Pilot September 2017

http://www.pilotweb.aero Pilot September 2017 | 41

and Pilot. The focus of my interest was

classic aeroplanes and that probably dates

from my days as a ‘hangar rat’−I

remember rides in Tiger Moths and

particularly in a Tipsy Trainer. So what

changed things was seeing a ‘classified’ in

Pilot advertising a Luton Minor. I simply

couldn’t resist it, so I bought the aeroplane.

Then I had to set about getting my licence,

which I did at RAF Halton and Denham. I

got my PPL in 45 hours of flight training,

and by coincidence it was almost thirty

years to the day from when I soloed

aged seventeen.”

He kept the Luton Minor on a farm strip.

His PFA Inspector was David Beale

(“particularly good on engines”) and he

had a lot of help from another personage

well known in LAA circles, Barbara

Schlussler. “She had owned a share and

was enormously helpful in showing me

how to get the aeroplane through its

Permit renewal and operate it safely.”

Before tackling the Luton Minor, he had

ten hours in a Tiger Moth. He flew 120

hours in the Luton Minor between 2004

and 2007, which is impressive for a slow,

basic, open-cockpit, single-seater. He

subsequently had a brief share in a Tiger

Moth, flying another twenty Moth hours,

and he owned a Pushpak (Indian-made

Aeronca Chief) for a year.

At this point, Stephen’s work was split

three ways, in terms both of time

expended and in earnings. One-third was

writing books, mostly about racing and/

or classic cars; another third was

commentating on TV and radio; and the

remaining third was working as a public

relations consultant.

In 2007 Charlie Huke’s Tipsy Trainer

came on the market. This example of the

open-cockpit, side-by-side two-seat trainer

was begun in 1939 and completed shortly

after the war. (The prototype flew in

1937.) Stephen owned it for seven years

and says it’s the aeroplane in which he

has had the most adventures. He recalls

one particularly character-forming

moment: “The crankshaft in the pre-war

Walter Mikron snapped and I had to land

in a field, fortunately without damaging

the airframe.” He still has the crankshaft

in his study upstairs in the house. “Aside

from the interval while the engine was

fixed, I flew the aeroplane all over the

UK. It was my mount when I became

Chairman of the Vintage Aircraft Club and

ideally suited to that role.”

He bought his present aeroplane, a 90hp

Cub in July 2014, from ‘Beeswax’ – Alan

Chalkley – who for decades wrote the

‘Over the Hedge’ column in Popular Flying

(now Light Aviation). “Alan rang me and

said, I’ve been flying this Cub for fifty

years and it’s time I sold it. I want you to

have it. It was an offer I couldn’t resist. He

took his last flight in it with me down the

beaches in Wales.” Stephen flies his Cub

for around thirty hours a year−“rather

less since I took on the LAA job”−and

keeps it at RAF Bicester.

Since 2005 he has also co-owned a BE2c

replica. The aircraft−a converted Tiger

Moth−was built in 1969 at Sywell by

Charles and David Boddington as a

commission from a film company and

shipped to America. It ended up with a

private pilot who wrote it off in a spinning

accident in 1977.

Matt Boddington, son of Charles and

nephew of David, was Stephen’s LAA

Inspector and when he heard that the

wreck might be for sale, offered Stephen a

joint partnership in a project to import and

rebuild it. They both went to America in

2005 to collect the aircraft and, with a lot

of help, had it flying by 2011. It has

been a regular (and highly popular)

airshow attender ever since. Despite other

commitments Stephen managed to devote

a day a week to working on the restoration

but has yet to solo it, although he has had

many flights in it. “That’s one of my

ambitions,” he says.

I ask what other piloting ambitions he

has. “To finish a Taylor Monoplane project

I have going,” he says, “and a Grunau

Baby Glider project, and master types of

flying I still haven’t experienced.” “Such

as?” I ask, and he replies, “Floatplanes,

hybrid electric aircraft (once somebody

builds one) and gliding.” He has sampled

gentle aerobatics but it seems that’s not

Pilot profile | Stephen Slater

Above & above right: BE2c replica co-owned by Steve but in which he has yet to solo Steve’s Taylor Monoplane project

There was an adventurous moment when the crankshaft

snapped and Steve made a successful forced landing