Gaby Kennard

- And when I was a little kid imagining and jumping off walls and fences and what have you, I didn't realise where it came from, but I think it was in my DNA.

- [Interviewer] In 1989, Gaby Kennard was the first Australian woman to complete a solo flight around the world. She navigated east in her Piper Saratoga and took 99 days to complete the journey, 29,000 nautical miles.

- Well, I never ever thought about being the first Australian woman to fly solo around the world. Never thought about it. It was nothing to do with anything like that. It was just me wanting to do my thing and I didn't even know that anybody would be interested to be honest.

- [Interviewer] Can you tell us about how you made the decision to learn to fly?

- Oh dear, oh dear. That's a big question. I was 32 I think. I had recently been divorced and then I started to think when I got my divorce, "Oh, what is it that I want to do? I better get on with what I want to do." And for the first time I really thought about what I want to do. And so the first thing was to learn to fly. I was passing by the Aerodrome in Albion Park and I thought, "Oh, this is a fabulous place. I love this aerodrome." And I'd actually been passing it for about 10 years thinking I should learn to fly. Makes me feel quite emotional just talking about it. But anyway, I finally got the strength one day to go in and say, "I'd like to learn to fly." And really, that was huge for me. And the first guy that I said that to who was the assistant flying instructor said, "Oh, no, sorry. I don't believe in women flying. So I'm not gonna teach you."

- [Interviewer] Wow.

- And luckily the receptionist who was a really sweet girl she said, she got the CFI and, who was a chief flying instructor, and he came out and I said, "Look, I really want to learn to fly." And so I flew with him and we had a great relationship. You know, we really developed a good relationship and he tried to scare the hell out of me but it didn't matter what he did. He didn't scare me. So it was really quite a wonderful experience.

- [Interviewer] Lisa Tomasetti has created this incredible portrait of you. Something that struck me about the portrait when I first saw it was the expression you have on your face, this lovely, warm, vibrant smile. Do you remember what you were thinking about or what you might've been talking about with Lisa when the photograph was taken?

- I don't remember really exactly what I was thinking or talking about, but it was a moment, a definite moment. And I was very grateful for it in retrospect because really I hate having my photo taken and I was very stiff and not good. And I did say that to Lisa. I said, "Lisa, I'm sorry but it's not gonna be an easy job that you gotta..." Anyway, it was funny because there was this little interaction between the assistant and the makeup person that did the makeup and Lisa and myself. And it was just a moment of sort of connection and mirth really. It was sort of a funny little connection, a sort of a cheeky connection, really.

- [Interviewer] And there's that little model of the plane in the front of the photograph. Can you tell us a bit about it?

- I said to Lisa, because you know, I went to art school and I was sort of putting myself a bit in her position, and I said to her, "Well how are you going to connect me with what I did?" And she said, "Well, you know, we talked about it." And I said, "Well, you could always use a plane, you know a little model plane, or..." and I think I had some other suggestions. And then I thought to myself, "Hey, shut up, you know. This is her thing, she's the artist." And so she found the plane, the model plane, and the guy who gave it to her said, "Oh, this is a reasonable representation of the plane that Gaby flew." But it was a good, it was a good way of sort of hooking the things up I thought. It all worked out. And I thought I was so impressed when I saw it hanging 'cause it's really quite big too. All I can say is that if you really work on something and do your best and keep trying, as Amelia said, "You gotta keep trying." You know, you will get there. And there was this, oh I could tell you a whole lot of other things, but I had this little plaque and it said, "If you can dream it, you can do it." And you know, that sounds a bit sort of up in the stars but 'cause you've gotta do the work, but it's true. If you put your mind to it and you work, you can do it. If I can do it, anybody can do it truly. Absolutely. You just have to try and you have to be inventive and you have to keep going and not give up. The hardest thing is to start, you know, like to get to the start line in the race, to get there. That's the biggest hurdle. But it's certainly not impossible. And I think I've proven that. Oh my gosh, I think you've covered quite a lot of ground really.

- [Interviewer] So have you.