Dreams can come true…

Where did your interest in aviation begin?

Like many 1970s kids I was obsessed with Star Wars. I had the toys, the posters, in fact a whole bedroom devoted to it. The first thing I ever wanted to fly was a X-Wing fighter, with the Millennium Falcon a close second. But by the age of eight this had become slightly more realistic, and the posters had changed to Spitfires and other warbirds.

My dad died when I was young, and my mum was always struggling for money. But for my 13th birthday, in 1986, she surprised me with a trial lesson – it cost £10! It was a Cessna 152 out of Cranfield. From that moment on, I never wanted to do anything else.

Tell us about how you learned to fly

After my trial lesson I became the flying school weekend ‘gofer’. I washed aeroplanes, answered the telephone, and did any odd jobs. In return I got ‘paid’ in flying, usually ferry flights and other non-revenue stuff, and by the time I was 17 I had about 70-80 hours. I skipped school the week of my 17th birthday, soloed, and then completed the required 10 hours PIC for a licence.

I started an aeronautical engineering degree, but very quickly realised it was maths, maths and more maths, until finally a thermodynamics lecture pushed me over the edge. So I walked into a Nat West bank and asked for a loan to become a helicopter pilot. It wasn’t a straight ‘no’, but the bank asked for a business plan, so I drew one up. Basically it consisted of ‘you lend me the money and I promise to pay you back’. I was 19, with only a Vauxhall Nova to my name. My mum put her house up as security, and I was loaned £45,000. Different times, indeed!

The 45k was spent in six months and I became a baby Robinson R22 flying instructor. The little Robinson is a great machine and fantastic fun to fly. I spent seven years teaching on them, and if I was ever to become a Kermit Weeks-like character with a huge warbird and flying machine collection, there would always be an R22 in the corner.

Above left First job as a Robinson R22 flying instructor.

Above right Neil says flying HEMS was challenging and very rewarding flying.

Below right In the cockpit of the Agusta 109

Right place, right time, worked for me, and at the turn of the millennium I started flying HEMS Air Ambulances. It’s still the most rewarding flying I’ve done. Initially, operating very tired Bolkow 105s before moving to the lovely Agusta 109, HEMS was a great Job. The ‘Bat phone’ would ring, and we would scramble to get airborne. Within minutes you were landing in a town centre, next to a motorway, or some rural location. Serious road traffic accidents were about 50% of our work. The flying was fantastic, plus I was very interested in the medicine. We worked as a team. The medics assisted me with the flying, navigating and site selection. I helped the doctors and paramedics on scene. I’ve seen some truly terrible things, but there are lots of people still around today as a direct result of what we did. I’m very proud of those days.

I was never going to leave HEMS, then 15 years ago a very rich chap invited me to fly his personal helicopter and his baby Citation Jet. The jet sounded exciting, so I sadly hung up my orange flight suit for a shirt and tie.

Corporate jets are very different, but I’ve always loved the variety and challenging destinations. I progressed through Citations, the Hawker 125, Global Express, and now fly the beautiful Dassault Falcon 7x. The sectors get longer, you need a bigger suitcase, but it’s the rich, famous, and oddball passengers that make it interesting.

Operating out of African jungle strips, alpine airfields and then flying transatlantic using major airport hubs, has kept the flying varied and the interest level up. The Falcon can fly for over 12 hours. On average, a HEMS flight was six minutes.

Always in the background of my flying has been vintage, tailwheel and aerobatics. Initially aerobatic competitions and church fete air displays in Pitts Specials, and some wing walking Stearmans… but I always dreamed of warbirds.

Having experience on a variety of types was a good stepping stone. The Pitts is a great apprenticeship for warbirds as it has no desire to go straight after landing.

Equally a Robinson always wants to point at something, it’s just something the poor peddling pilot has no wish to see. But both flying machines are good at getting the feet dancing. A Harvard is good at learning 1930s systems and engines. and appreciating the mass of these vintage machines, the ‘view’ from the back is a bit of an oxymoron.

