BADA Board of Members
The British Air Display Association Board is made up of eight members and two officials elected annually by the membership. The Board represents a cross section of the UK air display industry with each having many years of experience in their particular field.
Chairman - Ian Sheeley
Ian's love of air displays began at an early age growing up as he did near Biggin Hill, but it was during his 24 year career in the RAF specialising in Air Traffic Control that his involvement in airshow organisation really took off. On retirement from the RAF Ian joined the full-time staff organizing the RIAT where his wide-ranging responsibilities encompassed the Emergency Services, Security and Contingency planning for the event; concurrently he was the Flying Display Director for 2 of the large seafront airshows staged annually in the UK.
After 4 years he left the permanent staff and became a freelance Display Director and Aviation Consultant. In his new guise, business grew and led to forming a partnership with Ray Thilthorpe (Thilthorpe - Sheeley Associates), and ultimately with David Walton, as TSA Consulting Ltd was formed.
Vice Chairman - George Bacon MBE TD
George holds a Commercial Pilot's Licence/Instrument Rating and he has accumulated almost 4000hrs on around 20 different aircraft types. He is also a Civil Aviation Authority accredited Air Accident Investigator, Crew Resource Management Instructor, Flying Display Director and Event Commentator. By day, he is also the Manager of the Army's Blue Eagles and Historic Flight Display Teams and selects Pilots for the Army Air Corps.
John Davis
John completed a full career as a pilot in the RAF as a Test Pilot, Instructor and Staff Qualified. He then joined CAA in 1988 where he was responsible for regulating General Aviation flying, which included being responsible for issuing Permissions/Exemptions for all Flying Displays and associated events in UK. This included the inspection of Airshows throughout the summer months.Since 1995, he has worked independently as an FDD/FCC member at numerous events in UK and at Belgian and Dutch civil and military Airshows. He is also the civilian FCC representative for the RAF Waddington Airshow. John joined the ADA(E) in 1995 and was its Chairman for the last 8 years during which time he has directed numerous European Display Director Workshops.
Rick Peacock-Edwards
Rick spent over 30 years in the RAF and retired as an Air Commodore in 1999. RAF appointments included Station Commander RAF Leeming, Deputy Commander RAF Staff Washington, Inspector of Flight Safety and Director of Eurofighter. The son of a Battle of Britain pilot, his flying career has been spent mainly on fighters and he has over 1000 hours on each of the Lightning, Phantom and Tornado. He also has over 1000 hours on the Gnat and has flown many other types including the Hawk and Hunter. He introduced the Tornado F2/3 into RAF service and commanded the first squadron. He lead the flypast for the Queens 60th Birthday and also the opening of the 1986 Commonwealth Games.
Whilst Rick has had an involvement in display flying on a number of aircraft he will be best remembered as the Tornado element in the unique Tornado F3/Spitfire display combo in the mid 1980s. He is actively involved with the supervision of air displays and in this capacity he is currently Chairman of the Imperial War Museum Duxford Flying Control Committee (FCC). He is also a member of the FCCs for Farnborough, RIAT Fairford, Biggin Hill and Dawlish Air Displays.
On leaving the RAF, Rick first joined General Dynamics UK as Director of Government Relations/Military Advisors before becoming Managing Director of Vector Flying Training Services, one of the bidding consortiums for the UK MFTS contract. He is now a Director of a new company 'Speakers in Command'. Awarded the AFC in 1987, and appointed Commander of the British Empire in 1993, he is a Past Master of the Guild of Air Pilots and Air Navigators.
Rod Dean
Rod has been displaying civil aircraft since 1984 when he retired from the RAF after 21 years of service.
During his RAF service Rod spent his whole time flying on operational squadrons of training units, principally flying the Hunter and the Jaguar, but also the Jet Provost, Meteor, Gnat and Chipmunk. He left the service as a Squadron Leader as well as a Qualified Flying Instructor and Qualified Weapons Instructor.
Rod spent ten years as the Business Manager of a flight simulator training company before joining the Civil Aviation Authority. Leaving the CAA he joined the team of Farnborough International Ltd as Director of Flying Operations and remains a consultant to them in that field to this day.
