From South Africa to Antarctica and Beyond

Kat McSeveney is a South African helicopter pilot who has operated all over the globe, from the frozen islands of Antarctica to the jungles of Malaysia. Kat has flown a myriad of different types of operations, including medevac, tracking stolen cars, and ship resupply and is now instructing new pilots for the eSwatini defence force.

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Episode Transcript

Ben Hall (00:06):
Hello, and welcome to the pilot phase podcast. I'm Ben
and I've been a pilot for over adecade.

Dave Rogers (00:11):
And I'm categorically not a pilot.

Ben Hall (00:14):
Every Monday we'll be chatting to both pilots and non
pilots with amazing aviationstories from all around the
world. You can find all episodesof the pilot based podcast for
free wherever you get yourpodcasts. If you like what
you're hearing, subscribe to ourchannel and leave us a review.

Dave Rogers (00:28):
In Episode Seven We meet Kat McSeveney, a rotary
pilot for over 10 years shebegan in Africa. She's been to
the Arctic Circle, the junglesin Borneo and plenty of other
places in between. She talks usthrough some of her favorite
adventures, the machines she'sfallen in love with, and some of
the obstacles she's faced alongthe way. Yeah, hello, welcome to

(00:53):
the pilot base. Great to haveyou here. Where in the world are
you? Because I'm in my bedroom.
It looks pretty drab. It looks alot more exciting where you are.

Kat McSeveney (01:05):
Thanks Dave and Ben, it's great to be here. It's
an honor. Thank you so much forhaving me. I'm in the kingdom of
eswatini, which is a country insouthern Africa neighboring on
South Africa and Mozambique,

Dave Rogers (01:17):
the kingdom of eswatini day.

Ben Hall (01:21):
Have you ever heard of that country? before?

Dave Rogers (01:24):
I is it? Is it formally known as Swaziland or
if I just made it myself inpublic,

Kat McSeveney (01:30):
you are 100%?
Correct. It was previously namedSwaziland. And then on its fifth
year of independence, it changedits name to eswatini.

Unknown (01:40):
Amazing, but

Ben Hall (01:43):
it's because there's a TV show called pointless. And
he's 14 is always a pointlessanswer because nobody knows this
change.

Kat McSeveney (01:51):
Oh, wow. Really?
I was unaware of that. A lot ofpeople don't know I'll be
changing names. And often I'llhave to refer back to Swaziland.

Dave Rogers (02:06):
Yes, to the locals get frustrated where it's when
it's referred to as far as helands internationally.

Kat McSeveney (02:13):
You know, the locals are very peaceful, very
kind, quite disciplined andobedience crowd. So no, I would
never find them. I would neverthink that they would get
unhappy if you had to call it

Dave Rogers (02:31):
discipline and obedience. And we haven't even
said hello to you yet. Ben, howare you?

Ben Hall (02:37):
change location slightly because I've been
kicked out of the office but bythe wife. Yeah, we just wanted
to show off your expensivepaint, didn't you? Okay, yeah,
so

Dave Rogers (02:47):
you've got bearable paints in your lovely house, and
you've just been shown up bycats. Absolutely stunning. But
so is that your is that yourgarden? We can see

Kat McSeveney (02:58):
if you can actually see, take this up and
you can see that's beautiful. Weactually are on the 17th
fairway. So we've got abeautiful view of the fairway
and the clubhouse. And obviouslythe Swasey mountains. So very

(03:23):
beautiful country.

Dave Rogers (03:24):
Yeah, it looks absolutely incredible.

Kat McSeveney (03:28):
To be in COVID

Dave Rogers (03:30):
Yeah. It is a beautiful country to many people
visit, obviously, in differentcircumstances when when the
tourism industry exists. And theaviation industry exists. Do you
get many, many visitors manytourists?

Kat McSeveney (03:44):
If so, the tourism is quite a big industry.
And so as you land, we do have alot of people come visit. But as
of the past year and a half, ourborders have been opened and
closed quite regularly. And it'sin very quiet.

Dave Rogers (03:59):
I can imagine Do you like the quiet?

Kat McSeveney (04:04):
I do enjoy it. It has been a peaceful year and a
half that I've been home. And Iknew that at the time. So it's
been good to get homerecuperator births and I'm
finding myself full of life atthe moment.

Dave Rogers (04:18):
I'll tell you why.
That is a fantastic cookingtease there. Because now in this
podcast episode, we need to findout why you needed the break up.
First of all, let's talk to meabout flying. How much are you
doing? How much have you beenable to do and how much is your
career been affected by the last12 months.

Kat McSeveney (04:41):
You know what I had already decided at the end
of 2019 to take a bit of a breakfrom aviation. So to be honest,
it was quite a blessing, thetiming COVID happened and I
managed to get some some timefor some self care and some
healing and so on. And there'snot much aviation going on. So I

(05:05):
didn't come back intending to dohuge amounts of aviation.
However, as we'll discuss later,I am getting into aviation.

Dave Rogers (05:14):
Very good. Now, Ben, in this episode, we're
talking to another one of yourincredibly cool pals, aren't we?
So give us a little bit ofbackground? How did you and cat
first come across each other?

Ben Hall (05:27):
Yeah, I feel like I pick up my ex coursemates from
Africa quite often. But I thinkwe were just like, really lucky
with it with the little cohortwe were training with at the
time. So I did my training. Ithink I might have mentioned
this. Previously, I did mytraining in South Africa, back
in 2008.

Unknown (05:48):
I think it was

Ben Hall (05:51):
a long time ago now.
So I was obviously doing fixedwing training. And cat was doing
rotary training at the sametime. So we knew each other. And
then we just kind of kept intouch ever since. Cat came to
visit when I was in Abu Dhabi,on the way to Malaysia.

Kat McSeveney (06:09):
Alright, because on the way from Malaysia to the
United States, Expo in 2014.

Ben Hall (06:17):
Yeah, so this is the beauty of the aviation world,
right. Everybody, you know,lives all over the place and
does some crazy stuff. And it'sgreat that we can meet up
halfway around the world andcatch up. So it's good to see
you.

Kat McSeveney (06:31):
It's very nice to see you too big

Dave Rogers (06:34):
to Safi, let's get back to it. So let's take it
back to 2009 or the run up to2009. Then your rotary training.
What was it that brought you tothat point? Why did you decide
that you wanted to be ahelicopter pilot?

Kat McSeveney (06:51):
So aviation runs in the family? not to the extent
that I have any commercialpilots and the family but my
father and his brother all flewhelicopters fixed wing was a
little bit of the Wild West, Ithink back then, he asked, you
know, why do you have to writeexams, just get into the

(07:13):
aircraft and fly. So he did hislicense licenses while we were
growing up, and I flew with himof it. And I actually started
flying when I was 14, so thatwould have been 20 years ago.

