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Why
would you want to know about me ? - I give up, but I have added this
page as some people have asked for more information about me.
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The
picture on the right shows me with my wife Olwen and my two grandsons in
2009.
I
was born way back in 1944 in St Annes on Sea, Blackpool, Lancs, the son of a
soldier serving in the Regular Army, but moved to Egypt when I was three
years old as my father had been posted there.
I
learned to speak French while in Egypt as I went to French convent
school, so had no options really.
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I
then returned to the UK, and over my formative years until I was 11 we
moved around to different army bases around the world, my father being
reposted about every 9 months or so, so I had a pretty mixed up
schooling.
I
managed to get my 11 plus exam despite this, and ended up for the whole
of my secondary school career at a school known as Lord Williams's
School in Thame, Oxon.
I
got my "O" and "A" levels, and also as a member of
the RAF section of the Combined Cadet Force at the school, I was awarded
a flying scholarship, which resulted in the RAF paying for me to learn
to fly at the Oxford Flying School back in 1960. I learned to fly on
those wonderful old string and cloth Tiger Moths, and had to qualify
within 30 hours of flying, which happily I did. As a side comment,
I got my PPL on my 16th birthday, which is as young as you can be, so I
am still ONE of the few people who can say they have held a pilots
license for as long a period as they possibly could, and it is still
true today that nobody can qualify for a PPL at a younger age.
That
was the start of my love affair with aviation of all types, which is a
love I still have today just as strongly as way back then. Over the
years I have managed to amass around 1500+ hours P1 time on
various types of single engined General Aviation aircraft, and have even
got a couple of hundred hours logged as a parachute drop pilot, throwing
both students and experience jumpers out from heights anywhere between
3000 feet and 12,500 feet. I also flew various parachute
demonstrations flights, and several professional photo sorties around
the Cornish coast.
I
spent some time in the forces myself, and on leaving, I went into motor
engineering, ending up running my own garage and also a business
building various types of competition cars from Rally cars through
AutoCross, RallyCross, and even circuit racing, which were mostly saloon
style racing cars.
Quite
naturally as a result of this, and to generate new business, I raced
some cars myself, in all the forms of racing mentioned above, and was
reasonably successful over several years until the costs became totally
prohibitive.
Sadly,
that stage of my life ended after a supposedly simple operation on my
feet went wrong at St Bartholomews hospital in London, leaving me in a
wheelchair for about 6 years. I finally managed to get the
operation redone, and as a result of that second operation, I was able
to leave the wheelchair behind me.
However,
during the time I was in that unenviable position, I went back to
college/University at 40 years of age, and got myself a degree in
computer science, as this was something I could do despite being in the
wheelchair at that time.
That
led to me joining an American software company called Ashton-Tate at the
age of 39, and over a few years with them I worked my way up to
European Technical Director. This company developed and sold the
well known (then) dBase database system that was actually first invented
to power the computers on the original NASA Mars probes....
This was the time I first tried flying RC helicopters, starting with a
Kalt Baron gasser that was definitely overkill, but great fun to learn
on. I built my fleet up slowly by adding a Concept 30 nitro, plus
a Schluter 60 nitro that ended up in a large (very) Bell Long Ranger
fuselage.
Back
then we had little notion of how to set a helicopter up, so I
guess we were just lucky basically, as we managed to get them to fly
pretty well.
On
leaving Ashton-Tate, I went into computer consultancy, working for many
large and small organisations both in the UK and across Europe. I
finally decided to pin my colours to the mast and start my own software
development company, which started off designing and developing an
advance email client for Windows back in the days before Outlook had
ever been heard of, and DOS based software was in the majority.
That was quite successful, and I followed it up with an Email server
system for corporate networks. That was a great success, and led
to me moving the Florida in the USA for 9 years as that was where the
real market was for such products. I finished up developing a
networked Fax system called NetCFax that is still being sold today.
I
have now retired to all intents and purposes, and spend most of my time
working on and flying Radio Controlled Helicopters (no surprises there
!). The challenges I find they offer are so satisfying, as it is
such a great feeling to get a helicopter in any sort of condition, sort
it all out, set it all up correctly, and then fly it successfully.
I feel there is no better hobby in the world to be involved with.
Equally
I regularly frequent many of the forums that are available on the Internet today
that are so much
help to newbies entering this hobby, with endless good advice available
instantly, which makes it just so much easier for newbies today to get
going without too many of traumas we went through when we started many
years ago.
As
you may have noticed elsewhere on this site, because I am now retired, I
can offer a totally free Helicopter repair
service for collective pitch helicopters of any type. I do
this to help other pilots out, and from doing it I also get endless
hours of pleasure, so it is very much a symbiotic relationship.
For more details of this service please CLICK
HERE...
I also offer full helicopter setup service, full radio setup
service, and I can supply & fit both Alien Command and Helicommand
stabilisation systems to your helicopter.
Finally
I
also offer totally free 1-on-1 teaching sessions using the multiplayer
feature of the Phoenix Helicopter
simulator. This means you can sit at home on your PC and take part
in a true one on one flying lesson, as with full voice chat available,
We can talk exactly as we might down at the flying field.
For more details of this service please CLICK
HERE...
THIS
SITE IS MOSTLY NON COMMERCIAL AND IS FUNDED BY DONATIONS OF ALL TYPES
FROM OTHERS IN THE RC HELICOPTER FRATERNITY. MY THANKS GO OUT TO
ALL WHO CONTRIBUTE WITH IDEAS, INFORMATION, HELI PARTS OR EVEN CASH DONATIONS TO
HELP WITH THE COSTS OF HOSTING THE SITE
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