Pilots Adventures

2010-01-28T17:00:00.000-08:00

Sometimes there are things that happen in your life that are worth documenting. So far, the experiences I have had as an aviator are experiences that I feel are worth sharing. Some say I could write a book about it.

You will find the pages to my story in the blog archive on the right hand side. The story contains many adventures which include pictures and videos. I started out as a school age child, young and broke. Up till now, I have been successful in becoming a professional piston pilot.

There has been bureaucratic hoops to jump through and some real nasty folks to deal with on the way. I guess there is no story without things like that. On the whole, it's been fantastic so far. I've had some amazing adventures and some great experiences that I will never forget. There's still so many more to be had.

Pilots Adventures

Screwed in California

2010-01-27T23:33:00.000-08:00

While I was out in Australia, working the summer season flying Tiger Moths, I thought I had found the solution to my US career move. There was a JAA flight school in California that advertised JAA private pilot’s courses and night ratings. They said nothing about teaching commercial licenses. I got in touch and told them of my experience and they seemed very keen to hire me. They introduced me to the lawyer that was going to assist in getting my visa for me, and I went ahead and started the process.

When I returned to UK after the Australian summer, I attended the US consulate to obtain the visa that I had applied for. I was granted the visa and within a couple of weeks, I headed out to California.

It was a management visa, and the role I was going to fill was a management role over-seeing JAA PPL training, supervising the restricted instructors. I would also be learning how to market and manage the school generally. I had supervisory experience from Coventry in the UK, so I was certainly qualified. I would be actively flying and instructing myself, but my main role would be office based. This was what was verbally agreed and would have been legitimate under the terms of the management visa.

The school made no mention of any plans to start teaching JAR commercial courses. This was purely advertised as a place where Europeans come for their cheap and fast private pilots licenses and have a holiday at the same time. Therefore, this was one place where not being able to hold a JAR commercial myself wasn't going to matter. You don't need one to teach PPLs. You just need the Instructor Rating, and you only need an FAA commercial to get paid in the US. That's the exact combination of licenses that I had.

When I turned up there having forked out over 3k towards the visa and its associated expenses, I was in for a shock. It very quickly became apparent that they had made a huge mistake. All along, they had plans to start teaching the JAR commercial and make the school into a JAA pilot career centre. They thought that I was a JAR commercial instructor. They made me rush out there in time for the inspection, but they made no mention of their plans until I arrived.

They had my CV, they had numerous emails which gave them ample opportunity to see exactly what I am qualified for, and I even said in those emails that the reason why I wanted to work for them specifically was because they don't teach the commercial.

I can't hold a JAR commercial or teach it due to eyesight medical restrictions, but they teach the JAA PPL and I am a JAA PPL instructor at a senior level who can instruct and manage their operation.

Well this I don't hold against them. Everyone is human, and every human makes mistakes, even serious goofs like this. However, what is absolutely unforgivable is that they did not take any responsibility for it and it is all proven to be entirely their fault.

The right thing to do would have been to either given me the role that they had lead me to believe I was going to fill. If they couldn't do that, then to say "Sorry, here is all the money you fronted towards the visa and the associated expenses, here's the money you spent on your airline ticket. We will buy your airline ticket home". That would be the correct answer to rectify their mistake wouldn't it?

Not only did they not do this, but they demanded the money which they had fronted towards the cost of the visa. What planet did they think I was from. Why should their mistake cost me a single cent?

To wriggle out of the trouble they could get into over this, they offered me an ultimatum. They said, work off the duration of the visa as a dispatch driver picking up the students from the apartment complex and taking them to the airport. Do the odd bit of flight instruction as and when it crops up. Be a general dogs body, print off the weather, work for a pittance and call it experience. Can you believe this? When I asked what this would lead to in the long term, their answer was nothing and that when the visa expired, I would have to leave and that would not help me one iota towards a future career anywhere in the world let alone the USA. I could not believe that they thought this was an acceptable alternative.

Naturally I declined, but offering this to me was how they could wriggle out of reimbursing my expenses and saving themselves from otherwise pending problems with US immigration.

I took a rental car from Sandiego and headed back up towards Los Angeles where I had booked a flight out of there. To add to all the trouble, I was rammed in the back on the freeway. Fortunately, the economy car I had rented wasn't available. So the car I was driving was a Cadillac Escalade. It was all insured and I was still able to drive it. If I had been in the car I had booked, I would have missed the flight home because that car wouldn't have been driveable.

I returned to the UK, and I spent a whole day trying to seek legal advice. It seemed that the only way forward was to throw more money towards a lawyer. I could end up spending almost as much as what I was trying to claim back, so I didn't go ahead.

I came back home and kind of got settled back into my old life that I had before I went to Australia. I bought another old Jag for not very much money and I started trucking again for the Royal Mail once or twice a week.

I started flying the Cessna for the farmers and continued looking after the strip. I had been gone for the UK winter, so not a lot had happened at the strip since I left. I spent my weekends down at Stoke Golding. It was at least the middle of summer in the UK when all of this happened and I came back to stay for a while.

I found an old abandoned single cylinder dumper in the overgrowth at the farm yard where the Cessna was. I got it running and I rescued it from its resting place of several years. Then I took it to Stoke Golding where it has a new home and a new lease of life. The video below is the restoration.

When the restoration was complete, we gave it a task of shifting a couple of tonnes of earth from between the new hangars. It performed well and made me proud.

I never did get back into teaching in a flight school environment again at this point, but being resident instructor at Stoke Golding, I was conducting bi-annual flight reviews and checkouts on new aircraft that people had bought, so I was keeping my hand in as an instructor.

With that and the aerial surveying, I was flying enough to remain content until I figured out the next move. Several months later, I figured it out. But a truck came and smashed up the Jag when I had left it parked on the side of the road. So I had to buy another one after that.

After the nasty experience in California and how difficult US immigration was being to grant visa's without too many restrictions, I decided to change tactics and not try to go to the US, at least not straight away.

Canada was another country I could go to initially on a working holiday visa like I did in Australia. Then to stay on there and get a more permanent residency wasn't as tough as it was in the US. All my FAA licenses are easily converted to their Canadian equivalents. I figure I'm going to try and make a go of it out there. If I later want to move down to the US, it's probably much easier and much less restrictive to do it from Canada.

So that is where I am at to date, and that is the next plan. Stay tuned to see if I can pull this one off.

Tiger Moths in Australia

2010-01-27T19:38:00.001-08:00

There was very little for me back in the UK now that the summer season had drawn to a close. I had completed all the night ratings and finished off my one PPL student at Coventry.

I was fortunate that I had a web-based income by this time, as I started doing some online work for a friend. That was something I was able to do anywhere in the world, as long as I had my laptop and an internet connection.

As the UK summer ended, the Australian summer began. Australia is another country where there are lots of Tiger Moths giving Joy Rides. Australia is also a country that I have always wanted to go and visit, but didn't know when I would.

Well I found out that being under 30 years old, I could get a working holiday visa, and work for any employer I wanted out there. I also found out that for a 3 month period, I could apply for a temporary certificate of validation of my American FAA commercial pilots certificate which I obtained in 2003. This enabled me to operate commercially in Australia.

Since these flights were joy rides rather than air experience instructional flights, I didn't actually need to convert my instructor rating.

That was the answer. This move killed 4 birds with one stone. It got me out of another winter in England. It got me the summer season of flying Tiger Moth's that I had been trying to get for two years. It meant that now I had a reason to go and see Australia. It also meant I could probably stay there in the sunshine, apply for my US visa and stall there until I get it.

I spent a few days calling Tiger Moth operators in Australia at 3am UK time which was when I could get hold of people down under. I eventually found one in Melbourne that said if I was coming anyway, they will most likely use me as I seem qualified, and they are short of pilots. That was good enough for me, I didn't have to rely on having a confirmed job offer, since I had the web-based work coming in. So I applied for my working holiday visa, booked my ticket, sold my car, sold my Land Rover, and I left.

It was the best decision I could have made at the time, and it all fell into place. One of my instructor colleagues from back at Coventry was originally from this part of Australia. Her parents lived in a small town about 100 miles north of Melbourne and they took me in when I first arrived. They looked after me for a few days while I bought myself a car and settled into the country.

The picture below is outside their house of the car I had just bought, in front of the car I had rented from Sydney to get there.

I found a place to live down near Melbourne in a nice posh share house. The house I was staying in and the one next door were joined and were owned by the same person. All of us living the houses formed our own little community.

We were all very friendly and professional people from around the globe, each with our own story. The picture below was on the decking around the back of the houses where we often had a barbeque.

The place was very close to a beach I used to frequent with some of my new found friends. The sunsets there were amazing.

As soon as my certificate of validation of my FAA commercial license came in the mail, I was checked out on the Tiger Moth in a day. Then I began to fly the joy rides.

I was finally getting what I had been longing to do for a very long time and the experience was far greater than it ever would have been in the UK.

Flying happy customers over the Melbourne coastal areas. Looping and barrel rolling gracefully over the beach.

Flying in formation with the other company Tiger Moth. Below is my picture of Norm.

Below is Norm’s picture of me when I took the lead in the formation.

It was everything plus a whole lot more than I ever dreamed of. The airfield was a war time airfield, with a huge grass area to take off and land in any direction that the wind is coming from. The video below is some footage from the ground, and some airborn footage from the front cockpit of when I took one of my house-mates for a ride.

The area I lived in happened to be quite close to where the Aussie soap Neighbours is filmed. I went into the famous street fairly frequently whenever I passed by.

I met some of the actors in a nearby pub called the Elephant and Wheelbarrow where they frequent. I met Alan Fletcher who plays Dr Karl Kennedy. Alan is in a band called the Waiting Room. He’s there performing every Monday night.

I met Margot Robby who played Donna Freedman. At the time, I wasn't actually watching the soap. I'm afraid I got mixed up and called her by her stage name. Sorry Margot, I didn't mean to call you Donna.

On a different night, I met Kym Valentine who plays Libby Kennedy.

This was actually the night of my 28th birthday and I had taken a friend out with me from nearby in the local area. Jessica Addicott her name was. However, Jessica stopped talking to me a couple of months later. She was a very silly girl. You know as well as I do that if you don’t have a date for valentines, you either mope around the house by yourself or you go out with a friend somewhere un-romantic and have a good time, to be distracted from not having a date. So I asked her out, and bang! Deleted and blocked from Facebook and told not to text or call again. What a melodramatic spoiled brat!

What happened next was being in the right place at the right time, lead to an Aussie expedition. I was asked to ferry a Cessna 172 from Darwin and bring it down to Melbourne. The owner had bought the plane to learn in and had around 20 hours logged. Him and his wife were moving down to Tooradin just south of Melbourne, so it was an all expenses paid trip and what a way to see the country. It was one hell of an adventure across the outback. I've documented it all in this 3 part video below.

I left Australia that April as their summer came to end. I stopped over at Mumbai for two weeks on the way back to England to visit family, and then I headed home to get ready for the next venture.

Farm Strip Flying

2010-01-27T19:28:00.000-08:00

Stoke Golding Airfield is a 500m grass strip which was taken on by a friend of mine who I knew from the very early days, when I used to hang around at the strip in the next village.

Once he had taken it on, he built it up into a place where myself and many others frequent. There are a small number of aircraft owners and aero-modellers some of which I also used to know from the early days. They are all a very friendly bunch of folks and have become almost like extended family.

For the rest of summer 2009, I spent my weekends there. I was quite happy to just relax and soak up the atmosphere.

Every year, Stoke Golding has an annual fly-in event known as the Stoke Golding Stake-Out. We have somewhere in the region of 100 visiting aircraft arrive over the weekend. My usual post for this event is to provide an air to ground air traffic service. Two of my old fire crew members from there would come over and provide us with some cover.

