It started when Mike Collett, the chairman of Air Atlantique Classic Flight, posted an advert in Flyer magazine, stating that he was looking for a Chief Executive. I got in touch to say that I undoubtedly wasn't what he was looking for, but that I did know a bit about marketing. I also admitted to being able to tell the difference between a B-17E and G, a DC-2 and DC-3 (and the modifications to make the latter into a C-47).
He was remarkably patient.
A couple of meetings later saw me working with a great bunch of people, and in daily contact with irreplacable, living examples of airborne history. You can't ask for a great deal more from life.
The challenge for Classic Flight is that it has to keep more than 20 vintage aircraft in safe, airworthy condition. This would be challenging enough, but many of them are available for public pleasure flights. This means that the company has to operate under the same safety procedures as British Airways. It's all fuelled by the revenue from those flights, so this had to be the first priority.
We've not been blessed with a bottomless advertising budget, so there's been a fair amount of guerilla activity, including standing in torrential rain in Exeter, handing out soggy leaflets to bemused shoppers. But if that's what it takes...
One easy measure of the result of all of this was that, by the end of April 2007, more people had flown in a Classic Flight aircraft than for the whole of 2006.
2008 will see new tasks as Classic Flight begins the process of creating the UK's premier living air museum.
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Broadening the Appeal of Vintage Flight Offer an aviation anorak like me the chance to fly in a 1930s biplane and I'll be strapped in before it's had a chance to drip any more oil. But not everyone feels that way. Part of the tactic has been to paint a picture of what vintage flight feels like. I've tried to convey the magic of looking through the huge windows at England's green and pleasant land sliding gently by, just a thousand feet below those elegant old wings. As people have come to understand that flying is something to enjoy, not the barrier between you and your holiday, we've seen more and more families taking to the skies. The job's not finished, but the foundations are laid for making Classic Flight a great family day out. One day soon you'll be visiting Britain's only safari park for old aircraft. |
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Video Camera - Essential on-board baggage The video camera has been a constant companion just recently. That's meant craning round from the restriction of a Chipmunk cockpit to capture wing-overs from the Rapide, or narrowly avoiding falling out of the door of the said Rapide to film a fly-by by the mighty DC-6. Much of the footage has been broadcast on national TV, which means that I don't have it any more (why don't TV companies ever return tapes?), but clicking on the picture on the left will give you a glimpse of the April open day. Music was composed and performed by Adam Shaw. |