It is a vicious rumor that I somehow came upon this
earth after the circus train derailed into the toxic waste dump. I
actually 'grew up' in Rainham, Kent, attending Parkwood Junior School
and Gillingham
Technical High School in the late seventies/early eighties. What
a cute kid. What happened?
I read physics at the
University of Warwick,
England. Spent most of my time as a member and sometime manager of the
Students' Union Technical Services Group providing lighting,
sound-systems, and general technical support for all university
concerts, balls, and discos. We operated one of the largest PA and
lighting rigs of any university in the UK, and we worked several hundred
bands, from REM to a Simply Red album launch, from Gary Glitter to
Motorhead. Also moonlighted as a nightclub disc jockey—DJ Dave Dynamite!
I came to America a week after college finished. After a
range of jobs—including exciting careers as a supermarket shelf stocker,
music store assistant manager, and car salesman—I learnt to fly at the
FlightSafety Academy,
Florida.
My first flying job was as number two reserve pilot for
the 'rock'n'roll air traffic patrol' in Raleigh, North Carolina. I
worked my way up to chief pilot there, and then moved on to become chief
flight instructor at
Spitfire Aviation, where I instructed military and foreign
students in various aircraft.
After that I flew the BAe-3101 for Northwest Airlink for
ten months, then moved up to American Eagle in 1994 where I flew the
Shorts 360, SAAB 340, ATR-42/ -72 and the Embraer EMB-135/-140/-145. In
2003 I was lucky enough to be hired at fast-growing major airline, where
I now fly the A320 as a captain.
In the past I have consulted for
ICAO as a member of a study
group revising international standards and recommended practices, but
now I have a home life. I'm now finishing a masters degree in
Aeronautical Science from ERAU
in my spare time.
Editor of a funny little book
Slipping the Surly Bonds: Great
Quotations on Flight, first published by McGraw-Hill in
1998, and
The Air Up There: More Great Quotations on Flight,
in 2003. Also wrote a chapter of the book
Silverbird: The American Airlines Story.
I live in Phoenix, Arizona. It's a dry heat.
Jogging, weight training, mountain biking, reading,
surfing, soaring, 'blading, living, loving, sharing, caring, doing,
being.
Contributing editor at
Airways magazine,
plus somehow slipped articles into magazines like Air Line Pilot,
Airliners, Aviation Consumer, Flight Training,
IFR, and Professional Pilot.