Our commentators provide us with a comedy act, and there are burgers, sausages and cakes to eat all day. I look forward to this event all year round. There's no other fly-in quite like it.

As well as Stoke Golding, there is still the farm strip in the next village where it all began for me. It is still operational with the owners aircraft there plus a small handful of other based aircraft. It isn't as much of a happening place as it used to be in the 1990s, but the owner does still occasionally hold a public event which comprises of a fly-in and various display items.

Whenever he does hold an event, I make sure I come back to fill my post.

There is a third strip in the vicinity that belongs to a family of farmers. The only aircraft based there is a Cessna belonging to one of the farmers. They realized that the aircraft was a very useful tool and could be used to survey various sites around the country that they were working on. I had known the farmer who owned it for a number of years, and he asked me if I would take on the role of flying the Cessna. I would take one of the brothers with me who would survey the points of interest.

The Cessna could cover a lot of ground in a short space of time. We could get round 5 or 6 sites and fly a round trip of 130 miles in one hour. I started to do this on a weekly bases. I also took on the up keep of the strip. There was an old tractor there with a topper, so I was quite happy being left to it.

The deal was, I could use the plane for myself whenever I wanted it. I was largely left to get on with it, so it almost felt like I had an airstrip and a plane of my own.

So that was how I spent the rest of summer 2009 when I knew that I wasn't going to fly vintage bi-planes before the end of it. By that time, I had come up with a plan of how I was going to be able to. As the UK summer ended, the Australian summer began. If I could get out there, it meant I could do it in the warm climates without having to wait yet again till the following season in England. You can read about it in the next chapter.

Search for Vintage Bi-Planes

2010-01-27T06:00:00.000-08:00

At this point, when Faggot from the previous chapter made sure I didn't get to fly Tiger Moth's with Delta Aviation at Northampton Sywell, I began to search for them elsewhere in the country. I was so geared up to spend a summer season flying Tiger Moth's at that point. It was definitely the move I wanted to make next.

Meanwhile, as I was teaching PPLs at Coventry. I realized that I had something there that I could really use. One common dilemma that professional integrated commercial students face in the summer is where they can get their night qualification. Flight schools and most non-commercial airports close before it gets dark. These people need their night qualification before a certain point in their training. They can't afford to wait till the following winter, and nowhere else in the UK would a flying school stay open to train these guys up. At least not without charging ridiculous amounts of money for extended opening hours.

There was no reason at all that I couldn't re-open the flying school at Coventry after hours, and keep it open till the airport closed at 1am when the last of the freighters had arrived. I stumbled across this niche market and took on these students myself. They were coming to me from all over the country. This aspect of flying from the school at Coventry, I really began to enjoy. I was left alone without the pressures of time to worry about, and apart from the occasional arriving freighter, I had the airport to myself.

One afternoon at Coventry, an event took place that created a milestone for me. I ended up flying the very same TB-10 Tobago I was taken in as a 9 year old. The one from the farm strip in the next village. The one I used to draw pictures of at school and became sentimental about. I had done a complete circle. The last time I had flown in it, I was a child. Now I was doing a bi-annual flight review in it.

Below are two pictures of me and this aircraft. One was in 1990, and the other in 2008.

Another milestone I reached around the same time was that I logged my 1000th hour. I logged it while landing a Coventry based Cessna 172 with my student, back at Leicester where I logged my first hour when I was aged 14.

Within a couple of weeks of me logging my 1000th hour, I made contact with an operator advertising trial lessons in vintage bi-planes. It was two hours down the road from where I lived. They didn't have Tiger Moths, they had Stampe's. The Stampe SV4 is the Tiger Moth's French counterpart.

I went to pay them a visit, and they were interested in taking me on as another pilot, but I was so geared up to fly their Stampe's during the rest of that summer, I fell into a bit of a trap.

First I had to add aerobatic privileges to my instructor rating, as the trial lessons they offered were aerobatic experience exercises. Then they insisted that I start out flying their Sillingsby T67 Firefly and their RF-6 Fornier before I started flying their Stampe's. That would require some training, especially on the Firefly. It was a modern military aerobatic trainer.

The video below was recorded from the cockpit mounted cameras in the Firefly during one of my training exercises.

Definitely a valuable experience, but not what I had in mind for that summer and it was certainly not helping me towards my dream of flying Tiger Moth's or Stampe's.

I bought myself a 28 year old Series III Land Rover that I found on eBay and built the rear up as a camper. I borrowed a truck from a friend to go and fetch it right the way down from Devon. I spent a few weeks out on the front drive bringing this old basket case back to life. I think it done me some good and provided a distraction from what had recently happened at Northampton Sywell. I was making my mean green vengeance machine.

It was around the same time that the Ford Scorpio I had blew a head gasket, and I started buying Jaguars. Not all together, just one after the other. I always have liked traditional shaped Jags.

The video below is the Land Rover restoration project. From a vehicle destined for the scrap heap in Devon, to a camper with a military appearance.

So I used to drive the Land Rover down there with all my flying and camping gear. I would spend a couple of days a week down there flying the RF-6 Fornier on aerobatic experience exercises.

Photograph above is thanks to Colin Hollywood.

Eventually, they did start my training on the Stampe's. Below is a video from the camera mounted under the fuel tank pointing backwards.

Sadly, it was right at the end of the summer. I figured the only way to get what I wanted from them was to stay on for another year and have the next summer season at it. At least then it would be a whole season.

You don't fly vintage open cockpit bi-planes in the winter, you don't often get suitable weather for it. Even if you get a calm day with clear skies, its too cold to enjoy it.

There wasn't a lot to hang around for in the winter, so I escaped for a while and went to stay in Mumbai where I have some family. Mumbai TV presenter and actress from "Galti Se Mistakke Ho Gayi", "Kashish Dutt" wanted to meet me. I treated her to an expensive meal in Andheri and we both enjoyed a pleasant evening out. No one has any problem with someone if they decide they don't really click, but one should be honest. Ignoring messages, deleting numbers and removing from your Facebook friends list is not an acceptable way to tell me that you are not interested. I deserve better! This kind of superficial attitude that people have towards other people is one of the big problems in today's society, and right there it is being displayed by someone that it's fairly well known in the media.

I figured I would head back to the UK in April and start checking out on the Stampe's then, thinking they would fast track it like they did when I checked out on the Firefly and RF-6 Fornier.

When I came back, we were faced with some nasty weather for the first few weeks. When the weather improved, one Stampe went offline with maintenance issues and they wouldn't use the other one for my training with them not having a spare. By the time they had a spare one again, we were into the start of the season.

I fully expected them to make me the top priority and even postpone customers until I was online. I could then help clear any backlog created because of it. However, I was made last priority and they kept cancelling my training exercises in favor of customer flights. In the end, they told me that it wasn't going to happen yet again during this season.

At this point, I just had to cut my losses and leave. All I wanted to do, was to spend the summer of 2008 flying vintage bi-planes. When I was in told in 2009 that they will try to get me ready for 2010, I'd had enough.

I still blame the man I am calling Faggot from Northampton Sywell. I was so angry at this point, I could have thumped him if I saw him. As it happened, Delta Aviation who had the Tiger Moths at Northampton Sywell went bust at the end of the previous summer. However, had he not ruined my chance to fly with them when I had it in 2008, I would have had the whole previous summer with them just before they went bust. I would have been a whole year in front, and would have earned a reasonable amount of money from them. Instead I had to spend lots of money with this company, training on those other aircraft just so I could fly Stampe's, and in the end I didn't get to fly Stampe's and I didn't earn a single penny back from them. That’s how I worked out the financial loss caused by Faggot to be in the region of £17,000.

I still had my Land Rover so I still had the ability to spend a couple of nights a week away from home. As a final attempt to fly Tiger Moths for the rest of that season, I contacted every single operator in the country. Since the season was already at its peak, none of them needed anymore pilots.

I realized I that this summer was also not going to lead to me flying vintage bi-planes, and I needed to break away from trying to search for such operators and do something I enjoyed doing at weekends. One of my favourite places to be which is quite close to home, is Stoke Golding Airfield. You can read about this unique location in the next chapter.

Booted from Sywell Aerodrome

2010-01-27T00:25:00.000-08:00

As you read in the previous chapter, I used to love instructing at the Brooklands Flying Club at Sywell so much, I never would have left by choice. Even when I had moved abroad, it would have always been one of those places I would have wanted to keep coming back to visit in the future. I had many friends there who I shared many good times with.

Unfortunately, the Chief Flying Instructor at the time had taken a disliking towards me, and it was personal. Being in the position that he was in, he was able to find an under-handed way to get rid of me without his manager questioning him over the decision. I will refer to him throughout this post as 'Faggot'.

He invented an issue about me arriving late in time for my students. The truth is, I was never actually late for a student unless the student was early. I used to stray a little from the computer booking system, and make direct arrangements with them, of the time to arrive. The more advanced students, I would get to arrive a little before me. They could pre-flight the aircraft before I arrived. It was how I managed to balance flying in the afternoons and driving trucks in the evenings so that I could keep earning a living through the winter. The booking system didn’t have any flexibility, but making arrangements directly with my students worked very well. There was never a student over-lap or a double booking on an aircraft. Myself and at least one other instructor if not more, were regularly carrying out this practice. It worked very well, but unfortunately it gave him the ammo he needed to get rid of me.

I couldn’t see it coming at the time. One day when I arrived, he took me into the office along with the receptionist. He told me on the spot that I was late for work a couple of days before, so I'm fired. I was the only one that was. The other instructors that carried out this practice were not fired, and are still there today.

It is a moment which will remain printed in my memory for the rest of my life. I could see everything I had at this flying school taken away from me. My students, friends, fun and adventures. Worst of all, it was going to cause me to loose one of the best friends I would ever have. Everything gone in a few seconds all just because of this idiot. I had to put my cup of tea down before I dropped it as I got the shakes.

There was enough information that came to light later on, that the real reason for him wanting me out of the picture was because of my close friendship with my colleague who I'm calling Angel Daze. I don’t know what he thought was going on, or what he thought he was achieving by sacking me, but I can definitely say that whatever his reasons, they were inexcusable and unforgivable.

He had to invent an issue about time keeping to be able to give me the sack, as he couldn’t sack me for being friends with my work colleague. Whatever he thought he was sacking me for had nothing to do with him or the school, and had no effect on the day to day running of the school or the quality of my services as an instructor. So he abused his position and invented an issue in order to get rid of me, for reasons that he otherwise wouldn’t have been allowed to. What a jerk!!

You know one of those friends that you only make enough of in one lifetime to count on the one hand. You speak to them almost every day and trust them enough to share all your secrets and vice versa. You have a real close connection with them and find you are on the same level in almost every way. You can guarantee they will attend every special occasion, they become first on your Christmas card list and become like extended family.

Angel and I had that kind of friendship and that was obvious to everyone who knew us. Unfortunately, the time when I was forcefully removed from the flying school was the critical time when I needed to have kept working with her. For reasons I don't mind disclosing, but it's not fair on her. When I was not able to keep working with her, I lost her. I was no longer able to keep interacting with her, and she used that distance to escape from what she thought was something destructive.

If I was not inappropriately and underhandedly sacked from my position, we would have been able to keep interacting. I am absolutely positive that all the negative aspects of the reasons I'm not disclosing for her sake, would have self righted in time, and it would have been a natural fix. Then she would be sure that I am absolutely nothing but the person she once described me as. That best male friend for life that you only meet enough of through your lifetime that you count on the one hand. I'd make sure her husband was sure of that too.

