He carried out all his training at White Waltham with helicopter services and worked as a flight instructor on the south coast for over a year and half. He taught over 550 hours of instruction before deciding to enrol on his IR with Starspeed, where part of his training was completed at the Babcock simulator in Staverton.
Alex grew up in Hampshire, where Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance is based, and often saw the HEMS aircraft land. He says, “I had always wanted to become an F1 driver until that point. From then, even though I had never had the opportunity to fly in a helicopter before, or even knew what being a pilot entailed. I had it in my head that that was what I wanted to do with my life.”
He worked as a flight instructor on the south coast for over 18 months, where he taught basic flight instruction on single engine helicopters. He also taught trial lessons for people that had never been in a helicopter before, through to advanced students who were ready for test. He took a handful of students from zero to PPL pilots, which was something he found incredibly rewarding.
Alex says, “It’s great to be part of such an experienced team and to be able to fulfil my childhood dream of being a HEMS pilot. For me, the most rewarding part of HEMS is knowing that you are making a difference to someone’s life and to their families, when they need it most. It’s brilliant that we have patients visit the base, a few months after we attended them, to hear how we have positively impacted their lives. The level of service EAAA are able to offer 24/7, 365 days a year is astonishing.”
In his spare time Alex likes to go for walks by the sea, play squash and tennis with my friends and enjoy the odd round of golf in the summer.