Flying Podcast

As part of the build up to doing a round the world flight Jon Hilton told me that he wanted to fly his CT microlight to Canada and back. Jon set off in May of 2013 and went from the UK to the Faroes, Iceland, Greenland and on to Canada before turning around and doing the same thing in reverse. His entry in the log book in the tower stood out alongside the usual 'Sleaps, Caernarfons and Welshpools'. I'm sure the book has rarely seen an entry such as, 'Canada, via Wick'!

Cary Robins is the owner of American Aeronautics and his company markets weight and balance calculators. I wanted to find out why weight and balance is so important, about his company's products and about his flying career too.

A flight from London to Sydney, Australia in a PA28 by Andy Hardy and Sam Kidd. We discuss the planning that the guys have had to do prior to this epic flight adventure.

A trip to the Light Aircraft Association Rally to see what's new on the GA scene here in the UK. I talk to various aircraft manufacturers and importers including Grass Strip Aviation, Red-Air, Sprite Aviation, Dragon Aviation, The Light Aircraft Company and Swift Aviation.

An update on the Flying for Freedom project. As you'll remember from episode 63 the Fly2Pole expedition is endeavouring to get several disabled military personnel to the South Pole in microlight aircraft. So, when the Flying for Freedom team held a sponsor's open day a few weeks ago I popped down to Kemble for a bit of a catch-up.

A chat with many of the exhibitors at Popham. We talk to everyone from the SSDR manufacturers to the importers of some of the hottest hot-ships in the world of microlighting.

At the Flying Show last year I met a chap called John Laity on the P&M Aviation stand. John is one of the founders of Flying for Freedom which aims to train injured ex-servicemen to fly microlights as part of their rehabilitation into civilian life. In addition, Flying for Freedom are launching an expedition to the south pole where they'll be trying to get a team to fly flexwing microlights to the pole and back. I caught up with John via Skype recently, just after his return from the press launch at the Tower of London.

For today's episode I travelled down to Derby Aero Club to meet Martin Jones. Martin is the owner of the airfield and is also proprietor of Airspeed Aviation. My reason for the visit though was to have a chat to Martin about the restoration project that he's undertaking. His labour of love is a 1934 de Havilland Comet DH88 - G-ACSP - a so called Comet Racer. The aircraft was originally built by de Havilland for the England to Australia, 'MacRobertson' Air Race.

An interview with BMAA Chairman, David Bremner. David explains what the organisation does and how it works to promote and regulate microlighting in the UK.

A visit to The Flying Show at the NEC with interviews with Breezer UK, The Light Aircraft Company, Dave Sykes, GASCo and lastly, The Airspace and Safety Initiative.

Today we're up in the English Lake District talking gyrocopters with Andrew Lysser of Cumbria Gyroplanes. It's been a while since we discussed the world of gyrocopters so I took this opportunity to get an update from Andrew.

Jon Hilton is an adventurous pilot, currently flying a CTSW out of Barton Airport, Manchester. Having read a couple of Jon’s reports in the BMAA’s monthly magazine he sounded like a prime candidate to appear on the Podcast. He started out completing his PPL in the USA, in his early twenties, and went on to get his night, multi and IMC ratings. After taking a break from flying Jon came back to aviation but this time chose to fly microlights, buying a CTSW a couple of years ago.

We're talking to Chris Walsh today, ATCO at Manchester International Airport. We had lots of questions for Chris, sent in by podcast listeners. So if you'd like to know about what it's like to be an air traffic controller, how to become one, how they cope with the A380 and what their attitude is towards us GA pilots, then have a listen.

For today's episode of Flying Podcast I went down to AeroExpo at Sywell Aerodrome in Northamptonshire. I had a wander round to see which exhibitors had something interesting on offer and got chatting to a fair few of them. I went down on the Friday and although there were a fair few people in attendance most exhibitors had plenty of time to spend with anyone with an interest in their products. I have interviews recorded with: Conair Sports, Cosmik Aviation, Czech Air Sports, Sky Demon, Tecnam UK, Jasta Binks Aviation and Beaver UK.

On today's Flying Podcast we've got a pilot from 'down under'. That's Owen Zupp. A couple of years ago, Owen flew a single engine light aircraft around Australia. I remember hearing about Owen's exploits on the great Australian aviation podcast Plane Crazy Down Under so when Owen contacted me offering to come on to the podcast I jumped at the opportunity.

