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Biography:

My first flight was in an RAF De Haviland DHC-1 Chipmunk. I was 13 years old and a cadet with 16F squadron Air Training Corps. We flew from RAF White Waltham and I was irretrievably committed to aviation by then and forever more. I started my ATC gliding course with 617 Gliding School at RAF Hendon. In April 1968 the 617 Gliding School moved to RAF Bovingdon due to the closure of RAF Hendon as an active airfield. On the 4th May 1968 at the age of sixteen I soloed in a Slingsby T.31B Kirby Cadet Mk. III, and I was the first cadet to solo after the move to RAF Bovingdon.

By then I had advanced to the rank of senior cadet flight sergeant, and after being recommended for advanced training, I was accepted as a staff cadet at RAF Bovingdon. After an aborted attempt to study aeronautical engineering at the same time as the collapse of the British aircraft industry, I switched courses and finally graduated as a Bachelor of Education with Physics.

Since the age of 16, I have flown gliders, paragliders, hangliders, parachuted and flown light aircraft of every description. I have a Rutan Varieze and a Cessna C-170B.

I have worked as a high school science teacher, electronics engineer, systems analyst, broadcast systems specialist, and for the last ten years I have been building/ modifying composite experimental airplanes.

- Andreas P. Christou