When Melbourne-born Dave Rogers first caught the flying bug as a teenager, he wasn't even sure where a pilot's license might take him. But after honing his skills and flight hours as an instructor - and then spending three years flying small aircraft over (and onto!) the most remote and treacherous landscapes of Papua New Guinea - today Dave is a highly respected RFDS Senior Base Pilot at Broken Hill, NSW. But what does it actually take to become an emergency retrieval pilot and what happens when things don't exactly go to plan? On his very first day in Broken Hill, after applying for the RFDS pilot role during Covid, Dave was called to fly out to a devastating fire at the Tibooburra hotel, where a gas tank explosion caused the historic Two Storey Hotel to set alight, injuring four people. But this was just the beginning of Dave's incredible outback adventure...

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