Authors Corner

Mike Sutton led the RAF’s legendary 1(Fighter) Squadron into action against ISIS in 2015 and conducted what remains the first and only gun attack by a Typhoon against the enemy.

An RAF fighter pilot for 18 years, he flew the Jaguar low level strike jet before becoming an instructor on the first RAF Typhoon multi-role attack squadron. During his time as a tactics instructor he conducted a live scramble in response to a potential terrorist hijacking, introduced new precision weapons to the RAF frontline and served on operations in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria.

“What I have tried to do is provide an insight into something that is largely completely hidden from the public. People have watched Top Gun and they know a little about what fast jet squadrons are about but what I’ve tried to do is immerse the reader into this world and into this life really. When I got back from operations you talk to people who weren’t there and one of the first questions I always get is ‘what was it like?’ and ‘what did it feel like before you took off?’. I’ve tried to provide a good answer to all of those questions so people know what happened.

“It’s not a technical book, it’s about people and the relationships and the thoughts, fears and the camaraderie we had. Really all of those aspects are explored not just through the operation itself but also the training, selection and how hard it is to get in because I actually failed to get into the RAF the first time.”

He left the RAF as a Wing Commander aged 39, and now flies commercially providing operational readiness training for the UK armed forces. He was awarded the OBE in 2017.

This is a MUST read for Jet Aviation enthusiasts.

Mandy Hickson was the only female pilot on her Front Line Tornado Squadron, flying multimillion pound fast jets for the Royal Air Force.

She has operated in hostile environments, including patrolling the ‘No Fly’ zone over Iraq. Carrying the latest weaponry she and her unit were ready to drop ordnance on any target in support of operations.

Her route to the top was tumultuous in every sense – awarded a RAF flying scholarship at 17, long before she even passed her driving test, she went on to win aerobatic competitions whilst still a student. However, despite her prowess in the skies, she failed the computer based tests, taken by all potential RAF pilots. Undeterred, her self-belief and dogged determination persuaded the RAF to take her on as a test case, thereby overcoming seemingly insurmountable hurdles.

Mandy relates her experiences of working within an elite team of fast jet operators to audiences with great clarity, outlining how the same values apply within any environment.

She demonstrates only too well the importance of remaining calm under pressure and leading, quite literally, from the front, in order to get the best from herself and her team.

This is a story as much form the heart as it is about flying experiences. A real insight into the RAF at the time and the challenges of being a woman in an man world at that time.

An amazing read and page turner that you cannot put down.

As this fascinating memoir unfolds, moving backwards and forwards through time, two parallel stories emerge: one of a Second World War Spitfire ace whose flying career comes to a premature end when he s shot down and loses an eye, the other of his progeny, a second generation fighter pilot who eventually reaches the rank of air marshal.

The narrative is unique in its use of two separate and distinct voices. The author s own reminiscences are interwoven with those his father recorded more than thirty years ago, embellished by extracts from some 300 of his wartime letters. Intensely personal and revealing, controversial too at times, this account is above all about people, not least those with whom the author flew while serving with the USAF a tour marked by tragedy; that said, they proved altogether more friendly than the P-38 pilots who twice attacked his father in North Africa!

A daughter with dual citizenship subsequently helped him sustain his links with the US, both while serving and afterwards in business. The irony is that the son spent a lifetime training for the ultimate examination one that despite strictly limited preparation his father passed with flying colours.

To Black Robertson s eternal regret he was never able to put his own training to the test. His father, Robbie , was awarded the DFC and retired as a flight lieutenant after five years or so. He himself served for nearly thirty-six years, earned a Queen s Commendation, an OBE and CBE and served as an ADC to HM The Queen.

But after reaching almost the top of the RAF tree, in one important sense he retired unfulfilled; his mettle was never tested under fire. Anyone interested to know more about flying, about the RAF, about leadership, about character even, need look no further than this beautifully crafted, immensely readable account.

World War Two Spitfire pilot Owen Hardy was probably the last New Zealand ace to tell his story. He left home at 18 bent on joining the RAF and by 1942, aged only 20, he was at Biggin Hill with 72 Squadron under Brian Kingcome.

D-Day found him flying over the Normandy beaches with 485 (New Zealand) Squadron. That he survived the war unharmed owed as much to luck as it did to his ability as a fighter pilot. Unable to settle in civilian life afterwards in New Zealand, he returned to the RAF for the second phase of a remarkable career.

Converting to jets, Hardy went on to command 71 Squadron, leading a Vampire aerobatic team with considerable success across Europe – dodging MiGs at the same time! But adapting to peacetime service wasn’t easy. Previously stimulated by the wartime environment and still passionate about flying, he was less enamored with staff jobs; and this despite working on the introduction of a new, state-of-the-art missile system, Bloodhound.

Then a fateful decision, to turn down command of a Javelin squadron and follow his mentor, led finally to disillusionment. Hardy pulls no punches in this forthright and refreshingly honest autobiography. In retelling his eye-opening story, editor Black Robertson shines a light on what it was like not just to fly in combat, but also on the changing face of a post-war RAF which arguably undervalued some of its heroes.

From the heat of North Africa to the uncertainties of the Cold War, it’s a unique and enthralling tale.

The inspiration for this brilliant anthology is the ‘I Learnt About Flying from That’ articles that first appeared in the RAF Flight Safety magazine Air Clues in the 1940s and continues to feature in the magazine to this day.

Flying Through the Ranks gets a five-star start with an extraordinary tale from a Marshal of the Royal Air Force and continues in the same vein. Men and women of every rank – pilots, navigators, engineers, an RAF Regiment officer and airmen too – reveal similar intriguing experiences in both war and peace.

Exciting, amusing, poignant too at times, their stories say as much about the development of the RAF and the making of the Cold War warrior as they do about the individuals themselves. It’s impossible not to be moved by these rousing stories of courage and leadership, risk-taking and pressure, invention and adventure.

Starkly exposing human fallibility at times, they highlight the skill and improvisation central to the flying business. Other common themes across some uncommon accounts are the sheer exhilaration of flying, the role that luck plays in everyone’s life and the unspoken bond of respect that binds aviation professionals together.

Strap yourself in for a top flight experience!