In 1940, he became an anti-aircraft gunner but was discharged while waiting for his Air Force call-up. In the interim he joined the Merchant Navy and took his antiaircraft friends to Suez. While on the high seas he missed his RAAF call-up and was removed from the list. With the money he saved as a Merchant Mariner he completed his flying training (that had begun in 1936), at the Royal Aero Club, Mascot, becoming a first-officer with Ansett Airways and concurrently commissioned a Flying Officer with the Citizen’s Air Force Reserve. At war’s end (1946) he joined the fledgling Roy Farrell Export-Import Company, the forerunner of Cathay Pacific Airways.

He flew during the Karen Insurgency in Burma for the Union of Burma Airways. In 1952 he returned to Cathay Pacific Airways and stayed with them until his retirement in 1975, amassing 25,000 flying hours.

Chic retired to the Queensland Gold Coast with his beloved Chinese wife Judy and their two children Edward and Alica. He has written two other books. SYD’S PIRATES and WE FLEW IN BURMA