I came across the Dan Air Remembered website and was a former employee with Dan Air joining the airline in 1989 when I joined Dan Air Services Plc based out of LGW in the Traffic department working under Traffic Superintendent Trevor Millard and later Steven Courtie and the head of the traffic department was Brian Hair. I was initially flying on The Dan Air BAe HS 748f aircraft Fleet as a Flight Loadmaster / Flight Mechanic. when I joined the airline.
Operating on the Night Mail flights with Captain Dave Esson TRI IRE as the fleet training captain and later Dave took over as the Fleet Captain on the HS 748 Fleet, taking over from Captain Mike Nash who was the 748 Fleet Captain and deputy Chief Pilot in Dan Air. I originally operated flying out of Gatwick to Liverpool and Liverpool to Belfast and back, and later a positioning flight from Gatwick to Heathrow loading at Heathrow and then on to Belfast Night stop Belfast and back to Heathrow off loading at heathrow and possitioning back to gatwick the following night.
I note that you have a photograph of me on your website sitting in the right-hand seat of a Dan Air Boeing 727-200 passenger aircraft. This photo was taken of me after I had just finished re-fuelling the aircraft whilst down line at Malaga Airport on the ramp. John Hedges, who took the photograph, was a friend of mine and at that time he was a Flight Engineer operating on the B727 fleet and ironically was the Flight Engineer on that flight which was a split duty down to Malaga and back to LGW which departed LGW on 30th October 1992 returning on the 31st October 1992. Operating on A/C Reg G-BPNS. That was the last flight we ever flew for Dan Air Services Plc and having just consulted my flying logbooks The Dan Air Captain was Captain Keloos and John Hedges was The Flight Engineer on the flight. John didn’t move to flying as a pilot until after leaving Dan Air Services Plc. I believe he did later became an airline Captain but not sure who for. John and I have sadly since lost contact with each other for some years now. I would be interested to know if you are still in contact with him?
If you note that in the photograph, I was only wearing three gold braid on my shoulder pellets and not captains braids which would have been four gold braids. I hope this has been informative as it has been for me looking with fond memories of those very happy days in Dan Air. which I have to say I still miss today.
I later joined the Royal Air Force as a Commissioned Officer and flew for a time as an instructor reached the Rank of Flight Lieutenant. I left the RAF in Febuary 2007 and today I no longer fly and now work in film and television as the company CEO of MovieLux Ltd an Independent Film and Television production company please see www.movieluxltd.com
January 2021
I recall being called at 09:30 am and being told to come into the Dan Air traffic office at Newman House by 11 am by Steve Courtie who took over from Trevor Millard as Dan Air's Traffic Superintendent. Steve called the morning after I only arrived home at 03:30hrs from flying three sectors the night before. and was due to fly again that night with a crew reporting time of 20:00hrs. When I arrived in the traffic office it was only to be told I had forgotten to dot my I's and cross my T's and poor punctuation, when writing the flight's traffic reports to go along with the Aircraft's voyage reports and load sheet's from the three flights the night before. I couldn't believe that he had broken my badly needed sleep and dragging me back into the office before that nights flying. Which I clearly pointed out to him. Steve just stared at me and said well you won't do it again will you then? No, I said after correcting the paperwork only to jump back in my car to drive home to Leatherhead in Surrey driving through Redhill and up Reigate hill to join the M25 for one junction from Reigate to Leatherhead just seven miles only, but due to a bad road traffic accident took me five hours to travel those seven miles home on the M25 to the next junction. I only just had enough time to grab a quick shower and throw my uniform on and eat quickly before having to head back to Gatwick for that night's flight, lol "Happy day's". I wanted to write back to you because I still have a few contacts that worked for Dan Air a couple of women that were cabin crew who live locally and I might be able to reach out to them as I went to school with one and a friend married one of the office staff in Dan Air I think she was in ether ticket sales or flown revenue. I also have a few old mates that I have lost touch with and after finding Meredith Bell I'm going to try and reach out to a few pilots I knew back in the Dan Air days if I get anywhere, I will send you their info. Lastly just touching on your website. I can say that the few people I still know in Dan Air all love the website and as I have said its a great thing, you're doing please keep up the great work as so many of the young my daughter's age 25 this year have never heard of Dan Air which is a great shame as Dan Air is a big part of the British aviation history and should never be forgotten.
Kind Regards
I don't see many people from my
flying days so much these days including both my RAF flying and Airline days.
However I'm still in contact with Martin Greathurst who I flew with on the HS
748 and when on to fly the B737-400's initially as a F/O for Dan Air. Martin
Greathurst joined Dan Air in November 1988. One year before I joined on the BAe
HS 748 but Martin moved to the Boeing 737 fleet in Feb 1990 as a First Officer in
Dan Air and later as a 737 Captain with BA and finally ended up as a Captain on
the B777 for BA before leaving some five or six years ago. totalling 17,000hrs
flying time throughout his flying career Martin is focussed on his own business
ambitions since leaving flying.The info on Martin is up to date as I just spoke
with him this morning as we have remained good friends for over 30 years.