I knew Neil very well, and his wife Lynne. They were both members of the Tiger Club at Redhill and he would be happy to fly with anyone who wanted aerobatic tuition - we flew together many times and his aeros were second to none and we did have some very good pilots at the Tiger Club, Carl Schofield, Pete Jarvis, James Black to name but a few.
He flew Zlins again in aerobatic comps for some time after the incident at Hullavington.
I remember one day when I was duty check pilot that Neil was about to fly Des St Cyrian's Sopwith Pup he had built. Neil let me know he was going north just over the ridge to put the Pup through some checks. It was about an hour later I received a call from Neil to say that he had forced landed the Pup in a rather nice field that was the sports ground of Lloyds Bank at Kingswood. I drove up there to see what help he needed - it turned out that all he needed was castor oil! As I had decided to take an engineer with me he had some with him - he must have known! Just as we were going to get Neil on his way again, a policeman in a panda car turned up and wanted to take a statement from Neil but I'm afraid we nearly went into hysterics when he asked Neil for his driving licence!! One red faced police officer quickly left the scene.
It was a VERY sad day that Neil together with Lynne and an engineer from Doug Arnold's fleet at Blackbushe were killed when they hit a mountain in a He111 just north of Valencia.
His book 'Aerobatics' is one of the best reads for any aspiring aerobatic pilot. The drawing of each maneuver by his brother gives it an edge that others have not.