Student Pilot
Hi everyone, my name is Cameron. I was born in the UK to Australian decent and have spent much of my life in both parts of the world. From a young age, my passion for aviation and engineering stemmed from my father who exposed me to the industry. He had his own light aircraft and frequently brought me to Brooklands aviation museum, which was just around the corner from where I lived as a child.
Growing up, my passions diversified into business and sports. I spent my teenage years as a competitive tennis player and spent time in Barcelona at a full-time tennis academy to further my career. Alongside my tennis, from age 16, I was a freelance photographer for several automotive companies, and I frequently attended events which gave me the incredible opportunity to travel and see the world whilst evolving my passion for photography.
Due to an injury, I left competitive tennis at 18 and pursued careers in tennis coaching, finance and motorsport management – all of which would ultimately end up funding my pilot training. My passion for helping others, combined with my background, fuelled my tennis coaching passion, where I picked up my first formal qualification at 18 years old. Tennis coaching added to my organisation, management and people skills alongside adapting to different player abilities. As a coaching team, we took pride in exercising the teams’ current skills, whilst also giving each other the opportunity to develop weaker skills, and to work towards common goals and objectives.
18 months later, I began my work in motorsport with some work experience at McLaren Formula 1 – a company in an industry I have loved for many years. During this time, I spotted an opportunity to bring people into the industry who otherwise would not have been able to gain access and roles to motorsport, which encouraged me to further my motorsport career at 2 companies. For further work experience, I Joined Veloce, a London based race team and E-sports leader, where I curated events largely in the E-sports market to bring new audiences to the industry, whilst simultaneously gaining the position of Head of Business Development at a London based motorsport events firm, where I still work today alongside freelance work for Senior McLaren Formula 1 personnel. During this time, I was able to exercise my love of numbers to manage finances, analyse data and risk, and manage the delegation of capital to grow the company. This cocktail of work has allowed me to pursue my pilot training and allowed me to develop a set of raw skills that I consider very applicable to this career.
At this moment, I am Private Pilot Licence holder with my ATPL (A) Exams complete and pending start on my CPL and ME-IR.
Going forward, I aim to continue my passion of business, instruction and flying through my career. My goals are to not just have a commanding position in a flight crew, but to also further my passion of inspiring others by having a positive impact in pilot education (theory, simulator and flying).
In addition, I would like to be part of developing and growing the business side of the company that I will work for alongside expanding my own leadership, teamwork and cooperation skills, as well as motivating myself and those around me.
I have always taken pleasure in helping others, especially those pursuing the modular route of pilot training as it’s a journey I can speak a lot about. Many people have expressed their desire to become a pilot but often feel powerless when it comes to the costs of training, which is where I aim to inspire, motivate and educate those that pilot training is truly accessible to anyone with the passion for flying and have the determination.
Pilots are largely a blend of personalities and skills. My biggest recommendation to everyone, especially to those at the start of their journey, is to appreciate and develop the skills they already have. No matter what these skills are, have the desire to learn as many new ones as possible, gain knowledge and experience wherever you can, whilst at the same time, curating a personality that is desirable in the many different and demanding situations that a pilot can be faced with. I describe this process using the phrase ‘keep showing up’. What I mean by this is, every day, no matter what position you’re in, you can continue to develop, learn, be inspired and further yourself, as long as you keep perusing these ideals. It may take time, but that won’t discourage the ones who truly commit themselves to this journey. By ‘showing up’ every day, you will be a step closer to where you dream to be. It doesn’t matter how big or small that step is, it’s a step forward. That’s what matters.
Something a little funny about me is that my first word as a baby was “Concord” (Although apparently, I couldn’t pronounce the “d”, so it was more “Concor” …but the spirit was there!). I’m also a grade 8 pianist and will take any opportunity to play the piano wherever I am.
