My life partner and the lady who allowed me to achieve my dream is my lovely wife Jill. We met in 1985 and I first flew her in a Cessna 152 after she'd parachute jumped from a Cessna 206 (my first birthday present to her!). I flew her in a VC10 a few times but the highlight was when we flew in a Jet Provost trainer in 1991 and introduced her to aerobatics.
Jill flew in the Kis Cruiser and the Sky Arrow but hasn't flown in an RV yet - my final choice! I know that she'll love it and is looking forward to all those cross country flights when G-JBTR is finally built.
I first met Simon in 1985 as Radio Controlled Glider fliers. He is superb with metal, as you can see from the electric winch we built in 2003, and has a long mechanical engineering background. In 1986 I designed and built a 12 foot wingspan glider and Simon towed it up on a hand tow. It was a big lump and Simon still has a burn scar to remind him! When it comes to a project the size of building your own plane I believe two heads are better than one and Simon is going to be an invaluable partner. To make matters even better we are on the same shift at work - how cool is that?
Gary is a retired schoolteacher, serial aircraft builder and most importantly for me he's my Inspector. There are numerous stages of the project from workshop to ready to test fly and in the UK each must be inspected and the build log book signed off. Gary is brilliant at providing advice and is there to help me try to recover when the inevitable mistakes happen!