Dave Rogers (07:31):
So Young

Kat McSeveney (07:32):
2000. I started with my fixing license, I was at
school in Pietermaritzburg, inkwazulu Natal, and shortly after
I started, I actually changedschools, and I was halfway in
between Durban andPietermaritzburg. And that's a

(07:53):
little bit challenging for me togo back and forth from the
airport as I was at a boardingschool. So stop flying finish
school a couple of years later,and it was a little bit lost for
a few years, I didn't know whatI wanted to do. Strangely
enough, the parts that I wentdown a very different I did

(08:13):
mechanical engineering for ayear decided I didn't want to do
that. Then I wanted to fashiondesign. Yeah. Afterwards,
definitely not for me, I haveno, I have creative streak, but
no drawing abilities. And Ithink I did that for about four
months realized I can't do this.
And then I decided to get backinto aviation. So I went to 4030

(08:37):
school and put offered which iswhere I may have been an
enrolled in helicopters thistime.

Dave Rogers (08:49):
So why helicopters

Kat McSeveney (08:53):
I just always found them a lot more exciting
and much more specializedoperations. So ones that I
wanted to follow such as five bysaying emergency medical
services, that kind of operationas we I wanted to hit.

Ben Hall (09:11):
Helicopters always seem a bit more sort of hands on
a bit more practical andaircraft. I don't know why.
Because when you're flying sortof lighter, smaller aircraft,
it's kind of same deal, but tothe pilot says, you know, really
heavy stick and rudder, whereasairplane pilots more of relaxed,
just flying straight line.

Kat McSeveney (09:31):
Yes. However, I'm very interested in doing my
thing, and we'll hopefully atone stage, the opportunity to do
so.

Dave Rogers (09:39):
Is that because you see is a little bit easier. I
mean, I always think about oneof the very first episodes of
this podcast that we recordedwith Suzy McKee, who was cabin
crew and then got the got apilot's license and is hoping to
build a career flying commercialand she I'm accused of being no

(10:02):
more than a video game playerflying is a

Kat McSeveney (10:09):
take off autopilot, read the newspaper
have a little sleep. No, not atall. I think I find that as I'm
getting older. First of all, Iwould just like, obviously, to
try it out and to be multidisciplined in aviation, then I

(10:29):
think it's as I'm getting older,it's almost seems like a more
stable line to go down with theairlines where you have a more
structured life withhelicopters. It's all over the
place. It's crazy hours, Inoticed the same in airlines,
but at least it's a little morestructured. So possibly to have

(10:51):
a more stable life. I'm amassive adventure junkie. So I
love to travel all over theworld fly crazy machines do
amazing operations. But at somestage, I know that it might not
be suitable for life forever.
Yes. Well,

Ben Hall (11:11):
that's a fixed wing for for a job. And then rotary
just for play on the weekends.
Right?

Kat McSeveney (11:16):
Exactly. Yeah. Or just you just say helicopter to
fly to the airport to jump on.

Dave Rogers (11:23):
Oh, my goodness, mate. All right. So you've got
your, you've got yourqualification, which is, which
is where you and Ben met. AndI've got a very, very brief
career background here. But I'dlike you to talk me through it
and some of the adventures youwent on. So in 2009, when you

(11:44):
got your qualification, whatwere the sort of first job or
first couple of jobs that youhave?

Kat McSeveney (11:49):
So I actually enrolled and started my flying
on helicopters in 2009, but onlyobtained my commercial pilot's
license in 2011. Okay, post thatit was quite difficult getting a
job. But in 2012, I startedflying for a company called
netstar in Cape Town doingstolen vehicle tracking on that.

Dave Rogers (12:16):
We could stop. Oh, my goodness. So is that is that
as obvious as it sounds? There'sa report of a stolen vehicle. So
you do you call it scrambling ahelicopter? No, completely,

Kat McSeveney (12:31):
I would definitely describe it as
scrambling.

Dave Rogers (12:35):
So you're on call, you get the call. And you quite
literally chase stolen cars in ahelicopter

Kat McSeveney (12:43):
100% it's not really as adventurous or
exciting as it sounds.

Dave Rogers (12:49):
Oh, come on. I've seen the Fast and Furious films.

Kat McSeveney (12:53):
I wish it was a little bit more like that. But
actually, what we found in CapeTown is most of the call outs I
got were at night. I lived about30 minutes from the airport. So
I get the call at two o'clock inthe morning, jump into the car
race through to the airport,single pilot single crew
operation so it was just me andsmooth female pulling out the
aircraft getting everythingready. And then one of the

(13:17):
trackers would come and meet meat the airport. And most of the
time would find would take offand would track the stolen
vehicle in one of the townshipsor just across the highway from
the airport. Third ended upbeing quite a long mission for a
very short flying time. Oftentwo and a half to three hours to

(13:42):
actually get to the airport,pull the aircraft off by myself,
get back, no land, refuel, pullthe aircraft into the hangar by
myself. And as I said would takeoff and fly or 0.2 or 0.3 in the
logbook and find find the stolenvehicle in the township with
kind of orbits around and waitfor the ground teams to come in

(14:05):
and came back the stolenvehicle.
No.

Ben Hall (14:10):
Only thing you want in the first couple of jobs is to
build your your hours, right youdon't want to do you just want
to build hours. So doing allthat work for like naught point
two hours.

Dave Rogers (14:24):
Ah, so did you ever have any? Did you ever have any
cases at the highway? Anything?
Anything even remotely excitinghappened?

Kat McSeveney (14:34):
Not at all actually. One of the spectacular
things about Nate Stein katanaswhen I was there that 100% track
record for finding and tracingcars. Yeah. But they are only
two main roads out of the city.
So the car was either one or theother. And most of the time it
was in the township Yeah.

Dave Rogers (15:00):
That does sound like an incredibly expensive way
of tracing stolen cars by theway.

Kat McSeveney (15:08):
It is I believe, but due to the equipment that
they have it's the best way tolocate the vehicle is jealousy
fly? Use the usual the trackingone of the crazy things that
happened while you were flying.
And yeah, I had a tracker therewith this massive aerial that he
had whacked me in the face. Butyeah, but there was successful

(15:31):
and finding the cars. And thenonce we obviously i'd located
the cause we would seem theunderground crew to retrieve the
car. Amazing. So

Dave Rogers (15:42):
that that was your that was your first job. That
was your

Kat McSeveney (15:45):
that was it. She is.

Dave Rogers (15:47):
And did you get it?
Did you get? Did you get therush? And I suppose you did to
begin with? But yeah, that wholetwo o'clock in the morning. And
just knowing that you're gonnahave to do all that graph. Look,

Kat McSeveney (16:00):
as a yes. As the small female pulling the chopper
out or pushing it back in was?

