Captain John Ridings
 

I am sad to report that John has recently passed away in Venezuela where he has lived for the past 15 or so years. The details are somewhat sketchy at the moment.

I first met John in 1982 when he was crop spraying up in Cheshire. We became good pals living in and around Stockport. He was the Chief Pilot of Manchester Helicopter Charter at Barton. From a short stay here he found his way to Bristow Helicopters in Aberdeen and then The Falklands where his flying career was cut short due to loss of licence on medical grounds. He was ex AAC serving in Germany and NI on Bell 47 and of course Gazelle.

After the flying stopped the sailing started! He acquired his Ocean Yacht Master rating, purchased a boat and took off touring the Med for a while before heading off across the Pond to S America.

There are no funeral details as it will have happened by now.

Blue Skies and Calm Seas Mate

Yes, goodbye John - we had great fun in the discos of Warrington pretending to be emergency dentists :) We lived about a mile from each other when I was working for Alton Towers and latterly Kilroe. He told me once that he got caught in cloud just over the ridge North of Andover in a Bell 47 with no instrument pack and he had to fly backwards blind to get out of it. His life was not without adventure. A good mate.

Sad to hear. I’m sure I flew with John in Aberdeen in the early nineties.

I flew and socialised with John quite a lot in the mid 90s. We were both seconded to Unst on similar roster patterns. I lost touch with him when he went to South America but have many happy memories of those times including crop spraying turns in the S61. RIP Reggie!