Ian James McCallum was born in Adelaide on 27 March 1947. He completed his secondary education at Caringbah High School, NSW and found employment with Ansett Airlines of Australia as a Traffic Officer. Ian flew for Connellen Airways (Connair from 1970) and had 2,000 hours in his Log Book before he decided to join the Army and become an Army pilot. 222061 Officer Cadet McCallum commenced OTU as an Air Cadet with Class 2/72 on 5 May 1972 as a member of 1 Platoon, Bridges Company. His ‘Father’ was Officer Cadet Appelt. In his Senior Term Ian remained in 1 Platoon, his ‘Son’ being OC Brian Mooney.
Ian graduated with his class on 5 October, thus becoming a member of the Australian Staff Corps. Ian was allocated to Army Aviation and commenced his Basic Flying Training at Point Cook on 4 February 1973 with Course 17. Graduating from BFTS, Ian was posted to RAAF Amberley and undertook Operational Conversion Course 21/73 on fixed wing aircraft. Fully qualified Ian was then posted to 173 General Support Squadron on 4 December 1973. A posting to 1 Aviation Regiment followed on 28 February 1974. Ian also had a posting to 3rd Military District as an Instructor at No. 1 Flying Training School. He resigned from the Army on 2 December 1977.
Garry Ryan advised the association of the passing of Ian McCallum on 22 February 2023, after a long battle against Parkinson’s Disease. A family service was held on 3 March. The family requested privacy. ‘A Good and True Australian.’ Garry Ryan (2/69)
Bill Mellor of the 161 Squadron Association sent a couple of ‘McCallum’ stories. The best one is: ‘Because he was a competent pilot when he joined the Army he was always ahead of the rest of us, particularly at Amberley. He passed his final handling test long before we did and so he had time on his hands. As a result, he was allocated a Porter every day or so and told to go out and practice! On one such occasion he was low flying in the approved area when he struck a tree with his left wing. He declared an emergency, climbed to height, did a low speed control test and started heading home. Following his declaration of an emergency the ‘Crash Alarm’ was sounded at the base. We all gathered outside to see what had happened and there was a Porter on ‘finals’. As he was the only Porter student it had to be him!
Fire trucks were out and ready and followed him in after he pulled off a perfect landing. As he turned on to the Army parking area we all noticed the bits of tree branch stuck in the wing and the leading edge was pushed up flat against the spar. The HF antenna had been broken off and trailed behind the aircraft, and the fuel tank was leaking. The fire trucks followed in attentively. Ian parked the aircraft and the CO opened the cockpit door. Now all this happened within a few days of the Army departing Amberley for Oakey and a major parade was planned for the next few days and a large formation of Army aircraft was to fly out a few days later. Hence the CO was least pleased that someone had bent one of his aircraft. When he opened the door he looked up a Ian and said: ‘Didn’t you see the effing tree Mista McCallum?’ Ian was a little tense himself and responded: ‘Sir if I’d seen the effing tree I wouldn’t have effing hit it!!’ The CO (Neil Harden) to his eternal credit said, ‘Ah, yes Ian, come and have a coffee in my office!’ RAEME repaired the aircraft in record time and we all flew out and up to Oakey.’