Ben Hall (16:05):
Yeah. So this is like pulling it on? Yeah. Oh, yeah.

Dave Rogers (16:09):
I mean, I don't, I don't want to speak out of turn
here because I'm not somebodywith a pilot's license, either
fixed wing or rotary. But Ithink it would be fair to say
that nobody goes into pilotinghave any description for the
hard graft?

Kat McSeveney (16:28):
You know what, I actually don't mind the hard
graft, okay. The hard work isokay for me. But it sometimes
does help if they're one or twoother people that you can say,
can you help me push theaircraft out that kind of thing.
And obviously, because it wasquite time sensitive, it was
quite a rush to race to theairport and get the aircraft

(16:48):
out. And once I landed back, Iwas it was quite easy to just
take it slow. Afterwards, refuelthe aircraft, push it back in,
do the paperwork and get homesort of thing.

Dave Rogers (16:59):
Maybe I'm just projecting then because you've
got such soft hands and suchmanicured nails. They've not
seen a lot of grass. Give themhow to push your own vehicle in
and out of the hangar. Have you

Ben Hall (17:11):
pushed the plane into a hangar in a long, long time?

Dave Rogers (17:16):
So what was the next job after the vehicle
tracking then? And were you wereyou actively looking for the
next step while you were in thatfirst job?

Kat McSeveney (17:24):
No. So this was actually my big break that
happened next. And to go back alittle bit. After I attained my
commercial hours for mycommercial license, I called it
a designated examiner. The verywell known john pokok, who I

(17:45):
actually own my whole careertoo. And he came in did my
flight test for me. And I askedhim, How do I get a job now, and
he had kind of indicated to methat the best way to get a job
is to harass Iran so much thatthey want you to give you a job.

Ben Hall (18:09):
top tip to everybody listening.

Kat McSeveney (18:12):
So what should I do? I turned around and I did
exactly that to him.

Dave Rogers (18:17):
Amazing.

Kat McSeveney (18:18):
And in 2012 while I was flying for netstar. And
then I actually managed tojuggle both jobs. And both
companies were happy for me tosit and work and kind of
operating between the two. Andjohn gave me a call and he said
that the pilots of Titanhelicopters were struggling to

(18:42):
do all the work involved infirefighting. So with the
firefighting, they were doingsingle pilot operations, you
obviously have the pilots flyingthe machines, monitoring the
instruments, they're flying low,talking on the radio, counting
the drops all of us work thatthey were doing as a single
pilot, and they said that theyfelt the workload was too much.

(19:03):
So they asked me to come in asan extra set of eyes. And I
looked at it in the camerahelicopter. The camera is an
amazing Russian aircraft. It's acounter rotating coaxial
machine. That means that it hastwo counter rotating blades on

(19:25):
top of the aircraft and no tailrotor.

Ben Hall (19:29):
How that works is a mental machine.

Kat McSeveney (19:32):
It is it's really it's really something special.
It has the capabilities oflifting five tons on an external
load. So when we're doingfirefighting in that machine, we
could obviously drop 5000 literson the fire and most of the
other aircraft used in SouthAfrica for firefighting is the

(19:55):
hueys who is can drop 800 litersso it's more than seven drops.
In one day, they came up with anamazing machine for the
operation. As I stated, it's,it's a relatively quite big
aircraft, it's got the counterrotating coaxial blades, one on
top of each other they counterrotate and how that works in

(20:19):
terms of an anti talk. So yourtail rotor is it works on a
differential of torque, andthere's no tail rotor on this
machine. Amazing. The amazingthing I learned about this
machine while I was flying herwas that she didn't require much
pedal input for power changes,which is obviously usual and the

(20:41):
norm and helicopter flying butHowever, during forces in the
tune, you would need largeamounts of pedal. But without
having the tail rotor. Itactually makes her a very stable
and precise flying machine andshe's not as sensitive to
changes in wind force anddirection. Very interesting

(21:03):
machine it's I think, just shyof 12 meters long. The fuselage
die rotor diameter 15 meters andit seats three crew and 16
passengers.

Unknown (21:13):
Why?

Kat McSeveney (21:15):
Lovely machine?
Yes. She's actually my she stolestole my heart right at the very
beginning. And so yeah, go backto what happened. They called me
in as extra set of eyes. Andwithin two weeks, they decided
that they wanted to give me therating and for me to play with
it. So I was very lucky. Yes.

(21:36):
Now Tyson, we're operating inCape Town. From the harbor, they
actually had the ship shipservice base, and they were
doing firefighting for the cityof Cape Town, as well as ship
service. So they would fly outto the vessels coming past
either for maintenance or forresupply, or did one or two MIDI

(21:58):
backs with the National series qInstitute's. And, and along with
that, I also did a barren Islandvoyage and an Argentine
Antarctica voyage.

Ben Hall (22:12):
The photos from that is absolutely quality.

Kat McSeveney (22:16):
I was very spoiled. And so fortunate to
have been able to experiencethat, especially at such a young
age.

Dave Rogers (22:25):
And these were all in the these were all in the
helicopter that you just told usabout.

Unknown (22:30):
Correct and the cameras.

Dave Rogers (22:32):
So you just got to experience all of these
incredible places in thismachine that you were completely
in love with.

Kat McSeveney (22:39):
So that the Marin Island voyage we sell down on
the Dallas one. I actually wasalso lucky enough to go on the
final Voyage of the Dallas onebecause they've been upgraded to
their Dallas to which I'm hopingto sell on one day. Yeah. crazy

(22:59):
thing about Marian. Its locationof the sea and the southern
Arctic. To get there, you haveto sail through the roaring 40s
which is a latitude in the oceanin which the sea swells and the
wind gusts are just out of thisworld.

Dave Rogers (23:19):
That sound like a positive thing. But it does not
sound like a positive thing.
It's

Kat McSeveney (23:25):
really enjoyed the experience. But I must say
it was quite interesting. Whenwe were on the ship. I remember
thinking of it as a five dayvoyage on a sailing. I remember
walking around thinking thisjust nobody here There must be
like 12 people on this voyage.
Little did I know everybody wasseasick. And they were actually

(23:46):
quite a few people on thevoyage. So the main purpose of
both of these voyages wereresupply of the scientific
research stations that are basedin these locations. They have a
overwinter crew that stay for 12to 14 months. And then we would

(24:07):
go down and resupply the baseswith fuel for the generators,
medical supplies, food, whateverthey kind of need as well as
something that I used to use alot right now in clubbing or to
the menus to ask me what to do Isay on the garbage disposal dry
because we used to take thegarbage away from Ireland doctor

(24:30):
to be sitting there for you.

