Category Archives: Flying Professionals

Episode 48 – Mark Knowles – FISO at Barton Airport

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Nick Duriez and Mark Knowles, FISOs at Barton Airport

Nick Duriez and Mark Knowles, FISOs at Barton Airport

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.

The first thing I asked Mark to do was to tell me about Barton, or City Airport, Manchester as it’s often called, and to tell me the type of air traffic control it has.

Mark started by describing the aerodrome. It’s a grass airfield near to Manchester with 8 runways and they operate a Flight Information Service under the title Barton Information.

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Episode 47 – Typhoon Display Team – Part 2

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Eurofighter Typhoon at RAF Coningsby

Eurofighter Typhoon at RAF Coningsby

As promised, here’s the second episode from my visit, earlier this year, to RAF Coningsby and the Typhoon Display Team. I wanted to see inside the cockpit of the Typhoon and Flying Officer Gregor Ogston was kind enough to spend half an hour or so, explaining what all of the knobs, buttons and dials do. 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.
If you are REALLY interested in fast jets, and the Typhoon in particular, then this is the episode for you.

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Episode 44 – Typhoon Display Team – Part 1

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RAF Eurofighter Typhoon at Coningsby

RAF Eurofighter Typhoon at Coningsby

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.
I first wanted to hear a little about the base, here in Lincolnshire, so I asked Liam what exactly was the mission of RAF Coningsby.

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Episode 41 – Malcolm Howland – Thruster Air Services and Fly365

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Thruster T600 Sprint

Thruster T600 Sprint

On a recent trip to Lincolnshire I found myself at Wickenby Airfield, home to Thruster Microlights and Fly365 flying school. The man I’m here to talk to is Malcolm Howland who heads up the flying school and also works for Thruster.

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Episode 40 – Brian Cattle, from PPL to FI via CPL

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Brian Cattle at controls of Cougar GA7

Brian Cattle at controls of Cougar GA7

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.

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Episode 39 – North West Air Ambulance Service

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North West Air Ambulance EC 135 T2 Helicopter

North West Air Ambulance EC 135 T2 Helicopter

The North West Air Ambulance service has 2 helicopters. As you’ll hear in the podcast, one of them is based at Blackpool Airport and the other at City Airport, Manchester. For this episode of Flying Podcast I’m talking to Captain Marc Rowley, one of three pilots that fly the helicopters for the North West Air Ambulance service.

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Episode 36 – Sky Watch Civil Air Patrol

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Sky Watch Civil Air Patrol

Sky Watch Civil Air Patrol

During my visit to the Flying Show recently I caught up with an organisation I’ve been wanting to base an episode on for quite a while. A listener, Michael Womersley-Carter, had brought Sky Watch Civil Air Patrol to my attention some time back so I was keen to interview them at the NEC.
Tony Cowan MBE is Chairman of Sky Watch and kindly agreed to spare half an hour to chat about the organisation and about his own personal aviation story.

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Episode 35 – Flight Training in the USA – Angel City Flyers

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Flight Training in the USA

Flight Training in the USA

Oli went to LA to do his PPL training in late 2006. Like many of us that train in the UK he’d started and stopped due to the weather and lack of funds. So, when he’d saved up enough to get out to the USA to complete his training he took the plunge and went to California. The decision to go the Los Angeles was made easy by the fact that he had family out there so he could save on accommodation costs.

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Episode 32 – Peter Davies, a Career in Aviation

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Peter Davies

Peter Davies

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.

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Episode 31 – Becoming a Flying Instructor with Martin Hatton

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Martin Hatton of Ravenair

Martin Hatton of Ravenair

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. I was interested to find out what it takes to become a flying instructor and what is involved in getting a flying instructor rating.

My first question was `Why do people become flying instructors?’.
Martin replied that it’s mainly to build hours for a commercial career but there are people who actually have other jobs and wish to instruct in their spare time, or, like Martin, they just want to be a flying instructor. There is the added advantage that you get to fly for free and get paid for it.

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