A few years back, when the RAF was disposing of its fleet of Victors, Andre Tempest put in a sealed bid and found himself the owner of a full sized V-bomber, designed to deliver the UK's nuclear deterrent to somewhere in the Soviet Union. I was interested in hearing why anybody would want to own their own Victor so, on a brilliantly sunny, spring day, I went to visit Andre and 'Lusty Lindy', as the aircraft is known, at Elvington, near York.

To get a broader appreciation of what the Light Aircraft Association does I was pointed in the direction of Brian Hope, editor of the LAA's magazine 'Light Aviation'. We discuss everything about the LAA from its history, through the development of aeroplane kits right up to the forthcoming LAA rally at Sywell.

I'm joined by Mark Finney on the podcast. Mark is the Chief Pilot for the Goodyear Blimp, 'Spirit of Safety' here in the UK.

Today I’m off down to Turweston Aerodrome to meet Andy Draper of the Light Aircraft Association. Andy is the design engineer with the LAA and having joined from kitplane company, Europa, he now looks after the modification work for LAA aircraft but also oversees the ongoing airworthiness of all the approved types. I was interested in finding out what the process was for building your own aircraft so who better to ask than Andy. If you recognize Andy’s photo on the web site that’s because he was involved in the TV show ‘A Plane Is Born’ some years ago, helping Mark Evans build his Europa kit plane.

A chat with Duncan Armstrong, fellow aviator from Barton Aerodrome. We always enjoy chatting about our learning experiences so I thought it would make an interesting podcast discussing what we learned during our flight training and in the years afterwards. We talk about what we found difficult, what made us worry, things that amused us and even things that scared us.

I was contacted by some folks from Wakatipu Aero Club, down there in New Zealand, saying that they’d like to appear on the Podcast. One of their instructors is a chap called Alex Turnbull. He is originally from Morpeth in the North East of the UK and has travelled all the way to the other side of the world to pursue his dream of flying GA in a really interesting and challenging environment.

Today I’m visiting my old stomping ground of Barton Aerodrome to talk to one of the guys in the control tower. The chap that’s featuring on the podcast is Mark Knowles and if you've ever landed or taken off from Barton chances are you will have spoken to Mark at some point. Mark is a Flight Information Service Officer at the airport and I was interested to hear what the role of a FISO was in particular at a busy licensed aerodrome like Barton.

A Typhoon pilot and engineer give me a close up description of the aircraft. Flying Officer Gregor Ogston was kind enough to spend half an hour or so, explaining what all of the knobs, buttons and dials do inside the cockpit. Gregor also explains what the ejection sequence is, which is fascinating to listen to. Following the look inside the aircraft Liam Whelan, the display engineer manager, and Gregor took me round the outside of the aircraft.

An interview with Scott Beaver who plans to fly around the world. We talk about his flying experiences to date and what's involved in planning for his global adventure.

As promised, here’s the interview with Syd Marshall. Syd is a volunteer guide at the Battle of Britain memorial Flight museum, and what a great interview it turned out to be. I wasn’t expecting to meet a WW2 Lancaster crew member so it was not only a pleasant surprise, for me, but Syd had some great stories to tell about his time as a flight engineer on Lancaster bombers.

At the invitation of RAF Coningsby, today I’m visiting the Typhoon Display Team to find out what it’s like to fly the Typhoon and to get a taste of what it takes to put together the superb Typhoon display. The 2 members of the team that I’m talking to are: Flying Officer Gregor Ogston who is the display team manager and Sergeant Liam Whelan the Typhoon display engineer manager.

An interview with several of the staff at the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight based at RAF Coningsby. I spoke with Yvonne Masters, the PR Officer and a couple of the engineers lucky enough to work on the Spitfires, Hurricanes, Lancaster, Dakota and Chipmunks.

Continuing with the Lincolnshire theme, today I'm at Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre. The centre is home to several WWII aircraft, most notably a Lancaster bomber and a Dakota; both of which are available for taxi rides. I started my podcast interview with Andrew Panton who runs the museum and concluded with a chat with Paddy Green, owner of the resident Dakota.

An interview with Malcolm Howland who runs Fly365 Flying School and also works for Thruster Microlights, both based at Wickenby Airfield in Lincolnshire. We talk about the history of the Thruster from its early days in Australia right up to the present day with manufacturing of new aircraft on the airfield. Malcolm also tells me about his flying career and what brought him to be a flying instructor and what part he has played in the Thruster story.