Dave Rogers (24:38):
Very, very good.
Amazing. So you moved on afterthat you did that. You did that
for a couple of years. And thenyou you moved on to the next
thing. That sounds like the kindof thing that one might want to
stay in forever. So So how didthat come to an end does it

Kat McSeveney (25:00):
Actually what happened was we did the Marion
Island trip in 2012. In 2013,that was with the South African
National Antarctic program. In2013. I was again, very
fortunate because our company,our contract actually ended with
Santa. And I was desperatelywanting to go to Antarctica. And

(25:25):
in 2013, just as our contractended, we ended up having the
Argentinian government ask us todo a voyage for them. This
voyage was somethingspectacular. And they were,
there was a variety of thingsthat went wrong with actually

(25:45):
went very wrong very quickly.
But we managed to obviouslysafely do the operation and to
get everyone back home. Well,we, it was the first time the
contract has actually been takenaway from a company that did the
Complete Whole voyage. So theyhad the vessel that went down at
the helicopter, the crew, thatall went down together, and then

(26:09):
each other and the operation andhad done it many years. This was
the first year that decided totake a helicopter company from
South Africa, a shipping companyfrom Amsterdam, from Holland,
and Argentinian.

Ben Hall (26:28):
Right. recipe for success.

Kat McSeveney (26:31):
Yes, completing you. I think that the first
thing that obviously one of themajor things that were withdrawn
was the delay in our departure.
So normally, when you go down toAntarctica, it's it's a December
January truck, that's almost 24hours of sunlight down there,
the best way that you can getsome good flying conditions. But

(26:53):
our whole voyage was delayed andwe left South Africa in
February, if I'm correct. fromSouth Africa, we actually had to
my crew in the mechanics had todismantle the aircraft flight
across to Australia andArgentina, and rebuild it on the
other side, which the team againon said, This team is just the

(27:19):
most spectacular team I've everworked with, and got across the
ribbon for aircraft, and then weheaded down in March. So you can
really see from December toMarch, the way that's changed
quite a lot. It's quitetemperamental with the hours of
sunlight, we're probably maybeseven hours of sunlight today.

(27:41):
So really, there were thoseproblems that we were facing.
And we got down there did awhole bunch of flying. There
were one or two other mattersthat we had issues with such as
the communication problems andobviously the the breakdown of
the different groups of peoplethat were flying, we were told

(28:03):
me good land, the aircraft andthe background of the ship and
roll it into could be kept, youknow, in the hold overnight. But
when we got there, we landed onthe front deck, Winton spoke to
the captain or realize thebackground couldn't actually
hold the weight of thehelicopter. Now the aircraft had
to sit on the front day, youknow exposed to icing and all

(28:24):
the weather conditions that wewere experiencing the captain of
the ship, it was his firstvoyage down to Africa. As far as
I'm aware, he was put under alot of pressure to take only the
amount of fuel that was requiredfor this. So got down there

(28:44):
started, started operating asthe first base and then the wave
that came in. So we ended upmoving quite a lot between the
different bases as the way theycame in as we move from one base
to the next the way they wouldmove. And on top of that the
captain of the ship had thoughtthat he would be able to

(29:09):
obviously go to one day stopanchor to angels or and from
there. Wait until the operationwas done and move on. When we
got down there though, she's waytoo deep. So you couldn't drop
anchor and see what's up andthey were icebergs everywhere so
you keep the engines on and bealerted all times for icebergs
that could possibly smash intothe shop. Oh, this sounds

Dave Rogers (29:34):
stressful.

Kat McSeveney (29:35):
So yes, post that we managed to get quite a bit of
flying done and then we ended uphaving a failure in one of our
engines.

Dave Rogers (29:46):
On the on the on the helicopter on the ship

Kat McSeveney (29:49):
on the helicopter. So now we were down
in Antarctica. It must have beenAugust now March, April sort of
thing and struggled to getstruggled to get an engine flown
and but we did manage to get onefrom the Chilean base. So we
actually ended up having to doall the logistics of getting a

(30:12):
new engine from DJI and havingit sent in and flown into the
Chilean base. From the we endedup obviously, installing this
new engine, and at this stage,the ship was running out of
fuel. So we ended up having togo back up to Cheyenne, which,

(30:35):
by the way, is something that'squite special about this why
it's the most southern city inthe world, and it's in
Patagonia. So we got to spendsome time there. Beautiful,
absolutely beautiful scenery andmountainous regions,

Dave Rogers (30:47):
and the only place outside of Wales where they
speak Welsh, in particular.
Yeah.

Unknown (30:55):
To No.

Kat McSeveney (30:59):
Yeah, so after a whole bunch of logistical
problems, we ended up sellingbackup refueling the ship coming
down to Antarctica again, andfinishing off the voyage and the
resupply operations that weneeded to However, on the last
day, some something also quitecrazy and crazy experience to go

(31:21):
through. And artica has a 1414day period of which the oceans
completely freeze over. And wewill actually get stuck there.
And that time, captain of theship made a very good call. And
he said, it's time to go now,like we're leaving, we're
heading back up. And on the wayout, we got stuck in the ice

(31:46):
that accumulated over the ocean.
So from there, we started tomake contingency plans who were
going to fly off to what basiswe call the Russian icebreaker
to break us out and the captainof the ship has decided he's
just going to reverse the shipand smash it into the ice over
and over.

(32:10):
Yes, so he did that. And Iremember going to sleep that
night and waking up at one stageand the ship was at the slight
tilted angle. Well, I have like45 degrees. And when went back
to sleep, woke up the followingmorning and he had managed to
smash his way out.

Dave Rogers (32:31):
I've gone Oh, sorry, I was gonna stop this
instructional DVD that I couldsend him. It stars, Kate Winslet
and Leonardo DiCaprio. Oh,

Ben Hall (32:46):
no sound like some sort of 19th century expedition
voyage where everything's goingwrong. The captains just like,
smash through be fine.

Kat McSeveney (32:55):
So then on the other side of things, I was very
proud to have stayed here thatwe ended up coming back. I think
it was May or so. So from ausual trip being done in
December, we were there almosthalf a year later. The weather
was it was freezing. I think thecoldest day we had was minus 54

(33:17):
with the windchill factor. Likecold weather.

Dave Rogers (33:24):
Yeah. Good. This man had

Kat McSeveney (33:26):
a great team.
They're really, really goodteam. I had my captain that I
was flying with it was myselfwith three Russian engineers.
And we're actually it was twoRussian engineers, one South
African engineer and then ourground crew guy. And they were
honestly just so lovely to methat I was the only female I
don't know if I mentioned thisthe only female on the ship or

(33:47):
49 men and myself for three anda half months.

