Apoche production. Welcome to Secrets of the Underworld. I am Neil the muscle comments.

Apoche production. Welcome to Secrets of the Underworld. I am Neil the muscle comments.

And in this episode, I talk to Jamie Hull, who survived a plane crash.

And in this episode, I talk to Jamie Hull, who survived a plane crash.

I definitely could have gone down that slippery road the way that I was headed. But something came over me around about the age of sixteen, and I started to believe in myself a little bit more ironically, I'm dealing with those young criminals and their dolls much like myself back in the day. And I was able to turn around and say to these young guys, look, I've been in your shoes, and trust me, you can do better. I mean, I came through the end of that absolutely black and blue, but I gave as good as I got. And I think I fractured my opponent's rib. I had a bilateral nosal fracture, super orbital eye socket fractures. I tore through the right side of my nose. I ruptured my large intestine, my colon, and I lacerated my liver internally from that jump. Doesn't matter what happens in life, you know, if you still believe in yourself, if you still want it, if you're still hungry for a process, you can get there.

I definitely could have gone down that slippery road the way that I was headed. But something came over me around about the age of sixteen, and I started to believe in myself a little bit more ironically, I'm dealing with those young criminals and their dolls much like myself back in the day. And I was able to turn around and say to these young guys, look, I've been in your shoes, and trust me, you can do better. I mean, I came through the end of that absolutely black and blue, but I gave as good as I got. And I think I fractured my opponent's rib. I had a bilateral nosal fracture, super orbital eye socket fractures. I tore through the right side of my nose. I ruptured my large intestine, my colon, and I lacerated my liver internally from that jump. Doesn't matter what happens in life, you know, if you still believe in yourself, if you still want it, if you're still hungry for a process, you can get there.

Thank you anyway for coming on, Jamie. I really appreciate this.

Thank you anyway for coming on, Jamie. I really appreciate this.

But we'll start the before we get into the nitty gritty of everything in your life.

But we'll start the before we get into the nitty gritty of everything in your life.

Let's start about you growing up, schooling, first.

Let's start about you growing up, schooling, first.

Job and why did you want to join the army.

Job and why did you want to join the army.

Thank you for having me, Neil, it's a great pleasure to be speaking to you down there in Australia. I grew up in a small market town in Bedfordshire called Leighton Buzzard, which is a bit of an odd name, so most people do remember it, and you know, it was a pretty sleepy little market town. It's a bit busy these days. But I'm now based in London, in central London, and you know, I had a pretty normal upbringing. But I was also a bit of a rebel for a couple of years because I was largely unsupervised and my parents split up and that wasn't uncommon, you know, many many fans did. But in those days, you know, my dad was away working a lot, my mum had sort of moved away at the time with the sort of parental split, and so I was young. I mean I was only what twelve years of age. It sounds quite alarming, But as long as the family unit was still functional, then you know, social services perhaps weren't so bothered. And we were getting on with it, and we were sort of keeping ourselves afloat, and I'd come home from school and sort of cook a meal from my younger brother as well and kind of keep us going. But during that period, so like I said, I was twelve years of age, growing up into my sort of mid teens and so on, I was a bit of a rebel because of the lack of parental supervision. So I was just getting on with it. And when no one's really telling you what to do or what time to come home and tow the party line, so to speak, you just get up to no good. And I was a man about town or just boy about town really, but you know, I was getting involved in crime and a bit of shoplifting and criminal damage and even breaking and entering buildings and climbing over scaffolding on sort of building sites and you name it, you know, construction sites and all the rest of it. So I was a right little kind of Herbert. But what I will say is that it could have got worse. So I mean I had mates that I kind of powered around with in those days that kind of went on and graduated, and you know, I know people that ended up getting potted for armed robbery for you know, serious GBH, you know, kind of assaults with intent. There were even other things like firearms offences that I know people that got involved in. But I definitely could have gone down that slippery road the way that I was headed. But something came over me around about the age of sixteen, around about the time that I received the results from my GCSE, so there's certificate of education from high school, and my results were appalling. I think I got like one GCS and I figured that, you know, for all of those years of education, and that's what I've got to show for it. And my grandfather at the time was giving me a bit of a hard time basic where you need your English, you need your maths, and without that, you're not going to get too far in life. And I guess he persuaded me to kind of retake the exams and I stayed on at school and it was all good, you know, I mean I worked hard, I sort of pulled it back again and I eventually, having repeated the year, I kind of got a bundle more sort of GCSS and I've got the English and maths and so on, and I started to believe in myself a little bit more. So I sort of pulled it around. But literally, in the few years leading up to that, you know, I was getting up to no good and you know, breaking into buildings and shops and stealing and criminal damage and you know a bit of sort of petty sort of drugs type stuff. And I definitely would have gone down a slippery slope and I probably would have ended up in not just failing education, but I would have likely ended up in a boys kind of penitentiary and maybe face in prison eventually if I hadn't remediated on my ways. So that was my childhood. I mean, it's not a sob story, but it's a case of.

