Ian Black was a third generation Royal Air Force pilot. His older brother also served,

In this video he describes his initial reluctance to join the Service preferring to yo be a photographer. His father, later an AVM, had other ideas. In about 1979 he joined the Service.

After training as a Navigator on a short service commission, he flew in the back seat of Phantoms for three years before with a little guidance from family and friends in the Service he switched to a Permanent Commission, and qualified as a fast jet pilot flying Lightnings, Tornado F3s and on an extended exchange tour with the French Air Force, Mirage 2000s. He flew in a number of operations. He retired in 1997.

He is now a pilot with Virgin and publishes books of the many photographs he took whilst flying fast jets.

Ian Black is a former RAF Fighter Pilot with a passion for photography and motorcycles. He began his flying career with the legendary McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom in RAF Germany at the height of the Cold War. After three years flying “Back set” Ian underwent Pilot Training in 1984-1986 during which time he was awarded prizes for flying ability , aerobatics and unsurprisingly navigation skills. On completion of his flying training Ian was selected to fly the English electric Lightning in the Air Defence Role. Twenty five years earlier, Ian’s father had been one of the RAF’s first Lightning Pilots and his son was set to become the last. Serving on 11(F) Squadron Ian flew 400 Hours on this Iconic Single Seat fighter before the type was replaced with the swing wing Tornado F3.Spending five years at RAF Leeming in Yorkshire Ian flew with 23 (F) Squadron then 25(F) Squadron before returning to 11(F) Squadron . Ian flew the Tornado in the first Gulf conflict as well as the Falkland Islands and participated in Exercise “Red Flag” at Nellis AFB Nevada USA.

After nearly 1200 hours on the Tornado ADV, Ian became only the second RAF pilot to be selected for the prestigious role of exchange officer on the Dassault Mirage 2000 with the French Air Force. Based at Orange in Provence from 1993-1997 Ian took part in operations over Bosnia before deployment on live operations over Iraq on operation “Southern watch”. Ian flew nearly 800 hours on the Mirage 2000 of which 300 hrs were on live Combat missions.

He left the RAF in 1997 and joined Virgin Atlantic Airways where he is currently a Captain on the A340-300 /A340-600/ A330 fleets.

Mea Culpa, in my defence I was working off an IPhone and hadn't time to research BZN; I had only every been at Brize three times IIRC, returning to Cyprus, once to ASI and once back from ASI.