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'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.
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