OPERATORSOPERATORS AERO LEGENDSAERO LEGENDS
SKILLED AVIATORS
Aero Legends is careful about
selecting its pilots, seeing them not
just as stick-and-rudder assets, but
also as an important part of the
whole experience, as Keith stated:
It’s all down to the little things,
even how the pilot engages with
the customer. I understand that
with some operations you don’t
really ‘meet’ the pilot, he’s already
in the front and you then get in
the back. All our pilots are hugely
experienced but they also like
talking to people. You’ll see them
spending 15-20 minutes chatting
with customers beforehand and
that makes a huge difference. They
are very personable. It also helps
that some are well known, such
as ‘Parky’ and Charlie Brown.
If people have been to airshows
and seen these guys displaying,
particularly Parky with the BBMF,
there’s a personal connection. He’s
very good in the public eye. We’ve
also had the BBMF’s Andy Millikin
fly his first few sorties, and he fits
the profile perfectly.”
The ‘Parky’ to whom Keith refers
is Antony Parkinson MBE, former
Red Arrows team member and Battle
of Britain Memorial Flight pilot...
and ‘boss’ of the two-seat Spitfire for
FlyPast’s exclusive photo shoot.
Finding the right pilots is not
without its challenges, though, and
this has a knock-on effect as Keith
states: “What we are finding is that
experience on older twin-engined
aircraft is dwindling, and thatneeds to be addressed so we can
still operate our C-47 and Devon.
However, we are looking to enlarge
our warbird operations and at
other aircraft now, but we’ll have
to industrialise the training, so we
have enough pilots. One thing we
are conscious of is age, and while
we value experience, we also feel it’s
time to have younger pilots.”ARE YOU CRAZY?
No one should enter the warbird
world lightly, but Keith thinks the
fact he wasn’t part of the aviation
world beforehand has stood him in
good stead. And he’s keen to take
control in more ways than one, as
he said: “Because no suitable ready-
to-fly Spitfire was on the market, I
had to find a good enough airframe
to have restored. Some people
thought I was mad, but I wanted
a Spitfire and I wanted to fly it. I
now have my PPL and about 300
hours [in total]. The main problem
though was getting currency while
I was working in Asia and New
Zealand, but when I came home
that became easier. Out of season
I’ll start flying my own aeroplanes a
lot more and convert to taildragger.
I have flown the Spitfire from the
back seat and it’s relatively easy,
very responsive, but can be tricky
to land. Many people get spooked
by Spitfires, because they think if
they break one they’ll be all over
the newspapers, and it causes a lot
of nerves. Ultimately, you have to
fly it and not let it fly you.”Everyday people could be forgiven
for thinking those who work with
warbirds can become blasé about
it, but that’s not the case at Aero
Legends it seems, and complacency
is a dirty word, whatever the
subject. Keith: “We do have to
remind ourselves that a normal
day for us would probably be an
extraordinary day for a member
of the public. I never tire of
watching a Spitfire start, take off
and display. The key element for
us, though, is safety. I don’t come
from an aviation background but
what I’ve learnt from the business
world is that there’s a right and a
wrong way to do things. We’re not
preconditioned to accept the status
quo just because that’s how the
job may have been done by other
operators. There’s a very clear line
for us between governance and
operation and it’s stood us in good
stead. We have an open culture
about safety and anyone at Aero
Legends can weigh in about how
we do things to make it as safe
as possible. And if we ever have
a technical problem we don’t feel
too bad about cancelling a flight
for safety reasons, and I think the
customers appreciate that. I’d rather
upset someone temporarily than
have them get hurt.”ATTRACTING THE CROWDS
Aero Legends has become so
ingrained in vintage flying that
it holds its own annual airshow.
The first attempt three years agoBelow and right
Charlie Brown in the
Mk.IX ‘St George’ banks
away sharply from T.9
‘Elizabeth’ on a perfect
autumn day at Duxford.50 FLYPAST December 2018