Pilot September 2017

A

nyone who flies a Permit
aeroplane would like to think
that the Light Aircraft
Association’s Chief Executive
Officer is not too different from
him or her. That is to say, a regular
amateur flyer with some engineering skills
and a liking for old, unusual and above all
practical aeroplanes.
Stephen Slater lives with his wife
Jean a stone’s throw from the town
centre in green and leafy Chesham. The
Underground connection to London is
close by, as are some charming streets of
early Victorian workmen’s cottages,
allotments and modest town houses.
The Slaters’ house is 1960s, at the end of a
quiet cul-de-sac and has a comfortable
feel. Inside the front door is a large set of
bookshelves and there are more
bookshelves on the stairs and throughout
the house. I can’t stop looking at all the
titles. Most (but by no means all) of the
books have an aviation theme, but there
are also Trollope, Enid Blyton, Michael
Crichton and Margaret Atwood, to name
but a few. There is also an upright piano,
played by one of Jean’s daughters, who
now has a house and children herself.

Stephen and I sit in a sunny lounge

overlooking the garden. Stephen was born

in Darlington in County Durham in 1957,

“which,” he says, “makes me a cross

between a northerner and a

Yorkshireman”. His father (now elderly

and in a care home) was an analytical

chemist who became a technical sales

director and helped develop specialised

aircraft insulation materials. “In his time,

he worked with NASA, on Concorde, and

the Harrier jump-jet,” says Stephen. There

were two boys in the family; Stephen’s

younger brother by five years is an

electronics engineer. “Not a pilot, but he

shares my interest in car racing.”

I ask how the pilot thing started. He

says, “I discovered aviation when I was a

rather gawky twelve-year-old, and Dad

took me and my school friend Nigel with

him on business trips so that we could

detour to airshows and airfields. He found

out that Ark Royal would be disembarking

its aircraft fleet into Leuchars and took us

to watch them landing. That was when I

was fourteen. As we got older, Nigel and I

either bicycled to airports or took trains.”

Stephen describes himself as a spotter at

this age, but not exclusively as he also

A car and aviation enthusiast, the LAA’s CEO has

worked as a writer, broadcaster and public relations

consultant, and was even briefly a soldier

By Nick Bloom

Meet Mr Slater

38 | Pilot September 2017 http://www.pilotweb.aero

built model aeroplanes, both Airfix plastic

and Keil Kraft balsa-and-tissue flying ones.

I ask what was his greatest achievement in

that line and he says, “A Jetex-powered

Venom. I had it trimmed to fly left-hand

circuits and it stayed in the air for all of

two minutes, time enough for three full

circuits of the large field behind our house

before the Jetex engine sputtered out. That

was pretty good. Other Jetex models just

set themselves on fire−and I collected a

fair few burns myself.”

He went to a comprehensive school,

where he remembers it being pretty much

just him and Nigel that were interested in

aeroplanes. “I was also into railway

engines,” he adds. “Both grandparents

were railway men and my uncle was

Station Master at King’s Cross.” He read

Steve owned this Tipsy Trainer for seven years from 2007

Steve at the desk where he writes articles including Pilot’s popular ‘Open Cockpit’ column