Bird comes in to land
Westpac chief pilot retiring
WITH 11,000 hours of flight time logged over 35 years Peter Bird reckons he’s seen every square inch of Australia.
From the cockpit the former Westpac Lifesaver Rescue Helicopter Service chief pilot, who retired last week, has also seen countless rescues, drug smuggling busts and high speed police chases which he would rather not talk about.
But the Gold Coast pilot opened up about being part of an effort which saw families plucked from the 2011 Queensland floods in the Lockyer Valley, Esk and surrounding areas. Flying to help them is “etched” into his mind.
“The weather just snuck up on us,” he said, explaining seasoned pilots had never flown in weather like it.
“The rain would be 50 seconds of absolute sheer hell and then it would stop again.
“All of a sudden the visibility would go, we couldn’t see anything, we were looking at our instruments.”
In one short flight up the Brisbane River Mr Bird said he had to land the helicopter an unprecedented six times.
“It’s the thing that’s etched on my mind the most — we had to get to Fernvale and we landed six times in an hour,” he said.
“We couldn’t see. The rain was just engulfing us. We were flying low, at about 300ft, heading up the Brisbane River just to get there.”
The next day they set about rescuing families, like Pat and Margaret Moffatt, literally swept away by floodwaters caused by the night’s rain as they walked down streets.
“There were two people in the river drowning. They called us. It’s just lucky my crew spotted them.”
Mr Bird started out flying helicopters as a farmer and quickly developed into filming outback motor races, Expo 88 and the 2000 Olympic Games. He’s also flown with the Border Force in the Torres Strait, the Queensland Police Service and for the Seven, Nine and Ten networks.
He said his proudest achievement was developing the Westpac Lifesaver Rescue Helicopter Service in Queensland over the past 19 years and returning everyone he’s taken into the air safely back to land.
Mr Bird now plans to spend more time on his boat.