Thank you for having me, Neil, it's a great pleasure to be speaking to you down there in Australia. I grew up in a small market town in Bedfordshire called Leighton Buzzard, which is a bit of an odd name, so most people do remember it, and you know, it was a pretty sleepy little market town. It's a bit busy these days. But I'm now based in London, in central London, and you know, I had a pretty normal upbringing. But I was also a bit of a rebel for a couple of years because I was largely unsupervised and my parents split up and that wasn't uncommon, you know, many many fans did. But in those days, you know, my dad was away working a lot, my mum had sort of moved away at the time with the sort of parental split, and so I was young. I mean I was only what twelve years of age. It sounds quite alarming, But as long as the family unit was still functional, then you know, social services perhaps weren't so bothered. And we were getting on with it, and we were sort of keeping ourselves afloat, and I'd come home from school and sort of cook a meal from my younger brother as well and kind of keep us going. But during that period, so like I said, I was twelve years of age, growing up into my sort of mid teens and so on, I was a bit of a rebel because of the lack of parental supervision. So I was just getting on with it. And when no one's really telling you what to do or what time to come home and tow the party line, so to speak, you just get up to no good. And I was a man about town or just boy about town really, but you know, I was getting involved in crime and a bit of shoplifting and criminal damage and even breaking and entering buildings and climbing over scaffolding on sort of building sites and you name it, you know, construction sites and all the rest of it. So I was a right little kind of Herbert. But what I will say is that it could have got worse. So I mean I had mates that I kind of powered around with in those days that kind of went on and graduated, and you know, I know people that ended up getting potted for armed robbery for you know, serious GBH, you know, kind of assaults with intent. There were even other things like firearms offences that I know people that got involved in. But I definitely could have gone down that slippery road the way that I was headed. But something came over me around about the age of sixteen, around about the time that I received the results from my GCSE, so there's certificate of education from high school, and my results were appalling. I think I got like one GCS and I figured that, you know, for all of those years of education, and that's what I've got to show for it. And my grandfather at the time was giving me a bit of a hard time basic where you need your English, you need your maths, and without that, you're not going to get too far in life. And I guess he persuaded me to kind of retake the exams and I stayed on at school and it was all good, you know, I mean I worked hard, I sort of pulled it back again and I eventually, having repeated the year, I kind of got a bundle more sort of GCSS and I've got the English and maths and so on, and I started to believe in myself a little bit more. So I sort of pulled it around. But literally, in the few years leading up to that, you know, I was getting up to no good and you know, breaking into buildings and shops and stealing and criminal damage and you know a bit of sort of petty sort of drugs type stuff. And I definitely would have gone down a slippery slope and I probably would have ended up in not just failing education, but I would have likely ended up in a boys kind of penitentiary and maybe face in prison eventually if I hadn't remediated on my ways. So that was my childhood. I mean, it's not a sob story, but it's a case of.

Think we all did it though, because I think I did the same to yeah, you know what I mean.

Think we all did it though, because I think I did the same to yeah, you know what I mean.

Like my parents split up when I was eight years old, and I used to hang out at my grandparents house. But I got up to mischief because I knew I didn't have to tell them where I was going.

Like my parents split up when I was eight years old, and I used to hang out at my grandparents house. But I got up to mischief because I knew I didn't have to tell them where I was going.

I was just hanging with my mates. So I think everyone used to just get up to no good and just didn't tell their parents. But hopefully you just didn't get caught.

I was just hanging with my mates. So I think everyone used to just get up to no good and just didn't tell their parents. But hopefully you just didn't get caught.

