First Stepping Stone
Boag was born on Tasmania, an Australian island territory 200 miles off the mainland. He jokes that “We don’t publicize that I’m native Tasmanian.” After his incognito birth, he grew up in Adelaide, South Australia, and speaks of a milestone day in the mid-1970s. When he was 10, he attended a military air show with his father, an electrical engineer. “I still have the program from that show in my scrapbook. We saw Iroquois and Chinooks, and I thought they were pretty cool and was impressed that helis could land about anywhere, and I thought that was much better than flying from runway to runway.” (An astute observation for one so young!)
This sparked a passion for aviation in the boy who, as he grew into his teens, served as a volunteer fireman in the South Australia
Country Fire Service, and later took the ambitious leap to earn his helicopter pilot license at age 19. He subsequently left Adelaide
for the Northern Territory to
muster cattle, where he flew Bell 47s and R22s. “I loved that job,” he says, but he left it to advance his career with a company called Lloyd Helicopters that eventually became CHC. Boag spent 14 years with them, accumulating 6,000 flight hours throughout his career in areas such as HEMS, firefighting, long-lining, and offshore transport. “During my career, I worked on every continent, with the exception of Antarctica, where I’d have loved to fly. I’ve had a very good career and have friends all around the globe.” He concedes he’d have made more money as an airline pilot, “but I wouldn’t have been as happy.”
Next Steps
With all this experience, Boag summarizes, “I somehow wound up in management by starting out as a base manager, and rose step-by-step from there until I’m where I am today.” Not bad for a pilot who began his career so early that he didn’t finish high school. Yet, he says, “I graduated from the school of hard knocks and tried to do the best job I could anywhere I was.” Those jobs in the pilot seat took a toll. “When you’re over 50, if you wake up without pain, you’re dead,” he half jokes. (At least this writer doesn’t feel it’s a full joke.) However, Boag says he can’t imagine ever completely retiring.
“I always like to be dabbling in
something. I’ve held about every type of pilot position and worked in most sectors, and I’ve been very lucky to have a widely varied career. I’m good at lots of little things, but not good at everything.”
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