MEDIA
AUGUST 2024 – Australian Aviation Awards
Angela Garvey winner of the Excellence Award and Female Aviation Leader of the Year – Small Business
Almost 30 individual professionals and organisations were declared winners at the Australian Aviation Awards this year, including engineers, pilots, aviation safety professionals, start-ups, and innovators.
Angela Garvey took home this year’s Excellence Award. Garvey was given the award after being named Female Aviation Leader of the Year – Small Business earlier in the evening.
Angela Garvey is a specialist aviation counsellor, commercial pilot, and founder of counselling services provider Navigating Aviation.
Other individual award winners included representatives from Northrop Grumman, Qantas Group Pilot Academy, and Leidos Australia.
Several renowned companies walked away with trophies this year, including children’s charity Little Wings, Cairns Airport, engineering and operational solutions provider Babcock, and the Australian Women Pilots’ Association.
Over 450 members of the industry attended the awards ceremony to celebrate the achievements of their colleagues and network with industry leaders and peers. Australian comedian, writer, and satirist Mark Humphries assumed MC duties and provided light and laughter throughout the evening.
The Australian Aviation Awards launched for the first time in 2022 as an unparalleled program that recognises outstanding professionals and organisations from across the domestic aviation industry.
The awards champion the top-performing members of aviation across the industry including aviators, trainers, technologists, technicians, crew, executives, pilots, and the rising stars of tomorrow across large and small businesses.
They also offer recognition to airlines, airports, defence support businesses, and organisations who have implemented innovative sustainability initiatives.
The awards were open to all businesses and professionals across the sector irrespective of location, specialisation, affiliation, or alliance.
The winners were determined by an esteemed judging panel composed of respected professionals, business leaders and executives, innovators, entrepreneurs, and academics.
Many of the most innovative aviation businesses and professionals have capitalised on the awards program to strengthen their position in the marketplace, grow their business, and distinguish themselves from their competitors when attracting and retaining top talent while recognition has underpinned career advancement for individuals.
AustralianAviation.com
SEPTEMBER 2023
Presentation: PACDEFF 2023
CRM and Aviation Human Factors Conference - Brisbane
"The unseen hole in the swiss cheese - the lack of care and support for people and their families in general aviation".
I am thrilled to have been a part of this year's Pacific and Australasian CRM Developers' and Facilitators' Forum (PACDEFF) in Brisbane.
With around 350 attendees, it stands as the world's largest conference focused on aviation crew resource management (CRM), non-technical skills (NTS), and aviation human factors.
This year, I had the unique opportunity to share my personal experiences and shed light on an often-overlooked topic - the lack of care and support for our people in General Aviation.
It's imperative for the industry to recognise that many GA owners/operators, pilots and aircraft engineers do not have access to immediate or ongoing support, especially post an incident or accident.
Furthermore, these pilots and aircraft engineers often then transition into airlines, carrying with them their unresolved traumas.
General Aviation is not just a stepping stone; it's the very foundation of aviation, and it’s time the overarching industry acknowledges this.
A big shoutout to Wayne Martin PhD for providing me with this platform. I am grateful to every participant who listened to my presentation and for the overwhelming support and receptivity to my message.
Together, we can pave a more inclusive path forward for every facet of aviation, starting with General Aviation.
JULY 2023
Cadet Pilot Program and Engineering Support:
Sharp Airlines, Quarterly Base Visit
Aviation Specialist Support - Angela Garvey
There are few who understand the daily challenges and extreme highs and lows of aviation more than Malcolm Sharp, the Managing Director and Head of Flying Operations of Sharp Airlines. Our shared lived experiences sparked Malcolm's attention when I launched Navigating Aviation - a specialist support, guidance and counselling service for the aviation industry - and I was recently invited to visit their bases in Essendon and Launceston for the first time.
Sharp Airlines is the first in Australia to engage Navigating Aviation to provide independent and confidential support to their cadet pilot program. I will be exclusively available to support the students, from day one of their ab-initio flight training and through each stage of their journey to the left seat of one of Sharp’s sixteen Metroliner aircraft.
It is a privilege to be there for the students during the formative years of their training, creating a solid and healthy foundation for not just their aviation careers, but their personal lives outside of work as well.
In addition to the cadet pilot program, Sharp Airlines also understands the importance of supporting their engineering team. These men and women, a dedicated group of professionals who meticulously go about their work with the highest of standards and integrity, are the unsung heroes of this industry. It's no secret that the way to an aircraft engineer's heart is through their stomach, so we all enjoyed a BBQ lunch to get to know one another and have a good chat about work and life beyond the hangar.
I will be visiting Sharp Airlines bases every three months to reconnect with students and staff, and will also be available for individual online counselling sessions in between.
I am incredibly humbled to work with Malcolm and the team at Sharp Airlines, and look forward to putting our shared values of “people first” into action.
