Twenty-seven-year-old Eloise Campbell holds the Skyline fort in Taranaki, operating a King Air C90 single-pilot.
Eloise’s interest in flying started early, as a young girl she would watch aircraft taking off and landing from Feilding airfield. Located on Campbell Road, the airfield is next to the farm she grew up on. Despite her mother’s fear of flying (she has only ever been up with Eloise once), her parents encouraged her to take up flight training, and this is where Eloise gained her CPL. While student loans were not available to pay for a flying license, they were available when studying for a diploma. Needless to say, Flight Training Manawatu at the Feilding airfield happened to offer a Diploma in Aviation, which Eloise passed with flying colours – and a large student loan. After her CPL, Eloise gained her CAT-B and multi-engine instructor rating while working at Fielding.
In addition to instructing Eloise flew a C172 for mapping and surveying work. When the company moved base to Whanganui, she went with them for another year. Then an opportunity came up to live in Taranaki working for Skywest Aviation, the company that held the local air ambulance contract on a Cessna 421 piston twin. As the air ambulance work required Eloise to have at least 100 hours on type, she flew together with Nathan Mauchline for a couple of months at the start. Around a year into this job, Eloise landed in Hamilton with the nose gear still retracted after it had failed to extend using either the standard or the emergency procedure. Skywest was not able to provide a replacement aircraft quickly enough, and they lost the contract leaving Eloise unemployed. Fortunately, when Skyline won the contract shortly after, Eloise was the preferred candidate. She knew the operation well and had by now gained a good reputation and substantial twin flying experience.
Now a year into the Skyline job, Eloise enjoys the operational challenges as well as life in Taranaki. ‘The beach is right next to the airport, there are heaps of walking tracks, and I share a nice house between town and the airport with a bunch of other girls,’ Eloise says. For sports, Eloise plays netball socially. Another great way to meet people is through the Young Farmers Club, where Eloise is a member. Despite watching aircraft while growing up, farm-life must have left an indelible imprint on Eloise: In 2019 she won Young Farmer’s national competitions in wool judging, something of an unexpected skill for a female pilot.
Asked whether being a woman in aviation, which is still considered a man’s world by some, was ever an issue Eloise says: ‘Not really. Sometimes there is a bit of banter to deal with, but nothing I can’t handle. Mostly, everybody has been really supportive.’
Eloise loves flying her King Air C90 and the reliability of the PT6 engines. ‘I occasionally fly the larger King Air 200 as well, which has better climb performance and can hold a sea-level cabin pressure at a higher altitude than the C90. But other than that, there isn’t much difference and the cabin is nice and quiet. On most of our destinations, it’s easy to carry the full payload as well as all the required fuel’.