Today I'm visiting Sherburn Airfield in Yorkshire to meet a fellow pilot, Brian Cattle. Brian is a very keen aviator and has been flying privately for quite a few years now. Dedicated and passionate flyers are always welcome on the podcast so I'm glad to say Brian's agreed to come on the podcast to share the experiences of his flight training from PPL to CPL and on to Flying Instructor.

An interview with Captain Marc Rowley, a pilot with the North West Air Ambulance service. Marc tells me about how the charity air ambulance works and what it's like to fly helicopters for such an important emergency service.

A chat with Rob Hart from Sky Demon. Sky Demon started out by developing VFR flight planning software and have since brought out their own aviation GPS unit. The flight planning software first caught my eye due to the quality of their charts which, I'm told, are built using adaptive vectors. That means that the detail on the map is always extremely clear no matter what level of zoom you are using. The main driver behind the product's development is to present all relevant data to the pilot in as clear a way as possible and this they have accomplished well. Even NOTAM and weather briefing information is presented both in text form and graphically on the charts in a simple straightforward fashion.

An interview with William Moore of Airbox Aerospace. William describes his Aware and Aware Plus GPS units. The Aware GPS device was developed in association with NATS to help reduce the number of controlled airspace infringements in the UK.

An interview with Tony Cowan MBE, Chairman of Sky Watch Civil Air Patrol. Sky Watch is an all volunteer charity consisting of pilots, observers and groundcrew. They work alongside the country's police and search and rescue organisations acting as aerial observers in emergency situations.

By way of a follow up to episode 33 I'm interviewing another UK pilot that chose to go the USA to do his flight training. This episode features Oli Cooper who chose a flight training school at Long Beach Airport and that's Angel City Flyers. Oli tells us about his experiences of fininshing off his PPL training in the US and how going for an FAA license affected his flying back in the UK.

This episode of Flying Podcast features Steve Bridgewater, Commercial Director at Air Atlantique’s Classic Flight. Classic Flight do a superb job of keeping some classic old British Aircraft in airworthy condition. They have recently opened ‘Airbase’ at Coventry Airport. Airbase is not a museum in the conventional sense but more a working hangar that allows visitors to go and have a look around. In addition they also offer pleasure flights in several of their aircraft.

Episode 33 of Flying Podcast features a fellow Barton flyer called Dave Crozier who trained in the US some time back. My first question for Dave was ‘what was your experience of flight training in the USA?’ His response was that he'd been struggling to get his PPL completed over here in the UK. The weather in England was conspiring to prevent him getting his flying licence so he decided to go over to the US to complete his training. After a great deal of research, Dave chose UK Flight Training of Long Beach in California. He chose California due to the predicted better weather and with 360 flying days a year who could argue.

Episode 32 of Flying Podcast sees me back up to York to interview Peter Davies. Peter is an instructor on gyrocopters for the Gyrocopter Experience. He currently runs their Preston franchise. Quite by chance, when I was reading about gyrocopters I came across Peter’s name and I was fascinated to read about his experiences in the world of aviation. His flying pedigree goes way back to the early days of hang gliding and microlighting here in the UK and so I thought he’d make a good candidate to appear on the podcast.

I was interested to find out what it takes to become a flying instructor and what is involved in getting a flying instructor rating. For episode 31 of Flying Podcast I’m talking Martin Hatton. Martin spends much of his time training flying instructors for Ravenair, based at Liverpool Airport and City Airport, Manchester.

Craig is at the point in his flying career where he’s about to launch into training for the ATPL and he’s trying to decide where to do his ATPL groundschool studies and the CPL/IR flight training. He thought that the decision making process that he’s going through would make for an interesting podcast.

In this the third and final part of the DHFS podcasts I’m interviewing Flight Lieutenant Stu Walker. Stu invited me down to RAF Shawbury, arranged my visit and the interviews with the various personnel on the base. Stu’s story is quite an interesting one and so I thought it would make a good stand-alone podcast in its own right. In this interview Stu tells me how he wanted to join the RAF from an early age. Initially his aim was to become a front-line fighter pilot but you can hear how his military career progressed through flight training, flying Nimrods, doing a masters degree is Aero Systems, working in the Flight Information Publications department and then on to flying helicopters.

