An Australian flying school with a legacy for training many of the Pacific region's first indigenous pilots has closed its doors after almost half a century of operation.
Gil Layt's Flying school, run by Gilbert and Sue Layt, was forced to shut down its classes weeks ago after the elderly couple were both diagnosed with terminal illnesses earlier this year.
The school was the longest running flying school on Queensland's Archerfield Aerodrome and had up until last week to sell the last of its aircraft and close down all business on site.
Its closure has been hailed by Australia's aviation community as the end of an era.
Staff and students of Gil Layt's Flying School Photo: Aero Circus Photo: Aero Circus
When the classroom doors of Gil Layt's flying school closed for the last time, Gilbert - or Gil as he's fondly known, loaded his grandkids onto his Cessna 172 plane for his final flight.
After 45 years of operation and thousands of students through its doors, 75-year old Gil said having to close down the school is surreal.
The school ran seven days a week because students often flew on Sundays so its all the family has ever known for the last five decades.
Gil still clearly remembers the first day he opened for business on Easter Weekend in 1975.
"We didn't have any staff, just me and we only had two students and they were full-time. They wanted to fly all day, every day and the weather was beautiful, perfect. So I was off to a good start," said Gil.
"I felt a bit embarrassed writing out my first receipt. I'd always worked for wages all my life. I wasn't used to collecting money for me."
Earlier this year the school's Chief Flying Officer found out he would need weeks off work for eye surgery.
Now Gil is about to begin chemotherapy treatment after his bowel cancer returned and Sue's health has quickly deteriorated with an advanced case of vasculitis - she's now in palliative care.
Gil's son Julian says his father was forced to make a decision.
"Dad just said, 'Look, enough's enough. It's time to just close it down, there's no time to sell it or anything, let's just close it up. I want to leave on a high note," he said.
"Their health has definitely played a huge role in having to unfortunately come to this decision," explained Julian adding that his father's retirement plan was just to keep working."
Former students of Gil Layt's flying school pictured with a young, Julian Layt. Photo: supplied
Gil was named after the Gilbert Islands in the Pacific - a fitting name, considering the legacy he's now leaving behind in the region's aviation community.
Over the years the school opened its doors to students from all around the world. Its former students now fly for Japan Airlines, United Arab Emirates and Virgin Airlines but Australia's government aid funding to the Pacific meant the school built a very special relationship with countries like Tonga, Fiji and Vanuatu.
"The Australian Government had an agreement with the Tongan Government for the training of Tongan pilots for Tonga's national airline at the time, which was Royal Tongan Airlines," said Julian.
"Mum and Dad's flying school was picked to train the Tongan pilots, so they were the very first indigenous pilots for Tonga's national airline.
The school was based on Queensland's Archerfield Aerodrome - once a farming area. The Layts renovated an old farmhouse on the aerodrome to house many of their foreign students who had no family or friends in Australia.
Julian said it was a huge change for many Pacific students who had never traveled beyond their own villages before arriving in Australia.
Pacific students from Gil Layt's flying school with Sue and Julian Layt Photo: supplied
"I still remember very distinctly - it was very much a climate change coming to the winter in Brisbane and they arrived basically just wearing their tupenu (wrap around skirt) and no jumpers or anything.
"First thing Mum and Dad did was take them straight up to Kmart, get them some warm jumpers, get them some warm clothes and help them climatise," said Julian.
"One day one of the female pilots, Luseane, came over to Dad because the grass was growing quite a long way around the house and asked if he had a sickle. Dad said "What's a sickle?" and she said, "Like a bush knife" and he goes "What for?!" and she told him she needed it to mow the grass and he was like "No no no, we've got a lawn mower for that!"
Many of the Pacific students came with unique exceptions - for example, they couldn't fly on Sundays because of religious beliefs and the Tongan female students only wore skirts as part of their uniform, because they weren't allowed to wear pants according to their formal customs.
It made climbing in and out of the cockpit a challenge but Julian said his parents did their best to help their Pacific students adjust to the new cultural climate.
"When they first arrived I remember that the two boys - Sione and Soane - said to Luseane, the female pilot, "Well here's our washing, here's our ironing, the cooking's there and that's what you do after hours" - as you would I guess in a Tongan home back in those days," said Julian.