Dave Rogers (33:55):
Bear in mind back to the beginning of this podcast
when cat was talking aboutpossibly getting her fixed wing
license for a slightly easierlife. With stories like that, I
can see why you might want a PCalive.

Ben Hall (34:12):
Yeah, I've never bought my aircraft on a ship
that's bashing through ice inthe Antarctic ocean. No.

Kat McSeveney (34:20):
No, it's been it's been. It's been very
colorful and diverse. And I mustsay these experiences as
challenging as they were whilewe were in it. I look back on
it. And you know, there's someof the most memorable times of
my life.

Dave Rogers (34:34):
One adventure, though, after you all got out of
that alive. And I genuinely meanthat because there must have
been points during thatexpedition where you did wonder
if it might go sideways. Perhapsyou must have felt like you
could do absolutely anything.

Kat McSeveney (34:53):
I definitely think I think I did feel that
way. As I said I had such anamazing team that guides us to
say To me. So So what actuallyhappened. One of the other
things, the challenges that wefaced is, as I said, we couldn't
land the aircraft in thebackground and roll it into the
holes. So she was exposed to allthe weather conditions, and

(35:14):
would wake up in the morning andshe would be covered in thick
ice and adapt to certain scrubthis ice off before we could
fly. And so eventually, we gotthe idea, when it got too much
to do this all the time that wewould, every single night, I
take the blades off and roll herdown around into the cargo. So

(35:35):
the guys used to say to me,they're really worth the
sweeteners, they used to look atme and say, we can't watch your
chair, your lips are blue, youreyelashes are just like frozen
over, please go inside and we'lldo the work. And I used to say
no, I'm here to help you whyever would I leave my team I'll
chair to work, I'm here to help.
And they used to, they used tocall the the thorn among the

(35:57):
roses, as well as the Russianname that I was given was
katusa, which is the mostdestructive Russian weapon ever
made. So I was cut to shop.

Dave Rogers (36:16):
Got to share. Very good.

Kat McSeveney (36:19):
But so going back to what you asked, Why would I
leave a position like this. Butgoing back up to Argentina,
there was a little bit ofpolitics between who was going
to pay for what ever extraexpenses, the contract
encouraged, and the aircraft wasgrounded in Argentina until they

(36:40):
had obviously established andsorted everything else. So I
went back to South Africa andone of the jobs that I've done,
I've also contributed to anoffice role. So I sat in the
office and I did a lot ofoperational work and Sperry kind
of the company that I was with,they see that they couldn't

(37:01):
watch me sitting in an officeand they wanted me to fly. So
they recommended me to thecompany in Malaysia, who took me
for 2pm to go and fly there inthe bornean Jungle.

Dave Rogers (37:14):
Wow. I mean a very, very different climate
straightaway, a bit of a changethere from

Kat McSeveney (37:21):
from the ice. I mean, the one base the lowest
base latitude wise that we wentto in Antarctica was at 68
degrees south and that's just inthe Arctic Circle. So yes, going
from the Arctic Circle up toBorneo, Malaysia, the Malaysian

(37:41):
section of Borneo is at zerodegrees north so quite a big
jump in latitude and the changeand flying in the ice to flying
on the crater.

Dave Rogers (37:53):
So talk to me about that. What did you do in Borneo
so so far? You have you'veyou've found stolen cars, you
have scraped ice off what wouldhave essentially been a death
trap had you not done it in thein the pretty much the coldest
place on planet earth with anincredible crew. And now you're

(38:16):
in Borneo what on earth couldpossibly be taught what you've
already turned?

Kat McSeveney (38:21):
I don't know if I forgot to mention that with
Titan helicopters also didfirefighting and some ships
service. So from Cape Town Yeah,we did the the firefighting
contract and we flew out tovessels class in Cape Town to
either drop of food or if therewas someone sick on board with
their MIDI back and take themoff maintenance something went

(38:42):
wrong with either drop pots ordrop a technician on board to
fix the problems. did a coupleof flights with the National Sea
Rescue Institute as well. Soalready Yes, very colorful

Dave Rogers (38:54):
to thing with regards to being a helicopter
pilot, you do really have theopportunity to help people who
are in need.

Kat McSeveney (39:04):
Most definitely.
And that's where my passion liesin aviation. I've always wanted
to move into medical services.
And I've been lucky enough to doit in both Malaysia and in South
Africa.

Dave Rogers (39:17):
Well tell me about Malaysia then.

Kat McSeveney (39:19):
So in Malaysia, we flew the polka one to five
helicopter which is a veryspecial helicopter because it is
the first helicopter that wasproduced there could actually
perform aerobatic maneuvers. I'mnot sure if you have seen the

(39:40):
Red Bull helicopter, the onethat can do rolls and deep dives
like turnovers all of that goodold check Aaron, and his amazing
flying.

Dave Rogers (39:53):
Okay.

Kat McSeveney (39:54):
And so I was flying that machine and I was
only involved in the emergencyhelicopter flying emergency
medical, and the company I wasworking for so operated Flying
Doctor Service. So there are alot of really remote villages in

(40:16):
Borneo, I would say, maybe justgive you a little bit of an
understanding of what the whatthe terrain is like, what would
take us 45 minutes to fly wouldtake them 14 hours to drive
through the jungle and obviouslyover the mountainous regions. So
the Flying Doctor Service wouldwork in a way that for instance,

(40:40):
once a month, they would haveall the different villages and
they would go village to villagetaking a doctor and a nurse and
then go and treat everyone atall these villages. And I was
involved in the Hayden's part ofit which is the helicopter
emergency medical service. So itwould have been snagged by
pregnancies, obviously any sortof fatal disease or anything

(41:06):
that was happening. I did a veryinteresting case color for
liquids while I was there, whichis as far as I know, it's a
little disease non existence onthis planet. And that and that
was the kind of flying that wewould do so because it would
take them so long to drive intohospital because of the

(41:29):
remoteness of the location andthe terrain to get there. We
would fly and bring them throughto the hospital in the case of
an emergency.

Ben Hall (41:40):
I must have been so amazing flying in the jungles

Kat McSeveney (41:43):
really was yes it was a beautiful terrain, lovely
rivers it was gorgeous. Theweather was sometimes quite
temperamental, obviously beingmountainous as well as tropical,
so quite unstable here. But somebrilliant flying really, really
some some very interestingflying and some beautiful
scenery. Obviously Borneo is theonly place in a world that has a

(42:07):
range of things.

Dave Rogers (42:08):
How long were you in Borneo for I assume you were
you were living there as well,that must have been culturally
very different.

