AS the only female pilot with the Royal Australian Air Force’s Hercules squadron, Flight Lieutenant (FLTLT) Sarah-Jane Crane is about to bid farewell to the ‘big birds’ of the sky.

And she will do so in an environment where the Hercules aircraft have excelled, supporting troops in both Iraq and Afghanistan by movement of equipment and personnel or airlifting medically critical patients.

“We fly both day and night,” said FLTLT Crane, who is on her third deployment to the Middle East after joining the RAAF in January 2001 and gained her pilot’s wings in October 2002.

“We use night vision goggles to fly at night, which are especially handy to land on runways that don’t use any lighting.”

The newly-promoted FLTLT Crane is soon to make her last flight in a C-130J Hercules, as she has an exciting new posting as a military flying instructor teaching the Defence Force’s new recruits how to fly.

However, she will take four-and-a-half years of fond memories flying the Hercules, which she described as “a treat to fly”. FLTLT Crane has also been a Captain on the C-130J Hercules for the past 16 months.

“If you join a Hercules squadron, you are destined to be on call for any major catastrophe around the globe. However it's these events that have allowed me to experience more of life and to realise how lucky I am to be an Aussie.”

Having operated extensively in Iraq and Afghanistan , FLTLT Crane strongly believes in the mission there, having witnessed the efforts of our troops first-hand.

“All the forces are working tirelessly to get the job done. From all my experiences, the Australians have a very good reputation in this part of the world.”

And it is for this reason that FLTLT Crane chose the military over civilian flying.

“I always wanted to join the military. I saw it as a prestigious, professional, focussed organisation and I wanted nothing more than to wear the RAAF’s pilot wings.

“The flying we do in the military is somewhat different from civilian flying. Every route is different, every mission with a purpose. Being in the military I feel I have made a difference to lives around me. I've carried critical medical patients, supported humanitarian efforts in the Solomons, Timor Leste, Indonesia, even as close as Innisfail in Queensland, and by doing so, helped others around me.

“I've always been a tomboy, but I do like an excuse to wear a dress and have my hair and nails done. I get laughed at by my work mates because I must be the only woman in theatre who insists on bringing hair straighteners and nail polish to war.”

- By Michael Weaver, Defence Online Editor

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