/
The Guardian will also be tracking the Hopeful Hildas on their journey via Facebook and in the paper.
