Growing up with her booster seat secured into the back of an aircraft, recent 1 Flying Training School pilot graduate Pilot Officer Freya Swinbourne seemed destined for a career in aviation.
With her three uncles passionate pilots and her grandfather an aircraft engineer, flying is in her blood.
"My first memory is when I was four or five years old," Pilot Officer Swinbourne said.
"My uncle had put me in the booster seat in the back of his little two-seater RV4 plane that he had built with my grandfather.
"Whenever I visited my uncle I knew I'd get to go flying."
'I wouldn't take no for an answer. I knew I just needed to gain some life experience and keep trying.'
When she was 16, her uncle emailed her about a flying scholarship. That scholarship changed Pilot Officer Swinbourne's life. In piloting a plane for the first time, she developed the ambition to become a pilot.
Receiving a rejection letter from Air Force straight out of high school didn't blunt Pilot Officer Swinbourne's ambition. She pursued a Bachelor in Aviation, volunteered with the SES, and took up flying lessons in her spare time, earning herself a recreational pilot licence.
"I wouldn't take no for an answer. I knew I just needed to gain some life experience and keep trying," Pilot Officer Swinbourne said.
"I knew I wanted to fly in the Air Force. I liked the idea of trying different kinds of flying, and deploying on HADR tasks and operations across the world.
"Perseverance paid off for me."
'It is amazing to be working with people with the same interests and commitment I have, to the ADF, to Australia, to getting stuff done.'
On June 20, her dream became reality. Pilot Officer Swinburne graduated from the flying school alongside nine course mates at RAAF Base East Sale on its inaugural ADF Intermediate Pilots' course with wings. Her uncle and family proudly watched on.
"It is amazing to be working with people with the same interests and commitment I have, to the ADF, to Australia, to getting stuff done," Pilot Officer Swinbourne said.
"It feels like a place I always wanted to be working."
Just two years after putting on an Air Force uniform for the first time, Pilot Officer Swinburne is now a fully qualified Air Force pilot.
She will go on to conversion training where, by the end of the year, she will become a fully operational 33 Squadron pilot on the KC-30A Multi-Role Tanker Transport.
At her graduation, Pilot Officer Swinbourne reflected on how far she has come.
"Reminiscing on how long I've been fighting for this dream, I can't quite believe I am finally here," she said.