People ask me if it’s difficult to fly a warbird. It’s nothing compared to convincing someone that they should let you loose with their machine. The latter is nearly impossible.

But after flying for 33 years, creating a CV of suitable types, working on display authorisations, and keeping my nose relatively clean, plus doing the all-important networking, I was placed in the front of a Spitfire TR9 to see if I was worthy of that elusive seat. Fortunately, dreams can come true, and I was asked to join Boultbee Flight Academy as one of their Spitfire TR9 pilots. Now rebranded as Spitfires.com we operate two two-seat Spitfire TR9s and two single-seaters. I never made that X-Wing fighter, but I think the eight-year-old me would still be very happy!

How long have you been an LAA member?

I think I joined around 1990-ish, back in the Popular Flying Association days.

How many types of aircraft and hours have you flown?

There have been 70-80 types, not counting variants and I’m approaching 15,000 hours. Those hours are now evenly split between helicopters and fixed-wing.

Any favourite or less liked types that you’ve flown?

Far too many to mention, but in the world of small aeroplanes you can’t beat a single-seat Pitts Special for just sheer fun flying. It’s a naughty little thing – and a ‘hooligan’s mount’ – but amazing fun to fly. I remember reading an article that Brian Lecomber had written saying it was the type he’d still be dreaming about when he finally ended up in a nursing home.

Of the helicopters, the Agusta 109 just looks beautiful, plus they are fast and have reassuring single engine performance. I flew plenty of HEMS and police operations in these – chasing stolen cars in a 150kt helicopter is fun!

In the world of bizjets, the Hawker Siddeley HS-125 handles like a Chipmunk, but with two jet engines. Hard to believe, but it really does.

The Spitfire is just iconic and really has the sweetest handling. The Merlin powerplant is the stuff of dreams. Need I go on?

My least favourite? It would be a tie between a Bombardier Global Express and a Falke motor glider…

Top left The Pitts was mostly built in a single garage underneath a town house.

Top right Raven wings for the Pitts clearly showing the increased aileron size.

Above With construction complete, the Pitts heads for paint.

Tell us about the aeroplanes you’ve owned I was part of a group that built a Rans S10 Sakota from a kit in the early 1990s. I learned a lot from building and flying it, and at the time it was an amazing machine. I did fly another very tatty one a few years later, which sadly slightly tarnished the memories – this one had very stiff ailerons, and I think ours was much better.

My Pitts S1S was built from plans. Dave Almey at Skycraft welded up the fuselage. I fitted all the systems and controls, plus I built the wings. I started it in 1997, then there was a 10-year hiatus in the middle, and it eventually flew in 2012.

It’s modified from the standard S1S. The wings are a kit from Raven Aircraft in Canada. The ailerons are much bigger and are hinged at 30% chord to make them lighter to operate. The aerofoil sections are changed, and the structure is beefed up to cope with the larger roll forces. LAA Engineering was great at helping to get this new wing design approved. I covered the aircraft using the Stewart System, which I found easy to work with. It was all inspected and cleared to fly by Dave Bland. I did the first flight, which was an amazing experience, but always with that ‘what have I forgotten’ thought in the back of my mind!

My Covid lockdown project has been restoring a rather tired SNJ-5 (Harvard). It’s been a nut and bolt upwards project and it’s currently in that ‘90% complete’ / ‘90% to go’ situation. If I could get some spare time, I’d like to get it flying this year. It’s a hugely different task to building a kit aircraft, with so much time spent researching old drawings and sourcing spare parts. It’s also a big leap in complexity, with hydraulic and other systems. That said, I find building and restoring aeroplanes fascinating. I’m in awe of the true craftsmen who can make the impossible look perfect. At my engineering ‘pleb’ level it’s a great learning experience.