I was informed that my students had suffered when I was sacked. Apart from Faggot himself, I was the only other full time instructor. I had one poor girl almost through the course and ready for her skills test. When she lost me as her instructor, she was paired off with one of the others. He left shortly afterwards because he got fed up working under that idiot. This cost her a small fortune in the extra training she had to do.

Next door to the flying school at Sywell, there was a company operating Tiger Moths during the summer months. I always wanted to fly the Tiger Moths as you might know from an earlier chapter. Effectively, I could work for them. They were not joy rides, they were trial lessons. I was an instructor, and there was enough time spent on the ground that it would have been legal for them to pay me for it.

So when I was sacked, the best thing that could have happened would be that I could fly for this company. I would be back at the same airfield where I wanted to be, flying aircraft I've always wanted to fly. I would be near enough to Angel for that natural fix to occur. The evenings in the hotel bar would be just as they always were with all the same people. Flying Delta Aviation's Tiger Moth's from next door was going to be the fix to all the problems caused by that idiot I'm referring to as Faggot.

At the start of the season, all the Tiger pilots would meet on the airfield for an induction and a training day. Unfortunately, Faggot had seen me there on the day. He must have taken it upon himself to put a few twisted words across to them about me. This was the first confirmation I had that the real reason for him sacking me was personal. The person in charge of Delta that he spoke to, dropped some information to me about their discussion.

What happened next, right at the start of the season was that person in charge left and the company was sold to a new owner who was going to take on the whole operation. I was calling every day, eagerly inquiring about when my next checkout on the Tiger will be and when I will be starting. They were very evasive; I got no straight answers out of them. Deep down, I knew what was going on. The new man in charge got in touch with Faggot to ask him about how I was employed. The next time I called, I was told that this new man in charge didn't like the fact I couldn't get a class 1 medical and hold the JAR commercial license. Although I was an instructor with relevant tail dragger experience and could fly the trial lessons, I had to be paid for time spent on the ground as I couldn’t be paid for the time I was flying. It’s all legal if you do it that way, but the excuse they gave me was that they didn't want to operate like that.

I didn't believe that this was the real reason they didn't want me. I know Faggot said a few twisted words about me to the previous man in charge. Now he was talking to the new man in charge. Do you think in the conversation, he might have put some twisted words over to him too so that he would decide not to hire me? I think so. Faggot didn't want me on the airfield. He succeeded and ruined everything. He ruined any chance I had for mine and Angel's friendship to fix itself naturally while we worked together. He ruined the dream I had for years, to spend a summer season flying Tiger Moths out of Sywell. He has no idea of the damage caused to me, which he is personally responsible for.

Two months later, I went back to Sywell to meet a friend of mine. This was my old student who I went to Germany with and who took me flying in his balloon. He was the first person I had ever taught from start to finish. He had bought a share in a Piper Cherokee and wanted me to check him out in it. It was a real achievement for me as well as him.

Behind him and to the right, is one of the Tiger Moths I should have been flying.

I was hoping I wouldn't bump into Faggot that day and Angel wasn't there. I’m kind of glad she wasn't, as I had so much to say to her I wouldn't have known how to start. I avoided him for as long as I could, but at the end of the day when we pushed the plane into the hangar, he caught up with me. I don't think he knew that I was aware it was him that sabotaged my position flying Tiger Moths. He asked me what I was doing instead. When I told him that I was having a real tough time finding another Tiger Moth operator since my dream to fly them from Northampton Sywell was ruined, his face portrayed a very guilty look and I felt a real streak of anger building up inside me.

Now what I want to know is why the people I ran into that day who I used to get along very well with seem stand-offish. What are the rumours that are going around? Since that day, why did a Sywell Brooklands Engineer delete me from his Facebook account? Why are these people that I considered friends, not replying to my messages? I bet you that these are rumours. You know how tails get told and the truth gets twisted. People make their own incorrect assumptions to fill in the gaps, and I wasn't around on the airfield to defend myself or to find out what's being said to put them right.

These were people I used to go out to dinners with, go to the bar with, go on trips with. None of that would have changed and no one would hold anything against me if they knew the truth. These things would have and should have carried on even after I was given the sack. My quest to squash these rumours with the truth is a never ending quest until it has been complete and we all have a big reunion and life carries on as it should have done had I never been unfairly dismissed. Documenting the story here is part of that quest.

It was brought to my attention later that year, Faggot was now getting what he lined himself up for as he had lost his job too.

So the tables turned. When he lost his job, he tried to go to Coventry to take on the role of Chief Flying Instructor. I had never actually left Coventry the whole time I was flying at Sywell even though I was hardly flying from there. But when I was sacked from Sywell, I started flying at Coventry again.

Management at Coventry knew that he had sacked me from Sywell in a very inappropriate manner. They had also met him once, and already they had doubts about his character. So at this point, when he was trying to apply for a job there. They wanted to know my story to help them make up their minds. I spent a good 45 minutes giving my detailed report of my experiences working under him. I was 100% truthful in what I said. I didn't just take the opportunity to slate him like he appeared to do to me when he spoke to Delta Aviation about me. Before I even got to the start of this story about how and why he got rid of me, and what he did to me afterwards. I mentioned his good points and what I did like about him in the beginning, along with the poor management skills that he had about him. Only then did I move onto tell them this story above about what he maliciously did to me. If I had wanted to get my own back on him, I didn't need to lie in order to do so, like he may well have done when he had spoken to Delta Aviation.

Justice was done on that day but I don't feel finished with him. The losses I suffered because of the Faggot's massive injustice still haven't been put right. Jobs on their own are replaceable. Career-wise, I moved on. Eventually, I even managed to get that summer season flying Tiger Moth's. I had to go to another country to get it, but I made it happen. You can read about all this in later chapters.

I estimate the financial loss from loosing both positions, and enduring what happened next as a result of loosing both positions to be in the region of £17,000. I can get over this mentally, as there are far more important things in life than money. But it would certainly be making a difference right now, if I had that £17,000 in my possession. The one loss that I cannot get over and cannot accept, is my best friend Angel Daze. She remains under a false illusion that contact with me would have a negative consequence. It's nothing but a huge mental block.

Close friends drift in and out of your life quite often, and its just a natural occurrence as time passes by and life goes on, but they are always there on the end of an email. You can still always call them up and go and visit them. They would never block you out of their life. If this happened naturally between Angel and I, I would be able to accept it.

I might be able to accept the loss of her friendship if I knew that I had some sort of wrong intention or motive, or if I wasn't mentally or emotionally stable or capable. If this was the case, then what she says about a negative consequence would be true. But I know damn well that I don't have any such intention or anything wrong with me. This is something she would know if only we were still working together, but how do I get her to see this now?

I do not and should not have to accept that I have lost my best friend because of a mental block, that was incurred during a critical time when an inter-fearing idiot abused his power to drive us apart when he had no business to.

So the dilemma is, I'm no longer in her life for her to be able to see that I'm nothing but the best friend she made naturally in the first place when she called me her best male friend, and there are no negative consequences about me. While she is in this state of mind, she is un-contactable. Emails and phone calls can be ignored, turning up can be considered stalking. When I got a reply, she said something to me that you should never say to anyone except your worst enemy, or a telephone sales rep. “Never contact me again”. How can you say this to someone like me? That really hurts. Its that mental block. She’s not seeing me for who I am because of the way things happened, and words like that make me ever more determined to get her out of it.

Since we are never going to be able to work together now, we aren't able to interact naturally. So a natural fix over time isn't able to happen. While she has a mental block about me being someone or something negative in her life, she’s not wanting to hear of me let alone talk to me.

I think the only way this situation can be put right is if by chance, we happen to bump into each other somewhere that forces us to start interacting, and we are able to keep doing so for a couple of hours. Its not something that can be engineered, it just has to be one of those freak occurrences. But why should something that is so important, have to be dependent on a freak occurrence?

Either that, or something drastic happens that causes her to have a reality check. One of those things that make you realize who your real friends are. I'd be amongst those one or two people that are still there when the rest of them would have turned their backs on her.

This page in the blog is by far the most tragic. What you have read above, never gets any easier to move on from each year that has past by since, because none of it was really my fault. In hindsight, if I could see what was coming, I may have been able to do things a bit differently that might have prevented it, but nothing changes the fact that I was unfairly dismissed for reasons that are inexcusable, and as a result, there has been permanent damage caused.

When I imagine how things would be today, had this Faggot not created this massive injustice in 2008. I would never have lost Angel as my friend, and we would now be those kind of friends that you only ever meet once in a blue moon. I'm also sure that all those other people at Northampton Sywell that I got on well with, would still be getting on well with me like they always used to. I would have had the summer of 2008 flying Tiger Moth's at Northampton Sywell for Delta Aviation, along side teaching my students at the Brooklands Flying School. I would not have incurred the massive financial losses that losing both positions caused, and as a result wasted so much more money in a failed venture to try and achieve that summer of flying vintage bi-planes elsewhere. You can read about this in the next chapter. Had it not been for him, I may not owe my credit card anything today.

When I moved on from Northampton Sywell would have been when I was ready to move on myself, and I never would have lost any friends in the process. I would still always be able to keep going back there, and would know that I would be welcome to anytime.

I can still loose sleep over all this some nights, and it all happened nearly 4 years ago.

Sywell Aerodrome Adventures

2010-01-26T21:17:00.000-08:00

I couldn't be paid to instruct in the UK because of not having a JAA commercial license. However, I made contact with one of the flight schools at Coventry and I asked if I could instruct for them to gain experience and not be paid for it. They were very obliging towards my request, and they came up with a very true statement. For each hour an instructor spends in the air, he spends the equivalent amount of time on the ground during briefings, pulling aircraft in and out of the hangar, fuelling, admin, student records etc. So while it was not legal in the UK for me to be paid to fly. It was perfectly legal to fly for free and be paid for everything else.

My first student was a gentleman that was going to have a trial lesson. It was a buzz to teach someone something and then watch them carry out what you have just taught them. I realised at that point that I was going to enjoy being an instructor immensely.

Just a bit further down the road where I used to fly the RB group's Auster was another flying school on Northampton Sywell Aerodrome. They had a fleet of the new Polish Aero AT-3 aircraft.

Under exactly the same arrangement with regards to the money I earned from ground time and instructing for free, I started instructing here as well. There was more demand for it. This is where I took on my own students and I began to teach the full PPL syllabus.

For the benefit of the man in the internet forums who's username is a headset. He wanted to be a whistle blower and get the word out that I was instructing without a commercial license and being employed as an administrator. So for his benefit and the benefit of any of the others who have an axe to grind about the confidential terms of my employment, simply read the next three lines below:

Without a JAR commercial license and with a valid JAR instructor rating, I flew for free and was paid for things I did on the ground. Legal! Now mind your own business.

I went on to make lots of friends here, flew lots of hours and had the best social life I've ever had. At the time it was an all grass airfield populated with light aircraft and hobby pilots. There was a hotel with bar and restaurant where we nearly always ended up. We all used to have lots of fun, go out bowling, go for meals and to the cinema etc.

Myself and my colleague / best friend who I'm going to call Angel Daze, as that describes her quite well. We often used to end up returning to the airfield together after having taught the lesson we were teaching our students. Depending on what level our students were at, we would sometimes pair up for around three minutes and return to the overhead as a two ship in loose formation. The students used to love it, and it was a good demonstration of one of the things they can do when they become experienced pilots.

I taught one guy right the way through his PPL course from start to finish. He was a balloon pilot, but wanted his aeroplane license. He became my full timer. During the summer months, he took me and a couple of mutual friends and fellow instructors for a flight in his balloon in the evenings.

The picture below is taken from the basket looking past Angel's head at Pitsford Reservoir just to the northwest of the airfield.

