When Respect Cohuna Village resident, Robin Wilkinson, mentioned she would love to fly a plane, staff at the village ‘flew’ into action and before she knew it, the 84-year-old was flying high above the town she now calls home.
Robin’s interest in planes and flying harks back to her childhood and in 1976, Robin took flying lessons in small aircraft like Cessnas at Peninsula Aero Club in Tyabb. Unfortunately, single parenting and the expense of the lessons put a stop to that, but her love of planes never died.
For her 60th birthday, Robin’s family surprised her with a flight in a biplane from Tooradin, and for her 65th birthday, a helicopter flight over Phillip Island.
Robin says she has a fascination for hearing the engine roar, ready to roll down the tarmac. “I’ve always loved planes, even as a kid. I’ve just got a love for the sound of it. Automatically, if I hear a plane, I look up and I think ‘you lucky ducks’.”
Moving from Mornington Peninsula to Kerang to be close to her daughter after retirement, Robin lived independently until moving to Respect Cohuna Village this year. It was a conversation with staff member, Maryanne Pollock, about Robin’s interests that sparked the next chain of events. Robin divulged that she had always wanted to fly a plane and would love to go for a joy flight.
Maryanne set the wheels in motion – or should we say the propellors – and before she knew it, Robin was soaring above Cohuna in a small plane piloted by Adrian Andrews, with staff member Kristina Burridge by her side.
“They offered me a trip to go on a joy flight, and I jumped to it,” said Robin, her eyes gleaming as she went on to describe that she saw the township and a patchwork of paddocks.
As she sits in her room at the village busily knitting baby beanies for charity, Robin closes her eyes and imagines the sound of the plane’s engine, and her face lights up with a smile.
“It’s the sound of the engine that gets me,” she says. “The sound of it gets into my heart.”
This article appeared in The Koondrook and Barham Bridge Newspaper, 2 November 2023.
