Words: Kirsten Corrigan Photos: Dave Spurdens

Q| When did you decide that you wanted flying to become a career?
A| It all hinged on a trial lesson my wife bought me. I loved it so much that I went straight out and visited half a dozen schools and settled on Sloane. It took a year to get my PPL, back in 1998 and I’ve logged 2500 hours since then, mostly instructing. I made my mind up halfway through my PPL that if there was any way to get paid for flying, then it would be a good way of doing things.

Q| How do you find instructing?
A| It’s absolutely brilliant. You meet so many people and learn very quickly how to put information across and generally juggle a lot of balls. You really get to know students because you spend so much time together. Initially the learning curve for student pilots is incredibly steep. That’s where the psychologist bit comes in as we have to read the signs to make sure they’re taking it all in.

Q| Best and worst parts of the job?
A| The best part is defi nitely the people and of course the flying! The worst – the weekend work and when the weather is bad. We’re a lot luckier than the fixed-wing lads, though, as we can do manoeuvres with a low cloud base. We tease them when we’re buzzing around the airfield!

Q| What interesting locations have you flown to?
A| The best experiences are the social trips. Sloane has a base in Majorca and we took eight aircraft across a year ago, stopping every few hours to refuel. We’ve also fl own to Amsterdam, France, Scotland, Ireland... all over the place.

Q| What’s next for you?
A| A twin-engine conversion later this year so I can fly the Agusta 109 commercially. We’re a distributor for Agusta so eventually I should be able to instruct in that too, but it’s more for the commercial guys than private. The business aviation side has really taken off for helicopters. We’re setting up a base in Ireland at Dublin’s Weston Airport with an engineering department and sales office. If you meet any builders in Ireland they all seem to want a helicopter!

Q| What’s your ultimate job?
A| The end goal has always been to work for the Air Ambulance Service.

Q| Do you fly for fun?
A| Not much these days. I tend to fly as a safety pilot; people want a bit of post-ab initio training. But it’s nice to take the family out fl ying every now and then, and I’d like it if one of my daughters took up flying.

Q| Other interests?
A| I’m into motorsports, rallying and off -roading, but the kids coming along put the kibosh on that one! And as I’m getting older I’m going down the DIY route, doing up old houses.

Q| Any advice for budding heli instructors?
A| Make sure you have a backup career. Once you’re in it’s good, but getting your foot in is the key.

Q| What do you think colleagues would say about you?
A| That I can’t hold my drink!