Kat McSeveney (42:17):
It was very different. I enjoyed it a lot.
And as I've said, I enjoy thatKind of Adventurous exploration.
I made many good friends there.
I really did enjoy my timethere. Unfortunately, it was cut
short due to the fact that itwas a government contract. And

(42:37):
they were not very happy with aCaucasian woman. Yes, like a
jewel problem there for them.
They are they were unhappy witha Caucasian woman flying in
government contracts. So I wasintending on spending five years
there, I'd signed a five yearcontract. And after a year, what

(43:01):
they normally do is they willgive a international pilot's a
Malaysian license. Without thisMalaysian license, you would
have to return home and yourbase check every six months and
in the paperwork, it's with yourhome location, go through all
your paperwork in Malaysia,that's a three month process. So
every six months, you're doingthree months of paperwork before

(43:23):
you can actually fly. Andwithout the Malaysian license,
it just became too difficult tocontinue flying in Malaysia. So
my boss gave you the option ofeither sticking around and
flying as I can, he said hewould fly me back home back and
forth, to do the base checks andrequired paperwork. But I knew

(43:47):
it was gonna be quite anexpensive task for him to get
through it. And none of hisother pilots were experiencing
these problems. So he did, hegave me the option to stay on to
work in the office couldcontinue working in the office
over that time. And, you know,obviously fly for half the time
that I'm there, but I opted to,to call it and to come back to

(44:11):
South Africa.

Dave Rogers (44:12):
I'm sensing a bit of a pattern here from the
moment you've got your license,you get yourself in a position
to get these these great jobs,these exciting jobs, but they
all seem to have a shelf lifeand there doesn't seem to be a
particular reason for this shelflife. Is this something that is
common across the helicopterpilots industry if you like or

(44:37):
what were you expecting to get ajob for life and to be able to
do that for? Well, either yourcareer or for it to be in your
control when you decided to moveon to the next completely

Kat McSeveney (44:48):
obviously I was I was hoping to get settled and in
a stable position and hold myhours and kind of be able to
plan my life and I don't know ifit's got to do with being a
female. I don't know if it's gotto do with the politics behind
me. And I'm very blessed to haveflown in places like Malaysia

(45:11):
like Argentina and artica. Mostof the time with helicopter
flying species. Yeah, we findthat you mostly get jobs in
Africa. So the fact that I'veentered our past Africa, and I
was lucky enough and blessedenough to get opportunities and
travel, it's it's really isquite special. But yes, I don't

(45:35):
know if it's just been bad luck.
Or

Unknown (45:41):
if

Kat McSeveney (45:43):
it's because of certain aspects of being a young
female, low hours at certaintimes, there are quite a few
politics in aviation, especiallywhen it's government contracts.
So I would hope to eventuallyget in a much more stable
position and have a much longerlasting job. However, not to say

(46:09):
that I'm not happy with myvarious diverse experiences over
the past 10 years.

Dave Rogers (46:16):
You spent a bit of time in the United States as
well, did you? Well, if I mayspeak,

Kat McSeveney (46:21):
no, I, in 2014, I was appointed on the board of
directors for the world eagles,which is an international
organization for men helicopterpilots. Okay. And I was living
in Malaysia at the time. So someof the challenges I found with

(46:44):
doing that position orfulfilling that role is that
when we had our weekly meetingsor whatever the situation,
whatever was required, for me,it was two or three o'clock in
the morning that I would need tobe up to work with everyone in
the States. And so I fulfilledthe position of membership
coordinator, which means I dealtwith all the new members and

(47:07):
existing members, whateverqueries and problems they had
and just kind of coordinated,coordinated effort for them. And
then in 2014, I needed to go tothe helicopter Association
International heli Expo inOrlando, to be actually
appointed onto the board ofdirectors. So I went through

(47:31):
that when I saw being I stoppedin Dubai, Malaysia, Dubai, and
then on and yeah, went throughthere and spent some time with
the woman in aviation, I wasactually gain one of the
highlights in my aviationcareer. I got to meet Chuck
Aaron, which is the Red Bullpilots who does all the barrel

(47:51):
rolls and the amazing aerobaticfly, as well as 90 Livingstone,
who was the oldest living femalehelicopter pilot and the world's
full helicopter pilots ever.
Female and a copter pilot?

Unknown (48:08):
Amazing.

Kat McSeveney (48:09):
Yeah, so for me, it was like between check Aaron
and this lady, I was like, Who'sthe witches? Dylan got
photographs of all of them. AndI was just, I was really lucky
to meet them. And I'm honored tohave got that opportunity.

Dave Rogers (48:23):
So talk to me about the memberships. Then if you
said that was something thatthat you were in charge of? I'd
be fascinated to know, what wasthe membership like, because Ben
and I, we haven't really goneinto it in detail in a podcast
yet. And I really would like tothem. I know, we've spoken about
it as something that we'd liketo address, just just to have

(48:46):
the conversation as much asanything. Because I'm sure that
there's the there's the argumentthat you know, it's better than
it used to be. And there aremore women becoming pilots and
more people, sort of black Asianand minority ethnic pilots and
whatever. But there is still,there is still a stereotype of a

(49:07):
pilot. And it looks a lot morelike Ben than it looks like you
hear so that I get it. And it'scertainly not the only industry
where that's the case. But interms of the the numbers that
you had as who were payingmembers of where the girls and
in terms of the industry how yousee, you've already alluded to

(49:29):
the fact that you may or may nothave stumbled over some speed
bumps as a result of your ofyour demographic. So yeah, just
start starting with startingwith numbers, and then we might
slightly expand theconversation. And with this
episode in particular time isvery much of the essence but if

(49:51):
it's something that you'd liketo talk about, I'd love to have
you back on another episode togo deeper into it

Kat McSeveney (49:56):
completely. I think that the amazing thing
about that illegals is, numberone, it's, it's an honor to join
them. And you unit, it's greatnetworking, you meet female
pilots all around the world. Andit's a great support as well,
you have pilots who will helpyou look for a job, they'll

(50:18):
advise you on our training youneed to do and they'll just
generally be there for youthrough whatever challenges you
are facing. Beyond that, theyalso offer some sponsorships for
specific ratings or trainingsannually, they do sponsorship
program whereby they'll, you'llapply and they'll choose 10

(50:40):
goals or whatever it is,according to what they have that
year. And they'll send you offto your instrument rating or to
do a rating on two differentaircraft or depending on
whatever they've been donated orwhatever they've managed to get
in that year. So I think thatwas the big benefit for for me
was mostly the networking andthe support that we got from

(51:05):
from having people in similarsituation. And there really are
some of the women who areinvolved, and especially the
ones higher up, they have gotamazing experience stories to
tell. Vice to share. They'vereally, they really are very
special and unique people thathave injured quite a lot in the

(51:28):
aviation industry to get towhere they are.

