10 Questions - Bob Ellis

In '10 Questions, we ask our pilots a few questions that they might not ordinarily get asked so we're able to learn a little more about them and their love (if thay have it) for flying. On this occasion, it's:

Bob Ellis, Pilot Race 85

A min-biography if you'd be so kind?

Aged 12 on a visit to Heathrow with my father I decided I wanted to become a pilot. After 2 failed attempts the RAF took me on as a training risk in 1977; 23 years later I left after flying the Vulcan, instructing on Jet Provosts, testing Hawks post maintenance, a failed attempt at the Tornado GR1 and Captaining Air Transport/Air to Refuelling missions on the VC10. My final tour on PC7 Mk2s in Brunei involved a ground accident not of my making and due to vision issues I was medically retired.  Spent 5 1/2 years in commercial aviation on Citation Bravo business jet and Airbus A320/21 with restricted medical but spent 6 months of each year away from home so hung up my flying boots in 
2006 . Worked as a Process Operator with a local oil refinery for 8 years until I took early retirement in late 2014 when I was made redundant.

How many hours do you have under your belt, starting from when?

To me hours don't mean much - it's what you've done with them that counts and I have been lucky enough to have done a heck of a lot with them - but to answer the question 6900 from 1976 when I started flying with the Air Training Corps on a Flying Scholarship

I'm sorry. You fly a what? Is this your dream aeroplane, and if not what is?

A Vans RV-8 kitplane built in my garage over 5 ½ years – after the Hawk, which I flew for over 600 hours, this is the best plane that I have had the privilege of flying. It is so versatile and fast and just a delight to fly be it formation flying, aerobatics, touring or air racing. A plane built on dreams and now enabling those dreams.​

If your aircraft could fly forever, to what destination would you like to fly?

I have been to lucky to have flown to many parts of the globe in my military and commercial career but if I could fly my RV-8 to one airfield it would be to Kathmandu in Nepal near to Mount Everest; the scenery is spectacular and the people are so friendly.

What one aviation regulation would you change or introduce?

Removal of owners address details from G-INFO (UK aircraft database) which is open to the public. I can’t access their car registration address so why should they see mine just because I own an aircraft?

Do you have an aviation idol? Who is it?

Yes. Ginger Lacey the top scoring Fighter Pilot in the Battle of Britain. I had the privilege of flying and chatting with Ginger in the late 70’s/early 80s so to win the Ginger Lacey Trophy at my home airfield of Haverfordwest in June this year was such an honour in his memory.

What’s the next thing you’d like to achieve in your flying career?

I’m not sure there is anything now. I have had a wonderful life in aviation and been fortunate to have been paid to do it for long periods. To have won the British Air Racing Championship in my homebuilt plane utilising all the experience gained over those years I don’t think can be bettered.

If not flying, then what?

Composing/recording electronic music, flying radio controlled gliders, sea fishing, watercolour painting and a healthy retirement with my gorgeous wife Jill.

Spitfire, Hurricane or Typhoon?

Flying a Spitfire in formation with a Hurricane and Eurofighter – that would be cool. In 2013 I flew my RV-8 in formation with Vulcan XH558 that I used to fly on 27 Squadron and that was a hairs standing on the back of the neck experience.

Do you have a favourite piece of aviation kit or software?

Sky Demon - without doubt the biggest contribution to UK General Aviation Flight Safety in my lifetime.​

Have you ever flown an aircraft you disliked so much you thought 'Never again!'?

Not a single one - as Brian Hope the LAA magazine editor said “To fly is to know, it is in itself the reason and the justification”