Aviation Seminars

Experienced speakers will present a range of interesting and highly relevant topics covering everything from practical advice to insights into the latest industry development. The seminars are free and open to all visitors.

More to be announced!

Cansford Labs – Frank Bellwood QPM

Drug Testing in Aviation

Frank has 10 years plus experience in the Workplace Drug and Alcohol testing industry. Prior to that 30 plus years working with Law Enforcement Agencies in The UK and mainland Europe predominately tackling issues arising from drug misuse.

In this seminar, we will be covering the main points to consider when introducing a Drug and Alcohol Policy and the various methods and sample mediums available for testing for drug and alcohol use/misuse and the best options depending on the required `window of detection`.

There will be time for any questions arising.

European Pride in Aviation Network (EPAN) – Will Robson

Can diversity and inclusion solve the job shortage?

With multiple factors leading to what is quite clearly an applicant shortage across the aviation industry, could promotion of diversity and inclusion be the answer that companies are looking for? Will Robson from the European Pride in Aviation Network aims to explore how an intersectional approach that promotes ED&I within an organisation benefits not only those currently employed but can increase application numbers. He will also discuss small changes we can all make in everyday life to ensure a more inclusive environment for everyone.

Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB) – Andrew Cox and Mark Ellis

The Role of the AAIB

Andrew and Mark will cover a range of topics, including: the AAIB, its role, its organisation, what is investigated etc. and will also talk about some case studies that are pertinent to the GA community. There will be an opportunity to ask questions during the Q&A section of the presentation.

Aerobility – Mike Miller-Smith

“ONE GIANT LEAP – The Present and Future of Disabled Aviation and Aerospace”

BHA – Tim Fauchon 

Regulatory Update and “What is Killing us?”

Since 1979 Tim has over 5000 hrs rotary flying and procedurally instrument-rated on CH-47, EH101, S-61, S-54, UH-1, Bell 212 & Gazelle helicopters in Army Support, Comms, VIP and SAR roles. He has served and flown in high/high climates in Oman, Hong Kong and Saudi Arabia and operated off- shore. 500 jet and piston hours. B2 Qualified Helicopter Instructor. RAF Human Factors Facilitator and Dangerous Goods Instructor.

BHA – Tim Fauchon 

Regulatory Update and “What is Killing us?”

CAA – Mike Macdonald

GA Change Programme

Mike Macdonald has been Acting Co-Head of the CAA’s GA and RPAS Unit since July 2022. He has been at the CAA for four years and, prior to his current role, Mike managed the GA Policy and the Air Display Oversight teams. This presentation will cover the GA Change Programme – a series of projects being delivered for the GA community in conjunction with the DfT.

Simmy Akhtar – CEO Air Ambulances UK

Air Ambulance Panel discussion

Simmy has been CEO at Air Ambulances UK since March 2021 where she is responsible for strategic and overall operational delivery. She is currently a trustee at Support Staffordshire which provides countywide support for the Voluntary Community and Social Enterprise sector and a Non-Executive Director at Midlands Partnership University Hospital Foundation Trust where she is Chair of the Quality Governance Committee. Previous to this Simmy has most recently worked for several years at Healthwatch and is a qualified solicitor.

Simmy is also experienced in motivational leadership, strategy, digital, stakeholder engagement and influencing, equality, diversity, and inclusion as well as business development. As reflected in her roles, Simmy is passionate about collaboration, improving patient outcomes and ultimately saving more lives.

Dave Harris, Head of Aviation Standards, Babcock International Group

Air Ambulance Panel discussion

Dave flew a variety of aircraft and roles in the RAF, beginning with the Puma and finishing in Standards for the Defence Helicopter Flying School. He was an A2 instructor, as both QHI and QFI. He has worked for Babcock for the last seven years, in training and operational standards roles.

This experience covers HEMS, EMS, police, customs, humanitarian, offshore and firefighting operations across Europe, Australia, Canada and Africa for a fleet of up to 500 aircraft. He regularly works with a wide range of operators, gathering good practice and driving continuous improvement. Dave works with Babcock’s military as well as civil businesses, including provision of the UK military’s light aircraft flying task and he has a role in providing independent safety oversight of the Ascent MFTS joint venture. As part of the global safety team, he has led the lessons learned process after a number of aeroplane and helicopter incidents and accidents – all of them in the low level environment – acting as lead investigator. Dave generally flies a desk these days, but occasionally keeps his hand in on the EC135 helicopter.

Captain Steve Rush, Flight Operations Director of Devon Air Ambulance

Air Ambulance Panel discussion

Captain Rush spent his formative flying years serving as a pilot flying various aircraft types in the Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Navy.

On leaving the Navy he spent a few years flying to North Sea oil rigs from Aberdeen before moving across to onshore operations with the then ‘Bond Air Services’ flying Air Ambulance and HEMS initially in Scotland before moving to Wales to help establish the Wales Air Ambulance in 2001.

In 2005 he took a four-year break from HEMS flying to become the Chief Pilot at Cardiff Heliport for British International/Veritair. There he flew Police operations in South Wales; underslung target drone recovery in Aberporth, West Wales; and BBC mast inspection work throughout the UK.

In 2009 he joined Devon Air Ambulance in a return to HEMS flying. Progressing through the organisation, he spent six years as HEMS Senior Pilot before being appointed to his current role as Flight Operations Director.

Captain Rush has spent a considerable portion of his flying career operating at low-level. He is a current HEMS pilot on the Airbus H145, and in addition to Royal Navy aircraft he has previously flown variants of the BO105 and EC135, operating single pilot VFR, IFR and NVIS.

In addition to his operational oversight of the Devon Air Ambulance’s HEMS helicopters, he is currently leading their project exploring the future potential of integrating and augmenting HEMS helicopters with UAS operations.

