At the end of course I was posted to Northern Radar at RAF Lindholme, which was scheduled to stay open for 2 more years until the radar task was transferred to LATCC. Interesting place to work as it was a military unit with civil controllers. When it closed down I was posted to ScACC along with Steve Hobbs and Clint Gurry, after being told by NATS Personnel they urgently needed young radar controllers at ScACC. Surprised to find out when I arrived there I was actually posted to Oceanic!  

I spent 5 years there and the work was pretty boring as there was no direct contact with aircraft but some compensation was liaison visits to Gander and Madrid. The social life however was great and I made the most of the situation. Plenty of sports with football and skiing at Glenshee and Aviemore. Highlight was playing for Prestwick in the European Controllers Cup in Munich where we reached the final and then the following year at Largs where we actually won the cup.
 
I met my future wife Lesley there and we married in 1982. At that point I was keen to move to a busier radar unit and persuaded her to move south. I got a posting to LATCC where I spent most of the rest of my career. Radar on TMA North, TMA South and Clacton sectors was fantastic -as busy and complex work as you could ever want and sometimes too busy! After a few years I became interested in flow management and in 1991 I moved to a Traffic Manager position in the London FMU. This was a time of developing the ATFM from a very basic system leading up to the introduction of the CFMU in Brussels. We had a great team of ATCOs and we still meet up for a Christmas lunch every year.
 
When CFMU took over the tasking in 1991 our unit was disbanded and we were transferred back to LATCC. I initially became a CSC on B Watch and after a couple of years was promoted to Watch Supervisor on D Watch. It was probably the post I enjoyed the most of my NATS career as it was leading up to the opening of Swanwick in 2003 and all of the work that involved. On the nightshift when we had to transfer the ATC operation from LATCC to Swanwick, we had half of D Watch at LATCC and the other half down the road at Swanwick waiting for the Watch Supervisor to press the Go button! Thankfully it all worked!

After a few years I decided that I had enough of travelling up and down the M3 from my home in Surrey to Swanwick and decided to move back to West Drayton as a Watch Manager in Terminal Control. I thought it may only be for 2 or 3 years until TC also transferred to Swanwick but actually turned out to be 5 years later. So then it was back to working at Swanwick for a couple of years before taking an offer I could not refuse - Early Retirement after 40 years!

I then set up my own ATC consultancy company and worked on contracts for NATS in Oman at Muscat ACC and then later in Qatar where they were developing the new Hamad international airport at Doha. Also managed to fit in working part-time for EasyJet as ATC consultant. When my wife retired from her teaching post we decided to move down to New Milton on the South Coast. It’s a wonderful area with plenty to do, close by the New Forest and also the beach at Barton. It’s also not too far from our daughters and grandchildren. For a while I even managed to fit in volunteering at Bournemouth Aviation Museum and I won’t forget the sight of 40 British Airways A320 and B747 aircraft parked at the airport there during COVID.

Take care and looking forward to seeing everyone!