Australian flight record holder Cameron ‘Sparrow’ Obst opens Chinchilla flight school

A Western Downs pilot who holds an Australian flying record has opened his own flight school, with plans to offer scholarships to local students. Find out more.

Australian Record Broken: Chinchilla's Cameron ‘Sparrow’ Obst completed 145 take offs and landings at the Chinchilla Airport.

A Chinchilla pilot who previously set the Australian record for most take offs and landings in a single day, all while raising money for charity, has officially unveiled his new flight school.

Cameron ‘Sparrow’ Obst recently launched the Kangawallafox Flight School, named after his one-of-a-kind home built ‘Kangawallafox’ 19-1678 plane which he used to set the Australian record completing 145 takeoffs and landings in just seven hours.

As part of the Australian record effort Mr Obst also raised $12,000 for the Royal Flying Doctor Service.

Australian record holder for most takeoffs and landings Cameron ‘Sparrow’ Obst has opened a flight school in Chinchilla. Photo: Contributed.

Fast forward to April when Mr Obst competed in the Oz-Short Take Off and Landing event in the Hunter Region town of Luskintyre, taking home silver at the national competition.

Mr Obst now plans to pass on his flight knowledge, including to local schoolchildren, as part of a scholarship program.

“The flight school is now approved and ready to go, I ordered an aeroplane in November last year and unfortunately it hasn't been delivered yet so I have decided to hire an aircraft from another flight school out of Brisbane so I can start training,” he said.

“I will be using an online platform for my ground briefing so my students can watch the briefing of what we will do before the lesson, then we will have a pre-flight chat and spend an hour in the plane doing some flying.

“It is a very structured course to go through and at the end they get their pilot certificate.

“I get really excited when I step out of the plane and let the student go for their first solo flight.”

Chinchilla pilot takes home silver at flying event

As part of his new flight school Mr Obst plans to give back to two Chinchilla school students through a scholarship program.

“I wanted to try to give back to the local community as well as give back to aviation, the minimum hours required of flight training before a student can sit the flight test is 20 so I told the high school I wanted to donate 20 hours of me and the machine to an applicant that is interested in learning to fly valued at about $6600,” he said.

“I had a chat to the high school and we talked about how we are going to assess who the successful applicant is and I said I wanted a person who has a good attitude, good behaviour, is respectful to other students and staff members and has a high level of effort.

“I made it clear that their academic results are not important, I don’t need a scholar, it is more about attitude and behaviour.

“I created it for a year 11 student and in my mind that is a little carrot for kids to stay on past year 10, I also chose year 11 because they can do it over the summer holiday and start year 12 as a pilot.

“After setting that up with the state high school I also reached out to the Chinchilla Christian College and I will do the same with them so there will be two students getting a start in the aviation industry and this is something I would like to do every year.”

Mr Obst said he hoped his pilot pedigree would help guide him as a teacher.

“I am hoping it gives my potential students a bit more confidence in who they are learning from, they might be interested to know their instructor knows a bit about flying because he has the Australian record and has done well in competition,” he said.

“Also I’m hoping being a local person born and bred in Chinchilla as well as the scholarship program I am running to give back to the local students sits well with the community.

“It has been a massive undertaking, a lot more than I expected but all of the boxes are ticked now and I’m excited to have it up and running.”

Lessons can be booked here.