Central Coast Aero Club Staff
The Central Coast Aero Club’s flight instructors are dedicated to the highest standards of safety and airmanship. With average flying hours above industry averages, their experience means your success in the sky. Whether you’re just starting your aviation journey, moving on to a more advanced licence or adding an endorsement to your log book, their intimate knowledge of aviation skills, combined with their friendly and patient style will help you get the most out of your training time and investment.
Andrew Coulthard
Our Head of Flying Operations has over 30 years and close to 20,000 hours of flight experience all spent in the Flight training and Charter sector. Andy encompasses the roles of Chief Pilot and Chief Flying Instructor, both CASA appointed positions, and also acts as our standby CEO.
Amongst Andy’s responsibilities is the overseeing of standards of our other company pilots and ensuring all our syllabi and procedures meet or exceed the CASA standards.
Andy is also an accredited Flight Examiner, meaning that most of the flight tests needed by our students can be accomplished in house.
Andy’s experience and strong focus on safety ensure that the product we offer here at Warnervale truly is second to none – and our unparalleled safety record is a testament to the strong foundations that Andy and our leadership team have provided at the CCAC and Warnervale Air.
Andrew Smith
Andrew serves as both the President of the Central Coast Aero Club as well as the CASA-appointed CEO of our subsidiary flying school, Warnervale Air.
Andrew holds a Commercial licence, a Grade 1 Flight Instructor rating with a large range of training endorsements, and also serves as our back up Head of Flying Operations. At time of writing, Andrew has worked in the Flight Training and Charter sector for over 20 years, and has over 11,000 hrs flight experience, the vast majority of which has been spent in the Flight Instruction field.
Andrew spent 6 years teaching Aviation to High School students at TAFE NSW and has previously served on the board of the Australian Association of Flying Instructors (AAFI), including in the role of President.
Andrew has a vision to continue the large growth the CCAC and WVA has seen over the last decade and become the pre-eminent Aero Club and Flight Training organisation in Australia. He believes this will be achieved through the constant striving for professionalism and customer focussed flight training, without losing our Aero Club based appeal which differentiates the CCAC/WVA group from some of the academy type schools, which sometimes lack the individual attention some students require.
Tony Moore
Tony has worked for various general aviation companies and flight schools over the years and this provides both knowledge and experience that can be passed on to students.
As well as conducting training for the various licences, Tony can be commonly found teaching the complex world of instrument & multi-engine flying.
Benjamin Mink
Ben commenced his Private Pilot‘s Licence (PPL) training with the CCAC at the age of 15. Once he achieved his PPL he moved to Canada to complete a Diploma of Aviation at Mount Royal University. Through this course he achieved his Commercial Pilot’s Licence (CPL), multi-engine, instrument flight rules and night visual flight rules ratings while flying through spectacular mountainous landscapes.
Moving back to Australia, Ben completed his instructor’s rating with the CCAC. Ben has also gone on to gain various training endorsements, ATPL subjects and multi-crew course. Ben loves exploring the country and is quite commonly organising fly-outs to various locations across Australia for our students and club members alike. You will also find Ben teaching both the RPL and PPL theory courses throughout the year.
Chris Knox
Chris commenced his Private Pilot’s Licence (PPL) training with the CCAC in 2012. Once he obtained his PPL he moved to Adelaide and obtained his Commercial Pilots license CPL, with multi-engine instrument rating. Chris then completed his instructor rating through CCAC in 2020 and has been instructing at Warnervale ever since.
As an instructor Chris loves being able to watch people achieve their flying dreams. On his days off you can find him taking his friends and family on scenic flights around the state, or catching a wave at local beach breaks.
Gary Thomas
Gary joined us with a history in both civilian and military flight instruction. In the civilian world, Gary has been a CFI and trained many pilots to their PPL and CPL’s. In the military world, Gary trained pilots for the Australian Defence Force and also conducted flight screening and foreign national training.
Gary draws on all that experience to provide instruction for our students. When not conducting lessons for RPL/PPL/CPL, he can be found giving detailed briefings on aerobatics and formation flying.
Jack Breene
Jack’s love for flying first developed while flying with the Airforce Cadets when he was still in school. Once he completed school Jack went on to study aviation full time at Bankstown airport achieving his CPL. Jack then moved down to South Australia where he then achieved his multi engine and instrument rating. Moving back to Sydney, Jack then completed his flight instructor rating at Camden airport, it was during this time Jack also gained his gas turbine endorsement.
Jack is able to use his true passion for instructing and his wealth of knowledge from his time in general aviation at various flying schools and locations to guide and mentor all the students at the CCAC.
Bryan Greenfield
Bryan’s aviation journey began in the maintenance hangar at Warnervale when it was located west of the runway doing work experience in Year 11. He completed his instructor training in 1995 following time in the RAAF & completion of a Bachelor of Science degree. Working under the supervision of Colin Pay in Scone allowed progression to aerobatic & tailwheel instruction before entry into single pilot supplementary airline RPT operations. He then moved onto turboprop airline operations achieving a command role which permitted a return to instructing new hire First Officers & Captains in a multi crew environment. Bryan joined our national carrier in 2002 & currently flies the B787.
Bryan enjoys seeing students achieve their aviation goals & gains satisfaction from being part of their journey. He treats every flight as an opportunity to learn and looks forward to sharing aviation experiences with both pilots & non-pilots.
Dave Tennant
Dave Tennant runs our Maintenance division. Dave has extensive experience in the General Aviation industry and is qualified to maintain a vast array of aircraft types from old classics to advanced multi engine aircraft. He also has approvals to maintain RAA aircraft, light sport aircraft and experimental types. As a fully licenced Chief Engineer with over 25 years experience, Dave has the experience and passion to keep the Warnervale Air fleet running smoothly and has a growing fleet of outside customers who swear by his workmanship. Dave is also an accomplished Commercial Pilot‘s License holder and has over a thousand hours experience in the air - he can often be seen after a hard day’s work putting his beautiful Vans RV-6 through its paces over the airfield late in the afternoon.
Dave has a wealth of knowledge, and whilst he is an extremely busy man, is more than happy to provide engineering advice to aircraft owners.
Jodi Smith
Jodi has a strong background in Advertising and Marketing, she worked in senior roles in the hectic Sydney advertising industry for over 15 years before starting with the CCAC in early 2015. Jodi quickly found her feet in a complex niche industry and has been invaluable to our operation ever since.
Her role at the airport is diverse, from helping with the day to day hustle and bustle of a busy Flying School to keeping on top of the accounts. Her role as Company Secretary has Jodi liaising with the two Company Directors and nine CCAC Board members to keep the finances on track and promotional activities on point.
Jodi has arguably the busiest job on the airfield, but always has a smile on her face and is often on hand in the front office to talk new students and prospective clients through the intricacies of embarking on a flying career whilst our pilots are busy flying.