As well as the AT-3s, the school had purchased a fairly new Cessna 172SP. My full time student and I took it to Germany for his navigation exercises. We stayed with some friends of his that ran the airport. They looked after us and our plane very well. I had a go with the airport fire truck since I like these sorts of things. We also visited the salt baths, walked around downtown Swaebich Hall, and visited the Sinsheim museum. It was a fantastic trip and one that I will never forget.

Distance approximately 700 miles and 5 hours flying time.

On route back to England, my student completed a lot of the dual navigation requirements which included diversions, low level nav and instrument appreciation under the hood.

The video below was made in between those exercises when we climbed on top of the cloud for a while. When its grey and overcast down below, one of the places I like to go is above the clouds where its clear blue skies and brilliant sunshine.

I went on to have a fabulous summer, I had my own set of students and had some real good times to remember. As winter set in, I couldn't fly all the time due to the weather not being suitable. So what I used to do was take my trucking gear with me to the airfield. Since it got dark by half past four which was when the flying day had to end, I had time go into the Royal Mail and make an evening run.

Valentines day was miserable that year. Everyone had partners to take out that night, where as mine was in another country. The weather was horrible and the students were cancelled. Then the phone rang in the school, and I picked it up in the office. It was the Aero AT-3 importer stuck out in Poland. He was there by himself with 3 AT-3s. It was a lonely distant voice with a blizzard in the background. His two ferry pilots had got fed up with the weather and left him there to come back on a scheduled airliner. So he was asking if me and one other pilot would go out there to fly these AT-3s to England.

Distance approximately 950 miles and 9 hours flying time.

I was no longer miserable. Next morning, I met the other pilot at East Midlands airport. He was a retired airline pilot and was on the team of instructors at Northampton. We caught the scheduled Ryanair flight to Wroclaw in Poland.

As we taxied in on the Ryanair 737, we could see the apron where the AT-3s were covered in snow, with one man standing next to them wrapped up in a big jacket. We got off the Ryanair 737 and stood out there in the cold having a chat. Then we inspected the aircraft and looked at the chart to see the route that had been planned. The flight plans were already filed for us before we got there. So then we just climbed in, started up and taxied out in a 3 ship formation to take off.

This was a lot of fun, and quite exciting for me. We got air born and flew in formation to Dresden in Germany where we landed about half an hour before dark. One of the other guys had his elevator trim stuck just after take off and had to hold the stick forward for the rest of the flight. That was a job we were going to have to fix the next morning. AT-3s aren't cleared to fly at night, so we night stopped there in Dresden and we were put up in a posh hotel. After a meal in the hotel bar, we relaxed and had a few light drinks until 1am. We had to stop at 1am as the minimum sobering time is 8 hours bottle to throttle and we were planning on being air born by 9am the following morning. That was a rigid take-off time and we all agreed.

So at 10am, we all met in the lobby and had a big hotel breakfast with cornflakes, german bread and jam, croissants and coffee followed by sausages, eggs, bacon, beans and orange juice. By 11, we took a cab out to the airport. We found 3 little AT-3 shaped piles of ice where we had left our planes. The temperature was -5, but at least we had clear skies and the sun had some heat in it's rays. We just kept turning the planes around till the ice melted on all surfaces, and then brushed them down with a broom. Meanwhile we took the fairing off the tail on the broken one to fix the elevator trim. We uplifted fuel, pre-flight inspected them and then I lost all feeling in my hands it was that cold.

We eventually got going at mid-day and I got warm enough in the cockpit with the sun shining through the canopy and the heater warming up as the engine got some heat in it. We took off together and flew in loose formation to Mönchengladbach for lunch. From there, we had enough fuel to get over to England and land at North Wield. The importer, and his aircraft, that was the final leg. The poor guy flying the one that previously had his trim tab lock was now suffering a cracked exhaust.

The two of us completed the final 40 minute leg to Northampton where our AT-3 trained engineers had them in the hangar to make the necessary modifications and fix the exhaust before they were then taken to the school that bought them in Sherburn.

The video below is a compilation of pictures taken on the ferry trip, from the point we picked them up in Wrowclaw, to when they went to Sherburn and painted in Sherburn livery.

Becoming an Instructor

2010-01-25T17:30:00.000-08:00

I came back home to England and went straight back out on the road in the trucks. I went full time for a while, I needed to after being ripped off by Aerial Messages. So it was back to the original plan, concentrating on my European and American instructor ratings to become dual qualified so that I could work for one of those European JAA flight schools in the USA.

I decided to work towards the European rating first. I had no European commercial license and couldn't get one due to the medical restriction. I could add the instructor rating onto my PPL as long as I met the minimum hours requirement and I took the commercial written exams.

After a few months of being out on the road, I decided to enrol in the JAA commercial ground school. This was at Coventry with Atlantic Flight Training. It was close enough to home for me to be able to commute daily.

It was a 7 month course and a really tough set of exams. Most of it wasn't relevant to the everyday flying you would do even as an airline pilot. These exams were written to filter out those who weren't dedicated. The advantage of doing it in a classroom environment was making new friends that are all doing the same thing, so my study was more regimented.

I wasn't flying very much during this period of time, as I didn't really have the time. I had to keep driving trucks on weekends to earn any money at all, as my week days were taken up in the classroom. I took on a regular Sunday run to Bournemouth airport with the mail that would be flown to the channel islands. So I used to enjoy driving down on a Sunday afternoon, then taking a tacho break in the museum.

It was around this time was when the RB group fell apart. Politics at Sywell meant that their rates increased. As a result, the members hourly rates had to be increased proportionately. All the members dis-banded and the aircraft were sold. It was a great shame when that happened, but at least it happened at a time when I had built up the hours I needed. I had such a good run with that Auster, that I had satisfied my vintage aircraft fix for a while without suffering withdrawal symptoms.

During that summer, I went on my last camping trip from Leicester using one of the club aircraft. Unfortunately, it was spoiled by one of the members who's name rhymes with wall timber. You know when you go into a pub and some folks have a bit too much to drink. They start getting abusive and acting like they ought to have an anti-social behaviour disorder taken out on them. Well, that was wall timber. He flew in with his family alright, but when we all walked from the grass strip through the farmyard to the pub, after a few beers he took a disliking towards me. If he wasn't held back by some of the others, he would have started punching and kicking.

He wasn't man enough to apologise the next day and try to put things right like any decent person would. In fact he even tried to invent an excuse to the other members for acting like a twit. Something about his step daughter? I don't really know, his step daughter seemed more interested in the other guy. What a jerk!

So that kind of ended my camping trips with the Leicestershire Aeroclub. It wasn't the incident with him that stopped me from wanting to go on anymore, its just that some things you move on from after a period of time.

What happened then a bit later in the summer, was a Taylorcraft. It was one which had been on the airfield for a number of years, but it changed hands. The new owner was a really nice guy and he knew how much I enjoyed flying slow, classic planes with some character. So he put me on the insurance and let me take it out whenever I felt like having a fix. Below is some video footage that I took when I was flying it in formation with a friend in his Auster Aiglet.

Eventually, I got through those exams. After a few months back on the trucks full time to save up some more money, I returned to Florida again to one of those JAA schools for the European instructor rating. I went to European Flight Training (EFT) in Fort Pierce. They appeared to be the only school in the US at the time who could teach the JAR instructor rating. They had an entire wing of the Pines apartment complex in Vero beach for housing all their students who were there from all over the world.

There were folks doing their initial PPLs right the way through to their multi-engine commercial instrument and every JAA course in between. I made a few friends there. We had a great social scene in the evenings which sometimes involved a bbq by the swimming pool.

There were 4 of us on the instructor course. An Englishman, Irishman, Flying Dutchman and an American sounding Norwegian. On the first morning of the course, we were handed gold bars to wear on our shoulders. They had a ranking system. 2 bars if you had a PPL, 3 for CPL, 4 for CPL IR. So I had 4 bars, and felt a bit silly putting them on my shirt then getting into a Cessna 172.

Next, we were introduced to our instructor instructors, and then were introduced to Bloggs. Bloggs is who our instructors turn into from time to time. Bloggs is a make believe student who is rather unpredictable.

So with 4 of us on the course and 2 instructor instructors / Bloggs's, we had 2 C172s between us and we would back-seat each others lessons. This back seat time was very valuable, as well as being free. It meant we had the chance to observe the lesson again, without having to fly. This gave us the chance to take down notes, and make up a lesson plan in the back seat for when it was our turn to teach this lesson back to Bloggs.

The course consisted of 30 hours flying and several hours of classroom briefings that we were learning to conduct. The airport at Fort Pierce had a nice restaurant which we all frequented everyday at lunchtime.

At the end of the course, I drew the short straw and was the first to be tested. The examiner had given me the subject I had to prepare a technical briefing on. It was altimetry. I started preparing for it on the night of one of the shuttle launches. I hadn't seen one before, so I had to go and see that from the nearby beach. Then I came back to prepare the briefing but when I set foot in the apartment, the water tank burst and flooded the place out. So that night was gone while having to get housing to sort out the plumber.

Fortunately, I had the weekend to prepare for my test which was going to be on the Monday. So that weekend, most people were in around the apartment complex or in the pool. I wanted to gather some students together so that I could practise giving this briefing to them before I had to give it to the examiner the following day. The first apartment I went to, the guy said he would be along shortly and handed my saucepan to me. I carried on knocking peoples doors with my saucepan, telling them that they will come and sit in on my briefing or else the saucepan will hurt.

One of the guys was a genuine PPL student who would have been learning altimetry at the time. So I was using him to teach it to. Once I was satisfied that he had grasped it, and the other guys voiced their objective opinions. I got to the point where I felt like I was ready.

The day of the test was very long. I met the examiner at 8am. I finished with him at 5pm. The test started with the lesson brief. Next we got in the plane and did the flight portion. I had to teach him straight and level. I was pleased with the way I conducted that lesson and I actually started enjoying it, which he picked up on. After a break for lunch, it was my technical briefing on altimetry. I taught it back to the examiner with confidence and was quite pleased with. Finally, general questions and answers. This is where he accidentally picked up on my weak point. Lift vector diagrams, graphs and maths formula's. I'm not terribly good with things like that, I'm more of a hands on pilot. I hung in there and I did my best. I was mentally and physically drained, but I managed to pull it off. When he told me I had passed, the weight of the world just got up off my shoulders, and all of a sudden I felt full of energy again. It’s one of the best feelings. Earlier in the blog, I've mentioned that passing a test gives me an ear to ear grin. Its because of the moment when you hear those words, that is the moment when you have achieved the thing that you have worked so hard for, and it is combined with relief that the hard work is over and it has all paid off.

I was the first out of the 4 of us to get through. So when I got back to the apartment complex that night, the other 3 wanted to know everything about the test and about the examiner.

I was still there for a little while after having passed. What I decided to do with the rest of my time there, was add the FAA multi-engine rating onto my existing FAA commercial instrument. It was only a short course, and made sense to do it then at this school which happened to have a fleet of Beech Duchess pictured below on the left hand side.

The first couple of hours in a twin, I felt like I wasn't on top of it. It didn't take long though once I got the feel for how two engines either side of me makes the plane behave. A lot of the multi engine rating is to shut an engine down and fly on one in case one failed. Since the FAA multi is an addon to my CPL IR, I was required on test to fly an ILS approach where the examiner at some point would simulate an engine failure on one of the engines by bringing the power back. I would have to continue the approach single engine on the ILS and land.

That was the one thing that caused me to partial in the test. Rote procedure when the examiner failed one engine. I checked mixtures rich, props full forward, throttles full forward. I indentified which engine had failed, but when I increased the power on the live engine, I wasn't quick enough on the rudder to catch the swing. Being so close in on the ILS, I got a full scale deflection quite quickly. So that was a partial pass.

