Captain Steve Tizzard

Civil Aviation Safety Authority

Steve Tizzard has almost 12,000 flying hours in over 100 different types of light aircraft, has taught hundreds of people to fly and conducted around 2,000 tests on pilots for various qualifications.

Steve’s interest in aviation was evident at an early age.  At seven he had his first joy flight and spent hours watching aircraft at the old Port Kembla airstrip and Albion Park airfield, hitching flights when he could.  He enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force as an apprentice in 1962, but saw a quicker path to achieving his aim of becoming a professional pilot and transferred to the army the following year.  He gained a private pilot licence in 1964 and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in 1965.

Steve underwent military flying training at Port Cook and Amberly and following graduation, had postings to Amberly, Papua New Guinea, Point Cook, Canberra and Oakley where he commanded a military squadron of aircraft.  He served as a staff pilot in Papua New Guinea and Vietnam, attended the Royal Air Force Central Flying School in the United Kingdom to train as a flying instructor and was later the senior flying instructor at the School of Army Aviation.  Throughout this period he was an honorary flying instructor at local aero clubs.

Following ground postings, Steve left the army in 1984 to become the chief flying instructor of the Canberra Aero club, a position he held until he joined the Department of Aviation in 1989.  He served a three year term as controller, Air Safety, in Fiji, in the late 1990s.

Steve has received a number of awards for his work over the years, including the US Air Medal and honorary US Army aviator award in Vietnam; the Royal Federation of Aero Clubs award for service; Fellow, Australian Association of Flight Instructors and Guild of Air Pilots and Air Navigators Master Air Pilot Certificate; and was recently awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia.
Steve currently works as a consultant within CASA.

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