A presentation by Paul Shakespeare & Gp Capt Chirs Huckstep – released January 10, 2012
Paul has 24 years experience in the RAF, Tornado GR1/4 pilot, flew CF-18 Hornet with the RCAF on exchange, French TP school, 2 tours on FJTS, last one as the last OC FJTS. Joined QQ late 2010 as Head of Trials Eng, recently appointed QFO Director of Aviation. Air Experience Flight pilot and Shuttleworth pilot since 2004, with approximately 3500 hrs on over 70 types of aircraft.
Group Captain Huckstep was born and raised in Sussex, England, and graduated from Cambridge University in 1979 with a Bachelor of Arts degree. After a period raising money for and completing an expedition to the Arctic, during which he completed the first British solo crossing of Spitzbergen, he joined the Royal Air Force in December 1980. On completion of flying training in 1983 he was posted to the Harrier, flying the GR3 and later the GR5 and GR7 in the low-level ground attack role. After two front-line tours and a period as an instructor on the Harrier Conversion Unit, Group Captain Huckstep was selected for the Empire Test Pilots’ School in 1993. On graduating he served as the Harrier project test pilot for 3 years, developing new weapons and avionic systems, and undertaking flight trials including the Release to Service flight test clearances for the Harrier T10 and the aircraft carrier clearances for the GR7.
As a Flight Commander on Number 1 (Fighter) Squadron he took part in the NATO air campaign over Kosovo in 1999, for which he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. This was followed by a staff tour at HQ Strike Command, during which he was selected for the USAF Air War College at Maxwell Air Force Base, Montgomery, Alabama. On graduating from the Air War College in June 2003 with a Masters Degree in Strategic Studies he moved to Tampa, Florida, where he served as the UK Exchange Officer to HQ US Central Command at MacDill Air Force Base. During his two-year tenure he spent nine months deployed to the Middle East, including six and a half months in Baghdad, Iraq, where he served as the Deputy Chief of the US CENTCOM deployed planning cell at the Coalition Provisional Authority. In July 2005 he returned to the UK to take up the post of Deputy Chief Test Pilot at MOD Boscombe Down in Wiltshire, followed by a tour as the MOD Flight Test Regulator, first within DE&S and latterly the newly-formed Military Aviation Authority. He took up his current post in May 2011.
Group Captain Huckstep is married to Gill and he and his family live in Amesbury, Wiltshire. His interests include flying vintage aircraft, sailing and exploration; he is a regular display pilot for the Shuttleworth Collection of vintage aircraft at Old Warden airfield in the UK.
‘Flying the aeroplanes of The Shuttleworth Collection’ – An insight from 2 current display pilots into what it is like to fly the wonderful old aeroplanes of the world famous Shuttleworth Collection, the biggest collection of antique and vintage aircraft in the world.