Two new Spitfire pilots graduate
When Flight Lieutenant Luke Kempton climbed into the cockpit of a Spitfire at Temora Aviation Museum recently, it marked the culmination of a journey years in the making.
CAPTION: Royal Australian Air Force pilot Flight Lieutenant Lars Larson, from No. 100 Squadron, takes off in a Spitfire Mk VIII from Temora Aviation Museum, New South Wales. Story by Flying Officer Belinda Barker. Photo by Leading Aircraftwoman Nell Bradbury.
The Albury pilot became one of Australia’s newest Spitfire-qualified aviators after completing conversion training on the iconic warbird alongside Bendigo’s Flight Lieutenant Lars Larson, guided by fellow Albury local and long-time Spitfire pilot Flight Lieutenant Stephen Death.
For Flight Lieutenant Kempton, who now flies internationally as an airline pilot and serves as a reservist with 100SQN, the opportunity was both an honour and a responsibility.
“I’ve been lucky enough to be around these aircraft from a young age and I’ve looked up to the people who have flown this Spitfire and the engineers who have looked after it over the past 20 or 30 years,” Flight Lieutenant Kempton said.
The training involved studying original World War II flight manuals, learning aircraft systems and flying heritage aircraft to build the skills required for the legendary single-seat fighter.
“You approach it like any other aircraft, but once you start the engine, you’re on your own,” he said.
“It’s a huge thrill.”
Flight Lieutenant Lars Larson and Flight Lieutenant Luke Kempton have become Australia’s two newest Spitfire pilots, completing conversion training at Temora Aviation Museum.
Of the handful of Spitfires still operational in the country, two are based at Temora with 100SQN.
For both pilots – reservists who fly commercially by day – stepping into the Spitfire is a study in contrasts.
Flight Lieutenant Larson, a Qantas captain transitioning onto the Boeing 787, summed it up simply.
“The Spitfire is cables, it’s rudders, it’s fabric, it’s timber, it’s metal, it’s a little bit of everything tied in together, with engines that produce an incredible amount of power … it feels like a billy cart with a V8,” Flight Lieutenant Larson said.
It’s an aircraft built more than 80 years ago that, in his words, “is still a handful, but a delight to fly around the sky”.
Flight Lieutenant Kempton, who grew up around historic aircraft, says the appeal comes down to something harder to define than horsepower.
“The best thing about heritage aircraft is the stories attached to the planes,” he said.
“Both in the memories of how they did fly and those who flew them, and then the connection with those on the ground moving forward.”
Guiding both pilots through their conversion was Flight Lieutenant Stephen Death, who has flown Spitfires for more than 20 years and says preserving that connection to history is at the heart of what 100SQN does.
“We need to keep training people,” Flight Lieutenant Death said.
“You have to have an ongoing cycle where you’ve got mentors that can help people, so they become the mentors of the next generation.”
100SQN was reformed as the Air Force Heritage Squadron in 2021, flying its aircraft as airworthy warbirds across two homes – the Temora Historic Flight and the Point Cook Heritage Flight.
The aircraft themselves were transferred from Temora Aviation Museum to the RAAF in 2019 and are maintained by museum staff, with pilots inducted into the RAAF Reserve.
For Flight Lieutenant Larson, whose connection to Temora stretches back to the museum’s earliest days, flying the aircraft is close to a homecoming.
“It’s something I almost grew up with, my whole career,” he said.
“It’s such an iconic aircraft. It has so much history. It means so much, not only to the people and this nation, but myself personally.”
With another Spitfire due back in the air soon at Temora, Flight Lieutenant Death says the squadron’s mission of keeping these aircraft flying – and finding the pilots who love them enough to fly them well – is far from finished.
.
.
.
.
