He was one of the stars of the Al Ain Aerobatic Show, held from February 3-5. Hawker Hunter jet pilot Captain Ian Thompson of Team Viper certainly looks like a top gun against the backdrop of a fighter plane. But he's a lot more than just a good-looking pilot who gets his thrills from spinning out on his Hawker.
For him, flying is more than mere machismo. "Flying is a great metaphor for the journey of life, as you never stop learning," he says. "Our team member Mark Southern, who flies as Viper 4, has over 17,000 hours of flying experience but believes he never stops learning about flying."
Thompson believes that show piloting has made him better equipped to deal with life. "My own experience is that the more you fly, the more you build a certain confidence and faith in your own ability to cope in all sorts of situations that test you both in flying and in life generally," he says.
"I believe we never stop learning, and it is our duty to guide the youth when they do want to," says Thompson.
That was the reason he squeezed in time between his appearances at the air show to visit New York University in Abu Dhabi and Sharjah English School to share his knowledge and experience of aviation with students through a series of interactive presentations.
"Education is a priority and the challenge is, of course, to find exciting and innovative ways to bring subjects to life," he says.
"As flying is my passion, I am keen to educate children and young adults about choosing aviation as a career choice. Visiting these schools while we were in Al Ain has been great fun as well as an excellent opportunity."
I me myself
I remember the exact moment when I knew all I wanted to do was fly. All of us in the team do. Our team leader Chris Heames has wanted to fly for as long as he can remember. For Andy Gillet, who flies as Viper 5, it was reading boyhood books of a hero called Biggles who was a flying ace. Mark remembers watching Lightning fighters scream across the sky near his home.
For me, it was watching a movie when I was six years old with my grandparents called Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines. It completely captured my imagination and the next day my grandfather found me on the first floor balcony, where I had strapped pieces of paper to my arms and was preparing to jump off! I held a gliding licence at the age of 16 before I could drive. And, in fact, I failed my driving test three times.
I feel flying is a very special experience and quite an emotional one. All of us in the team feel the same way about flying. The ability to be free of the earth even for just a short time is a wonderful feeling. Having complete mastery of nine tonnes of heavy metal moving at high speed and in three dimensions is a great feeling.
All pilots find, at some point, that the machine controls them and that is a very uncomfortable feeling because your thinking is moving slower than the aircraft and you can become quickly overwhelmed. It is a wonderful moment in your training when you find your mind can finally stay ahead of the speed of the machine.
A favourite moment for most of us on the team is a flight in the early dawn, leaving the ground in semi-darkness, climbing through clouds and then popping up into sunlight, skimming the cloud so close you could reach out and touch it. Chris is also a glider pilot and loves flying gliders in the High Andes in South America with condors, which was especially humbling for him, as he felt they could fly a lot better than he could!
John Gillespie Magee, a Canadian fighter pilot during the Second World War, probably said it best with his famous poem High Flight. The first two lines read "Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth, and danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings". I think it captures perfectly the magic of flight.
I am a control freak. Every one of us on the team is a complete control freak, has a large ego and of course absolutely believes that their answer is the best and individually we would all much rather be leading than following.
As team manager, the term ‘herding cats' comes to mind, especially in areas of the job the guys are not as experienced in such fields as PR, photography or marketing. Of course, we only started our team 18 months ago and all of us have had to learn to listen and take into account others' skills and backgrounds and to recognise when to keep quiet and to let others take the lead.
I find my job quite a challenge, and I regard myself as genuinely privileged to be working with real experts in their respective fields and to be part of the only Hawker Hunter display team in the world creating a lasting legacy for the public and organisations such as Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority.
I me myself
Me and my family: I guess I got my love of flying from my father. My father was an engineer and had a real love of aviation, my mother was both a teacher and a judge. I have two sisters as well, and to be honest, most of my family thinks I am little crazy!
Marrying my wife was the best decision I ever made. She is my soulmate and I am proud to be part of a team with her. My three children are all fascinated with flight and I love taking them flying as much as they enjoy coming with me. My daughter Sienna, aged five, is the one who tells everyone that she wants to become a fighter pilot and then an astronaut, so who knows where that may lead?
