I find aviation to be absolutely crammed with "characters" (meaning very forceful personalities, not foolhardy pilots - I've met very few of those). Hardly surprising, as it is a tough world in which to make a commercial success of things, and unlikely to attract particularly passive personalities. In any small world where you have a lot of forceful people, inevitably they will rub occasionally rub each other up the wrong way.

Douglas Bader and Neil Williams, both childhood heros of mine, were just two people who demostrated the positive ways in which a forceful and charismatic personality could drive achievement, but who in other ways had a reputation for "not suffering fools" to put it mildly!

For his sheer determination and refusal to back down in the face of bureaucratic interference, Mark Jefferies has to regarded as a modern-day aviation "character", and I admire his achievements in popularising the Yak in the UK and keeping Little Gransden alive and well.

And I would add James Gilbert to the list of aviation characters, owner and editor of 'Pilot' magazine for many years. I think that mag's unique and special character came directly from James.

It will be interesting to see how it fares now it is in 'corporate' hands, rather than those of a colourful individual. And in these PC days, will we ever see its like again?

SSD

bring it on!
 

I aggree, too much emphasis on paper work procedures and immpressing the cliky croud with perfect rt breeds a mass of non characters. Sure, i dont disagree with the paper work etc but u need a little va va voom in yer flying. I am not even 1/4 of a century old yet so maybee u shouldn't listen to the likes of me, but i know my crowd treat flying as a bit of fun that can scare the crap out of u if you try, (brian lacomber did) try looping something that shouldn't or buy a doodle bug hand glider, that'll cheer you up. flying in nudes prety cool (scuse pun) also. :D :D :D :D

dedstikyfingerz

Just curious, did you recently take a trip to France with some other aviation type people?
:) :)

Sadly no longer with us, Chris Freeman aka Mr Headcorn was a true character.

Surrounded by a pack of Jack Russells, his A/G information was a delight in the efficient use of the airwaves - allowing for the odd yap or bark intruding!

Many of us remember his courageous fight to keep Lashenden going.

Well, last week I was out at the NBAA convention and I had the great good fortune to spend some time chatting with Bob Hoover. Now here is an individual who has been there done that but is also witty, gregarious and the personification of the word gentleman