That's exactly it. Yeah, I mean, you know, and you could perhaps hide a lot more in those days. I mean it was pre internet, you know, pre mobile phone. If you wanted to sort of you know, be a bit more cunning and hidden as it were, you could get away with it. And I was exactly that as a young teen, you know. But what I realized, maybe quite young, also was that I would utilize that cunning and that sort of daring do to more positive effect and used the mindset and use the will to sort of benefit myself and better myself rather than just being sort of on the criminal side of things, you know. And so just to turn it around, I only did I sort of pay attention in school and sort of do a bit better, but I also started to work. So I took on little jobs and I started to graft for a living. And I didn't necessarily get much support at home, because you know, financially we weren't particularly well off. But I learned from a young age that if I go out and work for it in my free time, in my spare moments, then I can earn a few pounds, you know, a few dollars here and there, and then that would add up, and then I could do stuff with the money, and I could buy myself new clothing and put it towards say a car when I got my license, and that kind of stuff. And I just kept working and I realized the power of going out and the power of grafting for yourself to sort of make an honest living. And then when I got to about eighteen nineteen, I think I made the concerted decision that I wanted to do something big and sort of brave, at least that's what it felt like at the time. And I'd put my money where my mouth was, and I went to an agent in London and I bought a around the world ticket to travel, and I did exactly that. So I carried on working and I saved up a shed load of money, and it was around about six thousand pounds, so probably about twelve thousand Australian dollars back in the day. We're talking thirty years ago. And I took the plunge and my first stop was from London to Johannesburg in South Africa, and I traveled all around the whole of Southern Africa. I even got a job working in Cape Town on the markets there because I'd worked on markets in the UK, because this is a small market town where I'd come from. So I developed that experience, managed to leverage that down in Cape Town, and I was suddenly found myself selling like ten foot high wooden giraffes and big sort of wooden hippopotamus and that kind of stuff that had been carved out in places like Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Botswana. And it was a great experience. You know. I ended up traveling from South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia, cross the border into Angola, even when there was a little civil war going on, I went up to Malawi. I mean this was before I'd done anything in life. You know, I was just a young backpacker and I put my best foot forwards. I used this so I was street smart and I used my best kind of judgment on the ground to try to keep myself on the straight and narrow to keep myself safe. But I took sort of calculated risks to step here and to step there, and to take various stepping stones to make it a really exciting young journey that I took in my own life. And it really was that. And I mean I had so many adventures along the road. You know, I was crossing borders in countries where you know, you get turned over by immigration officials and police at various borders and checkpoints. In this is in African countries, like thirty years ago, so you literally get turned over, and you'd soon realize, well, if I have a little stash of US dollars in my back pocket, I can kind of smooth this out avoid getting effectively my gear turned over and stuff stolen off me. I can kind of preserve what I've got by you know, cutting them ten dollars fifteen bucks here and there, you know, and I could keep myself on the straight and narrow and survive and get from A to B, t C to D and have my little African adventure. And that's how it was. I realized that, you know, Africa, you know, was a little bit corrupt certainly in those days, but you could could survive if you used your wit and you use your kind of intelligence to kind of navigate your path and your journey. So that taught me a lot from a young age. With the journey and the sort of the forward thinking and the planning that went into that. And then so from South Africa I bundled over to Australia and ended up in Perth as part of this around the world thing that I had going on, and I went across, spent some time in the West, and then it went across. To correct me if I'm wrong, but I think it was forty hours of greyhound bus across the nullaboard plane. Quite an adventure in itself, and I can remember the bus driver would come on the microphone, so we're going to be stopping here for a couple of hours. You just need to get yourself into the gas station and fill your boots and take your time, and it will have a sandwich and maybe a hot drink, and then we'll be back on the bus for so and so and then you can get your hit down once again. And that's how it was. And we had all these various stops across the nullbore. Before I knew it, I was in Adelaide and I went to see the final Grand Prix. In Adelaide. I managed to just about get one of the last romaining tickets that were going before that moved across to Melbourne the older Formula one. So I was in Adelaide at the time, and it was a wonderful sort of experienced, great adventure, and I got to take in all of that kind of environment down towards where the Murray River is and all of those big plantations with the big wineries and stuff. So that was pretty cool. And then I went across to Sydney and I sort of fell on my feet. I end up as a black dicky bow tie sort of cocktail barman in the Bourbon the Bourbon and beefsteak. It was in King's Cross in Sydney, and it was a great adventure and I'm sort of learning the cocktails and trying to sort of memorize the menu and you know, take care of the monies and everything so that the house always wins on that front. And I did pretty well out of it as well as what felt like a glamorous bar kind of barman type role in Sydney. So I was pretty well rewarded and I enjoyed that, and it allowed me to save up some pennies and consider what I was, you know, some of the other things that I was going to do while I was out there. I went up to the North and I was really really interested and also passionate about getting into the sport of recreational scuba diving. And I loved it so much that I volunteered, having done some basic courses, and I volunteered as a deckhand up in Cairns. So I ran out of Cairns with a small operation, and it was a fifty foot