Rod has flown a wide variety of World War II and immediate post-war piston fighters such as the Mustang, Corsair, Wildcat, Sea Fury, Bearcat, Hurricane, and Spitfire. Vintage jets flown include the Meteor, Vampire, Venom, T33, F86 Sabre and the Hunter. His CAA Display Authorisation covers all these aircraft and he is fully qualified to lead formations of any size.
Rod is also a CAA Display Authorisation Evaluator and is the Display Director of the Farnborough International Airshow.
Glen Moreman
Glen is the Operations Manager at Cotswold Airport (Kemble) responsible for the air traffic management and the day to day operations of the airport. Being around aviation all his life, he first started working at Cotswold Airport as a volunteer at the 1996 Kemble Air Day and then helping out Delta Jets with their collection of aeroplanes before starting out organising small air displays in 1998. After the success of the 2001 Hunter Anniversary Airshow he was employed by Cotswold Airport to head up the team organising the now annual Cotswold Air Shows and other airfield events. Over the years Glen has been a member of the Air Displays Association (ADAE) and has been involved in the organisation of well over 50 air displays at Kemble, Filton, Old Sarum, Abingdon, Hullavington, Keevil etc etc
Geoff Brindle
Geoff served in the Royal Air Force as a fast-jet pilot, primarily on Lightning and Phantom aircraft. He was the last Station Commander at RAF Wildenrath and also served as the UK’s Senior Military representative in Oman. Geoff was the Lightning display pilot at the International Air Tattoo in the 1970’s before joining the IAT volunteer team as Flying Display Manager. Since then he has served on the Flying Control Committee and as Flying Display Director at RIAT and on the FCC at numerous other airshows including Sunderland, Eastbourne, Duxford, East Fortune and Al Ain.
Dave Walton
D
ave has been around "aviation" and air displays all of his life, being the son of an RAF pilot who also volunteered for IAT at Greenham Common. He started his own aviation career in Recruitment where he was an account manager for the UK's largest crew leasing company responsible for several overseas contracts including a major simulator training project and a VVIP Royal Flight.
Following a brief period travelling the world, he joined the full-time staff at the Royal International Air Tattoo, as the Aircraft Participation Manager responsible for attracting and supporting the hundreds of visiting aircraft and crew that attend the annual event.
During this time he was involved in staging 5 RIATs where his involvement included flying and static participation, movements planning and charter flights, as well as developing an aircraft participation and movements database with a software company. He also assisted with the planning, and subsequently became the Flying Display Director, for "Airbourne", the Eastbourne International Airshow. Leaving RAFCTE in 2007 Dave joined Ray Thilthorpe and Ian Sheeley in forming TSA Consulting Ltd.
Secretary - Rob Windsor
After graduating from the University of Plymouth in 2000 with a degree in Agriculture & Countryside Management, Robert worked as a Crop Trials Officer, a Countryside Management Consultant and a Procurement Officer!
Robert then joined the Royal Air Force Charitable Trust Enterprises in February 2003 as one of the Aircraft Operations team. After promotion and several years as the Aircraft Operations Manager, Robert took over the role of Deputy Director Aircraft Operations in March 2009. He is the permanent staff member responsible for Aircraft Operations at RAFCTE with particular focus on the Royal International Air Tattoo. This role covers Flying Display, Airfield Operations and Aircrew hosting.
Robert was Display Director for the BAe Filton Airshow and has also provided ops support for East Fortune Airshow, Sunderland International Airshow and Airbourne at Eastbourne.
Treasurer - Colin Hitchins
Colin began as a volunteer at the Biggin Hill International Air Fair in 1990 and went on to become the Chief Executive of Air Displays International Ltd the organising company. He is now the Managing Director of Synergy Events Ltd who stage military outdoor concerts with a focus on the role of the RAF. Colin instigated the first meeting at IWM Duxford for Air Display organisers which has now become BADA. In addition to the duties of treasurer Colin is reponsible for the BADA web site.
