Competitively drawn from the Royal Australian Navy and Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), four ADF officers graduated from the Empire Test Pilots' School (ETPS) in the United Kingdom, completing one of the world's most demanding and prestigious flight test training programs.
ETPS training combines advanced academic instruction with practical flight test activities, equipping graduates with the skills to plan, conduct, analyse and report on complex flight test programs.
The 2025 cohort of ADF graduates included Flight Lieutenant Sam Nery (49 Flight Test Engineer Course), Flight Lieutenant David Holmes (84 Fixed Wing Course), Lieutenant Adrian Pace (63 Rotary Wing Course) and Lieutenant Jack Delaney (49 Flight Test Engineer Course).
Graduates were celebrated with family and representatives from the Australian High Commission at the annual McKenna Dinner, named in memory of the second Commandant of the school, Group Captain JFX McKenna, who was lost in a flying accident while serving in this post.
Recognised for his performance on the course, Flight Lieutenant Nery was awarded the Hawker Hunter Trophy for the cohort's best fixed wing group capstone assessment and the Edwards Trophy for most improved student, which was reintroduced after not having been actively awarded for a decade.
"As an engineer with minimal prior aviation experience, the most challenging part of the course was learning how to operate as aircrew on the fly, while simultaneously completing the course academics," Flight Lieutenant Nery said.
In addition to the achievements by ADF graduates, RAAF course instructor Squadron Leader John Appleton was awarded the Wren Trophy for instructor of the year. Squadron Leader Appleton is the ADF's first instructor on ETPS since its founding in 1943.
Hosted in MOD Boscombe Down in Wiltshire, United Kingdom, the course trains both military and civilian test pilots and flight test engineers with industry partner QinetiQ. Since its inception, the course has graduated more than 1500 students from across 32 nations.
