Royal Flying Doctor Service flight simulator and educational program touching down at Tassie schools

The Royal Flying Doctor Service is bringing its interactive flight simulator to Tassie schools to share the history of the service, raise awareness and promote healthy living. SEE WHERE IT WILL BE >>

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THE Royal Flying Doctor Service’s touring educational program Look! Up in the Sky is in full flight in Tasmania with plans to visit 14 schools over the next month.

RFDS Victoria education program manager Tom Ryan will run 68 sessions raising awareness for the service and promoting health from October 19-November 13.

Mr Ryan and the RFDS interactive aeromedical plane simulator touched down at John Calvin School in Launceston on Monday to kick off the tour after two weeks quarantining in Devonport.

He said the Service was an “important part of the Tasmanian community”.

“I think it’s fairly important that the Tassie kids know who the Flying Doctors are,” Mr Ryan said.

The aeromedical simulator is a life-size replica of the fuselage and cockpit of a Flying Doctor aircraft.

John Calvin School students Sebastian Huizinga, 10, and Scarlet Dijkstra, 12, learn about the Royal Flying Doctor Service from education officer Tom Ryan who runs an educational tour around the Australia using an aeromedical plane simulator. Picture: PATRICK GEE

It is fully interactive with a cockpit complete with avionics, a propeller, a flight simulator, stretchers, oxygen, suction and communications.

Mr Ryan spoke to the children about the history of the Service including its founder Reverend John Flynn, the first RFDS plane, the pedal radio and “all those kinds of things and how they came up with ways to help people who did not have access to health services”.

He said primary schools were the best place to deliver health messages as the young students were learning lifelong habits and the costumes and the simulator help them learn.

The national tour’s Tasmanian leg was almost cancelled due to travel complications posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, but RFDS Tasmania CEO John Kirwan said those involved felt it was too important.

“Improving the health literacy of young Tasmanians through education remains an important part in improving health outcomes in the future,” he said.