Among our team members, our team leader Chris' father was a tail-gunner in Lancaster bombers during the Second World War and he was delighted when Chris decided to join the air force.
Me and my influences: I admire anyone who lives life to the full and keeps pushing their mental or physical boundaries, as it is only on the edge that you really can see and understand your own limits. From a flying perspective it would have to be Chuck Yeager, the man who broke the sound barrier, and Douglas Bader, the Battle of Britain pilot who flew Spitfires with a set of tin legs.
Both of them had a fantastic pioneering spirit that made them able to conquer almost impossible odds. I also admire their ability to face danger daily in the eye and still laugh and smile about it afterwards. Both are from very different backgrounds and educational upbringing. They proved that a natural talent mixed with exceptionally hard work can propel people to the very top.
Me and parenthood: I have taken my three children - Ben, 12, Josh, 11 and Sienna, five, flying on many occasions and of course I would love them all to learn to fly and will encourage them to do so. However, as a parent I have realised that we can only guide, teach and encourage our children to do the right things and make the right choices for them.
I think the most important thing and what I tell them all the time is to follow their hearts. I was lucky, as at the age of six I watched a movie about flying and knew with absolute certainty in my heart that at some point I would learn to fly. As my children grow up I will keep encouraging them to find their own passion, something that they are good at and they really love to do. Whatever this ends up being then this is what they should do in life.
Me and courage: All fighter pilots have a love of adventure and tend to be curious about the world around them. We also tend to seize opportunities that others may pass up or think twice about, so we tend to say yes to any adventure available, especially if it combines thrills, speed and a touch of excitement and danger. That requires a certain kind of physical courage.
Moral courage is different though. To me it is the courage to act for moral reasons despite the risk of the consequences. I think moral courage is much more important and can be found in all walks of life and has nothing to do with your career or profession, but with you as a person. It can be found in the most unusual circumstances and in people whom you would never have thought would have it. When you see someone stand up for their beliefs it is a spine-tingling experience.
I me myself
My philosophy in life? I love living life to the full, look after others and enjoy being part of a team that combines power, heritage and soul. It hasn't changed down the years.
I am always asked if I am a tough person. Maybe, because I look up to Chris, our team leader, who is a Squadron Leader in the British Royal Air Force. In the air he is a tough boss, demanding and yet patient, which is an unusual combination and makes him a great teacher.
My goal in life? A number of years ago an Italian called Dr Antony Campolo asked more than 100 people who were 90 years old or over, what the top five things that they would do differently were if they could have their life over again. The top suggestion was that they wished they would have taken more risks to pursue their goals. I think you can safely say that we all have taken that message to heart and want to be flying fighters when we are 80 years old!
Of course, speed excites me. It is certainly an adrenaline rush. All of us on the team have a definite love of speed. It is certainly true that the majority of fighter pilots love fast cars and fast motorbikes.
Once you have enjoyed the power of a jet the thrill of speed gets under the skin and you want to replicate it in other parts of your life. For example, Mark loves high-speed skiing, team member Gerald Williams loves the aggression and speed of rugby, Chris loves high-speed motorbikes, and I love skiing and skydiving.
Flying is a way of bringing two different parts of my personality together and it is exactly the same for all the other team members. We all like to push the boundaries and find ways of doing something that no one else has considered. At the same time flying also provides and absolutely requires rigour, discipline, self-control and the ability to operate within a framework that makes you predictable and predictable to others, an essential feature when flying formation aerobatics as a team.
By the way
Based in the UK, Team Viper is the only display team in the world that flies supersonic Hawker Hunter jets. It is named after the Rolls Royce Viper engine found in Strikemaster jets. The team is both privately owned and flown by military pilots from the British Royal Air Force.
The team participated in the recent international air shows in Bahrain and Al Ain, as well as the Red Bull Air Race in Abu Dhabi.
Facts:
The Hawker Hunter was designed in the 1960s and yet its design was so advanced that in a dogfight it will hold its own against much more modern fighters, even today.
