OUR TEAM
A friendly team of outstanding air charter professionals, ready to arrange and deliver your bespoke private flight
Our promise to take care of you in the air begins from the moment you contact our 24 hour Operations Desk. From your first point of contact to the moment you arrive at your destination, Airspeed Aviation provides a seamless, safe and comfortable air charter experience delivered by our friendly, highly professional and experienced flight operations and pilot team.
When you fly Airspeed Aviation you fly in one of our own aircraft flown by one of our own pilots. If we don’t have an aircraft available for your flight, we will use one of our trusted and audited Airspeed Charter Partners.
Our operating and service standards are amongst the highest in Australian air charter services. Every pilot that joins Airspeed Aviation undergoes a rigorous induction, screening, flight training and supervision process, supported by multiple formal and random proficiency checks and enhanced training and support throughout the year. No other Australian air charter service in its class is more regularly audited and certified.
Our 24 hour Operations Desk is standing by to arrange your next flight.
Jacquie Henderson
Operations Manager
Jacquie has been in aviation logistics and operations management for over 20 years. Her career has spanned the continent from Victoria to Darwin to the Kimberley and back again, with operators including Northern Air Charter, Vincent Aviation and Slingair/Heliwork. Jacquie’s depth of experience and her attention to detail ensures that every aspect of your charter flight is taken care of, from your first inquiry to quoting, service delivery and post-flight follow-up. Jacquie is based in our Scone office.
Ben Wyndham
Founder, CEO & Head of Operations
Ben is a pilot and flight instructor with over 30 years of aviation industry experience. Ben’s career started in the Kimberley region of Western Australia flying tourists over the Bungle Bungle ranges and Argyle Diamond Mine. Ben moved to the Hunter Valley as a flight instructor in 1997, and established a corporate flight department for Valley Longwall Drilling in 1997.
In 2007 Ben was recruited as Chief Pilot of Atlass Aviation, and was recruited to lead Aeropelican’s Safety Management System introduction and approval in 2009.
James Kosenko
Senior Charter Pilot, Tamworth Base
James began flying while still in high school and went on to complete a Bachelor of Aviation at Swinburne.
After several years working for a major international school training airline cadets, James joined Airspeed as a Charter pilot in 2019. From an initial role as a single-engine instructor and charter pilot and rapidly qualified on all 7 aircraft types operated by the company.
James has lived in Tamworth since 2017 and since 2020 James has been spending more time supervising new pilots and training the next generation of Airspeed Charter Pilots and instructors.
Phillip Richards
Senior Charter Pilot, Rockhampton Base
Phillip is the Senior Pilot for Airspeed Aviation’s Rockhampton Base. He commenced flying training when he was 15 and in recent years has made a transition to a career in aviation.
Phillip brings years of charter experience to the team and is currently operating the Beechcraft Baron chiefly on medical related charters.
Joris Van Der Heijden
Charter Pilot & Senior Instructor
Joris (pronounced "Yoris"!) is one of our most senior charter pilots and flight instructors.
He’s been flying since he was 19 and learnt to fly in America and Europe before converting his licence with Airspeed Aviation in Australia.
Joris is the most experienced flight instructor at Airspeed; his experience ranges from Ultralights to the 10-seat turbine-powered Cessna Conquest. He regularly flies on charter, freight and survey ops all the aircraft types we operate; and a wide variety of client's aircraft providing advanced training and flight reviews.
Alex McAllister
Charter Pilot & Instructor
Alex has been passionate about flying for his whole life, starting flying lessons while he was still in high school. Even before learning to fly, he was already building and flying his own radio-controlled model aircraft from the age of 11.
He completed his flying training at university while studying an Aviation Degree in Melbourne. He holds extensive instructional experience, having previously worked for several years training international airline cadets for one the World’s leading flying training organisations.
Alex now enjoys a varied mix of flying operations at Airspeed - from VIP Air Charter in our Cessna Conquest and Titan, Aerial Survey Operations in the Cessna 421 for our contract clients, through to sharing the joy of flying with our flight school students as an instructor.
Kate Richards
Charter Pilot & Instructor
Kate is one of the newest recruits to Airspeed Aviation but brings an impressive list of achievements. Kate was a Cadet with Virgin Australia and had been posted to train on the ATR72 when COVID struck and Virgin went into Administration. While training for her Cadetship she topped the course and was awarded a prize by CASA for the highest aggregate marks for a female exam candidate in 2020, setting a new record top mark in doing so.
Outside of work, Kate's interests are in surf lifesaving, hiking and sport. Kate's hard work and dedication has significantly increased the throughput of the Airspeed Aviation Flying School operations over her first 12 months with the company.
Elle Purvis
Charter Pilot & Multi-engine and IFR Instructor
Elle is a senior instructor at Airspeed Aviation's Scone base. After a year of studying Town Planning, Elle decided the office life wasn’t for her and started off her aviation studies through Griffith University’s Bachelor of Aviation.
Elle has since gained extensive experience in flight training both international and domestic students and is a Grade 2, Multi-engine IFR instructor and is currently working towards her Flight Examiner Rating.
Elle also brings outback charter experience to the team and is currently operating our Baron, C404 Titan and Cessna C421 aircraft.
Mel Gillet
Accounts & Payroll
Mel is one of the stalwarts of Airspeed Aviation. Mel grew up in Aberdeen and from Scone High her finance career took her to Sydney and then to London for 2 years with Citibank.
In 1999 she returned home to Australia to work with Barclays and Westpac before settling back on the family farm 20km south of Scone.