Unlike most of the "life after graduation" tales I have read so far my journey seems somewhat less hectic. I was posted to Edinburgh during the final year of the cadetship to complete my Approach Radar training. Like my fellow 28 Cadet, Gary Powis, I was asked if I would like to stay on. I jumped at the opportunity as Edinburgh was such an interesting and challenging airport to work. After graduating I returned to Edinburgh and that is where I stayed for my whole career. 

By way of some background into my life in ATC I had sort of stumbled into it by chance. I attended a careers function at school during my final year and came across a job offer at the local airport to train as an ATCO. I had not really given this any prior thought but as nothing else really appealed to me and I did at least have an interest in aircraft I took the opportunity handed to me. On August 3rd 1970 I stepped into the control tower at Halfpenny Green Airport to start my new job. I can say from that day on I was hooked and have never looked back or regretted any of the choices I made. I was dropped in at the deep end so to speak, the airport was such an exciting place to be and I really began to enjoy my new found venture. Before long I had gained enough experience, thanks to some excellent training from the current ATC staff, to be able to provide an A/G (AFISO) service at weekends on my own. Realising that I needed to move on in order to gain more experience I applied to the then "Board of Trade" for an ATSA job. The application was successful and following a course in Bournemouth I moved to Heathrow as an ATSA in early 1972. It was from there that I gained my cadetship.

On a more personal level I was already married when I applied for the cadetship and so married life during those first few years was a bit disjointed. Added to that my first child (Stuart) was born during the aerodrome course, but thanks to a swap with Graham Lake I was able to go to EGBB for the practical side of the course as was thus able to spend some time with my family. Eventually with the final posting confirmed and validations sorted I was able to move the family up to Scotland to set up home. Since then child number 2 (Lee-Ann) came along and life progressed normally. Grandchildren followed and I have a wonderful family around me.

Edinburgh over the years has given me a long and happy career, I have had the pleasure to work alongside some great people and enjoyed their company. The work too has been varied with lots to challenge me and keep me interested. A new control tower, working during the "volcanic ash saga and more recently during the covid epidemic have all left a mark but I wouldn't have wanted it any other way. Both my son and daughter attended University and went on to careers in finance and insurance. By way of a perk my son moved to Bermuda to work which led to many enjoyable family holidays over the years. Unfortunately I lost my wife in 2006 after 33 years of marriage and that took its toll but slowly things have moved on and I have been lucky enough to meet a new partner and so life goes on. I eventually retired in August 2022 at the age of 70. I still had all my ratings and worked right up to my last shift. My colleagues gave me a day to remember which amongst other things included being given a water salute from the airfield fire service. I even managed a news clip on national television.

So what is the highlight of my career? I started in ATC on 3/8/1970 and retired on 26/8/2022, that's a total of 52 years and 23 days continuous service of which 47 years were at Edinburgh, that is my proudest achievement and who knows it may be a record.