Narromine aviator Grace Walker is going places – at a high rate of knots and far from the ground – and she’s excited as her aviation dreams continue to come true.

The qualified flight instructor and proprietor of Flying With Grace – who is the only female recreational chief flying instructor in the region – travelled to Parkes late last month, where she joined 24 other women to build a recreational aircraft in less than a week - which then took to the skies in its maiden flight.

The aircraft the team built is called a BushCat, originally designed and made in South Africa in the 1990s and which the Gold Coast owners of the brand describe as “a simple robust, cost-effective, bush-capable tri-axis aircraft”.

The 25-strong team ranged in age from a very young 12 to 65 years, Grace told Dubbo Photo News, and built the BushCat from a kit which one of the women then successfully flew on Saturday, March 28.

“It took five and a half days to build the BushCat, which then flew on the sixth day,” Grace said.

All of the women had a connection to aviation but not necessarily the engineering side of things, so building an aircraft from scratch was a first for everyone.

“None of us had ever built an aircraft before,” Grace explained.

“It was such an amazing learning experience to get involved with the different systems, and how it all came together was incredible,” she added.

The build was supervised by engineers from BushCat, and owners Errol van Rensburg and Mariette Janse van Rensburg were also on site.

Grace said the project involved “opening a flat pack with instructions and all the pieces” necessary to construct the item, and going from there.

The all-female build was also Mariette’s idea, Grace added.

“Mariette looked at the statistics, and 100 percent of BushCat owners were male. So she's like, ‘No, we can't have this!’” she explained.

“The female build was about female empowerment, but also to show that aircraft ownership of BushCats and aircraft building by women is totally achievable.

“The diversity and skills that we all have as women across the board who had different life experiences just came together, and we built a plane!”

Grace said the BushCat wasn’t the easiest to put together, but the experience was very exciting.

Completing the build is just one of many goals the Narromine flight instructor has achieved. The last year has been particularly productive for Grace as she steadily grew her business, her fleet, and enjoyed every moment introducing people to the exciting world of recreational aviation.

Her journey has been charted on social media where she regularly posts about her experiences and the people she helps to explore the skies.

Two young women, Natalie and Kelly, recently travelled from Sydney to take a trial introductory flight with her. Flight student Kieron also came from Hong Kong and completed his full recreational pilot certificate in 12 days.

Grace has also recently added a Tecnam Sierra P2002 MKII to her fleet and has developed a growing love for aerobatics.

The smile on her face reflects Grace’s pride as she continues to tick off her goals and enjoy the life she has created from her passion for flying. Dubbo Photo News will bring you more about Grace’s goals in a future issue, so fasten your seatbelt, sit back and get ready to soar.