Roger Healey shares his experiences with expatriate life, and thoughts on the power of connection

Flying Straight

Roger (00:01):

In the earliest days, living in the UK, I remember reading a newspaper, the headlines about crew member, detained by police, preflight failing a breath test. And I remember reading those things 30 years ago and thinking well, silly him. That wouldn't happen to me and generally being quite unconcerned about it. But the fact was, I'd still read the same sort of headlines periodically. And by the mid two thousands, they would have a different effect on me. I would read those headlines and go, wow, that could be me. That could be me one day. ,addiction is giving up everything for one thing and recovery is giving up one thing for everything because The end point of addiction is people lose a lot. They lose lives and careers and, and, and marriages and relationships and everything. It is just total annihilation for this one thing,

New Speaker (00:57):

You all listening to flying straight and aviators guide to navigating through a life of sobriety people in the flying industry and other walks of life will share their experiences of living a life free of alcohol and other drugs. You will also hear from experts in the world of addiction and self-improvement join Andrew O'Meally, airline, pilot, and non-practicing alcoholic. As he takes you on a journey discovering how a sober life can lead to a deeper level of happiness.

Andrew (01:32):

Well, welcome to this third episode of flying straight piloting a sober life. My name is Andrew O'Meally, airline pilot alcoholic, and your host. I'm talking to you from the sunshine coast in Southeast Queensland Australia. It's beautiful here at the moment, balmy days and rain in the afternoons. It's a great combo of fantastic beach weather and the rain keeping that Bush land alive.

New Speaker (02:00):

Anyway, today's conversation is with a super interesting guy, Captain Roger Healey Roger's career path is an enviable one. Soon after school, he joined the Royal Australian air force, flying a diverse range of aircraft, including P three Orions, which is a four engine Anti submarine aircraft, as well as rotary wings. He left the military after 16 years and started flying for a large airline being based in Hong Kong, as well as in the United Kingdom. He currently operates out of Asia flying freight a heavy jet. How good is that? Roger shares with us, his story of the impact alcohol had on his life. It was a slow transition from social drinker fitting in with the other crew members to that realization that something just wasn't quite right and was getting worse. He shares insights on the life as an international airline pilot and expectorate, a father and a recovering alcoholic. And he tells us how sobriety has given him everything alcohol had promised.

New Speaker (03:09):
Oh yeah. Thanks for doing this mate. This is excellent.

Roger (03:12):
Mate, this is yeah. Pleasure.

Andrew (03:14):
Yeah. So your down inthe central coast at the moment, is that right?

Roger (03:20):
Newcastle. Yeah. So Newcastle. So just South of Newcastle I'm in Charlestown

Andrew (03:26):
Charlestown. Okay. And just to clarify that's Newcastle Australia. Yeah.

Roger (03:33):
Newcastle Australia. Yeah. Certainly is.

Andrew (03:35):
And, that's a pretty rare event for you, isn't it? That being back in Australia,

Roger (03:41):

Being home hasn't happened, for nearly 12 months, you know, the 11 months, when I was last back, just the way the COVID thing's been rolling and the various, quarantine restrictions, both in Asia and back here.

Andrew (03:57):
Yeah. It must be good to be home.

Roger (04:00):

It is, it is. , although as generally a commuter for the last 10 or more years, my need to keep coming back is a bit different from some other folks. My kids are now pretty much grown up they're 20, 24 and 28. So, they're, to a greater extent self-sufficient and they're also geographically dispersed so that if I come back to Newcastle, they're not all here.

Andrew (04:26):
So, so did your kids spend any time in Hong Kong? We, you were always up there on your own?

Roger (04:33):
No. So I was married and we split back in 2002, the time that happened, we were all living in the UK. I

Was UK based for a while.

Andrew (04:47):
You spent, a lot of time in Asia. As an expat.

Roger (04:53):

So, I've been with the company for 23 years. And so, for the period that I was based, which was the first 13 years or so, , my visits, there were a couple of times a month and you'd, just be in a hotel there when you were there,, for a couple of days and then, and then flying out again, back and forth, usually through the middle East, back to all ports in Europe, since I've been based there though, I've got my own little, own little apartment I rent up there and we jet about all over the place, some regional, some long haul.

Andrew (05:30):

Yeah, so you're, you're flying the 744freighter at the moment

Roger (05:36):
The mighty freighter, the mighty 74. Yeah.

Andrew (05:38):
That'd be a pretty cool job at the moment. And particularly with, all the freight booming and so on.

Roger (05:46):
Yeah. it's the, it's the part of the industry, I think, with the brightest prospects at the moment.

Andrew (05:54):
All right. Great. S0, I remember you saying once this flying rubber dog shit out of Hong Kong, it's not

such a bad gig after all

Roger (06:02):
that's right, is that famous line out of, out of that movie, isn't it, but top gun, top gun it was, seen as a

threat to those guys findflying the pointy jets.

Andrew (06:16):
you mentioned the, pointy.....?

Roger (06:18):
those pointy jets. Yeah. The, top gun guys.

Andrew (06:23):
Yeah, What were you flying?.

Roger (06:26):

Well, I wasn't, no, I was, in the air force for 16 years, but, most of it was, multi-engine on the P-3 doing maritime patrol stuff and a bit of rotary wing for years on helicopters. That was all good fun, but a bit of a young man's game really, but all good fun.

Andrew (06:42):
How long were you in there for?

Roger (06:44):
16 years? Yeah. 16 years. 82 to 98.

Andrew (06:50):
Yeah. Right. Yeah. I've got to ask with the air force. So it was the Royal Australian Air Force

Roger (06:58):

Indeed. It was. Yeah.

Andrew (07:00):
How would you say the drinking culture was there?

Roger (07:04):

Ah, look, it's a long time ago now becaus, we're talking nearly 40 years ago that I joined and, I think the culture, and society, generally was very different back then. And the air force, was not particularly different. It was different that's for sure things were just more, more permissive. There was that sort of work, hard, play hard sort of culture. There was always the idea of flight safety coming first and, mixing the drinking with the was always very heavily promoted. But I think there were a lot of times where people would, as an example,Friday afternoons, it'd be off to the mess for a bit of socialization after, after a working week. And yeah, some people would just go for a couple of drinks and head off home and other people would stay for a bit longer. I was probably one of the ones that stayed a bit longer and, I was the one who came home late for dinner on a Friday night, was not very popular. And, there are a lot of those sorts of things. And as I say, these are the things that happened, 40 odd years ago.

Andrew (08:17):
Yeah. Right. So, so did you go straight from the RAAF into an airline?

Roger (08:23):
I did. I did so, straight from school to the air fo...