Within half an hour of landing, I was back in the air with an instructor to go and do that again. Within half an hour of landing with the instructor, I was back in the air with the examiner to go and complete the test. Cracked it this time.

So with an FAA multi engine commercial obtained a couple of hours ago at a European JAR approved school meant that one flight in the twin with a JAR examiner allowed me to get the JAR multi engine added to my JAR PPL. It was a relatively easy flight, I completed this the same night, and dis-enrolled myself from the school.

With one day and one penny left to spare, I finished just in time to make the flight back on Christmas Eve, to be home for Christmas Day.

Swindled in Daytona

2010-01-21T03:33:00.000-08:00

When I got back to England, I wanted to find a job that didn’t tie me to a 9 to 5 all year. I wanted to earn money on a free-lance basis, so that I could make trips and do courses without having to worry about annual leave. I also wanted to do something that meant I could earn more than just minimum wage. What I got into was something I always wanted to have a go at. I had turned 21, so I went and got my heavy goods truck license and became a free-lance trucker.

Ever since I was child and I first saw Jerry Reed driving that Kenworth in the movie Smokey and the Bandit, I always wanted to drive a truck and do it like him. Jerry Reed wasn't just a talented singer, song writer and an actor. He was someone that made you laugh and feel good just by being him. He had a way about him that made you want to meet him and be friends with him. Watching him in his movies, hearing his songs, and listening to interviews. He made you feel like you knew him personally. People that did know him always said that he didn't act, he just turns up and plays himself. He was the same at home according to his daughter. He was a huge inspiration to me, and he always will be.

So what I did was I joined an agency, and they supplied drivers on a free-lance basis to the Royal Mail.

Those European trucks were nothing like the long nose chrome fronted twin vertical exhaust stacked 18 wheelers, but I was sure I would drive one of those in the future as I would always keep this up living on the other side of the Atlantic. Its a good side line to have. For now, I fell lucky with the Royal Mail. I was treated well, given decent runs and began to enjoy it. I could be a full time driver, part time or leave and come back days, weeks or months later and get right back into it. There was that much freedom.

While I was trucking and saving up some more money for the next rating, which was the FAA instructor rating. I happened to stumble across a banner towing operator in Daytona. They were advertising for 47 banner tow pilots for the coming season on their website. They said that they could sponsor foreign pilots for their work permits because of a shortage of American pilots.

At the time, I was thinking that it was genuine. There is a logic as to why banner tow pilots are in short supply, since after a season they have built up enough hours to move onto bigger and better things. Besides, its not the sort of job that every pilot would want to have a go at. It does make sense if you think of it like that.

So being a bit naive back then, I figured it might have been possible to get this job under a US H-2 seasonal visa. Then continue with my plan to become an instructor and get a more permanent visa while already working there as a banner tow pilot. I saw it as a way to get to the States quicker in the first place, and have a lot of fun in the meantime. I did fancy a crack at it, and this person made it sound possible.

I had my FAA commercial now, so potentially I could be employed in America as a pilot to do a job such as this, as long as I could get the US work permit.

After a few months of driving trucks and saving up for the banner towing course, I returned to Florida, rented a car and went to Daytona.

The cost of the banner towing course was $2500 and the accommodation was to be included in this figure. So I turned up there and found his office which was in his warehouse some miles off the airport. Then I met the bugger who was about to rip me off. Already, alarm bells started ringing. I discovered that he only had two planes. How can he possibly employ 47 pilots? I went to the motel he gave me the address for, and then I was told by them that he hadn't covered the cost of it. So accommodation wasn't included in my case.

Next day, I met the other victim I was on the course with. He was put up in the town house which he didn't have to pay separately for. That was the reason I was sent to the motel. So what I want to know is why the portion of my $2500 that was supposed to be towards the accommodation, not refunded to me or paid directly to the motel?

I met my instructor and over 4 days, he conducted 8 hours of training with me and the other victim in a tired old Cessna 172. After 8 hours, I was endorsed. $2500 for 8 hours in a Cessna 172? That doesn't add up, it worked out more expensive than what it would cost to rent a twin. So what was he doing with all the extra money he's getting from my $2500 that wasn't going towards the running costs of the C172, the instructor or my accommodation?

In 8 hours, I was taught how to take off while holding a banner hook under my elbow. I threw the hook out the window beneath the tail so it trailed behind. I dived down over the banner pick up assembly and then I hooked it.

To get to a safe standard where I could be signed off as competent, I guess I would have needed at least another 10 hours practise. I was just signed off as soon as I had done it successfully a couple of times. I was told that I would be hearing from them with regards employment within a couple of weeks.

I already knew at this point that I had been swindled. There was no job, I would never hear from him again. What really annoyed me was that people he was swindling like myself had scrimped and saved and taken years to get as far as they had in their flying career. Then after their commercial pilot certificate, they scrimped and saved some more for the banner towing course with the promise of their first flying job, only for this idiot to simply rip them off. In my case, you can include a $600 airline ticket plus $300 car rental.

The company in Daytona is no longer owned by the same person. I have no reason to believe that the person who has it now isn't genuine. As for the guy who used to own it, I have no idea where he is but I hope he's in jail because he damn well ought to be. He should be banged up along with the the rest of those that aren't fit for society. He still owes me around $3400 and he always will.

I was one of many of his victims to fall into his trap. Back then, the internet wasn't so populated with forums and rip off reports to research jerks like this. Today, you can google Aerial Messages Tim Pacini and you can find lots to read.

The Vintage Taildragger

2010-01-20T18:29:00.000-08:00

I was back at my post working as a Security Officer while studying the books for the FAA commercial pilot's license. After the adventure half way across the States and back, my total flying time was 210 hours. So I only needed another 40 hours before having enough to take the course.

I was still at the flying club on the weekends providing the fire covers and earning a little bit of flying credit like that, then going off once in a while to fly the Cessna Aerobat for half an hour. To build 40 hours that way would have taken a heck of a long time though. Paying the full hourly rate would have put me out of pocket. The solution was another one of those things that just fell into place.

One afternoon, a Tiger Moth just turned up at Leicester. The pilot said he was just delivering it for a company called Avia Special. Avia was going to operate out of there during the summer months and sell vouchers for introductory lessons. It was being used as a novelty birthday treat kind of thing. Trial lesson in a vintage open cockpit Tiger Moth. These vouchers were being sold in the supermarkets and online.

When Avia started searching for ground crew, I was almost nominated. I don't ever remember volunteering and I really can't remember how it all happened, but somehow I ended up being the main ground crew person. Meeting and greeting the customers, strapping them in the front cockpit and hand starting the engine. It became a weekend job around the fire cover shifts and the tower shifts.

I certainly enjoyed working with an aeroplane that I was so fond of from since I was a child at the farm strip, but boy did I get frustrated watching someone else fly it all day. I knew that I was still a long way off being qualified as a European JAA Instructor and with relevant tail wheel experience to be able to work as a pilot on an operation like that.

Photograph above is thanks to Mark Kopczewski.

Once in a while, the Tiger Moth would spend a day or two operating out of another airfield elsewhere because there were enough vouchers sold in that area to make it a worthwhile day out. Whenever that happened, it needed to be ferried. So that was when I got the chance to go along in it. I flew it from the front cockpit. The pilot in the rear was always an instructor, so I could log dual time. I wasn't really learning how to fly it by just having control in the cruise, but after a while I did start to take off and land as well. So very gradually, I was being converted onto it.

The opportunities were too rare, and although I appreciated every minute of every chance I got to fly it, I knew that I really did need to be where the instructor was. I started to have a burning desire to fly Tiger Moth's at this point, and working as a Tiger Moth trial lesson / joy ride pilot at some point along my career path was high on the priority list of things for me to do.

One day, we flew it from Leicester to Northampton. It was going to operate there for a day and had around 8 customers to fly. The building I was given an office to meet and greet the customers in was a maintenance hanger. This was a case of stumbling into the right place at the right time. The engineer of that maintenance hangar ran a small flying group. It was called the RB group after the registration of the flagship aircraft G-AJRB. The flagship was a 1946 Auster. They had a couple of other aircraft as well such as a Cessna 172 and a Piper Cherokee, but the Auster captured my interest straight away.

The way that group worked was to have around 30 members that paid into it monthly. It wasn't an extortionate amount, but coming from 30 people meant that there was enough money in the pot. So that then made it possible to let those members fly the aircraft on just a little bit more than the cost of the fuel.

Well I practically joined on the spot. Not only did this group mean that I could afford to fly every weekend, it meant that I got to fly a vintage tail wheel aircraft that gave me the same kind of enjoyment as flying the Tiger Moth. It wasn't open cockpit, although you could slide the windows all the way open in the summer. It had that same kind of upside down mounted inline 4 cylinder engine that had a unique vintage sound of its own, and created that smell of oil and fuel in the cockpit which adds to the nostalgia. Taking that out on a summer evening was a real privilege. I was checked out and signed off in it within a day. Fortunately, most of the other members in the group were more interested in the Cessna and the Piper. There were only a very small handful of us that flew the Auster. So it was handled carefully and well looked after. It was also not difficult to get hold of as we weren’t exactly fighting for it all at the same time. I took it everywhere. I went to fly-ins, I flew formation with Avia’s Tiger Moth from Leicester. I even took it to the Channel Islands once, and won an award.

The photograph below was taken by my dad when I flew over our house with an old school friend. It was her 21st birthday and I gave her a ride.

The video below is when we were approaching the overhead at Leicester, descending into the circuit, and landing on one of the grass runways.

During the summer months, I took it camping on Leicestershire Aeroclub fly-outs. Myself and a few other members would take tents in the back of the plane. We would fly to places where we could enjoy a bbq in the evenings.

Then we would pitch our tents by the aircraft, go play Frisby over the grass strip and knock back a few drinks.

The photograph below was on the flight line at Shuttleworth, Old Warden. This wasn't a Leicestershire Aeroclub fly-out, this was myself and a friend of mine that flew into the show. They let me park the Auster with the display aircraft and camp with it over night on the flight line.

For a good 18 months, I had some really good quality enjoyable flying in the Auster especially on those calm summer evenings with the windows open, over the fields and the lakes. It's slow, graceful and has a unique sound all of its own.

It's a kind of flying that you just can't do with modern aircraft. Flying the Auster, I had accumulated those 40 hours that I needed for the FAA commercial license, and a lot more.

During the winter, I entered it into the flour bombing competition at Leicester. I flew over the target at 100 feet in the middle of the field, and my bomber in the right hand seat threw a bag of flour out of the window to try and hit the target. This was hilarious fun. With all the participants, the competition lasts all day, and the safest place for the judges to stand is by the target. Everywhere else except for the target is showered with bags of flour falling from the sky.

New Years Eve that year, myself and a few others from Leicester went flying in Cessna's and Pipers across midnight. There is no way to describe how amazing that is. A camera couldn't capture the effect. What happens on the stroke of midnight is someone at least in every street, sets off fireworks all on the same minute. From 3000 feet at night, you can see for miles around. So you are literally looking down at 1000s of firework displays as far as you can see. The whole earth sparkles.

After that, I left my job in security. I had studied for the commercial and the site was closing down. So it was definitely time for me to go back to the States and get the FAA commercial pilots certificate. So that's what I did, I went back out to Naples to get it.

Most of the requirements for the commercial license apart from 3 more hours on a complex aircraft, I had filled already. So I trained to standard, learned the manoeuvres: Eights on Pylons, Chandelles, Lazy 8s. I took the test and passed, then went to the beach.

Adventure Across the States

2010-01-14T21:24:00.000-08:00

I decided it was time I did my full FAA instrument rating anyway. I was now aged 20, and even though my plans to work for American Flyers were ruined, I still had to follow the plan as far as getting myself qualified. It was only when it was time to find employment out there that I would have to cross that bridge when I came to it.

