Confessions of a Flying Instructor: Teaching the RAF's Fighter Pilots

After surviving three years flying the mighty Phantom, the RAF’s greatest and most terrifying fighter (for those in the cockpit), Tug Wilson was sent to RAF Brawdy in Pembrokeshire and then to RAF Valley on the Isle of Anglesey to teach the flying skills he probably should have known when posted on the Cold War front line.

At Valley, Wilson quickly discovered that being an instructor was much more than just teaching: it was falling out of the sky after a stall at just 300 feet, inches from pulling the ejection-seat handle; it was zooming into cloud at low level knowing there’s a hill somewhere straight ahead; it was suffering the horror of nearly killing your student by chasing him too hard in air combat; it was being a mentor, a father figure, a best friend and a worst enemy if needs be; and it was the joy of guiding the struggling but hard-working ones away from the brink of being ‘chopped’ and towards their dream of becoming confident aviators, ready to join an operational squadron.

Confessions of a Flying Instructor is a gritty, unvarnished, highly entertaining account of what it was like to be a tactics and flying instructor on an RAF squadron in the early 1990s—the banter, the egos, the insecurities, the cock-ups, the tragedies, the friendships, the triumphs, and the pure, unadulterated exhilaration of raging around the sky in a Hawk T1A day after day. Have you ever wondered what a fast-jet pilot needs to go through to learn how to win in air combat? Or how to cheat in dogfighting, for that matter? This book is an intimate, revelatory memoir of an often overlooked but intrinsic aspect of the RAF.

Table of Contents

RAF Valley - June 1994 - in the back of a Hawk T1; RAF Brawdy - May 1992; RAF Valley, Isle of Anglesey.

Tug Wilson grew up in North Yorkshire, and in 1985 his dream came true, joining the RAF to fly fast jets. He was selected to fly the mighty Phantom for his first tour. After raging around for 3 years at the front line, Tug became a tactics and flying instructor on the Hawk. Following this, he was extremely lucky in securing an exchange tour with the US Marine Corps flying the F18 Hornet in California. His final flying tour was on the Tornado F3 before a heart condition curtailed all his fun. He now tells flying stories for a living!