Much as she would probably wish to, Nancy Bird Walton won't be taking part in the London to Sydney Centenary Air Race.

The veteran Australian woman pilot not only has links with the pioneer aviators of the past but has forged an enviable reputation for herself in the aviation community. Such has been her interest that she was there at the original launch of the Air Race several years ago and since then has maintained a keen interest in the planning and development of the concept.

And as a prime mover in the formation of the Australian Women Pilots' Association you can rest assured she'll be closely following the progress of the race, particularly the efforts of the women pilots involved!

To Nancy Bird Walton, Sir Charles Kingsford Smith was the greatest aviator of all time. And she should know. She was one of the first pupils of the Kingsford Smith Flying School at Mascot, Sydney in 1933. She has described his flying technique as "one of beauty and precision…exactly timed, judged and balanced."

In fact his own exceptional flying abilities made him a less than perfect instructor. He could not readily accept how a pupil could misjudge a gliding angle or allow the aircraft to slip slightly during a turn. "Instructing was not something he enjoyed but you could learn so much from him."

Nancy had first met the aviation legend when he visited Wingham, west of Taree, New South Wales, on a barnstorming tour in 1933. She had already tasted the joys of flight and, with the barnstormers in town, headed for the airfield with her helmet and goggles hoping to have a flying lesson.

Kingsford Smith was quick to recognise the enthusiasm and suggested she come to Sydney and take flying lessons. And so it transpired, with £200 of savings, she arrived at Mascot on 11 August 1933, having walked the last mile of the journey from the Post Office to the Aerodrome and had her first lesson with Kingsford Smith. "Then I went out there every weekday until April 1935."

By now Smithy, already with a string of 'firsts' behind him, was working on plans for an attempt on the England to Australia solo record but his major achievement had been the flight which has gone into history as one of the greatest aviation accomplishments of all time -the crossing of the Pacific from America to Australia in 1928.

Flying at Mascot in those days was anything but complicated. Flying instruction didn't include any syllabus. "Things like radio etc. didn't exist. You passed an aeroplane on the right and the aircraft landing had priority over the one taking off. There was no control tower, and no control. If you were going to practice flying through cloud you told someone on the aerodrome that's what you were going to do and that was enough!"

There were no runways as such. But you had to land the Moths of those days into wind. "If you had to land crosswind you had to land on one wheel. It was a much harder thing to do. On your early solo flights you hoped the wind wouldn't change while you were in the air."

In her own autobiography, Born to Fly, Nancy notes how glad she was that she had flown with Smithy in the beginning and then again after she had reached some reasonable competency.

Nancy Bird Walton herself was to become a household word in Australian aviation with a rich history as a barnstormer, outback pilot and, as previously mentioned, founder of the Australian Women Pilots' Association.

Today she is still passionate about those early aviators and is working on plans to establish a commemorative wall at Sydney's Kingsford Smith Airport to Australians like Smithy, Charles Ulm, Bert Hinkler, Harry Hawker, P.G. Taylor, Ross and Keith Smith and others who risked their lives crossing the oceans of the world.

And she lives daily with a vivid reminder of the man who took her flying at Mascot more than sixty years ago. From the lawns of her home in North Sydney Nancy has an spectacular view across Anderson Park, just across the waters of Neutral Bay, from where Smithy took off in his Lockheed Altair on a flight to Mascot in 1934. If you concentrate hard enough you can almost see him flying past her window just after take off!