I had managed to scrimp and save enough for the FAA instrument rating and I had made contact with a flight school in Naples, Florida. This school was recommended by contacts in the UK. What I hadn’t realised was the instrument hours accumulated during the CAA IMC rating course plus any instrument time logged after it, all counted towards the total hours needed for an FAA instrument rating.

That meant I was already one quarter of the way through before I had started. So with not using up the whole budget on the course, I could do some hour building while I was there and take advantage of cheap aircraft rental that you could get in the US. I would need to build hours towards the FAA commercial requirements anyway after the instrument rating. This would give me a head start. I could complete the instrument rating first, and then I could have a little adventure across the States.

So I took my annual leave entitlement from my post as a Security Officer and I booked a flight to Miami. Then I caught a cab to Opa locka airport just North of Miami. This is where I met my instrument instructor. He was waiting for me with a Cessna 172. So that's when my training began. We flew across the Florida Everglades that night. There was no choice but to fly on instruments anyway, there were no features outside. It was a pitch black sky and pitch black below, as there are no lights in the Everglades. After around 40 minutes, we reached the west coast and landed at Naples.

One of the first things I noticed when I walked into the office that night was the mixed nationality of the instructors. Two Americans, one French, one Swiss and two English. I had gone to this school to take an FAA course, but this school was actually teaching European JAR courses as well. These European instructors had got their visa's by being dual qualified to teach in both countries. It seemed that this was a possible route into the States as a non-American seeking employment in America as a pilot.

Being dual qualified with relevant flying experience in Europe enables you to offer something that an American isn’t able to. Since JAR courses are being taught in the States, there is a reasonable argument for needing instructors from Europe over there to teach them to a European standard which would minimize the differences training required when the student returned home.

From that point, I had a new career plan to work towards. Even though I couldn't get a JAR Class 1 medical, I could still have a JAR instructor rating. Since aircraft in the States are on the American N Register, I would only need an American FAA Commercial to be paid for instructing, whichever course I was teaching. I had no problem with the American medical, so this was a plan that I could pull off.

I liked the airport and the location. It was right on the coast in a place that never gets cold, and was just the sort of place I could see myself being happy to settle in. They were a friendly bunch at the flight school as well. This wasn't the main Naples Air Center, it was a smaller school adjacent to them. To become one of their international instructors and work here or a place similar, was something for me to work towards.

The next day, I carried on with the rest of the Instrument Rating. It was quite intense. I was flying everyday and studying in the evenings. Most of the time, I was using a Cessna 172.

Thinking ahead, I did seven hours of training on a PA-28R Piper Arrow. When I would come back to the take the commercial license later on, I would need some complex time on aircraft with a retractable undercarriage and a variable pitch prop. I wasn't going to pay through the nose and hire such an aircraft in the UK, so I incorporated time building in a complex aircraft as part of the instrument training. This saved quite a lot of money in the long run.

I found the test to be tougher than any of the other flight tests I had done before, because of the tighter tolerances. Fortunately, I manage to pass on the first attempt, and the weight of the world stepped off my shoulders at that point. I had that really big grin fixed on my face again.

I had passed the test first thing in the morning, and so by the afternoon my time building adventure began.

I had planned a route from Naples, Florida to St Louis, Missouri to go and see my cousin again, and also to see Valerie Osborne Green, my from the Thunder Aviation. Valerie had since moved to Kansas City, and started at university. So I was going to fly to the campus and stay there with her.

Approximate distance, 1000 miles. This was around 9 times further than I would have ever flown before.

By lunchtime, I was back at the airfield with my bags loaded into this Cessna 150. The Cessna 150 was the best aircraft to take for the trip. It was the cheapest to rent being small engined, as a result it was also fairly slow. Since the object is to build flying time, the motive wasn't to get there quickly, but to get there cheaply taking a longer period of time.

Once the Learjet in front had departed, I was cleared for a northbound departure.

Photograph above is thanks to Daniel Compton.

With the fuel tanks full, plus my luggage behind me. The underpowered 100hp continental engine and all the heat meant that I only just managed to maintain a 500 feet per minute rate of climb. I could never have taken anyone with me with in this aircraft with that weight on board.

I flew along the coast for a while, then went inland to avoid Tampa’s airspace. Two and a half hours and just north of Orlando, I arrived at Ocala.

I hadn't gone very far really from Naples to Ocala. I had a headwind, and making forward progress was painfully slow. It made me feel like having a cup of coffee, plus a top up of fuel for the plane.

Just a little further north and I flew onto the Jacksonville chart and crossed the state line into Georgia. Georgia seemed sparsely populated compared to Florida. There were masses of woodland. Eventually, I came into the vicinity of two airfields close together. Montezemur and Butler. With no traffic in site and no one heard on the radio frequency at either place, I took a chance and landed at Montezumer. I appeared to have landed on an airfield where there was not a single soul in sight. I had no chance of getting any fuel from here.

So I hopped back in the plane and tried Butler. As I was flying towards Butler, that Georgia Sunshine was fading for the night. After landing there, I went inside their wooden hut. You sure know when you are in the deep south.

The guy sold me some fuel from a cylinder along side one of the hangars that had an analogue gauge counting the gallons with a bell that rings each time the counter goes up one. It took them half an hour to figure out how to swipe my credit card, as it had been over a year since anyone had made a credit card purchase, especially my foreign one.

I wasn’t happy about flying over Georgia in the dark. If the engine quit, I would end up stuck in a tree. If that were going to happen, I would have wanted to see the treetop I was about to wedge myself in. The guy from Butler took me into the local town where there was a motel. It was a small roadside place with four rooms in. It was full because the lights in all four windows were switched on, so there was nowhere in Butler to stay that night. I got back in the plane and flew another hour along the route into Columbus.

Columbus was a commercial airport with airliners. Although after 2100, everyone goes home and the place becomes un-controlled. I could operate the runway lights from the radio transmit button in the plane. What I didn’t know about those lights were when they time out. I saw the airport still lit up when I approached, as another aircraft had landed before me. Final approach with 400 feet to go, I happened to glance down into the cockpit for a second. When I looked up, the airport had gone out. The penny dropped and I beat up the transmit button until the lights came back on, and then I landed.

I taxied this Cessna between the lines of parked B767s, I had no idea where to park the Cessna. Before I picked up an airport diagram from the directory sat on the right hand seat, I saw McDonalds in the distance just on the other side of the boundary. I started to taxi towards it, but then caught sight of a ramp agent waving me towards him.

Hotels were expensive there, I couldn’t really afford one. I folded the right hand seat down in the plane, stacked my luggage on the left hand side, lay across the back of the folded seat and across the baggage to try and sleep in the plane. The things you do when you are 20.

Next morning, I looked at the weather and it was looking like I was going to have to fly in cloud. So now I was going to use my newly obtained instrument rating for real. The lowest flight level I could use on this leg was FL60. You can imagine how long it took to get that high in this aeroplane. I crossed the state line from Georgia, clipping the corner of Alabama, and into Tennessee. Over the Tennessee River, I changed the hour back on my watch and I could feel myself heading towards cooler climates.

Next stop, Waverley Tennessee, Rocky Top land. I descended beneath the cloud and came out the bottom at 1500 feet. More trees, rivers and valleys, then the airfield came into view. There wasn't much happening here, but the lady running the place took pity on me and made me a microwave meal and told me I have to eat.

So I uploaded some dinner, and the plane uploaded some fuel.

When I tried to depart from here, I had to abort the take off run a couple of times. Birds kept flocking on the runway. I crossed the corner of Kentucky and then into Missouri. I made a short stop just for fuel in Cape Gerado, and then there wasn't much further to go till Spirit of St Louis airport.

During the final leg, I was inside a layer of cloud. I noticed a layer of ice forming on the wing struts so I really had to get out of the cloud. I requested a lower level and dropped out the bottom of the cloud at 3000 feet. That got rid of the ice and meant that I could continue visually as I could see the surface. I was also on familiar territory as I was now in the area that I had been flying around in two years ago when I had come to St Louis.

Once on Spirit's radio frequency, I started hearing familiar callsigns of aircraft I had flown before. So I landed and taxied to Thunder West, and left the plane on the apron along with that fleet of Cessna's I was flying before, and Thunder took care of it for me. My cousin came to collect me, and I was on a major high. I had just completed a two-day, thousand-mile cross-country across 6 states. The next two days were spent recovering in their place. Sofa, TV, food, shower, bed, relax. All those creature comforts become appreciated after a two-day trip in a Cessna 150.

After my third day in Missouri, I moved on. I flew to Warrensburg in the Kansas City area to visit Valerie. I had never gone to university, but that night I found out what university students do during the evenings and weekends. It sure was great to catch up with you again Valerie.

When I left there, I pretty much went back the same way I came and made all the same stops.

That whole adventure was around 30 hours of flying, and I was away for 8 days. It certainly pushed up my total time towards having enough hours for a Commercial License. I only needed about another 40 hours before I could take it.

I spent the final five days of my holiday out there, soaking up the sun on a nice Florida Beach. That month, I had flown in the region of 60 hours, and for at least 20 consecutive days.

To come back to the UK and go back to my post as a Security Officer was a huge anticlimax. I took the Commercial License books with me, because I was going to need to study them once I was back in my office.

Series of Events

2010-01-14T20:46:00.000-08:00

What happened next was a series of events that unfolded in such a way that it gave me some direction. That’s how life is sometimes, you reach certain pivotal points and things fall into place. I knew roughly where I was heading after this.

It started with a response from Air Atlantique at Coventry. I had sent my CV and a letter to them asking about their sponsorship program. Although airlines weren't really sponsoring anymore, Air Alantique had a program which took on 18 year olds like myself and really worked them to the bone with ground based duties. In return, you were enrolled at their attached training school and taken right from the PPL level through to ATPL, and given a job flying their fleet of freighters.

I had forgotten about writing to them until they wrote back and invited me to attend an interview. In case I was successful, I booked an appointment at the CAA building in Gatwick, for a class I medical. It was the only requirement I hadn’t filled yet, which this company insisted I had before attending the interview. I had the hours, I had a driving license, I had my GCSEs, and I had a brain. I just needed the medical. It’s not something I thought would be a problem at my age. I just didn’t get one before, because I only needed my class III for the private flying that I was doing.

I went down for the medical and I failed. The doctor told me that it was an astigmatism in my right eye that falls outside the limits. I wear glasses to correct my vision, and although corrective vision is allowed, the limits for medicals issued in the UK and Europe are too strict for my prescription. I wasn't phased by this, but I knew at that point that I wasn't going to be able to follow through with Air Atlantique. I would have to change tactics and move abroad.

The doctor told me that I could pass the American FAA class I medical. There was an FAA approved doctor there in Gatwick at the time. So I actually came out with my FAA class I medical and made my mind up there and then that I will be emigrating.

I did some research on the internet and discovered a flight training organisation called American Flyers that had 12 different locations in the USA. They were advertising for instructors and said they could employ foreigners sponsoring them for a visa. They were able to do this because at the time, there was a shortage of American flight instructors. I attended a seminar in a hotel by Heathrow airport when they came to England to find pilots that wanted to be instructors and work in the US.

It wasn’t a sponsorship, I would have to pay for all of my training. It was an avenue that I could see myself being able to follow. To become an American qualified instructor, all I would need to do is an American commercial license, instrument rating and instructor rating. They were ratings that I could obtain over a two or three year period by scrimping and saving. When I had enough money for the first one, I could attend one of their schools in the US and take the course, then come back and start saving up for the next. If I could get as far as working as an instructor in America, then a natural progression would develop in my career from there. So that became the plan to focus on from that point in time.

