I spent many hours gaining my initial MECIR plus around a dozen renewals with Tony. Grumpy was a fair nickname, but in reality he wasn’t grumpy, he just didn’t cope well with fools (myself included). He was a great influence and promoter of GA professionalism. I did my Initial CIR with both Tony and Bruce Hartwig working together. I trained in my own Seneca and Tony made the very valuable point that the one thing truly missing from my panel was a coffee machine. His point was, “when things go wrong, don’t rush into hasty automated decisions. Make a coffee and consider the situation and solution before taking action”. I learnt the lesson and passed it on to many dozens of my own ME-CIR students over the years. Pilots and trainers of the Kingham/Hartwig ilk are irreplaceable. Times and technologies move on.
My best respects to Christine and Tony’s family.

Just read this very sad news.
Tony did my class one instrument rating test and he later offered me the job of flying his newly acquired C421 for Augusta Airways.
One of the industry’s great characters. He could simulate an engine failure on take off with a cigarette hanging out the side of his mouth.
Condolences to Christine.
RIP Tony.