Nancy Bird-Walton — the girl who loved to fly

Fierce Girls

ABC Australia

Kids & Family, Stories For Kids

4.5 • 956 Ratings

🗓️ 16 April 2018

⏱️ 16 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When she was just four years old, Nancy Bird-Walton already knew what she wanted to do with her life — fly. She saved her pocket money to pay for lessons and her own aeroplane ... and before long people were paying her to fly them across the country.

Nancy was the first woman in Australia to get paid to be a pilot. Today, the A380 is the biggest passenger plane in the world — and if you look into the sky you might just see one that’s called Nancy Bird-Walton.

Narrated by singer and producer Kate Miller-Heidke.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Bias.
0:02.0	Girl Power.
0:04.0	This is the story of the girl who flew first.
0:08.0	Nancy Bird Walton,
0:10.0	read by singer and songwriter Kate Miller Hideki.
0:14.0	Moula Hideki.
0:15.0	Moula Toulg trees. Nancy Bird was about to be killed by a clump of mulga trees.
0:27.0	This wasn't how it was supposed to end.
0:30.0	She'd check the directions three times over.
0:33.0	Fly west along the dog-proof fence for 30 miles, turn north and you'll see the homestead.
0:39.0	She saw the house all right.
0:41.0	It looked like a matchbox from the air with a tiny ant-sized family in the yard
0:46.1	waving frantically for help. It must have been a serious emergency. Why else
0:51.4	would they have ignored Nancy's instructions?
0:54.0	Lay a white sheet on the ground where you want me to land.
0:59.0	Light a small fire so I can see which way the wind is blowing. There was no sheet, there was no
1:07.0	fire, there wasn't even a decent clearing. Just trees,
1:13.2	everywhere.
1:14.2	As Nancy circled lower in the sky, the family kept waving like crazy. She couldn't ignore them. They obviously needed
1:26.1	her stat. Her only hope was to say a prayer. Dear God, please don't let me die.
1:36.0	Not in a clump of mulga trees.
1:39.0	Nancy eyeballed the clearest patch of dust she could find, possibly wide enough for her
	...

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