I've always had an interest in aircraft, for many years my father took me to the Battle of Britain display at RAF Finningley and when visiting relatives in Ealing in west London I would sit for hours watching 'planes landing at Heathrow.

When I left school I started working for air traffic control, initially at the London Air Traffic Control Centre at West Drayton (north of Heathrow), then seven happy years at Liverpool Airport until the CAA lost the contract and I was sent back to LATCC where I stayed for another twenty years.

In my early days at LATCC I was one of many at Heathrow to see the first public Concorde flight to Bahrain and like many others I was at Heathrow to see the last few Concorde flights as well as being in the ops room at the relocated LATCC at Swanwick on the south coast.

At Liverpool I spent many hours in the runway control caravan isolated at the end of runway 27! Later we moved into the more substantial met observers building where we combined our runway controlling with met observations every 30 minutes.

My first flight was in a De Havilland Dragon Rapide from Lands End aerodrome in the early 1970's with my father. I discovered that the same aircraft does pleasure flights from Duxford and 50 years after my first flight my son and I flew in her again over central London.

My interest in aircraft now is mainly on classic or vintage aircraft. The Shuttleworth Trust at Old Warden is a fantastic place to visit and a bit nearer home Breighton airfield in Yorkshire has a lot of interesting aircraft.

Rather pleased to say my son is learning to fly at our nearest aerodrome Netherthorpe, where I used to cycle over to in my youth!

I look forward to having a flight with him!