I had left my job as an Aircraft Dispatcher by then, and I started working as a Security Officer in a government building. It was a daytime job which was mainly office based where I didn't have to do very much other than be responsible for the security of the building. I had a nice desk, computer with internet access, kitchen just behind with endless amounts of tea and coffee. So working here meant that I was being paid to sit in my comfortable control centre where I had the time and the means to study towards these American pilot licenses.

I also had time to complete Tomb Raider 1 and 2, and learn how to build websites and study html code. This blog started out as a website initially, and was created from there.

Whilst I was working there, I was still an active member at the Leicestershire Aeroclub. I found myself there in the evenings and weekends and even though I was mainly saving money towards the next rating, I still took the Cessna Aerobat out for a spin using the flying credit earned from weekend fire covers.

The amount of shifts I was covering were increasing a little, as at that time there was a shortage of available crew. I earned quite a bit of flying credit then. Covering more shifts did mean that I was more likely end up with a first response situation. I certainly had to give those fire tenders some exercise.

Some people do get it wrong sometimes. They end up off the end or off the side of the runway and into the ploughed field. That's why busy airfields such as Leicester needs a fire crew. Fortunately when I was on shift, I never had to respond to anything more serious than one of these kinds of silly accidents.

Light aircraft accidents any more serious than this are rare, but on the odd occasion that they have occured at Leicester, it was some of my colleagues on the team that were the hero's.

With clubs such as the Leicestershire Aeroclub, they work best when all the members each with their own expertise offers their hand. This is how things were at the farm strip and the model aircraft club when I was younger. For example, Andy was an electrician by trade so he would volunteer to service the runway lights. I volunteered to take on a job that I knew I could do and that I would enjoy because of my appreciation for antique farm vehicles.

They had a couple of old 70s Leyland tractors with a rotary topping mower. I used to go out in it in the evenings and cut the grass runways. I was happy being left alone doing that for hours in the middle of the field. Call it therapy.

Another antique that was lying around was another one of those diesel dumpers that you start with a handle. It was a 1976 Benford with a two cylinder Petter engine. It was left standing for years, and then one day I decided I wanted to try it out. I got it going, and then I found uses for it around the place. I filled in pot-holes in the carpark, I tipped stones into gaps along the taxiway edges. The video below is when I left the bucket up and it filled with rain water. It hadn't run for a while, so I got it started and went to empty the bucket. The time and date on the video camera was wrong by several hours and years.

So that was the weekends and evenings, meanwhile back at in the office during the week, I was making plans towards my next career move which was to go to the States for my American Instrument Rating as soon as I had enough money. Except what happened next was the world shook. September 11th 2001 put a stop to my career plan. I was at my post in the building. I saw the whole day unfold on the news, as I had a television there.

I sent an email to the flight school to ask them if this had any effect on my career plans. So soon after it happened, no one could say what the effects would be. After about a week, I was informed that the flight school could no longer sponsor foreign pilots for their visas. US security and immigration had tightened up too much to let this school sponsor me for a work visa the way they going to.

Now I faced a dilemma. I knew I needed to emigrate to the USA. How do I get a visa for it? Once again, I didn’t get phased by it. I knew there would be a way in somehow. It just wouldn't be so straight forward.

Tough Making Progress

2010-01-14T19:29:00.000-08:00

So I had my Private license and I had my Night Rating. I wanted to per sue a career in flying, but I was 18 years old and broke. How on earth do I progress from here?

I don't know, but I managed to get a job working as an Aircraft Dispatcher, for Servisair the airline handling agent. I used to co-ordinate the operations involved in the turn around. Fuelling, boarding, loading, catering etc. No two turn-arounds were ever the same. There was always something happening to make it interesting.

I enjoyed the job while it lasted, it was a valuable experience. I learned a lot of what goes on behind the scenes in airline travel. I was constantly interacting with people who had been successful in the career I was harping after myself.

Unfortunately, a lot of the Servisair staff that were working there including management were not very easy to get on with. Being the youngest and the wannabe pilot, I often had the micky taken out of me and was picked on. The ex-forces man still believed he was in the forces. Shouting and swearing wasn't the way to get messages across to me. I don't think he ever did learn that. I know I would have been much better at the job, if I had some proper people to work with. I also know that if I ever encountered them again, they would never get away with treating me how they used to. Still, I didn't let it get to me, and I still quite enjoyed the job while I had it.

Very slowly and gradually, through fire covers, aircraft washing, and whatever pennies I had left, I trained for my IMC Rating. This is for flying in Instrument Meteorological Conditions. It is like a very basic instrument rating in the United Kingdom, allowing me to fly legally in and above cloud on instruments. It enabled me to enhance my skills and log instrument time. Instrument time was something I needed to build up for the future, as well as hours generally. It also meant that I could get back to the airfield on instruments, if adverse weather conditions occurred while I was out.

For a very short time span, I happened to have some luck come my way. There was a privately owned Piper Cherokee on the airfield, which was quite under utilized. The owner didn’t have much time to fly it. It isn’t very good for an aircraft to sit around for too long. So we helped each other out for a while. I flew his aircraft on an agreed non-profit hourly rate that covered all the expenses of me flying it. In return, his aircraft was utilized more which done it the world of good.

Unfortunately it was a very short lived arrangement. The chairman of the club didn't like my arrangement. He saw it as competition, under-cutting the club. What he failed to realise was that I was not hiring it. I was borrowing it and putting fuel in it. It wasn't a business arrangement. Secondly, I was not under cutting the club because if I wasn't flying this aircraft, I would not be flying the club aircraft instead, I couldn't afford to. Finally, it wasn't any ones business but my own. Anyhow, the aircraft was moved to another airfield. I continued flying it on that arrangement for a short while from it's new base, but it was eventually sold.

Everyone I knew that were putting themselves through commercial ratings were a lot older than me, and had other career's which earned them enough money to fund the hours and all the training. Putting myself through all that training as an 18 year old working on minimum wage was something which seemed very far out of my reach. I wasn’t sure exactly how I was going to get there myself. I didn’t get phased at anytime though. I always knew I would find a way into this career somehow.

There was no such thing as sponsorship anymore, that had been a thing of the past during a time when there was such a pilot shortage.

I had looked into joining up with the Royal Air Force, but with not having 20 / 20 vision and wearing glasses, I found that I could never get in as Air Crew. So at this point, I was at a bit of a loss as to how I was going to progress.

Enjoying the Pilots License

2010-01-14T17:32:00.000-08:00

For the next month after having obtained my license, I was taking friends for trips and enjoying just utilizing the privileges flying around to different places. Then I went to St Louis, Missouri, USA. I went to visit my cousin who had moved there from Mumbai, India. While I was out there, I fully intended to take advantage of the fact you could rent aircraft at half the price compared to what you could back home.

I had left that job at the computer training course company. The business closed down, and I was a free agent.

Shortly after I arrived, I went to the nearest Federal Aviation Authority Office (FAA) to get my American private license issued over the counter, based on my UK license. Not quite so easy to do that nowadays, but still not difficult.

The next day I went to Spirit of St Louis airport in Chesterfield, MO to a Flight School called Thunder Aviation. They had a fleet of Cessna 172s that I could rent. It was obvious then, just how much more advanced general aviation is in the USA than back where I came from in the UK. Landing away at other airfields is free. At night when they become un-manned, you can still use them if you are qualified to fly at night. You can operate the runway lights by clicking the radio transmit button in the cockpit. You can help yourself to fuel, as the fuel pump had a credit card swipe on it for self filling. Visiting pilots can even use a free courtesy car to get to the local town in.

I flew three hours over a period of two days with an instructor to get used to the American ways of flying, and how the Radio calls are different. Also to be checked out in the Cessna 172, as I hadn’t ever flown one of those before.

After I was signed off as competent, for my first trip I just looked at the map and picked an airfield. Why not, they are all free. Most places I flew into I ended up flying out of Spirit in the same direction, to avoid the Class B airspace which surrounds Lambert. So most of the time on the way out, I ended up crossing the same point where the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers meet.

First I flew to St Claire. A small county airport with friendly folks who live in the county and keep their private aircraft there. Then I looked at the map and went to another airfield nearby called Washington. Pretty much the same deal. By the time I got to the third, I was looking for places that had restaurants so that I could purchase a pound of ground round to put down my neck. I flew into five different airfields that day, just casually hopping from one to the next in this C172. It’s so laid back, so much more fun, and so much easier out there. None of the restaurants were open though, it was on a Monday.

At least by doing this, I found out when these restaurants would be opening. So the next day I took my relatives with me and flew back to St Charles County Smart for some lunch. That's them pictured below stood in front of the C172 on the apron at St Charles.

The day after that when I next went flying, I flew the Cessna into the airport called Downtown St Louis. There is a very big Arch to look at on the final approach. Parks college was based there. Parks was a Flight Training Academy. There was an instructor about to fly one of their aircraft to Alton, Illinois to pick up a pilot. He offered me the left-hand seat, and I flew it there myself with him in the right. Just being in the right place at the right time got me a free half-hour, and a check out on a new type of aircraft. It was a TB-9 Tampico. I’ve always had a liking for the TB range of aircraft, since it was one of those I first flew in as a nine year old. Plus they are a comfortable and sleek looking tourer. Now I got to fly one myself. We picked this guy up, flew back to Parks, and then I jumped back into the C172, and went back to Spirit.

Photograph above is thanks to Steve Oeters.

Back at Spirit, I became quite good friends with Valerie Osborne. Now she's Valerie Osborne Green, but she wasn't Green back then, just blond. She was my age and slowly building up flying time towards her career same as me. Valerie and I went on a little trip together to Rolla Vichy. She flew there and I flew back.

I spent a full month out there in St Louis, flew around 12 hours and had a real great time just enjoying myself. When I left, I felt like I had a tiny bit of experience. I was no longer a fresh newly qualified pilot with a brand new license.

When I returned from the US, the very next thing I did was I added a Night Rating to my license. It was a 5 hour course, with the fifth hour being solo. Within three to four weeks, I had completed it, and then I wasn’t in danger of having the daylight against me when I fly out somewhere and need to return back to Leicester. Also the views at night can be fantastic. Sometimes I would go out there at night especially.

Private Pilots License Course

2010-01-13T19:35:00.000-08:00

It seemed to take a very long time back then to reach the age of 14. Time flies when you get older, but when you are a kid waiting for a milestone age before you are old enough to do something, it seems to take forever. Two months before my 14th birthday, I sussed out where I was going to start training for my Private Pilots License. I chose to learn at the Leicestershire Aeroclub. It was a nice airport that doesn't have to worry about commercial traffic, and lots of interesting people were in the flying club itself. It seemed like a friendly and enjoyable place to be. When I rocked up there to make inquiries, all the instructors were surprised that I wanted to start learning so young, but they could see how serious and determined I was. Since I was about to become of legal age to log flying time towards a license, they were happy to start my course.

I booked my first lesson on my 14th birthday. I was going to learn in their fleet of Cessna 152s. To actually fly from the left-hand seat and be given control during the take off was one thing. To be able to write that first entry into my log book and count it towards getting a license carried such a huge element of satisfaction. From this point onwards, I knew that I was on the road to getting my license. It was a milestone I had been waiting for, for a very long time.

The picture below is myself and my instructor walking back from the aircraft after my first lesson aged 14.

The airfield was 30 miles from where I lived. I used to catch a bus, a train and finally a taxi to get there. For the first two years, I used to have one half an hour lesson every month. My parents use to help me out with this financially.

The first few hours are spent learning how to fly straight and level, climb, turn, and descend. Then I was put into the circuit. That is where you really learn how to take off and land properly. You can fly several circuits in a lesson.

