About Justyn

 

I had my first ‘proper’ flying lesson in back 1995 after arriving at Lands End on a holiday to see that they were charging £5 to park the car…. I remember getting quite irate and caused some chaos as I tried to turn around with a big que of people behind me and drove off. Several miles down the road I spotted a sign that read ‘See Lands end by air from £60’ I was happy to pay £60 as that was much better value and the buzz and exhilaration just grabbed me. Unfortunately I was too heavily involved with my motorcycle road racing at that time and it had to be shelved in the ‘to do later’ pile.

Having spent many years short circuit motorcycle road racing to British National and European level, I eventually mastered the old saying ‘to finish first, first you have to finish’! I stopped falling off and by the time the 1999 season arrived I competed on two different motorcycles in two different classes and won both the formula 400, and 250 production championships. I couldn’t really better that and the time had come to move on and find another interest. I took a trial lesson with an old and experienced instructor (the late Rex Nicholls) at Biggin Hill on a Tuesday and went solo the following Thursday having flown as much as I could in between. Within 9 weeks I held a private pilots licence. My many years of road racing was put aside and I focused all my spare time and energy on progressing my flying skill set.

Having purchased my first light aircraft I began flying with a like minded group at Rochester Airport in Kent. It was a real family atmosphere down there at that time, people were amazing and supportive. One such meeting was with Richard Meredith who had made a comment that my flying style was perhaps, ‘a little flamboyant’ and certainly not to be wasted, but perhaps not on that type…..I think his actual words were “You will pull the wings off that” and so I was invited down to the Tiger Club which had recently relocated at Headcorn. I began flying old Vintage types and completed my initial aerobatic training in an open cockpit vintage Stampe SV4C. I recall Richard briefed me that we would have about 30 mins feeling in our hands and feet as we climbed up to do inverted spinning in the middle of winter at minus 10 degrees!

Many hours later, and with significant experience acquired, I began aerobatic and formation display training acquiring my initial CAA DA (display authorisation) in 2002

My first aircraft was sold to finance the purchase of a share in a single seat highly modified Pitts Special. I used the Pitts to hone and further my aerobatic skills (read: I read lot’s of books, strapped a parachute on and became a test pilot”) on reflection perhaps not the best way forward, and certainly one I wouldn’t recommend. I competed at beginner / standard / intermediate / advanced levels at aerobatic competitions and was actually about to win the Tiger Club Dick Bentley trophy when the rules were changed prior to the last round to exclude me and my Pitts! Display flying became a the centre of my focus, and was a truly fantastic experience. I had the opportunity to fly in many teams over the years as well as display a range of aircraft that were often kindly loaned for the purpose. My aerobatic skillset had been progressed to Advanced level and in 2005 a move into the higher performance mono-wing Extra 300L gave me the opportunity to aim for the top Unlimited level with the right coaching and training. I was lucky enough to use the skillset of John Taylor (JT) and Diana Britten who I trained alongside for many years.

2006 saw the acquisition of a commercial licence. I continued to display both the Extra 300L and the Pitts S-2B. The latter aircraft was part of Will Curtis Biggin Hill based Road Angel Team and saw me participate at some of the largest attended air-shows in the country such as; Southend, Sunderland and Southport Air-shows with a total audience over the season of over 10 million people.

I concentrated on display flying in the Extra 300L to Unlimited level, and regularly train in France with alongside my coach Diana.

As of early 2023 I have flown over 134 types of aircraft from flex wings / ultra-lights to the supersonic SEPECAT Jaguar, and am heading towards the 8000 quality flying hour mark, with well in excess of 3500 of these hours being aerobatic!

I now work as a commercial freelance Captain flying the Hawker Beechcraft BE200 Super King Air. I am the Head of training / CFI at the Kittyhawk Flight Academy, a place of aviation excellence. I hold both FAA and CAA ATP licences will most of the available add on ratings.