'The Confessions of a Phantom Pilot' is the true story of a young RAF pilot who gets his dream to fly the old dirty workhorse fighter of the Cold War. From the first flight where he thought the jet was trying to kill him, through to his final trip of leading eight aeroplanes on a front line fighter squadron, you will relive his thoughts, feelings and anxieties as he stumbles his way through each flight relying on a bit of skill and a lot of blind luck. In essence, it is a love letter to the Phantom from a star-struck boy who felt like he was way out of his depth at the beginning of their affair. You will share stories of the outrageous drinking culture that was a major part of Cold War front-line operations, and marvel at how he didn't do himself some serious damage either in or out of the cockpit. This is how it feels to be a front-line fighter pilot - the triumphs and the disasters are all laid out here in a completely open and honest way as the author looks back with a certain sense of nostalgia and mild embarrassment. What a blast though!

After surviving three years flying the mighty Phantom, the RAF's greatest and most terrifying fighter (for those in the cockpit), Tug Wilson was sent to RAF Brawdy in Pembrokeshire and then to RAF Valley on the Isle of Anglesey to teach the flying skills he probably should have known when posted on the Cold War front line. At Valley, Wilson quickly discovered that being an instructor was much more than just teaching: it was falling out of the sky after a stall at just 300 feet, inches from pulling the ejection-seat handle; it was zooming into cloud at low level knowing there's a hill somewhere straight ahead; it was suffering the horror of nearly killing your student by chasing him too hard in air combat; it was being a mentor, a father figure, a best friend and a worst enemy if needs be; and it was the joy of guiding the struggling but hard-working ones away from the brink of being 'chopped' and towards their dream of becoming confident aviators, ready to join an operational squadron. Confessions of a Flying Instructor is a gritty, unvarnished, highly entertaining account of what it was like to be a tactics and flying instructor on an RAF squadron in the early 1990s-the banter, the egos, the insecurities, the cock-ups, the tragedies, the friendships, the triumphs, and the pure, unadulterated exhilaration of raging around the sky in a Hawk T1A day after day. Have you ever wondered what a fast-jet pilot needs to go through to learn how to win in air combat? Or how to cheat in dogfighting, for that matter? This book is an intimate, revelatory memoir of an often overlooked but intrinsic aspect of the RAF.