September 11: Food for thought September the 11th, 2001. None of us will ever forget the deep dark horror which penetrated all of our souls as we watched, with an intimacy only made possible by television, ordinary people going through an experience which rivalled the worst brutalities of all-out war.Read More →

I have a long-standing and highly respected friend called Tom. Our friendship goes back over twenty years. We served together in the Air Wing in Oman. Tom’s son Charlie is my Godson. WE KEEP IN TOUCH on a regular basis and normally see each other at least once a year.Read More →

I am now 60 years old, so I am out of Part 135 operations. However, there is still some fire left in the hearth and so there may still be some sparks which I could offer to the Part 121 side of the aviation industry, if required. IT WOULD BERead More →

Look at me Mummy, I’m up here. That’s where it all started…up there with my head stuck out of the top of a Beech tree. High enough to be beyond reach and low enough to be seen by Mummy and other jealous members of the congregation. A hint of danger..aRead More →

Aden in 1987 was like a crumbling museum of British Colonialism. The British Empire east of Suez had died some twenty years previously, with the arrival of the Russians, who had been invited by the ‘Front for the Liberation of Socialist South Yemen’, ‘FLOSSY’, for short, to fill the newly-vacatedRead More →

The DHC-5D Buffalo is a medium-weight, fixed-wing, two engined tactical transport aircraft. It can carry forty fully equipped paratroopers or a couple of 4x4s in the cabin and it can chuck them out of the back all in one go. THE BUFFALO HAS QUITE extraordinarily short takeoff and landing capabilityRead More →

The DHC-5D Buffalo is a medium-weight, fixed-wing, two engined tactical transport aircraft. It can carry forty fully equipped paratroopers or a couple of 4x4s in the cabin and it can chuck them out of the back all in one go. THE BUFFALO HAS QUITE extraordinarily short takeoff and landing (STOL)Read More →

“Did you truthfully buy your licence? Or did you earn it by working hard, gaining appropriate experience and then qualifying before an impartial board of examiners?” That’s one of the problems we’ve got in Africa today. During recent decades, the civil aviation authorities of many Third World countries have beenRead More →

It is reputed that the Pilatus PC-6 Turbo Porter was designed by a committee of six Swiss farmers to carry hay into the high Alps, so that they could keep their cattle up there for longer. They knew pretty well what a hay cart looked like but didn’t know muchRead More →