On Wednesday November 15 John & Libby Douglas were guests in Hangar 42 at Perth Airport to witness the naming of aFokker 100 of the Network Qantas Link Group in memory of a good friend, Lindsay Evans, who founded Network Aviation in 1998. It was a great evening with about 150 guests officiated by Network CEO Hugh Davin and John Gissing from Qantas.
It was a fitting tribute to Lindsay and his wife Sue, who built Network Aviation from a couple of aircraft in 1998 to a very busy successful company in the following 10 years. The company was sold to Qantas in 2011 and now operates 17 Fokker 100 Jets and is one of the largest divisions in the Qantas Air Link Group.
Lindsay started out in Queensland gaining a B Eng Civil and worked as an engineer for the Brisbane City Council. He leant to fly at Hempels Flying School and instructed there for a time. His forte was in roles of CP in Charter Operations. In 1984, on moving to Perth, he was GM of Charter Division with Barrack Mining. In 1990 he was founding GM for Skippers Aviation. In 1998 he was founding MD of Network Aviation. Lindsay did a 3 year term as adviser to CASA on an Aviation industry Panel. He was later awarded an Aviation Safety Award presented to him by legendary Aviatrix Nancy Bird Walton.
Lindsay retired early and was looking forward to years of happiness with family and friends but this was not to be and after a gallant fight finally succumbed to cancer and passed away earlier this year.
Lindsay was a great guy and will be remembered by all who knew him as a fun loving person who loved a party and mostly attired in bright Hawaiian shirts. But mostly he will be remembered as the Pilot/Businessman who put WA on the map and who transitioned small charter flying in WA into large Jet Charter Operations. Fokker VH-NHK now proudly bears his name.
