Stewart Maddigan began his flying training on ex RAAF DeHaviland Chipmunks while still at school, some forty three years ago. After gaining his Commercial Pilots Licence in 1968, he was posted to Papua New Guinea as a Flight Service Officer with the Department of Civil Aviation; using his spare time to gain valuable experience flying commercial operations in and out of the highland airstrips.

Wishing to recapture the exhilaration of grass roots aviation, he turned to ultralight flying in 1992, subsequently gaining his Recreational Aviation Australia (RA-Aus) Chief Flying Instructor (CFI) rating and Level 2 Maintenance Authority. Ferry flights in Thrusters from Melbourne to Perth and Broome to Perth reinforced his commitment to the promotion of Recreational flying and training in Western Australia.

Overall, he has accumulated over 1500 hours as a pilot, doing part-time commercial work, glider towing, general sport flying and instructing.

More recently, Stewart and his wife June, have operated an RA-Aus Flying School and completed building a Savannah. During this year (2010), Stewart has been kept busy restoring his Challenger gyrocopter and continuing as Senior Instructor with the RA-Aus.