I suppose we have to ask about the airline as we ’ re sat in Shoreham Airport . How did starting Brighton City Airways come about ?
Well , we talked about the sky car expedition . Despite being a helicopter pilot , I knew that the characteristics of the flying car was more like a fixed wing aircraft so I thought I better learn how to fly one . I came here to Shoreham and sat in the cockpit with a chap called Jonathan who became a friend . He saw the gap in the market as you can ’ t fly from Gatwick to Paris .
We thought the people and businesses of Sussex would value a one hour flight to Paris . Over a couple of years we formulated a plan , committed time and effort and money into setting the business up and then launching it . Up until this morning , quite successfully . It would have been very successful had the French not reneged on their promises .
I hear your flights are cancelled because you had to keep landing in Rouen before Paris . What ’ s happened ?
Sussex where I can relax in the hot tub with my three children splashing around me , all of whom are under seven , and they keep me young , fresh and …
On your toes .
… relaxed , sort of relaxed .
What do the family think when you go off on these adventures ? Obviously , there ’ s always a risk of something happening .
You know , it ’ s difficult to know exactly what they think and I know it can be a stressful time , particularly with a more difficult mission to accomplish . But they ’ re very supportive and thankfully they understand why I need to do it and it ’ s a bit of reflective fun . They ’ ve got a dad who ’ s an adventurer . Better than perhaps a dad who ’ s negative .
What do you think has been your closest near death experience ?
There ’ ve been a few but probably the luckiest escape was when we were training for a motorised parachute flying expedition to Venezuela to try and land on the top of Angel Falls . We were in the Alps , testing some new equipment . I did a take off and I was heading up into the sky . About 100 foot above the ground I had a malfunction with the parachute and it literally turned into a pile of washing above me . Before I knew it that 100 feet turned to no feet as I plummeted straight downwards instantaneously . As luck would have it , there was a French house beneath me so I smashed into the roof , one bounce and I was into the vegetable patch , obviously rendered completely unconscious and bleeding from various parts , but I came to .
About 15 feet away the French family were having their breakfast openmouthed as this lunatic crash-landed from the sky into their vegetable patch .
I was quite lucky because there was a metal spike and then a butane gas canister and I ’ d landed literally inches between these two things . I should have been killed outright but God was on side .
Apart from Everest ’ 96 and numerous others , that was probably the moment I should have lost my ninth life .
They ’ ve been sat on their hands for eight weeks . It ’ s purely the bureaucracy surrounding customs and immigration .
There ’ s huge politics , of which I probably don ’ t understand everything , but there ’ s one or two big airports in the Paris region , Charles de Gaulle being the main one , and there ’ s a lot of protectionism . A bit like Gatwick , Stanstead and Luton . You can see the third runway arguments at Heathrow .
It ’ s a similar political situation in France . Our whole business plan was based on Brighton to Pointoise . We were promised that they would get the licence back [ to land in Pointoise straight from Shoreham ]. They had it , it was taken away temporarily and it was going to come back again . We were promised it was going to be back a couple of weeks after the launch of the airline and that just has not happened . We have been running flights anyway stopping in Rouen . We went six weeks past the initial deadline just to keep the operation going but it ’ s just unsustainable with the additional costs . Every flight is double what it should be in fuel .
About 15 feet away the French family were having their breakfast open mouthed as this lunatic crashlanded from the sky into their vegetable patch .
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