Growing up within a few miles of Biggin Hill Airfield, it was probably inevitable that I would spend much of my early teens as a cadet in the Air Training Corps. I was fortunate to gain my fixed wing PPL with the help of an RAF flying scholarship at Cinque Ports Flying Club, Lydd. However, while doing work experience at the Fleet Air Arm Museum, I got to sit in the back of a Lynx which was taking part in the Plymouth Air Display and the hour and a bit flight decided my mind that Helicopters was the way to go.
After gaining my CPLH at Trent Air Services Cranfield on the Bell 47, I joined Bond Helicopters in 1987 and stayed during the merger with CHC for 30 years, flying 2 Dauphin and 3 Puma variants, finishing on the EC225 prior to losing my medical. During those years I was an offshore SAR Captain and Line Trainer, clocking up 16,000 hours. I was also for a short time the Chair of the BALPA Helicopter Safety Committee and was especially pleased to be associated with the Committee during the development phase of TCAS II for helicopters. Since leaving CHC, I have spent a short time working at the Helideck Certification Agency before joining Babcock MCS Offshore as a Compliance Manager for Flight Operations and have since become Flight Data Monitoring Manager for the now Offshore Helicopter Services UK Ltd.