Seeing Darren Hopkins return to his full-time role of Northern Inspector on Monday makes it hard to imagine about eight months ago he spent 11 days in an induced coma and sustained extensive burns to both hands, all his right arm and both legs after his light plane crashed.
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Only three months after returning to work in a reduced capacity in March, Inspector Hopkins was back in his old seat.
"It's nice to be back," he said.
His return to work program saw him work with Northern Commander Brett Smith on Tasmania Police's fatigue management policy.
"It was a good three or four weeks talking to everyone around the state, not only about fatigue management, but also about how they're going," Inspector Hopkins said.
Although he still has one or two surgeries to go, Inspector Hopkins said his overall health was good and physically he was almost back to how things where before the crash.
"I am obviously healing well and quickly," he said.
The well-respected Northern officer still takes a lot of pain medication and regularly sees his plastic surgery team and acute pain review team.
"I still have the compression bandages on for another 12 to 18 months, but overall my health is good," he said.
An avid pilot, Inspector Hopkins was on a regular leisure flight when his plane caught fire on October 21.
He was forced to jump from the plane at Westwood and call for help, which he luckily received from the Kilby family.