Dave Rogers (51:31):
Yeah, yes, I can only begin to imagine. But just
going back to the story you toldwhere there's a crew of 50. And
you're the only woman I cannotimagine any situation where
there'd be a crew ofprofessionals where there'd be
49 women and one man, Ben,anything?

Ben Hall (51:52):
No, no. Well, this is very similar to what Dr. Kern
said last week, because she gother helicopter, rotary
licensing. Clinical Director,obviously, her grocery license
in Canada, and apparently thelow our jobs sort of up in the
up in the bush. And there are noprovisions for women at all.
There's no sort of women'sbathrooms or accommodation or

(52:14):
anything. So it's just not at

Kat McSeveney (52:16):
all completely.
No, it's it's different. Evenwhen we when we landed on the
ship, which is sailing pastArgentina on its way downtown
artica Wilton, and the captainof the ship said, I'm gonna put
you in a room with your crew.
And I said a car. I actuallyhave no problem with that. But

(52:39):
my captain said that he wascompletely unhappy with that. He
said absolutely not. And theyended up asking one of the
Argentinian military lieutenantsto leave his room and go and
share so that I could get aroom. And obviously, these are
the kinds of things thatMichaels problems.

Dave Rogers (52:58):
And you know, if you're in a, if you're in a
situation where there are peoplewho want to want to help you out
and make sure it's fair, thengreat, but it probably shouldn't
be up to a man to make thosedecisions. Not at all on your
behalf. Well, I'm glad we'rehaving this conversation, but
it's certainly taken it a bit ofa change of direction as 100%

(53:24):
mine cat, let's talk about whatyou're what you're up to, in the
present day then because at themoment, you're doing some some
teaching some instructing somelecturing, and tell us about
that.

Kat McSeveney (53:37):
Yes, so post Malaysia, I went through to
Johannesburg. And inJohannesburg, I was part of
starting up a helicopteremergency medical service, there
was a collaboration between amedical insurance company er 24,
which is obviously a EmergencyMedical Response company and to

(53:58):
flying companies. And I did thatfor a while, but I was a lot
more behind the scenes in theoperational finance, startup,
all of that. And then alongsidethat, I did my instructors
rating. And Johannesburg. I hada few students do the couple of

(54:19):
instruction hours in the Aprilbut also did lecturing for
students doing their commerciallicense. So they had the
background of their privatelicense. I've now been back in
Swaziland for a year. Year, justover a year. I took last year
off and now this year, I've beenasked to come and lecture for

(54:42):
new students just learning howto fly and for the boot for its
fortini depends pencils.

Unknown (54:50):
amazed.

Kat McSeveney (54:52):
Yes. So it's a little bit different for me
because you know, it'sinstructing and doing lecturing
before for for pilots. alreadyhad a private pilot's license,
they had the background to, towork off that I could kind of
extend on an add on to thestudents now have four hours or
six hours. So it's they'rereally quite new into into the

(55:15):
whole experience and finding itquite interesting, trying to,
you know, trying to help them tounderstand because what I find a
lot is I'm lecturing for theprivate pilot's exams, but you
might focus on one subject,however, things from other
subjects kind of get brought insubtly. So. Yeah, it's a little

(55:38):
bit challenging to, to try andteach people when they don't
have the background of your Lisabasic private pilot's license.

Dave Rogers (55:47):
Yeah. Is the defense was part of the
military.

Unknown (55:51):
Correct? Yes. Very small.

Ben Hall (55:54):
line for the military.
You enlisted?

Kat McSeveney (55:57):
I have not necessarily as of yet. We have
to get approval from the kingdomsighs learned? Yeah. King
eswatini. King to to enrollSwaziland? It's quite slow. So
it's taken. We've it's been,we've been talking about it for
about six months. And I got theapproval kind of towards the end

(56:20):
of last month. But I think andnow I'm just waiting for the
paperwork. And I'm hoping forenrollment as a reservist and
benefit happens to be a fulltime position. So a possibility,
yes.

Dave Rogers (56:33):
Will you get a rank?

Unknown (56:37):
I don't know.

Dave Rogers (56:42):
And the next question,

Unknown (56:45):
you have to start off with a rank,

Dave Rogers (56:47):
you have to get a rank. And also, if you're a if
you're a military pilot, youmight get a call sign

Unknown (56:53):
exactly how

Dave Rogers (56:58):
we we've spoken to a few minutes to pilots, and
they have told us the storiesabout how they got their call
signs. So hopefully, you'll geta call sign. And you'll get a
great story as to how you howyou achieve that too. But this
sounds like like a reallyinteresting job. And, and,
again, we've spoken to a fewpilots who ended up being

(57:22):
instructors, and it tends to bethe ones who, who really love
it, who really love aviation andby the sounds of, of your
relationship with with being apilot in aviation. It sounds
like the love of it has beenquestioned at times. But you're

(57:43):
sort of sort of rekindling thatrelationship with it. Would that
be a fair assumption?

Kat McSeveney (57:49):
I get the sense, I believe it's been quite a
difficult part, as it is for allpilots. I would never say that
my love has been questioned.
I've endured some quitechallenging times. And I needed
a bit of a break from it, whichas I said, coincided with a time
in the world. That's things slowdown. So I was quite lucky. I

(58:12):
think one of the problems I hadwas that I was particularly
spoilt, it's really early stagein my flying so no, for me, the
really enjoyable flying is theadrenaline flying its emergency
medical services, thefirefighters, the trucks turned

(58:33):
arteaga. And then it kind of gotto a stage where it was like,
Oh, so spoiled, that I must goto a charter and buy this
restaurant. And I'd be like, ah,I really want to do that. So
I've had to reevaluate thingsand realize that although I was
spoiled at a young age with theflying that I experienced, it's

(58:56):
not always it's also been arealization for me to realize
it's not it's not always thatyou get that kind of no thrill
driven, flying, it's, you know,they all times as you are going
to have slightly more classesflying. And yeah.

Ben Hall (59:20):
Right, because that makes the exciting flying.

Kat McSeveney (59:22):
Exactly. Gotta have loads to have highs. So
100% I think in the beginning, Iwas full blown. All exciting,
like the flying was a rush. Andnow I've had to realize that I
can't have that all the time. Ineed to also do the other
flying. And it's still aprivilege and a pleasure to do

(59:45):
that flying.

