MEET THE MEMBERS

From ocean to sky…

This month we meet Ni Thomas, former Merchant Navy captain, and enthusiastic private pilot…

elcome Ni, can you tell us

Wabout your career?

You are perhaps asking yourselves, “Who is this geezer?” A ‘nobody’ is the answer. A simple, retired seafarer who likes flying. Who actually likes flying a lot, in fact.

I was born in Liverpool in 1947 to a sea captain dad, a teacher mum and an elder sister, Viv. Oh! And born along with a ‘hanger on’, a hitchhiker twin brother – who shall remain nameless in case fame goes to his head. We and the Hunts Cross Avenue Gang did all the ‘normal’ Scouser stuff – taking bikes, visiting old bomb craters, etc.

When I was 11, we moved south to live in the New Forest, and have never left it (habitation-wise). In 1964 I joined the Merchant Navy with the Esso Petroleum Company and my first ship – a 36 thousand tonner, aptly named Esso Salisbury – as a Navigation Officer Cadet. Following loads of sea time, exams, knot tying, star sights, meridian passes, cargo work and stuff, I worked my way up the ranks – 3rd Nav Officer (liked it), 2nd Nav Officer (hated it), Chief Officer (great job) and finally in January 1980, at aged 32, I was appointed Captain (loved it).

I sailed to loads of worldly ports in vessels from Above Ni with his RV-9A at home base, Bournemouth, note ‘plastic parrot’ bird scarer above rudder. 6,000tdwt up to 500,000tdwt. My favourite time at sea was undertaking lightning operations in Lyme Bay during the 1980s (if any of you were scooting over the Lyme Bay regions at that time, you’d have seen two large tankers ‘mating’ a few miles off Brixham). A Trinity House Pilot’s licence enabled me to pilot my ships into the Solent and Southampton Water.

In 1989-ish, the large multinational oil companies, Exxon (Esso), Shell, BP etc., had seen the light following a small incident you may have heard of, in Valdez, Alaska and, in consequence, commenced getting rid of their owned fleets by disposing of potential floating behemoths carrying loads and loads of liabilities. During this period, the Company asked me to come ashore and become the Nautical Advisor for the British fleet, followed eventually, for the Exxon International fleet. I did that for eight years, heading the Nautical Department.

The work was varied, with a broad spectrum of activities – inspections, new port developments in China, India, Singapore, Russia etc. Legal stuff, salvage, investigations, hazard risk and so on – a varied task with much travel (15 times across to Texas in one year).

I retired in 2000, set up my own company, and did another 12 years training seafarers and captains of all nationalities.

What started your interest in aviation?

My first urges regarding flight must have grown while I was watching the comings and goings through the fence at the old Speke Airport, Liverpool as a youngster. My next encounter with anything aeronautical was when reading the back pages of a magazine while trading up and down the east coast of the USA between Lake Maracaibo or Aruba and North America and Canada. There was a small advert in a magazine extolling the virtues of building your own gyrocopter and offering plans for $1. Never did buy them, but coincidentally, many years later, found me with a set of plans for a wooden one! I didn’t build it! But it kept me thinking about flying.

Like most people, career and a growing family kept aviation at bay for a few more years. Above Ni’s career has been associated with oil tankers, as a Captain and latterly a safety educator.

Above right One of Ni’s many US adventures, here over the meteor crater in Arizona..

Below Airborne in the RV, which he bought with the insurance from his gyrocopter.

In what, where and when was your first flight?

Finally, the bullet was bitten in early 1982 when, after I had stopped smoking, and as a result of such actions, my wife was more amenable to me throwing money away. On 7 July 1984, she allowed me to take a flying lesson at Bournemouth Flying Club.

That first flight (Cessna 152 G-BGLN) with BFC Instructor Jez Adamson, who eventually went on to fly the Cobham Falcon jets, had me hooked.

Training wasn’t totally ideal, as I had to take the lessons between my three-month voyages and short leaves. I passed the flight test (with the redoubtable Rufus Heald) after 39 hours, so I spent the last few hours doing some aerobatics. An IMC rating followed pretty soon afterwards during my next leave. I was now empowered to adventure forth and seek new lands unreachable by ship.

How many hours and types have you flown?

Total number of types flown isn’t many, 17 fixed-wing and two gyrocopters. Total hours to date is 4,970 hours of which 896 were IMC.

Do you have a favourite and ‘not-so-keenon’ type?

Difficult question as there wasn’t one I actively disliked, but if I had to choose, then I’d say the Piper Cherokee (140hp) was my least favourite type. I rented one in Palo Alto, California, and it just about wheezed itself up to the Columbia River and back.

A close runner up for favourite is my lovely old Grumman AA1 Yankee (G-BFOJ), which I owned for 26 years and flew for more than 3,000 very enjoyable hours. My favourite just has to be my RV-9A, which I bought in 2012, repainted in 2017 and have just re-panelled with loads of Garmin glass stuff… and I am now in the phase of asking myself, ‘What the blazes button did I just press?’

What aircraft have you owned?

I bought my first aircraft in 1986, the previously mentioned Grumman AA1-Yankee. It was sprightly, low powered, relatively cheap to run and an aircraft that meant you had to choose your airfields carefully. I wore it like a glove.

My second aircraft was a Calidus gyro. Again, as mentioned previously, my longing for a gyro was a long-standing desire. It didn’t disappoint.

I used to fly up to Old Sarum from Bournemouth in my AA1 for gyro lessons with the long-suffering Steve Boxall. I must admit, I wasn’t the best of pupils, but eventually, somehow, they gave me a gyro licence. I bought a brand new Calidus – and I loved it! Well, ‘loved’ is a bit strong, but I did enjoy it for 17 hours of flight before I had a serious accident in it at Shoreham in 2012.

During and after my hospitalisation and recovery, friends and family kept asking if I would carry on with the ‘gyrating’? I said, ‘Yes’. But I finally noticed the look on my wife’s face when she heard me say that. Prior to the accident, she hadn’t batted an eyelid and seemed to enjoy me having fun flying. Afterwards I could see that my wife would worry every time I stepped out of the door to go off flying the gyro.

So being a kind, caring hubby, I didn’t want to put her through that sort of anguish, so I followed her surprisingly encouraging suggestions and set my eyes on another fixed-wing. She was genuinely delighted by my choice, so I just had to buy one. Thus began my affair with the Van’s RV-9A. G-IINI was purchased with the insurance money gleaned from the pay-out from my deceased Calidus. A wonderful craft, seemingly well built by the original owner (I hope!) and a craft that will, I think, see me out.