Alan Paterson – flight crew history

As a young boy growing up near Glasgow Airport, I was always fascinated by aircraft and determined that one day I would like a career in aviation either as a pilot or engineer. My education was therefore focused on the science subjects and at the age of 17, I took up place at Glasgow University to study Aeronautical Engineering. At the time, in the early 1970’s , there were no places available to train as a pilot with the airlines and with British Airways in particular, which was my first choice airline.

I enjoyed my degree course and graduated with a B Sc Honours degree in 1975. There were still no vacancies for pilot training in the UK at this point in time and so I embarked on a career in engineering with Rolls Royce Aero Engines as a graduate trainee in Glasgow.

I enjoyed engineering very much and after my training period became a Performance Engineer working on Dart, Avon and Spey engines at the overhaul facility near Glasgow. However in 1978 I received word that British Airways was about to restart cadet pilot training and so I applied and was fortunate enough to be selected as a BA cadet, commencing training in June 1978.

The course took place at Hamble (near Southampton) and took 21 months to complete before I graduated with a Commercial Pilot Licence in February 1980. At that point in time there had been yet another downturn in the aviation market and BA no longer needed cadet pilots to enter the airline. We were put on a 2-year furlough and told we could get flying experience elsewhere before being recalled.

I managed to secure a job with Loganair in March 1980 – a small company which operated primarily in Scotland and Northern Ireland – flying as a First Officer on DHC Twin Otter aircraft around the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. This was a very enjoyable job where I learned so much about flying a 2-crew aircraft and handling a turboprop aircraft in all weather conditions with no autopilot. After a couple of years, I then went on to fly the larger Shorts 330 and Shorts 360 aircraft as a F/O – again without autopilots – which really developed your flying skills.

After 3 years at Loganair, I successfully passed my command course and went on to fly the Twin Otter and Britten Norman Islander aircraft initially as a Captain and then transferred back on to the Shorts 360 as Captain. I enjoyed flying for this company very much and learned so much about commercial aviation form my fellow pilots and trainers, gaining valuable experience along the way.

After 6 years with Loganair, I decided to try to gain a job flying jet aircraft. At that time, British Airways had released their cadets from the bond that we had with the airline and so we were able to seek our aviation career with any airline we chose. I was fortunate enough to be selected to fly as a F/O with Monarch Airlines, based at Glasgow on their Boeing 737-200 and 737-300 aircraft, joining them in March 1986. The change to fast jet aircraft was a difficult one for me – a quantum leap! However I learned so much from the experience and again I was fortunate in being taught by a fantastic group of trainers in Monarch.

After 6 years flying on the Boeing 737 aircraft, operating initially as a F/O for 3 years and then as Captain for a further 3 years, I was transferred onto the Airbus A300-600 as a Captain in 1992. I had moved base by this time to Manchester. The A300 was my favourite aircraft and took me to fly to some interesting destinations on the Monarch network which included many popular Mediterranean holiday airfields as well as flying ETOPS transatlantic flights to Canada and the USA.

I remained on the Airbus A300-600 until the end of 2014 when I was transferred across to the Airbus A320/321 fleet as a Captain and Line Training Captain. I also taught CRM to pilots and Cabin Crew which I found to be very rewarding and enjoyable. The A320 and A321 aircraft were again a different challenge as they incorporated a lot of the new technology which had been developed in the 1990’s and early 2000’s particularly by the fact that they were fly by wire aircraft.

Unfortunately, Monarch Airlines ceased operations in October 2017. I had flown with them for 31 years. This was a devastating blow to say the least as at that time, I was 63 years old and within 2 years of retiring. 

Following this, I immediately undertook a training course to become an Airbus A320 Type Rating Instructor and also secured a freelance position flying for DHL (European Air Transport) based in Leipzig on the A300-600 once again for the last 18 months or so of my commercial flying career. I enjoyed this very much as it showed me a totally different side to aviation from the passenger operations I had been used to for so long.

At the same time as flying with DHL, I commenced my A320 TRI work training cadet entry pilots for Thomas Cook and WizzAir under the IAGO Flight Training organisation based at Gatwick Airport. I enjoyed the TRI work immensely as I loved coaching, teaching and encouraging cadets and airline new entry pilots and watching them grow and become confident in their knowledge and abilities.

In April 2019, I operated my last commercial flight with DHL. I did however continue to fly light aircraft occasionally to keep my flying skills alive.

In February 2024, I decided to cease work for IAGO and entered the world of full retirement from aviation. However, I have now been tempted to return to the training world and look forward to sharing my experience and knowledge with the new generation of pilots.