I left school at 16 when I graduated from my GCSEs and got a job in the office of a computer training course company. I did ok at school but was never in top sets. I was never very academically orientated and decided that college and university wouldn’t really help me much in what I was trying to achieve in my chosen career. Plus it would take up valuable years and lots of money. Even if it was a university grant, it would have to be paid back. I would be better off gaining employment and self funding my career training directly in the aviation world to get to where I wanted to go. A-levels and degrees are not what makes you a professional pilot. Practical training and experience was the answer as far as I was concerned.

At the time, I was only a year away from being old enough to be sent on my first solo. So when I started working in that office, that was when I started paying for flying myself. I used to go for an hour lesson weekly. The job didn’t pay very much, but at 16, I didn’t used to spend any money on anything else. I spent practically everything I earned on learning to fly.

I got myself trained and put on the airfield fire and rescue team.

I was then on the roster for a half-day shift every three or four weekends. The club gave me a little bit of flying credit in return, which helped pay for lessons.

Eventually, I became old enough to be sent on my first solo circuit. I was more than ready to do this before hand, but I wasn’t allowed to do it until I was 17 years old. Normally, you wouldn’t know when you are going to fly solo for the first time, as the instructor springs it on you when you are ready. It was different for me, since I was ready to go before I was old enough, I knew that it would come for me on my 17th birthday. This event normally happens between 10 and 20 hours into the course. I had 20 hours logged when I did it.

The day of my 17th birthday, the weather let me down. 5 days later, it perked up enough to be suitable. My family came along to see this. The surface wind was favouring the runway that runs past the clubhouse window, so everyone there was watching.

After two circuits with my instructor, he told me to taxi back to the start of the runway where he stepped out. For the first time ever, I was in complete command of the aircraft. I was just a little apprehensive for a moment as I had lined up on the runway before feeding in the power to takeoff. Once I had taken off, all my apprehension was gone and I felt as confident flying it as what I did with my instructor. Even if I do say so myself, that was a smooth landing, and it was captured on video in January 1999.

You can't hear it in the video, but just after I had landed and as I was turning off the runway, my instructor spoke to me over the radio and said, "Well done". I had a grin from ear to ear for the next week after that.

The other major milestone that I had been waiting for on the same day as well as my first solo, was my first driving lesson. This did take place on the evening of my birthday. I couldn't wait to pass my driving test so that I could travel everywhere by myself in the comfort of my own car. No more trains, buses, taxi's and lifts.

I had actually been given a car when I was 15. It was an old Austin Maestro that had been in the family since it was new in the early 1980s. It was about ready for the scrap heap. But rather than scrap it, my Dad gave it to me. With a little help from him, we were getting it road worthy so that I could have it as my first car when I turned 17 and passed my driving test.

After my first solo, I had to fly 3 hours of solo circuits to build up my confidence of taking off, flying and landing by myself, then I learned how to navigate. My Instructor and I made a couple of cross-country flights together. Then came the diversions, simulated low cloud and all eventualities covered. Soon after, I was sent on my first local area navigation trip by myself.

The next major event to look forward to was my Qualifying Cross-Country. This is where you take the aircraft out for the whole day, and you fly by yourself from your home airfield, and land at two other places. Then you return in the evening.

I was 30 hours into the course now, and I made my qualifying cross country flight in the summer of 1999 on the day of the eclipse when everyone was heading south to places like Devon to watch it get dark for a few moments. I stayed at Leicester during the eclipse, and then I departed.

I flew straight to my first airfield, and landed no problem. It was an airfield of the same size and category as the one I was learning at. The next location I had to land at was somewhat larger, with commercial traffic operating from it. It sounds daunting at first, but when it comes down to it, I just followed instructions given by air traffic and I didn’t run into any problems. It wasn't difficult.

Finally was the sector to go back home. There is something about approaching your home airfield. Unlike everywhere else you go when you come home, you hear familiar voices on the radio, you hear your fleet of aircraft call signs being used, and you know who everyone is. They all know who you are too. It’s a nice welcoming feeling when you are flying home from somewhere. After I landed back at Leicester, it was another one of those grins from ear to ear for another week.

By this time, I had learned to drive and passed my driving test. I had the Maestro all done up. I got it out of the corner and onto the road the very next day after passing.

Of course running a car aged 17 meant that money started going on that as well as flying. For me though, driving was very necessary and I couldn't be without it the same as I couldn't be without flying. I was far too restricted before I could drive around in my own car. There were so many things I couldn’t do, and places I couldn’t get to. So with the few pennies I had to rub together, I just about managed.

The fire covers helped pay for flying lessons, and then later I was asked if I would like to start washing the club aircraft in return for flying credit. Those aircraft were dirty, and the club knew that I would be grateful for any other opportunities to gain flying credit other than by paying for it with real money. So this helped myself and the club out. I used go to the airfield one evening each week after work, and spend around 3 hours washing an aircraft. We were often there till very late in the night, working under the main light on the front of the hangar. There was a girl, a little older than me but in a similar position. She joined me for a while, and we used to do the washing together till the early hours.

Melissa S Alderson from Cramlington, Northumberland had split up with me by then. So I was free to go and spend as much time with the washer woman late at night as I wanted so that I could earn that credit.

Eventually, I came to the end of the course when everything on the PPL syllabus had been completed. So it was time for my skills test with an examiner. I arrived at the airfield in the morning and had a briefing with him. He told me to stay relaxed and to treat it like any other flight as if I was going with my instructor. The test was broken into two parts. Navigation including diversion, and then general handling.

During the Navigation part of the test, the examiner had his face buried in an article and made believe he was reading it. Then he opened the window slightly I think to rest his elbow on the side. Having such a laid back examiner who seemed like he was enjoying himself made all the test nerves go away. He wasn't really reading the article, he was peering over the top of it. It was his nerve calming method and it really worked.

Once the first leg of the navigation exercise was complete, he threw the article in the back. We had to descend low level to simulate being forced down by the weather, to remain below cloud and keep in sight of the surface. Then I was thrown a diversion and got a little lost. I had the map opened out fully in the cockpit at one point, trying to find a radio frequency for the airfield that he told me I had to divert to. This was before the days when frequencies were printed on the airfields in the charts.

When I found it, we landed at the diversion airfield. This was now half way through the test. We had a break here, and got some lunch. On the way back, he tested me on general handling including slow flight, stalling, practice engine failure. Once back at the home airfield, a series of circuits including short field take-offs and landings.

After we stopped, he didn't tell me in the plane. He kept me in suspense till we got back to his office and he handed me the PPL application forms with a big grin and a hand shake.

It was like the end of an era. I had been waiting since forever for this to happen. The license was taking around 4 weeks to be delivered. While I was waiting, I got checked out to fly the PA-28 Piper Archers which the club had. These are four seat touring aircraft. I also got my instructor to teach me some basic aerobatics. I was fortunate to be in a club that had a couple of Cessna 152 Aerobats. The video below is of me flying aerobatics in one of the Cessna Aerobats. It was taken several years later when I had become alot better at them. External footage was shot over our house. My brother was stood on the drive with the video camera. Cockpit footage was taken by Clair in the right hand seat.

Back to 1999, the day my license arrived. My dad woke me up when the mail man came. He shouted "You have a parcel, it’s recorded delivery". There is only one thing that can be. I ran down the stairs faster than the speed of sound to get my parcel. I opened the envelope and out came the very document that I had been waiting so anxiously for, for many years. I looked out the front door and into the sky. I couldn’t resist. License through the post, weather was perfect, everything suggested that I should go flying now. So that afternoon, I took my Mum and Dad for a ride in the Piper Archer pictured below and flew over our house.

Photograph above is thanks to Neal Harris.

I maintained my occasional weekend fire covers at the airfield. I quite enjoyed it, and it helped pay for some private flying that I would come to do now that I had my license. I also applied for my Air to Ground Radio operators certificate. This meant I could be rostered to man the tower. This was quite a valuable experience, and very enjoyable. The airfield was uncontrolled. We were never Air Traffic Controllers, but we were there to answer calls, give runway information and altimeter settings. We could advise aircraft of other traffic that may be a factor. I used to look forward to my shifts in the tower.

The picture below was obviously taken when it wasn't so busy if I had my legs up on the desk and I could talk to Emma.

The Beginning

2010-01-13T19:13:00.000-08:00

In the beginning, there were the dinosaurs. Then there were the Arabs and they all had Mercedes, but this story starts in the early 1980s when I came along. There wasn't ever a time that existed in my life before I wanted to reach for the skies. I was trying to build flying machines out of bits of junk from the garden shed as soon as I was old enough to pick up tools.

When I was nine years old, I made a school friend who's Dad flew a light aircraft. It was a French tourer known as a Socata TB10 Tobago, and at the time it was kept at Birmingham International Airport.

Photograph above is thanks to Mick Balcar.

Occasionally, I was given the opportunity to go for a ride in it. After my first flight, the amazing experience became what I started to live for.

This gentleman was a farmer and after a while, he turned three fields on his farm into a grass runway so that he could bring the plane home. This was only 2 miles from where I lived in the English Countryside. I could see him takeoff and land from our house and used to race up there on my bike whenever he bought the plane home.

I would say that it was this place that my appreciation for antique farm vehicles, vintage trucks and tractors began. There were a few relics lying around this place, some of them in daily use and some of them that were only ever started and driven once in a while.

I used to climb over this Rough Rider dumper. I had a go on it once, it was one of those single cylinder diesle Lister engine powered machines that you start with a handle. It left a trail of black smoke behind it wherever it went.

This is the remains of an AEC Matadore. It looks quite dead, but when you put a charged battery on it, it will start up and drive.

It wasn't long before a hangar was built on the airstrip. Once that was built, he bought himself a real piece of history. He bought a DeHavilland 82A Tiger Moth. It took a while for him to learn how to fly it, and then there was a queue of people that wanted to have a ride. Finally I got my chance when I was there and no one else was around.

Being out in an open cockpit aeroplane exposed to the weather, wearing a leather jacket was amazing. To add to it, the Tiger Moth’s Gypsy Major engine has quite a unique sound all of its own. The smell of oil and avegas you get from the engine while sat in the front cockpit adds to the nostalgia.

Gradually as the airstrip became more established, more enthusiasts used to turn up there and other pilots from elsewhere started flying in. I was in the right background then to get to know people and get taken for more rides. My first aerobatic experience happened around now when I was taken in a Christian Eagle.

Photograph above is thanks to Peter R March.

By the time I was twelve, I had developed the bug so badly that I wanted to start training for my Pilots License right then. You had to be 14 years old to log any flying time towards a license, and you couldn’t fly solo or get your license until you were 17 years old. So two years from then, I knew that I was going to start learning to fly gradually. I didn’t have any idea of how I was going to afford it, but I knew that I would find a way somehow.

During those two years, I took up flying RC model aircraft and joined a model aircraft club. I quite enjoyed this hobby while I kept it going. Having built most of the ones that I owned, I gained knowledge about basic aerodynamics, weight and balance etc which would help when it came to learning to fly real aircraft.

This photograph was of my little collection of model aircraft in the garden.

I was taught to fly on my RC model Cub at the Burbage Model Aircraft Club in the early 1990s.

A few selected members of the Burbage and Tamworth model aircraft clubs took up residence at the farm strip near my house, which was how I got involved with them in the first place. So then we started to have a weekend gathering of aero modellers and pilots. I used to get so excited for the weekends, to spend them at the field. Unfortunately, being a school age child amongst all adults, I was dis-regarded by two or three of them as not being of the same importance. Those particular members weren't around for long though and the tables certainly turned later on in life.

We used to hold various flying events where visiting pilots from all around would come in and land. The public would be invited to watch and have a picnic. We even organised some air show display items.

The video below is some footage from the event we had in 1994 where the Tiger Moth itself was displayed, followed by a Spitfire and a DC3.