Region’s man on the ground and in the air, Andrew McLaughlin, has taken out a prestigious Australasian Aviation Press Club award for the 2024 Best Aviation Defence Story.
The honour is for The Air Warfare Instructor’s Course – Australia’s Top Guns ramp up!, which appeared in Riotact and across other of Region’s media outlets in April 2024.
Andrew’s article cleverly and clearly explained the challenges facing the Royal Australian Air Force in delivering the biennial Air Warfare Instructor’s Course, which is regarded as Australia’s version of the US Navy’s Top Gun course
“The AWIC gets more complex every time it is held, especially with the rapidly growing integration of many of the RAAF’s, and indeed the entire Australian Defence Force’s, equipment, capabilities and skills,” he wrote.
The 2024 Australasian Aviation Press Club awards cover multiple categories, including Journalist of the Year; Australian Aviation News Story of the Year; New Zealand Aviation News Story of the Year; Aviation Feature Story of the Year; Aviation Technical Story of the Year; Aviation Defence Story of the Year; Multimedia Story of the Year; and Aviation Photographer of the Year.
Andrew has previously won (while working on other publications) Aviation Journalist of the Year on three occasions (2010, 2018, 2019), Aviation Defence Story category on four occasions (2007, 2010, 2012, 2019), Aviation Technical Story once (2019), and Best Aviation Feature once (2011).
And he received the Decade of Excellence award in 2023.
High flier and high achiever.
Congratulations to Region’s Andrew McLaughlin.