My latest project is a Van’s Aircraft RV-8 quickbuild. The ambition there is to build it lightweight yet keep it capable of being an IFR / night tourer. It needs some more attention pointed in its direction, but one day when it’s done, I’d love to fly it to Oshkosh.

You’ve just taken over as the Chief pilot of Spitfires.com? What’s it like to lead that operation?

We have a great team based out of Goodwood and we all share the passion for operating these warbirds – every time I roll open the hangar doors is a ‘pinch yourself, I must be dreaming’ moment.

We flew more than 1,000 passengers last year and I love sharing the experience with people. We can tailor the flight to what each passenger wants. Some want aerobatics, some sight-seeing, and if you’re a pilot we can make it nearly all hands-on flying. But everyone is there for the iconic outline, noise, and nostalgia. To all LAA members – give us a call. It would be great to share it with you.

Taking over this year as Chief pilot is a real honour – they are some big shoes to try and fill. Besides the flying, the job is mostly paperwork to ensure the CAA remains happy.

Do you enjoy the display flying you do?

There is no hiding the fact that display flying is great fun, but with it comes huge responsibility. Increasingly, more rules and regulations are being implemented, which makes life more complicated. But it’s still about being safe, looking after the aeroplane, and only then trying to impress the crowd. A single Pitts must be thrashed around the heavens to encourage a spectator to look up from their ice cream, whereas a Spitfire just needs a top side pass.

Competition Aerobatics proved to be a great way to get started in the display world. Starting high and gently coming down as you advance up the levels. Learning how to position an aircraft for the judges, and coping with strong winds to keep the flight centred on the crowd, are all great transferable skills.

Your best aviation moment and flight – and why?

I’ve been very fortunate to have had a great aviation career so far, all the big solos are big moments. The first time you fly something new and exciting is always great. Some of the big ‘saves’ on the air ambulance I look back fondly on. We had a chap once who was dredging a lake with a big JCB, the bank collapsed, and the digger fell in. He was trapped and essentially drowned. We were nearby in the old Bolkow 105 and got diverted to this job, and we were there within two to three minutes of the 999 call. It was winter, the water freezing, and we dragged this poor chap out. He had no pulse and no signs of life. After a few minutes of advanced life support a weak pulse was regained and he started breathing. We quickly loaded him in the heli and flew him to hospital. He went home four days later perfectly serviceable. He would visit us every year at this anniversary and bring us all beer. Nice guy.

Equally there were plenty of sad endings, I tend to not remember the deceased. But I often think of the children, parents, husbands, and wives who will always remember me and the crew inside their worst memories.

Any aviation heroes?

Neil Armstrong or any of those Apollo astronauts. Can you imagine the pressure, hand flying a new machine to another celestial body?

Apollo 11 touched down with 20 seconds of fuel left, and then they didn’t even know if the thing would start again. Amazing!

Any favourite aviation books?

The Aircraft Spruce & Speciality catalogue.

Do you have any ‘fantasy hangar’ aircraft or vehicles that you’d love to own/try?

A wander around Oshkosh will generate a list for this, and every year you will see something new to add. But if you had to choose a few.

A lovely J3 Cub for a summer evening pootle around, A Huey helicopter for collecting all your mates. I’d love to have a go in a big American radial warbird but, as we are dreaming, a Focke-Wulf 190!

Top It’s hard to beat a Pitts Special for fun per pound spent!

Above left The view from the front cockpit of a Spitfire TR9

Above right Neil’s Covid lockdown project was restoring a SNJ-5. He’s nearly finished it.

Do you have non-aviation hobbies?

I don’t really have any time for anything else. But we have just bought a new house in Oxfordshire and I find myself currently discussing subtle differences in yellows or bathroom furniture. Our 2½ year old Labradoodle, Chewie (Star Wars again…) is good fun and is now firmly established as an airfield dog.

Advice for other aircraft owners/ pilots?

If you love flying and you really want a career in aviation, then even in the hardest moments it never feels like a job. Do it! ■