David Crick gains hands on experience in the left seat.
David Crick
‘Sometimes my Monday finishes on a Wednesday’
David Crick’s lifestyle is not for the faint-hearted. Whether he is inspecting aircraft or teaching until dawn, he does it all with a smile on his face. Words: Conor Feasey
David Crick
‘Sometimes my Monday finishes on a Wednesday’
David Crick’s lifestyle is not for the faint-hearted. Whether he is inspecting aircraft or teaching until dawn, he does it all with a smile on his face. Words: Conor Feasey
David Crick gains hands on experience in the left seat.
“IT’S A LABOUR of love.” That rings true for many in business aviation, but none more so than aircraft appraiser, David Crick, MD, DavAir Group. Whether he is on a flight at the crack of dawn, on the road for months at a time, or teaching through all hours of the night, the Brisbane-based globetrotter relishes every moment.
“I’ve become one of those tragic people that see aircraft going overhead and can work out what it is by the sound and say to myself: ‘I was working on one of those the other week,’ he tells Corporate Jet Investor.
A common routine is hard to come by with a man who is constantly on the move and meeting new clients. Some days he is on a flight as early as 4am, and on others he is only getting started at around midday.
“Then, there'll be other times where I'm on calls as early as 5am,” he says. Crick often has teleconference meetings at 11pm Brisbane time with clients and colleagues starting their day on the US East Coast.
It doesn’t stop there. Crick also works as an Aviation Appraisal Theory and Practice lecturer for the American Society of Appraisers, having recently served as its president. “I'll do my day job, catch a bit of sleep and then do the classes at midnight, which will finish around 8am. Then, I’m up and working again around 12.”
Crick assesses what projects are due and bases his daily schedule around them. With clients around the world, his job requires him to work through many time zones. “I often say: Sometimes my Monday finishes on a Wednesday.”
David Crick: “At one point, I didn't come home for three months.”
The daily routine is also characterised by his travel schedule. One week, he may have three days of travel within Australia and the next he could be travelling between Singapore and Europe. “There'll be months when I'm on the road non-stop. At one point last year, I didn’t come home for three months.” Crick spent 16 weeks travelling in the US alone last year.
“At other times, I'll be home for weeks and drive my wife mad. The honest answer is that my day-to-day life and travel are driven by client requirements.” When abroad, and saving his wife’s sanity, they check in with a phone call during their respective mornings.
It’s no surprise that Crick rarely finds time for breakfast. Whilst lunchtime can sometimes provide a moment to sit down with clients, it rarely takes him away from work. “It is the case of what needs to be done next. If I’m inspecting aircraft or reviewing logbooks, it will literally be ‘What's lunch?’”
Despite his ferocious work ethic and near-nomadic lifestyle, Crick enjoys his working life. “Sure, I get tired like everybody else, but I love what I do, though I do sometimes get caught taking a few naps on a Sunday if the week catches up with me.”
When the time to relax finally comes, you might find Crick on a golf course somewhere around the globe. “I’m not suggesting I’m any good at it,” he laughs.
But for Crick, no day is complete without taking a moment to stop and take in the world around him. “Whether it's a sunset or a sunrise, or listening to what's going on outside, you have got to have some sort of connectivity with the world.
“My life is not very routine and probably quite boring to most people,” he says. “But it's fascinating because for most of each month, I'm somewhere else, doing something else, with someone else. And you discover a little bit more about the world from that perspective.”
Four aces: David Crick (left) and colleagues on top form at the CJI Miami Golf Tournament last year.
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