Keith Vinning – Pilot Aware

Advances in Electronic Conspicuity

Keith had a long and successful career in telecommunications, working in senior positions with BT and Fujitsu for 49 years before retiring in 2015. However, his love for aviation never faded, and he decided to use his experience as a pilot and instructor to improve aviation safety for all.

In 2015, Keith partnered with Lee More, who was developing a low-cost Electronic Conspicuity device, and together they formed PilotAware, an altruistic company with the mission of detecting all aircraft transmitting any form of Electronic conspicuity signal at the lowest possible cost to increase situational awareness for all.

Under Keith’s leadership, PilotAware has become the device that sees more aircraft than any other system available and has helped to drive down the cost of Electronic conspicuity for all. In recognition of his contributions to the aviation industry, Keith was awarded an OBE in Her Majesty’s Birthday Honours in 2020, as well as the Royal Aeronautical Society Bronze Award.

Jeremy Parkin – Parapex Media

The Use of Social media for Aviation Businesses

Every business uses social media as part of their marketing campaign, but do you know which social channels to use, and how to get the best return from using each one?

Jeremy Parkin from Parapex Media manages social media for aviation businesses as part of his company’s marketing consultancy. Jeremy will be presenting a session in the Conference stream at AeroExpo/RotorTechUK on just this topic – how to maximise the use of social media for aviation businesses.

Coverage will be focused on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter with various other networks mentioned en route.

The following is a list of typical questions which will be answered in this presentation.

• How often should the boss be using LinkedIn?
• Should you post exactly the same text, image and hashtags to multiple networks?
• What is a hashtag anyway?
• Does it make a difference whether you add a photo or not?
• What is a LinkedIn SSI score?
• Should you be using Twitter?
• Is it a wise move to use someone under the age of (say) 25 to post on behalf of your company?
• Is Tiktok worth investing time in?
• What’s the best time of day to post?
• How should you promote what your business is doing for ESG, to avoid green-washing?
• If there’s just one piece of advice that you’d give, what would it be?

The Social Media in Aviation session will be in the Conference Centre (rear of Hangar One) on Friday 9th June at 2pm

Jeremy Parkin is the owner of Parapex Media, a marketing agency for the aviation industry. The company is involved in Press/PR, Social Media Management and Aviation Data Research.

Simon Oldfield – Airprox Board

Analysis of Recent Airprox Events

The current Director UKAB caught ‘the aviation bug’ at an early age and first learned to fly as a glider pilot with the then Air Cadets (now RAF Air Cadets). After a brief period in the insurance broking industry, he joined the Royal Air Force in November 1985 as an avionics technician.

Working on and around aircraft, his desire to fly grew ever stronger and so he applied for officer training and was accepted into Initial Officer Training in November 1990 and then progressed to train as a navigator. Successful graduation from navigator training saw him posted to fly Tornado

GR1 bombers in Germany and then onto the Tornado GR4. During his time flying this aircraft he saw operational service in Iraq, Kosovo and Afghanistan and spent time as an instructor and standards evaluator on the Tornado Operational Conversion Unit and amassed around 2500 flying hours, including 3 years spent on exchange with the French Air Force flying the Mirage 2000D (although his French language skills have diminished somewhat since his return to the UK).

Following a period as a military advisor to the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, he returned to the Tornado GR4 in Scotland as a flight commander before being posted to the headquarters at RAF High Wycombe as a staff officer. Towards the end of his time in the Royal Air

Force he was posted to the newly formed Royal Air Force Safety Centre as the Fast Jet Flight Safety subject matter expert. During this time, he developed a passion for the improvement of aviation safety and gained an MSc in Safety and Human Factors in Aviation from Cranfield University; he had his first exposure to the work of the UKAB as a Board member (associated with his primary role). This experience, coupled with the appeal of gaining a greater understanding into the influence of Human Factors in aviation, led him to seek employment with the UKAB at the end of his military career and he joined the UKAB Secretariat as an Inspector in November 2019, promoted to Senior Inspector in April 2021.

Following the departure of his predecessor, he took on the role of Director UKAB in August 2022. His continued appetite for aviation has led him to commence his training for a Private Pilot’s License.

Richard Mornington-Sanford

Helicopter Safety

Liz McConaghy – Chinook Crew Chick

Recounting operational experience and dealing with wellbeing issues

Liz McConaghy was the longest serving female crewman on the Royal Air Force Chinook Fleet spanning a 17 year career flying on the aircraft.

This is her auto biography beginning with her journey from a small town in Co. Down Northern Ireland to RAF Cranwell and her exciting career thereafter on Chinook Helicopters. She was the youngest aircrew to deploy to Iraq aged just 21 and also the only female crewman on the Chinook wing for 4 years, so her story is completely unique.

Her career saw her amass 2 deployments to Iraq and 10 deployments to Helmand Afghanistan in support of Operation Herrick and her story offers an insightful and personal perspective on war. The book is an honest and humorous account of her ‘best of times and worst of times’ and how her experiences flying on the Chinook have changed and moulded her into the woman she has become.

From dodging bullets to saving soldiers and witnessing the brutality and loss of war she found herself bringing the battlefield home, despite her fighting days being over.

These memories eventually caught up with her years later in spectacular fashion, leading to her trying to take her own life to quieten her mind and find peace.

She survived and her story concludes offering hope to those who have also found themselves in the darkest of places, if you look hard enough you can find the tools within you to begin to rebuild your pathway to a new life.

ForeFlight – Woflgang Oestreich 

News from ForeFlight

APPG/GAAC – John Gilder

The planning environment and the Strategic Airfield Network (SAN)

GASCO – Mike O’Donoghue 

GA Safety