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.
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.
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.
Shaun Kimberley - Secretary
Flt Lt Shaun 'Kimbo' Kimberley joined the RAF as an Airman in 1988 as an Avionics Technician, working on the Tornado F3 & GR1, VC10 and Tristar. He was commissioned from the Ranks in November 1997.
He was originally posted to the Jaguar at RAF Coltishall and then onto the Tornado GR4 at RAF Lossiemouth and onto 12(B) Squadron in May 2002.
During his time on 12(B) Sqn he completed numerous overseas detachments and exercises and four operational tours over Iraq, including Operation Resinate South and OP Telic. He was awarded a Mention-in- Dispatches for his role during the early missions of the second Gulf War in March 2003.
Flt Lt Kimberley then became a QFI at RAF Linton-on-Ouse in 2005 and amassed over 1000hrs on the Tucano. In 2008 he was selected for the RAAF CFS Exchange at RAAF East Sale in Australia, arriving there in Sep 08.
During his time in Australia Flt Lt Kimberley flew multiple aircraft types, including the CT4B Piston trainer, Pilatus PC-9 Turboprop, Hawk 127 Advanced Jet Trainer and the F/A-18 Hornet fighter.
Returning to the UK, Flt Lt Kimberley was posted to CFS Tutors at RAF Cranwell, where he trained qualified service Pilots to become QFIs. He was selected as the RAF Tutor Display Pilot for 2011 & 2012 and completed over 70 public displays during his two seasons.
During his service career he has flown almost 3000hrs in 12 different aircraft types with over 900 instructional hours. He is currently flying the Tornado GR4 Tour on II(AC)Sqn at RAF Marham.
Flt Lt Kimberley is also a Champion Hang Glider pilot, having started aged just 16. He has been British Open Champion, Forces Champion and he finished 3rd in the UK National Championships in 2006. Flt Lt Kimberley has represented Great Britain in many international competitions throughout Europe.
Mike Stanway
John Turner
John gained a Private Pilot License at the age of 17, joined the RAF while at York University and flew Phantom F4s in Germany before becoming a Flight Commander and instructing on the Hawk, during which he was awarded a 'Queens Commendation for Valuable Services in the Air' for safely landing a Hawk that suffered an engine failure just after a night takeoff.
Subsequently, John attended Empire Test Pilots' School and commanded the Experimental Flying squadron at RAE Farnborough flying a wide range of aircraft including the Andover, BAC 1-11, Buccaneer, Comet, Jaguar, Hawk, Hunter, Varsity and PA-31.
John joined BAE Systems in 1990 as an experimental test pilot on Tornado, also gaining an Air Transport Pilot License and flying the company Cessna 421. In 1992 he became the lead test pilot on Eurofighter and was the first pilot to achieve 100 hours on type. John displayed the Hawk for 3 years before flying the first fully aerobatic Eurofighter display at Farnborough in 1996, followed by further displays at Berlin and Farnborough in 1998 where a show-stealing display also announced the Typhoon name.
John switched to the Nimrod MRA4 programme, becoming Chief Test Pilot Nimrod & Strategic Aircraft in 2003 with responsibility for all the large aircraft in the BAE Systems portfolio ranging from Nimrod MR2, R3 and MRA4, through BAe146/RJ and the turbo-prop ATP to RAF aircraft such as the Canberra and VC10. Between trials he also flew as a BAe146 captain for the company airline and occasional ferry flights in the ATP. He also managed and displayed the company's heritage aircraft, a Blackburn B2, an Avro C19 (Anson) and a deHavilland DH60 Cirrus Moth on loan to the Shuttleworth Collection.
John became Director Flight Operations for BAE Systems in 2005 and, as the 'Chief Pilot' for BAE Systems plc and BAE Systems Inc., he was responsible for the governance of all flying activities conducted by or on behalf of all the parts of the company word-wide. He continued to test flying, completing a test programme on an MT-003 gyrocopter as well as overseeing and acting as 'pilot' for the first flight of the multi-engine unmanned Mantis platform. He also regularly displayed Shuttleworth Collection vintage aircraft and assisted on the Flying Control Committees (FCC) at East Fortune, Farnborough International, Clacton, Southend on Sea, Southport and Margate.
In 2010 John set up John Turner Aviation Consultants Ltd, providing a source of independent and expert advice on aviation matters. He is FCC Chairman for Farnborough International, a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society and a member of their Flight Test Group, a Freeman of GAPAN and their Director of Aviation Affairs and a member of the A|D|S Flight Operations Committee.
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.
