He was then accepted for pilot training, and when he had passed the course, his first posting was to the Hunter Squadron. He flew them for eighteen months before being transferred to other Squadrons. The following seven years he spent on Mirages, Helicopters and Instruction. He returned to the Hunter Squadron as ‘A’ Flight Commander and Instructor for the final six months of his Air Force career. It was during this period that the Air Force acquired five more Hunters from Kenya, including their first two-seater. He helped ferry them down to Zimbabwe and became the Air Force’s first ‘real’ Hunter instructor. He joined Air Zimbabwe in 1981, and as a First Officer on the Boeing 707 thought his Hunter days were over. Then out of the blue came an offer to join in a four Hunter formation for the President of Somalia’s birthday flypast in 1983.
Steve is now a Check and Training Captain with Qantas, flying Boeing 737s around Australia. A number of Hunters recently came onto the Jet Warbird market. With the support of his family, who appreciates his love of this aeroplane, he has bought one. His Hunter is not in flying condition and will require considerable capital to make it airworthy. He has managed to trace the true history of his aircraft (WV331). It had such an interesting, exciting and emotional life that he thought he would loosely turn it, and that of XF970, into a series of children stories. 'Hunty' is Steve’s aircraft, and is a single seater. 'HUNTY, THE JET FIGHTER' is a series of three stories; "England", "Asia" and "Australia", and trace his life through these regions. It is hoped that any profit form the sale of these books will help to restore Steve’s Hunter to flying condition. The aircraft will be painted the same as 'Hunty', and therefore children will recognise him at Airshows. Until then 'Hunty' is on loan and displayed at "Australia's Museum of Flight", Nowra, NSW, Australia.
'Hunty at the Grand Prix' is Steve's next in the series of Hunty books. It follows a standard children's picture book format, and follows Hunty's journey to Melbourne after he and Paul are invited to do a fly past at Australia's Formula 1 Grand Prix. He also flies in formation with a Royal Australian Air Force F/A 18 Hornet.
The Hawker Hunter weighs 10,000kg , has a length of 14m and a width of 10.35 m. It has a maximum speed of 1300km/hr and is supersonic in a shallow dive.
