MEET THE MEMBERS

High flyer…

We chat with Richard Ward, former North Sea oil rig pilot, long haul Dreamliner pilot and member of the Stampe Formation Display Team

Welcome Richard. Could you tell us something of your career please? I went to Sir John Deane’s Grammar School in Cheshire, where Mr Vernon, who ran the School Aeroclub, nurtured my growing interest in aviation, organising trips to airshows and museums. My first job in aviation was a summer job as assistant groundsman at Barton Aerodrome, working for the Lancashire Aeroclub where I got paid partly in cash and partly in flying, as I already had a PPL from the age of 17. Although I only ever wanted to fly, I listened to my parents’ advice and continued in education, ending up at Kingston Polytechnic doing aeronautical engineering. The only positive I took from Kingston was studying at Tom Sopwith’s old factory at Canbury Park, and I quickly discovered I was no engineer but, with a distinct lack of flying jobs in the early 1980s, I was accepted onto number 59 ATCO Cadet course and embarked on a brief career in air traffic control.

While waiting for the course to start, I worked for six months as ramp dispatcher with Servisair at Manchester. During the ATCO course, while struggling to come to grips with Approach Radar, I saw in the back of Flight International an offer of a sponsorship to CPL(H) with Bristow Helicopters, and two months later I began a long and happy association with Redhill Aerodrome when I started on course HP27 flying the Bell 47. One year on, and having met my future wife, Susie, I Above Richard Ward with the Renault powered Stampe, G-HJSS which he is custodian of since owner, John Smith, retired from flying aged 84 moved to Aberdeen with a shiny new CPL and converted to the AS332L Super Puma, or as Bristow called it, the Bristow Tiger. Having trained as a tower controller at Aberdeen, I was reunited with friends and colleagues, now on the other end of the microphone and spent four very happy years and 2,500 hours flying, until an opportunity to move into the fixed-wing market appeared in the shape of sponsored conversion at Oxford’s CSE aviation, courtesy of Air Europe. Six months later, AirEurope went into administration and in March 1991 I was on the dole with a mere 55 hours on a Fokker 100. Fortunately, this only lasted four weeks as I talked myself Into a job at Biggin Hill as an air traffic controller, bizarrely earning more than I had as a second officer in Air Europe, and supplementing my salary by flying helicopters freelance on my days off. At Biggin, I was known as ‘Gizza’, as in ‘Gizza’ job, and all the pestering finally paid dividends when I was hired as a Boeing 757 co-pilot by Air 2000.

And that brings the story up to date. Although I haven’t changed jobs in 28 years, the airline has morphed around me becoming First Choice Airways and then merging in 2008 to become Thomson, and now TUI Airways, and I am currently a TRE flying the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

What had originally sparked your interest in aviation?

I blame my father for taking me to see the film, The Battle of Britain and my uncle Frank who trained as a wireless operator and told stories of flying in the back of Ansons,

“I have been lucky enough to fly around 10 types of helicopter and 30 fixed-wing types”

and passed on old copies of the Aeroplane to me when I went to visit.

In what, where and when was your first flight?

My first flight would have been in the back of Cessna 172, G-ASSS, from Land’s End in 1976, but I wasn’t properly briefed about the age and pricing structure and couldn’t keep my mouth shut that I was 11, not 10 years old. The price went up at 11, and my dad couldn’t afford to take an 11-year-old flying and so I caused him great embarrassment and also missed out. Sorry dad… My actual first flight came two years later in a Sligsby T-21 Sedburgh glider from Sealand, near Chester, with the Air Training Corp. I remember leaving my stomach behind during the winch launch and the beautiful silence as the cable detached.

Where did you do your flight training?

I soloed a Sedburgh glider from Sealand at 16 and then, after passing my test in advance for the RAF, I was selected for a Flying Scholarship and was taught to fly by Barry Tempest at the Leicester Flying Club. I took seven hours to go solo two weeks after my 17th birthday, before I had started to learn to drive. My mum and dad were kind enough to pay for the extra eight hours flying needed to gain a PPL.

How many types and hours have you flown?

Above Flying the AS332L Super Puma for Bristow Helicopters in the North Sea oil fields – 99% boredom and 1% sheer terror! Most of these are on Boeings, with around 1,000 hours on light singles. I have been lucky enough to fly around 10 types of helicopter and 30 fixed-wing types.