Today I’m talking to Paul Hutchings, Chief Pilot for Thomas Cook Airlines. I’ve had a lot of questions from listeners about becoming a commercial pilot so who better to talk to than the chief pilot of one of the country’s largest charter airline fleets. I was interested to hear what qualities they look for in potential new recruits and I was particularly interested in their Cadet Training Scheme for ab-initio pilots.

In the second part of the DHFS podcasts I interview Squadron Leader Jason Bowes and Master Aircrew Graeme Longmuir. They’re both from 60 Squadron, responsible for training pilots and crewmen on multi engine helicopters at RAF Shawbury. I also talk to a couple of RAF students; Flight Lieutenants Keith Lam and Becky Corrigan and also to Corporal Neil Moncur, head of Flight Planning and lastly to Paul Gresty of the Met Office.

The Defence Helicopter Flying School is where military helicopter pilots and crewmen for all of the UK's armed forces are trained. In this the first of 3 episodes on the Defence Helicopter Flying School I'm talking to the Commandant, Group Captain Jock Brown, who gives me an overview of the unit which is based at RAF Shawbury. Also in this episode I interview the squadron leaders of the 2 squadrons that teach single engine helicopter flying, both basic and advanced, here at the DHFS.

Today I’m visiting London Gliding Club near Dunstable talking to Adrian Hobbs, a Basic Instructor at LGC all about gliding. In this episode Adrian tells us pretty much everything we might need to know about learning to fly a glider. He explains how London Gliding Club operates and what you can expect when you come to LGC to fly a glider, either on a trial flight or a longer gliding course.

In this episode of Flying Podcast, I'm talking with Ted Moore of European Balloons. European Balloons operate commercial hot-air balloon flights in the Home Counties from their base in Great Missenden. The purpose of this interview was to find out more about hot-air ballooning. How do you get into it? What qualifications do you need? What sorts of balloons are there? How do you learn to fly a hot air balloon? Etc etc.

Today I’m talking to Claire Hatton. Claire is a Commercial and Instrument Rating Instructor with Ravenair, based mainly at Liverpool, John Lennon Airport. Way back in episode 3 we discussed flight training for the PPL so I thought it probably a good idea to find out a little more about what’s involved in more advanced ratings and licenses such as the IMC, Multi engine, IR and CPL. So if you have any interest in improving your flying or want to get into commercial aviation, have a listen to what Claire has to say.

Following on from my chat with Mike Miller-Smith of the BDFA, today I’m talking to one of the pilots that has trained with them. Arthur Williams broke his back in a car accident in 2007 leaving him paralised from the waist down. At the time he was serving with the Royal Marines and as you could imagine, he lead a very active life. He left the army in 2009 and decided that disability wouldn’t stop him becoming a pilot and, with the aid of the British Disabled Flying Association, that’s just what he’s been able to do. Following his trial flight he went solo after only 9 hours and since then he’s gone on to gain his National Private Pilot’s Licence.

In episode 21 of Flying Podcast today, I’m talking to Nick Forder, Transport Curator at Manchester’s Museum of Science and Industry. Nick has a superb insight into the history of AVRO aviation and how that was inextricably linked with the history of aviation in the Manchester area. The interview with Nick takes place in the Air & Space Hall, hence the sound of happy children in the background. As we wandered around the collection Nick describes the AVRO aeroplanes and the part they played in powered flight over the last century. After speaking to Nick I talk to Peter Teagle, volunteer at the museum and ex Assistant Chief Designer at Avro in Woodford about the replica Type F Avro aircraft being built by him and his team.

Today I’m talking to Mike Miller-Smith from the British Disabled Flying Association. The BDFA is a registered charity which provides 'experience of a lifetime' trial flying lessons for as many terminally ill & disabled people as possible every year. They also offer subsidised flying days for other disability charities and at cost instruction & qualification flight training to BDFA members.

In this episode of Flying Podcast I talk to Judith Mole and Geoff Minshull who fly hang gliders and paragliders for pleasure. In this podcast they tell us about why they have chosen to fly these particular sorts of aircraft and what is involved in learning to fly. We also discuss the equipment required and where to fly from. Judith and Geoff have been flying hang gliders and paragliders for some years now. They were attracted by the sense of freedom to be had flying flying long distances without any form of power. They mainly fly from the Long Mynd during the British summer but spend their winters over in Spain where they can continue to fly when the weather over in the UK prevents many forms of flying.