"And I think somehow this became known to my parents and then my mum, sort of being like a mother to them, just told the two boys off and said "No, sorry. It's not like that here. You're all just going to have to pull your own weight. Everyone cooks their own food, does their own washing and then sorts themselves out. Luseane's not your slave to do those things for you. She's a student too, she has to do her study at night as well."
Gil and Sue Layt, owners of Gil Layt's Flying School Photo: supplied
Outside of the school, Gil and Sue tried to connect their foreign students with others in the community.
When their Tongan students arrived they looked through the phonebook and found one listing belonging to a Tongan Methodist church.
"Dad rang up and managed to get the church minister on the phone and said "Look, I've got these three Tongan pilots who are here and I just want them to network with the community, they don't know what family they have here or anything," said Julian.
"So he drove them over to the Minister's home and began regularly taking them to the church services. So for myself at a young age, they encouraged me to come along so I went to the Tongan church - I had a tupenu on, had my ta'ovala (fine mats) and from there we began to network more, get to know more people in the Tongan community."
It was the start of a longstanding relationship between the Layts and the Pacific community.
Julian began reading news bulletins in the Tongan language at 13-years old after meeting Tongan radio announcers at church who invited him into their studios.
He's now a broadcaster on Tongan Radio stations, fondly known by the Pacific community as 'Sulieni' - he speaks fluently in Tongan and Samoan among several other languages and is frequently called on to host public events in Tonga.
"We were surprised," said Gil of his son's growing connection with the Pacific students.
"He was going off to church with Sione. His mother and myself were sitting at home, he'd lock himself in the room and as far as I know, he taught himself to speak Tongan. He had a phone call and we'd listen to him yapping away in Tongan. We were quite surprised."
"The way my parents raised us," says Julian, "there was never a minute where we looked at someone and we thought 'they're from this culture or they're that colour, or they speak that language" - it was all just a part of our upbringing, this international experience of different cultures and different people coming through and we were very open minded to the fact that there was a bigger world out there.
"For me, it was a rare experience back then that I'm grateful for."
Julian went on to marry a Tongan woman so now Gil and Sue have Pacific grandchildren. Gil says the Pacific students have had a lasting impact on his family.
"When you're sitting beside them teaching them in a little two-seater aeroplane, you sort of eventually become friends. You get fairly personal and then once they learn to fly, they're gone. But Luseane came back to visit just awhile ago," said Gil.
Gil and Sue Layt with their grandkids Photo: supplied
Former student Luseane Fetuani, who once asked Gil for a bush knife so she could cut the grass, became Tonga's first female pilot.
She was just 20-years old when Gil taught her how to fly and now she flies for Air Vanuatu.
She said Gil and Sue were like parents to her.
"I'm very thankful. We felt like we weren't just students. They went the extra mile for us," said Luseane
"And you can imagine as somebody who comes from Tonga and you go to Australia - everything is big, everything is fast and you always feel like you're a step behind. They went the extra mile to help us in anyway they can. They took us shopping they opened up our bank accounts they did all the small things that really matter.
"They were definitely our parents away from home."
Gil and Sue Layt with grand-daughter Photo: supplied
While it's been hailed as the end of an era by the Australian aviation community, the school's closure is still very surreal for everyone - especially Gil.
"I was all very sad. I suppose all good things have got to come to an end one day," he said.
"I thought about it a lot but I'm not really ready for it."
Julian doesn't work in the aviation industry but hopes to continue his parents legacy by establishing a direct flight between Brisbane and Tonga - a plan he is currently helping to coordinate between agents in Tonga and Australia.
"I grew up with a father who was working seven days a week, two days off a year - that's Christmas and Good Friday. But to go on that last flight - I remember taking photos from up in the sky and thinking - this is the last time that I'll ever sit up in the sky like this. To see Brisbane from this angle in my own Dad's plane. This will be the end of it," said Julian who recalled memories of sitting in the backseat of the school's Cessna 150 and 172 planes during school holidays and flying across Queensland.
"I knew it was a moment in time, and to share that moment with my children which is obviously my parents' grandkids is something I'll carry with me for the rest of my life."
Former student Luseane said she was said to see the school close down but grateful for the impact Gil and Sue made in her life.
"I just hope there is a place like Gil Layt's flying school out there that will open their arms for somebody like us who came from nowhere, to become something."
