THE Northern Territory is known for its expansive, desolate landscapes - as are its skies.
These qualities create an ideal environment for the Royal Australian Air Force to conduct their simulated exercises.
It is this boundless air space that has landed Flight Commander Glenn Salmon in the Northern Territory every now and again.
He is affectionately known as 'Fish' around the Tindal base, 15km south of Katherine.
At the age of 16, Fish hadn't even set foot in a plane when he decided to join the Air Force.
"It looked like a pretty cool thing to do, so I had a crack at it," Fish said.
"The first time I ever went in a plane was when the Air Force flew me from Melbourne to Sydney to do some testing to get into the Air Force."
Now, the 35-year-old is responsible for two crews in Squadron Two.
This means managing their welfare and organising the exercises they deploy on.
He also carries the title of aviation safety officer, reporting and tracking incidents that affect safety.
It's fair to say he is well aware of the risks of the
job.
"Aviation has its risks and flying for the military can be riskier than normal aviation," he said.
"But we look at the risks and we manage them as well as we possibly can, and then we accept it where we have to.
"Like air-to-air refuelling, it just isn't right to put two gigantic aircrafts apart as they hurtle through the sky, but we do it safely."
While Fish admits these roles do take up most of his time, the time he has spare is spent in the air.
"Every now and again they let me out of the office and I get to go flying - the Wedgetail - which is obviously my first love.
"I love flying.
"Whenever I get to go out and do that, I am a happy boy."
When he is flying, he is commanding the defence force's most advanced piece of equipment, the E-7A Wedgetail.
The aircraft is based on the Boeing 737, commonly used in commercial flying.
It acts as a mobile command unit, it gathers information from a wide variety of sources, and then distributes that to air and surface controls.
"I love the crew aspect and love working on the Wedgetail. It is brand new and state of the art.
"It has really come along with leaps and bounds in the past couple of years, so it is really exciting to be involved with the aircraft."
Fish has been deployed to the Middle East four times, and once in Western Australia searching for the still missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.
Fish is very relaxed,
despite the assumed regiment of the defence force, but
he says this is a necessary quality of someone in his position.
"Flexibility and adaptability - you can have a plan but things often change.
"And the ability to quickly adapt to what's gone wrong, and come up with a new plan on the spot, and be able to manage two or three things at once - that multi-tasking.
"Guys aren't generally very good at.
"That is a big thing to be a successful aircrewman, to multi-task and handle a few things at once."
After almost 20 years with the Air Force, he feels very privileged to be working in his chosen field.
"I have been lucky enough that I have never had a ground job in my career.
"I have always been flying so I have been very, very lucky; I am quite grateful for that.
"Unfortunately, after doing this job as a flight commander, I am probably going to have to pay my penance and go to Canberra to do a desk job of some description before I can move up to become a squadron officer or something like that."
Regardless, he has no plans to quit any time soon.
"I have been really fortunate to do a bunch of things I never thought I would do, and things a lot of other people won't get the opportunity to do.
"So long as I keep
enjoying myself and I keep having a fun time, I will probably stay in the Air Force."