Pilots

John Romain

John gained his PPL in 1984. Converted on to the Chipmunk, Harvard and Beech 18, he went on to gain a commercial pilot’s licence in 1988. As well as being a fully licensed engineer, John has acquired considerable aerobatic and formation flying skills, plus those necessary to fly larger aircraft such as the Blenheim and B-25.  In the last ten years John has flown over 85 different types of aircraft including the SE5a, Lysander, Bouchon, T33, Hurricane and Corsair, not to mention the Spitfire on which type alone John has notched up over 500 hours.

The flying side of the training sees Pilots commence in a DHC-1 Chipmunk trainer, specifically for spin training, in which every pilot takes part irrespective of experience. Moving on to the T6 Harvard for aerobatic training they will eventually fly the two-seat Spitfire along with a qualified instructor. Interspersed with classroom theory and briefings, most of the pilots will complete their refresher training by flying the single seat Spitfire.

At the end of all training sessions, following a brief by the chief pilot, formation flying is carried out to keep everyone current in all aspects of display flying.

A selection of pilots who fly historic aircraft for the Aircraft Restoration Company:

 Air Marshall Cliff Spink CB CBE FCMI FRAeS RAF Rtd

Cliff had a distinguished career with the RAF flying a variety of jets such as the Gnat, Lightning, Hunter, Phantom and F4M, as well as the Hercules and Sea King helicopter.

Introduced to warbirds through the BBMF, his first trip in their Hurricane took place in 1991. In the next two years he flew the Spitfire II, V, XIX in addition to the Tornado.

The majority of Cliff’s warbird flying has been done from Duxford, and he regards himself as one of the ‘luckiest and most privileged pilots’ to have flown a variety of famous and historic aircraft. These include: Spitfire II, V, IX, XI, XIV, XVI, XIX, Hurricane II, X, Bf109G Buchon, Mustang, Sea Fury, Corsair, Thunderbolt, Kitty Hawk, Wildcat, Polikarpov I-153, T-28, Trojan, Vampire, T33 Silver Star, F86A Sabre, and Hunter.

Dave ‘Rats’ Ratcliffe

Dave joined the RAF as a pilot in 1979. Following officer training in the RAF he flew selection on the Chipmunk, before spending a year at RAF Cranwell flying the Jet Provost.

Advanced flying training on the Hawk led to the ‘Wings’ flying badge awarded in May 1982 followed by tactical weapon training on the Hawk, learning low level formation and air combat.

Dave flew Chipmunks in Scotland for the Air Training Corps, converted to jets in April 1983, before a re-role to helicopters at RAF Shawbury flying the Gazelle and Wessex. Dave eventually became a qualified helicopter instructor on the Wessex, and later the Chinook.

‘Rats’ as he is known by everyone, has been an ARC volunteer for many years, and following many hours in Chipmunks and the Harvard, graduated to a Spitfire pilot in 2005. He has since flown Spitfire displays and flypasts for ARC when off duty from his normal ‘office’ job as a commercial pilot for Virgin Atlantic.

Mark Linney

Mark is a professional airline pilot flying the Boeing 747-400 for Virgin Atlantic Airways. Mark joined the RAF in 1980 and following training on the Chipmunk, JP and Hawk, completed tours on the Tornado GR1, HawkT1 and Harrier GR7. Mark is an A2 qualified flying instructor, having been a Central Flying School Instructor on the Hawk. After leaving the RAF in 1996 Mark joined Air 2000 flying the Boeing 757 before moving to Virgin on the 747 Classic.

Mark is currently Chief Pilot of an F86 owned by Golden Apple Operations Ltd. as well as a current CAA instructor on the T6 Harvard and Chipmunk.

Rod Dean

Rod has been displaying civil aircraft since 1984 when he retired from the RAF after 21 years of service.

During his RAF service Rod spent his whole time flying on operational squadrons of training units, principally flying the Hunter and the Jaguar, but also the Jet Provost, Meteor, Gnat and Chipmunk. He left the service as a Squadron Leader as well as a Qualified Flying Instructor and Qualified Weapons Instructor.

Rod spent ten years as the Business Manager of a flight simulator training company before joining the Civil Aviation Authority. He is currently the Chief Executive Officer of Air Safety Support International, a wholly owned subsidiary of the CAA tasked with overseeing the regulation of civil aviation in the UK Overseas Territories.

Rod has flown a wide variety of World War II and immediate post-war piston fighters such as the Mustang, Corsair, Wildcat, Sea Fury, Bearcat, Hurricane, and Spitfire. Vintage jets flown include the Meteor, Vampire, Venom, T33, F86 Sabre and the Hunter. His CAA Display Authorisation covers all these aircraft and he is fully qualified to lead formations of any size.

Rod is also a CAA Display Authorisation Evaluator.

Alan Walker

Alan’s aviation background encompassed the positions of Airline Operations Assistant, Flight Observer, Flight Test Engineer, Flying Instructor, Charter Pilot and latterly Airline Pilot.

In his early days as a commercial pilot he flew the Handley Page Herald, the Fokker F27 Friendship, Skyvan and Queenair, moving on to the Lockheed Tri-Star as a co-pilot, becoming a captain for Air 2000 in 1979 on the Boeing 757 before joining Cathay Pacific Cargo in 1996 where he is a captain on the B747-400 freighter.

Alan’s display flying career started in the early 70’s piloting a Dragon Rapide at Netheravon, dropping parachutists for the Army Display Team.  He was a member of the Tiger Club in the mid -70’s and also flew the Bucker Jungmeister for Spencer Flack in the early 80’s.  In 1983 he became co-pilot on the B-17 ‘Sally B’.  Promoted to captain on the B-17 in 1986, he then flew the aircraft during the filming of ‘Memphis Belle’. For several years, Alan flew most of the piston fighters for the Old Flying Machine Company, plus the L39 and MiG 15.

These days when time off from duties with Cathay Pacific Cargo permits, Alan flies Chipmunks, Harvard, and Spitfires for the Aircraft Restoration Company.

Lee Proudfoot

Lee learnt to fly in the eighties on the Stampe, Cap 10 and Harvard. He was taught by his father who was an ex RAF instructor, very disciplined, and demanded very high standards and effort to match. Lee joined a glider club and towed gliders to build up his hours for his commercial licence, after which he was selected by Britannia Airways to fly their 737’s to most parts of Europe.

When not flying for Britannia, Lee was busy teaching tail wheel conversions and aerobatics to standard level. Success in a number of aerobatic competitions led to a position flying with the Harvard Formation Team from where, Lee went on to fly Pitts Specials and the Extra 300 of Nigel Lamb’s Toyota Team. Later while flying for Monarch, the British Antarctic Survey gave Lee a job flying Twin Otters in the Antarctic during the winter, a job which he combined with flying at air shows in the summer for the next seven years.

Lee went on to fly A340’s for Virgin Atlantic before joining the Old Flying Machine Company at Duxford in May 2000 as full-time Flying Operations Manager. He currently works as a private pilot, but still regularly flies historic aircraft for air shows and flypasts. Lee is qualified on over 60 different types of aircraft.

The Aircraft Restoration Company

is the trading name of Propshop Limited

Building 425, Duxford Airfield, Duxford, Cambridge, CB22 4QR, England

Telephone: +44 (0) 1223 835313, Facsimile: +44 (0) 1223 837290

General Enquiries: admin@arc-duxford.co.uk, Engineering: engineers@arc-duxford.co.uk, Airshows: anna@arc-duxford.co.uk

Company Reg. No. 2990031 VAT No. 665 9514 95

Evoke Design © 05 November 2007