JUNE 2023
Presentation: Aerial Application Association of Australia (AAAA) National Convention - Gold Coast
"A conversation with Angela Garvey - Lessons from her worst day as an aviation business owner."
Nat Nagy recently invited me to present to a room full of Aerial Application Association of Australia business owners, ag pilots and aircraft engineers at the Aerial Application Association of Australia (AAAA) convention on the Gold Coast - "A Conversation with Angela Garvey - lessons from her worst day as an aviation business owner".
Quite often, those who have experienced a fatal accident in their aviation business are reluctant to share the details of their own confronting, traumatic and harrowing journey and discuss the harsh realities of what can unfold many years later due to not receiving immediate and ongoing professional support. But this audience was fully engaged and thankful to hear an honest account of an event similar to what some in the room had also experienced.
It was also terrific to have Civil Aviation Safety Authority CEO and Director of Aviation Safety Pip Spence in attendance to update the audience on CASA’s developing approach to medical certification, where the focus is moving more towards achieving positive health outcomes by providing more support and getting people back to work as soon as possible.
Judging by the engaging conversations that started flowing and the feedback I received after my presentation, it is clear that, while they are extremely difficult to talk about and uncomfortable to hear, these conversations must keep happening.
JUNE 2023
Magazine: Australian Aviation #389
Article: Industry Influencer: Angela Garvey
10/05/2023
Presentation: Griffith University - Aviation Mates
"By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail." - Benjamin Franklin
“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” ― Benjamin Franklin.
The very least I can do is help prepare students for what the aviation industry is truly like. It’s not all happy faces, Instagram and Facebook... it can test your limits and attempt to bring you to your knees.
These gorgeous young adults were so receptive, enquiring, open, and expressive... albeit a little shocked, but we connected beautifully and are now even more humbled by the experience.
It’s my purpose to prepare students and provide them with guided support and care throughout their career and lives.
It takes a Village! Thank you Griffith Aviation Mates, we had a blast!
20/03/2023
Podcast: Flight Training Australia Podcast
Discussing the Importance of Seeking Support
04/03/2023
Presentation: Aviation Medical Society of Victoria
The Unseen Hole in The Swiss Cheese
The Aviation Medical Society of Victoria invited me to present in front of 80 Designated Aviation Medical Examiners from around Australia. It was a packed room, and all sectors were represented, from Commercial and Military Aviation to General Aviation.
This presentation was my lived account of the lack of care and support for people and their families in aviation (especially general aviation) and how a national industry peer support program and an increased general awareness could fill the unseen hole in the swiss cheese.
My goal is to remove the stigma and red tape, which will allow a more holistic and supportive approach to the well-being of staff, pilots, aircraft engineers, crew, and their families.
Armed with my lived experiences, I'm opening some eyes to the realities of this industry while focusing on what can be done better now and in the future.
28/02/2023
Presentation: Avalon International Airshow
Peer Support and Mental Health: A Conversation for Business Aviation, 2023 and Beyond
Avalon International Airshow was my first time shining light on what I now refer to as the "unseen hole" in the swiss cheese. During this presentation I shared what life was like for me after a fatal plane crash in our business. Although the ripple effect from this tragedy affected the lives of so many, I only had 20 minutes so I focussed on my own lived experience and what life was like for me in the aftermath of the accident.
I spoke about this 'stop moment' in my life, which presented me with two choices: rise above or enter a spiral dive. It is a natural human response to want to take the first option, but without immediate and ongoing support from an industry where safety is paramount, I found myself entering a downward spiral that lasted more than a decade.
The "unseen hole" in the swiss cheese is the lack of support and care for people in aviation, especially general aviation. I am grateful to the Australian Business Aviation Association (ABAA) for giving me the chance to share my thoughts on how we as an industry can close this hole by improving wellbeing, culture and safety.
15/02/2023
Podcast: Australian Aviation
Rethinking how we support aviation and their families
07/02/2023
Interview: AOPA Australia Live
Discussing Navigating Aviation and General Aviation
12/11/2021
Magazine: Australian Aviation
Article: Upset Prevention Recovery Training
On 2 January 2006, one of the aircraft flying for Angela Garvey’s skydiving business – a Cessna 206, VH-UYB – experienced a loss of power on take-off. The aircraft was at a low air speed and likely stalled, rolling to the right, clipping a tree and then crashing nose-first into a dam. Seven people were on the flight including the pilot and instructors, and five of them died that day. Despite the horror of the event, Garvey never blamed the pilot. “No one knows how we will react in this critical situation, including myself. None of us is immune to the startle and surprise response and how we will react,” she says.
At the time of the fatal accident, Garvey was juggling flying, studying and working as a company director all while mothering two young children. She had learnt her basic flight training two years before, and very early on was taught how to prevent and recover from an aircraft upset – or as her instructor liked to call it, “I’m teaching you how to not kill yourself”.
“I have always wanted to take our horrific accident and somehow turn this tragedy into a change that I believe needed to happen in the industry.”
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