Capt. Trevor Vanderstraaten flies West

pilot

The death occurred recently of Capt. Trevor Vanderstraaten, in Melbourne, Australia. He was a senior airline captain of Air Lanka and SriLankan Airlines. He was an old boy of St Joseph’s College. We were fellow trainee pilots at the Flying Training School (FTS) at the Ratmalana Airport, in the late sixties. The school was run by the Civil Aviation Department and like today, although our training was relatively expensive, there was no guarantee of an airline job. The only airline in existence was Air Ceylon. We were all from middle class families, full of passion for aviation and spent many hours, rain or shine, between training flights, seated on cane chairs, by the hangar door watching aeroplanes fly and drinking cups and cups of tea at the CAD’s (Civil Aviation Department’s) canteen behind the Fire Station. He was trained by late Capt. S B Raju on the Auster Autocrat and HAL Pushpak aircraft.

Being neighbours at Welikadawatte in Nawala, fellow trainee pilot Hiranjan Bibile and Trevor were inseparables. They travelled together to the FTS in Hiranjan’s trusty old Lamberetta Scooter and never failed to give a lift to anyone walking down the Airport Road. Sometimes there as many as four, hanging on for dear life, with the scooter at a precarious nose-up attitude.

A man of a few words, a six-footer with a large heart. One of those types who were very quick on the uptake to grasp whatever that was taught to him. He would come to our ‘Ground school’ classes with just one exercise book or a piece of paper to copy his notes. His dad was an editor at Lake House. Trevor also worked there as a freelance correspondent covering the de Soysa Hospital for women and the Accident Service at the General Hospital, Colombo. He had a good ear for music and always saw the funny side of life .Who can forget his rendition of Lee Marvin’s “I was born under a wondering star” from the movie ‘Paint your Wagon’. There were no TV’s, so we were all movie buffs. If he said something, it was a profound statement. These were days before cellular telephones. I remember once when we received news of a FTS colleague (Silva) who crashed and killed himself, one morning at Kalutara, we called Trevor’s mum with a long list of names and numbers and tasked her of calling our homes to say that we were safe because that afternoon SLBC (Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation) News would have definitely broadcast the news of the crash.

Having obtained a Commercial Pilots’ Licence, he was selected by Air Ceylon, as a cadet pilot in early seventies, but were unfortunately, forced to idle as the then Air Ceylon management failed to implement a proper pilot training plan. Many days were spent at the Grosvenor Restaurant, with more cups of tea in the Ratmalana airport transit lounge until eventually, after a few months their batch was accommodated as Trainee First Officers (F/O’s) on the DC3 Aircraft and trained by late Capt C K Pathy. From there he graduated as a F/O in the Avro, HS 748. In fact he was the F/O with late Capt Errol Cramer who flew into Ratmalana, from KKS (Jaffna) on that fateful day, September 7 1978, when a bomb was planted, for the next out bound leg to Katunayake. It is believed that the terrorist bomber travelled from KKS on their flight. Subsequently, Trevor and his Air Ceylon batch mates were sent to Air Services Training (AST) in Perth, Scotland, for the Airline Transport Pilots Licence (ATPL) ground school.

With the formation of Air Lanka in 1979, he was seconded from Air Ceylon as a First Officer in the Boeing 707 and sent to Singapore for training with SIA. Later, to Toronto Canada on Lockheed L 1011 (Tristar) training. His first command was on the Boeing 737, Air Lanka’s regional Jet, after training with Aer Lingus in Dublin. He then moved on to be a Captain on the L1011, Airbus A340 and the A330 respectively. A pilots’ life is not all glamour and comes with its share of challenges as they have to prove to the Regulator, CAASL (Civil Aviation Authority, Sri Lanka) that they are medically fit and possess knowledge, experience and skill is up to standard to be qualified to renew the Airline Transport Licence (ATPL) every six months. In addition to that, once every year the Airline Pilots have to (by law) prove to their employer that they know the Company rules, regulations, procedures and demonstrate a very good knowledge of Safety Equipment and Emergency Procedures to renew their flying licence and continue in their employment.

Being the strong, silent type Trevor, (like us all) had his share of run-ins with the Management and Administrators and overcame them all with quiet confidence. There was a Company recommendation that a Captain should share the flying with his F/O’s. The F/O will fly under the Captain’s supervision on a ‘Fifty-fifty’ basis. Trevor would give away all his flying and as a result, the F/O’s loved to fly with him. He always maintained a pleasant intra-cockpit atmosphere which brought out the best in people. There was one problem though. He kept his Flight Deck adjusted to such a low temperature that the F/O’s were forced to wear their winter jackets all the time! Trevor always looked at the ‘Big Picture’ with malice to none. If he was bad at anything it was remembering names. So everyone (young and old) was an ‘ol’boy’ to him!

Trevor retired from flying slightly prematurely and dropped out of circulation. Many of us use to bump into him at the supermarkets down town, where he used to buy his quota of beer. My last meeting was sometime last year when family and friends met at the Dutch Burger Union Centre.

Our condolences go out to his wife Jenifer and son Dirk. They will surely miss him.

“To Fly West my friend is a Flight we must all take for a Final Check”

Capt. Gihan A Fernando

gafplane@sltnet.lk