Lake Munmorah’s Ryan Lawler earns his `wings’
RYAN Lawler began flying gliders with the Central Coast Soaring Club at 14. Today he is a RAAF pilot destined to fly fighter jets.
Central Coast
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IT IS not the “external factors” that determine one’s destiny but the drive from within.
And there is no further proof of that than Ryan Lawler, the youngest sibling of a blended family who attended the local public high school but refused to let circumstances or his humble beginnings from setting flight to his dreams.
Last month the 23-year-old was among a handful of hundreds of applicants from across the country to graduate from the Royal Australian Air Force’s Advanced Pilots’ Course and earn his “wings”.
If that wasn’t achievement enough, of the 15 aviators to graduate Flying Officer Lawler was one of only five selected to enter the RAAF’s elite fighter jet program.
“I think they had over 600 applicants but only 18 were selected for pilot training positions at ADFA (Australian Defence Force Academy),” Flying Officer Lawler said.
“I always thought I would take it one hurdle at a time and have a crack.”
Having graduated with No 248 Class at RAAF Base Pearce in Western Australia flying turbo prop Pilatus PC9s, Flying Officer Lawler will do his introductory fighter course on a jet engine Hawk 127 before taking controls of Australia’s strike force Hornet or Super Hornets aircraft.
It is a long way from where he started flying gliders with the Central Coast Soaring Club at Mangrove Mountain.
Flying Officer Lawler, of Lake Munmorah, got a scholarship with the club as a 14-year-old before setting his sights on ADFA and a career in the air force.
“To get posted to jets, that was my first preference, that was everyone’s first preference,” he said.
“It’s what we’ve been working on for the last five years and the culmination of all that. There’s a lot of relief being finished and getting our wings.”
Flying Officer Lawler said “attendance and discipline” were not very strict at his old high school but he refused to let circumstances dictate his life and remained “focused” on crossing each “hurdle as they come”.
“First and foremost (my advice) is just go for it because I think a lot of people maybe think they’re held back or restricted in some way,” he said.
“I was always thinking `put the hard work in and you will get the results’.”