Do you have a favourite and least favourite?

My favourite light aircraft would have to be the SV-4 Stampe. The controls are so light and effective with virtually perfect harmonisation. Compare this to the Tiger Moth, which it often gets mistaken for, and they are chalk and cheese. I genuinely believe there is no such thing as a ‘worst’ aircraft, as if it is that bad, it presents different challenges and thus becomes fun – depending on what you’re trying to do with it, of course.

What are your current and previously owned aeroplanes?

My first group owned aeroplanes were Piper Cubs, but for the last 20 years I have had a share in a Gipsy Major powered Stampe. Last November, John Smith, who retired from flying at 84, very kindly allowed me to become custodian of his Renault Stampe G-HJSS, and I am looking forward to getting to know her properly this summer.

How many hours did you have when you converted to helicopters?

I had around 70 hours when, at the age of 20 I started my helicopter conversion onto the Bell 47. The fact I had been flying taildraggers, and thus knew what to do with my feet, helped a great deal – and the ‘47 is still the only flying machine I have flown that cruises slower than a Cub!

What was a typical working day on the oil rigs like?

Flying on the North Sea typified the often-heard description of flying as 99% boredom with 1% sheer terror! The flying was varied and challenging due to the types of destinations and weather conditions but on occasion, regardless of how little experience you had, if the wind was from a certain direction that put the deck on your side, it was your landing, no matter how challenging it was. On check in, we would use a whizz wheel (no SkyDemon in those days) to calculate time to destination, alternate and fuel required, and then phone the available payload to the customer, who would then go about filling us up to the max with passengers and freight. Flight times ranged between 20 minutes to the Beatrice platform just offshore from Inverness, or four hours north to the Murchison in the East Shetland basin. If the winds were not favourable, then a stop off into Sumburgh was planned. While at Bristow, one of the most enjoyable and challenging tasks I was involved in was to ferry a Super Puma from Aberdeen to Dakar, in Bangladesh. It took us two weeks and gave me yarns to spin for the rest of my days!

It was emphasised what sort of environment we were flying in on 6 July 1988, when the Piper Alpha platform exploded with the loss of 167 lives. I flew that day, coming in on a day off to release another pilot to join in the search for survivors and we flew past the smoking wreckage for the next few months. The Piper was one of the rigs we looked after, and the radio operator used to provide traffic information to helicopters in the area using the call sign ‘PiperTraffic’.

I presume you had to commute to Aberdeen?

The rostering system at Bristow was superb as you would know what you were doing, earlies, middles or lates, for a Below Flying in the Stampe Display Team, something that gives Richard challenging flying and a great deal of fun and friendship

Bottom A flight that has kept Richard in dining out tales for many years – delivering a Super Puma from Scotland to Dakar in Bangladesh. It took two weeks. whole year in advance. The actual flight was allocated in the evening and you would ring a recorded message line prepared by ops after 1900 to find out where you were going, with whom and at what time. Sometimes, when the plan was fluid, the tape wouldn’t be finished until late, in which case you set your alarm and went in to be ready for airfield opening time at 0645. On occasion there was the opportunity to live and work offshore on the rigs, which would involve lots of flying in the morning and evening with little to do but watch telly, eat and play Uckers, a navalised version of Ludo, in between flights.

Why did you go fixed-wing?

Although I enjoyed my time with Bristow, when the opportunity to get a job with Air Europe (then the second largest scheduled carrier in the UK) came up, it was too good to turn down and I left in June 1990 to convert my CPL(H) to an (A). I later went to Amsterdam for six weeks to do the manufacturer’s conversion course onto the Fokker 100 feeder liner.

What routes do you mostly fly these days?

Having flown the magnificent 757 for 25 years, I am now on the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, an airliner that is perfectly designed and suited for its role as a long to ultra-long-haul airliner. The Dreamliner makes full use of digital technology from its electronic flight bag to its Heads up display and its digital fly by wire system. It is at home cruising at 43,000ft over the Atlantic Ocean at Mach 0.85 and it can keep this up for 12 hours or more. Having said that, it seems equally happy going to Mallorca on a Saturday morning, which we also do with it, as well as flying east to Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam and Mauritius.

How did you hear about the LAA?