Dave Rogers (59:47):
Yeah, I think always quite important to
acknowledge that flying is areal privilege. But I wanted to
ask you because you've had ayou've had a pretty diverse
career. Does any of this madadventure stuff To the Antarctic
or Borneo or, or Argentina or orchasing stolen cars down the

(01:00:07):
highway does does any of thatstuff appeal to you? Yeah. Love
to

Ben Hall (01:00:14):
the fixed wing, it's a little bit more limited, right?
Because most of the stuff thatgets done is you know, you need
to be able to land vertically.
Yeah. things a little bit lessflexible with that. A few years
ago, I applied for the BritishAntarctic Survey. So because
they've got basically aircraftwith skeet, haha. And they, they
go and do resupplies in theAntarctic and stuff in it. I

(01:00:37):
think it's basically a six monthcontract and Antarctica, and
then you're back at home for sixmonths. And that's fine. I think
if you're kind of in your 20s orsingle, you know, got really
flexible lifestyle, but beingmarried in a, in a house owner
and got dog

Kat McSeveney (01:00:57):
downfalls of being a pilot that travels a lot
and says you can't have pets.
Yes.

Ben Hall (01:01:05):
Yeah, there's a lot of sacrifices. And I think those
those more sort of fun,adventurous jobs, you've got to
sacrifice a lot more of yourlife. So I don't think you can
do it forever.

Kat McSeveney (01:01:14):
No, I definitely don't think it's sustainable
forced waiver.

Ben Hall (01:01:18):
Yeah. So I'm a little bit sad that I've missed out on
that kind of stuff. I'd love todone sort of African bush flying
or something like that for astint. Maybe

Unknown (01:01:30):
that's always for a stench.

Dave Rogers (01:01:34):
Yeah, well, looking at looking at your career and
listening to your stories, Ithink maybe you can look at it
as a positive that that some ofthese things were taken out of
your hands. And it wasn't up toyou. When you you left them. It
was like, right, this is done.
Let's box it off. Let's move onto the next thing. Because
imagine if you'd stayed inBorneo for a little bit too

(01:01:55):
long, and I don't know, you'dstarted to resent it or
something had gone completelywrong. As it stands now, you can
look back on it as as just thisthis incredible experience.

Kat McSeveney (01:02:06):
No, definitely I agree that in many ways that
actually I was quite fortunatethat that happened. It also
allowed me the time toexperience some other exciting
adventurous flying. So you know,the big thing with that we find
with flying different countriesand on different machines is yet
to do the training onto themachine, they get bonded with

(01:02:28):
time and money. And with the wayit works out for me, I've just
managed to somehow have betweena two and a three year kind of
rotation. That's kind of theflow that I've been going
through. And it's beeninteresting.

Dave Rogers (01:02:47):
Well, I'm looking behind you now. And what was
beautiful sunshine is now aninky dark sky. So we will not
keep you for too much longer.
But a few. Just a few generalquestions. Before we before we
put an end to what has beenanother lovely conversation.
Thank you so much. And are thereany machines that you haven't
flown yet that you'd really liketo and how you're going to go

(01:03:10):
about maneuvering yourself intoa position to do that.

Kat McSeveney (01:03:16):
So one of the big ones is I would like to fly See
I like the the workhorses, notnecessarily the most beautiful
machines, but the powerful ones.
So I should not. Because I wouldlove to fly a Chinook at some
stage. I do like the like themost even teens as well. If I

(01:03:38):
had to look at some of the nicerlooking aircraft, I would like
to fly there. gusta 169. Andprobably the Airbus h 145. would
be lovely to but yes, they willall quite advanced or big

(01:04:00):
aircraft that are expensive tooperate. So for now, I'm just
grateful that I got to flycurrently at six ratings and six
different aircraft and three ofthe six are really special APR.
Hmm. And that's lucky.

Dave Rogers (01:04:20):
And you, you sound like you well. This this this
job you're doing now with allthe newbies sounds great. And by
the sounds of things, there area few things that need to fall
into place. But do you stillhave ambitions to just be a full
time pilot again, whether it'srotary or fixed wing? Is that

(01:04:42):
something that in the future youcan see yourself doing again?

Kat McSeveney (01:04:45):
Definitely 100% To be honest, instruction was
never really my first choice andvectoring is not but in many
ways it's a good thing. I mean,taking you from aviation and now
going back into lettering. It'sit's Slowly got my mind back
into aviation way of thinking.
And I definitely think that Iwould, I would like to do

(01:05:07):
another Antartica trip I'd liketo fly logging and I'd like to
fly rigs offshore to the rigs.
And these days they aredifferently operations that I
would hope to get to

Dave Rogers (01:05:22):
you. You're absolutely wired Mexican to tell
me like I'd really like to goBASE jumping or where a wingsuit
Cliff or honestly I'd love to do

Unknown (01:05:32):
wingsuit diving. That's top notch.

Dave Rogers (01:05:40):
A few. A few things if you ever skydived

Ben Hall (01:05:45):
I've, I've done static Line Jumping a few times.

Dave Rogers (01:05:50):
My excuse was always I was too heavy, because
you I think you need to be under95 kilos to do it. Oh, rubbish.
I've done that. And now I'm justabout under 95 kilos. So I've
got no excuse anymore.

Kat McSeveney (01:06:06):
I've got I've twice, but with an instructor
both times. Okay, so I haven'tjumped alone. And I probably
would be a little bit fearfuland anxious to jump on myself.
But I would love to at somestage. It's you know, at the end
of the day, it's lineardynamics.

Dave Rogers (01:06:25):
Yeah, well, when you put it like that, when you
put it like that, I'll just jumpoff the balcony. Right. And this
one again, just just going backto what we were speaking about
earlier. Being a woman inaviation, would you look another
woman in the eye and say, you'remaking the right decision. This

(01:06:48):
is a job that you should do anda career that you should pursue?

Kat McSeveney (01:06:53):
I definitely would, as challenging as it has
been. And it's challenging forme into this industry. It's
taught me so much joy, and Icouldn't think of following any
other career path. So you know,the big thing I find her pilots
and you find it a lot atairports where you'll have

(01:07:14):
pilots coming in on a Saturdayand on a Sunday to work for very
minimal pay. And they do itbecause it's a passion. It's
not. It's not like so wait forthem. That's what they want to
do with their time.

Dave Rogers (01:07:27):
I think that is a lovely place to end this
conversation. Cat. Thank you somuch. This has been Ben, Where'd
you find these great guests?
Well, South Africa, my friends,

Ben Hall (01:07:40):
wonderful, long lost friends can't beat him.

Dave Rogers (01:07:42):
Thank you, cat.

Kat McSeveney (01:07:44):
Thank you for hosting me. It's been wonderful
to chat.

Ben Hall (01:07:48):
Thanks for listening to the pirate base podcast.
We'll be back next week withanother great guest from the
aviation industry. Don't forgetto check out our new career
platform, our pilot base.com andall the socials at pilot base
HQ. If you enjoyed this podcastDon't forget to subscribe and
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