RFDS patients are in safe hands with helicopter pilot Jason Parsons, whose wide-ranging aviation career spans flying for the Royal Australian Air Force and United States Air Force to the Qantas Dreamliner.
Jason set his sights on becoming a pilot when he was growing up in Mandurah, where he loved spotting Air Force planes fly past the coast. After being accepted into the specialist aviation program at Melville Senior High School, he began his flyingcareer at Jandakot’s Royal Aero Club before joining the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF).
“I always wanted to fly in the Air Force, I didn’t have much interest in the airlines back then,” he said. “You sign up for a decade, and you know you’ll be posted around every three years.”
Mostly flying jets, his postings included three years as an Aircraft Commander with the United States Air Force, with taskings including Presidential Overwatch and air control over New Orleans as Hurricane Katrina made landfall.
Upon returning to Australia, Jason became a Qualified Flying Instructor for the RAAF in regional NSW and Victoria. The role also included conducting aerobatic displays in the Roulettes. Jason also worked with Special Ops in their planning for complex taskings.
After 15 years in the RAAF, Jason was ready for a change and transferred to flying helicopters for the Royal Australian Navy.
“I’d always had an interest in helicopters and I’d done all I wanted to do in the Air Force,” Jason said. “It was daunting starting something from scratch and it’s expensive to do the training, so I stayed with Defence and they paid for my helicopter training.”
Over the next five years, Jason flew the MH60R Seahawk and trained with the US Navy in Florida. He carried out long deployments on Navy Frigates all over the world but found it difficult being away from his wife Donna and their two young children.
It was for that reason that he eventually resigned from the Navy, moved back to WA and began flying for Qantas. Jason flew the 787 Dreamliner, mostly on the Perth to London route. When the COVID-19 pandemic shut down international travel in early 2020, he moved intoflying offshore helicopters for oil and gas charters, doing fly-in fly-out work from Broome, Darwin, Exmouth and Truscott.
“Being able to switch back to flying helicopters taught me a big lesson about the value of being diversified,” Jason said. “After COVID hit, suddenly you had highly trained airline pilots working at supermarkets because they didn’t have other options.” But the FIFO roster took a toll.
“I was trying two week swings, three week swings and we found as a family that it was doable, but not enjoyable. Some people get used to it, but I was living half my life away from home.”
When Jason saw an advertisement that the RFDS was hiring a Perth-based helicopter pilot in late 2023 he didn’t hesitate to apply, and he was soon flying the RFDS Fortescue Heli-Med Service EC145 helicopters. The helicopters carry out inter-hospital transfers within a 250km range of the RFDS Jandakot base.
“We get to do some very rewarding jobs (at RFDS) and it just happens to be very unique that I live around the corner and can ride my bike to work, do a good job and go home,” Jason said.
I like the stability this job offers in my personal life – and while the roster stays the same, on any given day I don’t know whether I will be flying to Bunbury or Dalwallinu or Rottnest. So I know how my week looks but I don’t know how my day looks, and I really like that.
Jason, RFDS WA Helicopter Pilot