I have always been aware of the PFA and subsequently the LAA, but as someone who is in awe of people who build aeroplanes, I have only recently needed the services of the LAA when we put our group-owned Stampe onto a permit. Because of this I have only been an LAA member for a year.

What has been your best aviation moment?

Where to start and how long have you got! Most recently, I flew an elderly gentleman in a Tiger Moth on a pleasure flight with Aero Legends, a superb company that flies warbird pleasure flights from Headcorn. My passenger was terminally ill and wanted to fly for one last time, having previously flown in a Tiger as an Air Cadet 70 years ago. I wasn’t hopeful that the weather would allow us to do much, but all his family and many friends were with him, so I agreed with them we would fly in the circuit and probably land after a couple of passes. As it was, we found a hole in the clouds and climbed into a sunlit amphitheatre where we ‘danced the skies on laughter silvered wings’ until it was time to go home. I think I let a small piece of dust into my goggles that found its way into my eye towards the end of that flight...

You are part of The Stampe Display Team – what does that involve?

I owe the Stampe team so much for all the enjoyment and the experience flying in a formation team has given me over the last three years. Whenever I asked at Redhill who could teach me Stampe aerobatics, the one name that

kept on coming up was Chris Jesson. After many years, we finally got to meet, and it has been a wonderful journey of laughter (at my flying!) and learning. Chris has been a patient and generous instructor and for the last two years I have been Number Two, on the right-hand side of a four-ship formation. Once the winter hibernation period is out of the way, we try to get together every couple of weeks for a full day’s practice, which involves talking through new manoeuvres, walking through the show and then flying the display three or four times. We fly in the overhead at Headcorn, so there is no shortage of ‘helpful debriefing’ provided by the members of the Headcorn Aviators Club, and anyone else that happens to be passing. But the most important thing about flying with any team is the camaraderie that comes from having total faith in the pilots around you. As well as Chris, Angus Buchanan, Bill Merry and Roger Bishop, all the team, make it a great place to be.

Do you have any aviation heroes?

I can’t mention any current pilots who are genuine heroes of mine as I would never hear the end of it, but if you fly a Stampe and enjoy aerobatics, your ‘go to’ hero is Neil Williams. It’s a cliché but I learned my early aerobatics by reading Neil Williams’ books, and when we are displaying, in my dreams we are the Rothmans from the 1970s.

Have you experienced any hairy aviation

moments?

I’ve had one or two, but the one I learned most from was 30 years ago in a Cub. I was flying at a farm strip called Insch, in Aberdeenshire. After a day’s instructing, I would take off, turn right 45 degrees and then at around 500ft roll left back towards the strip and pull with nothing on the ASI, to line up with the runway and beat up the field before heading for home. This one day, the owner had just bought a fuel bowser, so I took the opportunity to fill up to leave the strip with full tanks for the first time (you all know what’s coming next). My standard departure went well until during the descending turn the Cub dropped a wing, and at 200ft I rolled onto my back.

Fortunately, I was very current on the tailwheel and full forward stick and a boot of rudder instinctively righted us, whereas aileron would probably have killed us. I learned about flying from that, specifically weight and performance. As Max Stanley from Northrop once said, “The Piper Cub is the safest aeroplane in the world. It can just barely kill you!” Above Flying with Aero Legends at Headcorn, giving pleasure flights in their Tiger Moth and Harvard. Do you have an aircraft and vehicle wish list?

I have always wanted to fly the Super Constellation, specifically the L-1049A Starliner, and of course, the Spitfire. I was lucky enough to be given a flight in the back of Aero Legends two-seater T-9, Elisabeth, which just made me want the front seat even more!

Are there any aviation books you would recommend?

Ernest K Gann’s Fate is the Hunter and First Light by Geoffrey Wellum.

Do you have any non-aviation interests?

I like to cycle, run and play a little bit of squash and tennis when the flying allows. And if I’m off over a weekend in summer, I turn out for my village cricket team.

Any advice for fellow pilots?

Flying is such an individual thing the best advice I can think of is to get out there and find what it is you truly enjoy. Whether it is touring, aerobatics, vintage, modern or instructing, once you move beyond the first £200 cups of coffee trips, there is so much out there that is rewarding and challenging in this great pastime of ours. Oh, and if you’re heavy, don’t roll on too much bank with G at low altitude! ■