SA Aerotech Black Hawk pilot Lucy Nadebaum’s deep | Jess Adamson
You might think flying a Black Hawk helicopter over bushfires was enough adventure for one person.
Lucy Nadebaum remembers the exact moment she fell in love with helicopters.
She was just 8, on a joy flight with her dad Scot, at the Paskeville Field Days on Yorke Peninsula.
“We went on a helicopter which had a female pilot and I remember thinking that was really cool,” Lucy says.
“I remember looking at her thinking ‘she’s doing that, I’m going to do that too’.”
The 28-year-old is now flying Black Hawks for local company Aerotech, the newest member of their powerful aerial firefighting team.
It’s a dream come true for this shy country girl who grew up on an 80-acre block halfway between Corny Point and Marion Bay.
She’s spent the last fortnight in Victoria, helping to control the devastating Grampians bushfires, and there’s more travel on the horizon.
For the first time, two of Aerotech’s six Black Hawks are part of a national fleet, tasked to help out anywhere in Australia where the need is most critical.
“I just feel so lucky to have this job,” Lucy says.
“All I ever wanted to do was put water on fire from a helicopter so there’s definitely been quite a few pinch-me moments.
“You don’t realise how significant it is until you look behind you and say, ‘wow, there’s a lot of helicopter behind me’.”
Lucy is an inspiration to generations of women to come.
Along with colleague Genevieve Rueger, who served in the ADF for 22 years, she’s challenging the stereotypes in an industry that’s traditionally been a man’s world.
The pair are part of Aerotech’s 22 pilot Black Hawk team on a mission to keep South Australians safe in one of the driest bushfire seasons in decades.
For Lucy, the Black Hawk opportunity came in October, after five years with the company.
“I got a call from our operations manager, who said they were looking to train up some more people and they’d love to train me up,” she says.
“We have our own training program at Aerotech for the Hawks so it started with a week of theory at Parafield learning about systems and the machine.
“Then a group of four of us went to West Palm Beach in Florida and did 2 weeks in the simulator there.
“It’s so lifelike it’s insane and because it’s a simulator, you’re constantly running through emergencies. You’re basically flying along waiting for something to happen.”
There’s plenty to get used to in a Black Hawk, including a multi-crew environment.
“It’s different to all the single-pilot work I have done,” she says.
“The co-pilot will be reading out engine parameters, air speed, height above ground, anything that’s useful to the pilot command because if you’ve got your hands on the controls, your eyes are out,” Lucy says.
“The co-pilot will have eyes in, monitoring the gauges.”
On firefighting missions, the machines can suck up 4500 litres of water in 45 seconds.
“You hover over the water source, a dam or something you’ve picked out, and hold your finger on the pump until you’ve got your full load. Then you take off and fly to the fire,” Lucy says.
“Sometimes you might fly along at say, 70 knots, and do a running drop.
“Or they might ask you to hit a tree that’s on fire and you want to do a spot drop so you come up 200 feet and do a more accurate drop in the hover.”
The work is hot, fast and noisy and Lucy relishes every bit of it.
But the sky is not the limit for this gutsy young woman. Her love for flying is matched by her love for the ocean.
She’s as happy at 1000 feet in a thundering Black Hawk as she is spearfishing in complete silence, on the ocean floor.
“Spearfishing is really good fun. You have to be really, really calm and get your heartrate down to get to the bottom of the ocean,” she says.
“I can dive 20m pretty comfortably, holding my breath for a little over a minute.
“Your mind is free of anything else and you’re focused on only the task at hand.
“It’s almost like doing yoga in the ocean.”
Lucy’s partner Shane Ackerman is a world-renowned big wave body boarder, and their relationship has reignited her love and respect for the ocean.
“I grew up on the ocean and used to love surfing, but my career took over when I was 18 and I didn’t go in much at all,” she says.
“When I first started dating Shane, I just started getting into the water more.
“I’ve learnt so much from him. He’s so calculated at what he does. He is a very interesting character.”
And now this adventure-seeking South Aussie is pushing the boundaries even further, filming some of the wildest waves in the world including the famous Teahupo’o in Tahiti.
One, at Shipstern Bluff in Tasmania, builds kilometres out to sea to the equivalent height of a four-storey building. Half the challenge for surfers is getting out there and back again.
“I met a fella on the hike in and he said he’d help me swim out there,” Lucy says.
“I basically swam out with him and everyone said, ‘how on earth did you make it out?’
“I love it. The thrill, the shots you get, you’re sitting in the best seat in the house to film these waves.”
There’s little doubt Lucy’s upbringing on the coast of Yorke Peninsula has shaped her career.
She’s found the magic combination of freedom at work and at play.
“It’s the ultimate,” she says.
“Now that I’m on the Hawk I’m so happy to be working just as much as I love my time off, my surfing and my diving.
“I don’t have to go anywhere to progress my career. I’m so lucky that Aerotech are ahead of the game in the aviation world and I’m so excited to be a part of it.
And one day, maybe a little 8-year-old girl will meet Lucy, and aim for the sky.
“I love seeing kids and talking to them about my job and you never know who you’re going to inspire,” she says.
“I just know I got inspired at such a young age by a female pilot.
“It would be so cool to see more girls doing it.”
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Originally published as SA Aerotech Black Hawk pilot Lucy Nadebaum’s deep | Jess Adamson
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