schooner like a yacht called Ocean Free, and it spoke around for fifteen nautical miles offshore from Cairns out to Green Island every single day. And I was a volunteer on the boat. So I used to shadow the dive masters and the instructors, and I learned the trade. And I was there making tea for the customers, you know, you know, scrubbing out at the bathroom and everything at the end of the day on board and the toilets. But I learned the trade, and I learned everything there was to know about the scuba diving industry, and before too long, I was actually, you know, through the voluntary process that I'd embarked upon, I was actually a qualified dive master myself. And then I switched company. I went to work for a bigger commercial outfit called pro Dive, and I was then going further out every day, you know, some thirty miles offshore or more. So we would go to not just the inner reef, but to the middle reef. In some cases we got out to the outer reef on some of those bigger liver board operations that I was working on. And so it was a magic adventure I was doing. I remember thirty years ago on the Barrier Reef. I was diving like the very best of what the Great Barrier Reef had to offer, you know, massive sort of pelagic species of shark. We'd see dolphin, and massive great sea turtle, green turtle, hawks, bill turtle, and giant hump head maori rass as well. You know, in the water, it was a wonderful underwater environment, That's what I'm trying to describe to you. And the visibility was crystal clear, you know, you could see for thirty meters or more, and the water was perhaps twenty eight twenty nine degrees celsius, like comfortable tropical water. The life down there was incredible, absolutely incredible in those days. And I think it's been hit with environmental factors now and coral bleaching and so on. But from what I experienced thirty years ago as a diver down there was absolutely magic. So I was hooked and as such that the dreams of diving stayed with me even to this day, even to this day, and I'm still an active diver now and I still enjoy it immenseally. And that was all thanks to my early journey down under on the Great Barrier Reef. So yeah, just quickly. But my journey then took me around the rest of Australia and I went to the for example, Kakadu National Park in the North, and I'm looking at you know, saltwater crocodiles that were twenty five thirty feet long on the muddy riverbanks of Kakkadoo National Park along that big river system. There frightening prehistoric and I remember these sites and wonders that Australia sort of threw at me. And I spent time in the North and time down through you know Airs Rock and Kings Canyon, back down to Kooper Pedi and those open mines, et cetera. And I came round all the way around Australia and back to Sydney, back down to Melbourne, Victoria, even went across tops across to Tasmania and did a lot of hiking over there, and then the Blue Mountains in Sydney from them, and then finally across to New Zealand. I went South Island to the Alps, and North Island up to Auckland, then across the Fiji a bunch of Fiji islands, then up to Hawaii a load of Hawaiian islands, then North America, and then I ended up driving a car across the whole of America with a load of adventures there and end up in Miami, Paris, London. So I was on the road for about a year and a half and it was a life changer for me really in terms of what I experienced and the confidence that I developed and the memory. And then I figured what am I going to do? And you asked me at the beginning, you said about the question, so why did you join the army? Well that actually came a little bit later. So my first move was to join a service, and I did consider, you know, the military first off, but I ended up going into the police service. That was my initial career and I joined an organization called Thames Valley Police in the UK, which is sort of west of London, the counties of Buckinghamshire in the north, Oxfordshire and Berkshire which covers you know, Windsor and the Castle, et cetera. So three big counties the west of London. And I was working at Milton Keynes, buckingham Oxford, Aylesbury, those kind of areas in the north as a young police officer, and it was nine nine nine. It was kind of rapid sort of response that I was involved in chasing the nines and chasing my tail going from job to job, and ironically I'm dealing with those young criminals and their dolls much like myself back in the day, and I'm picking guys up, you know, for kind of offenses that you know, I'd sort of been there, done that, so I guess I was quite a useful asset. And I was able to turn around and say to these young guys, look, I've been in your shoes and trust me, you can do better. You can kind of look, this was me, and this is how I turned it around and kind of tried to give them a little bit of inspiration. It didn't always work, of course, but you tried to make a small difference cliche as it sounds. So I did that for a few years and I enjoyed it a lot. And again I developed myself as an individual, as a character, and I not just developed the skill set, I guess, but I ultimately was learning to believe much more in myself and what the capabilities could be with the mindset and ambition as well, ambition to carry you forwards and again put your best foot forwards always, and not be afraid to try new ventures and to step forward into sort of new horizon, new territory. So again coming back to what you asked about the army, I joined originally from that move of actually leaving the police on sabbatical. That's how it happened. So I took an official career break and they said to me, okay, so what are you going to do. And I said, well, I'm going to probably maybe go out there in the world and do some more diving again, because by now I was a certified, qualified instructor with experience. And I landed a job in Egypt in the Red Sea, and I loved that. I worked for probably one of the biggest operators down there, called Emperor Divers, and I worked in the Weber Charmel Shaikh her Gada and Elaguna, and I worked all around the Red Sea with the big centers for the company, and I worked on liver boards and day operations. Again it was world class diving, similar to what I described on the Barrier reef. It was like great visibility, warm water, amazing marine life. And again I was hooked with the journey. But as wonderful as it was, the industry probably wasn't enough to kind of keep me. And I always felt that I was destined to somehow a bigger kind of global adventure. So I actually became enamored with the prospect of the forces. And I came back from that journey with my diving and I'd done work in Egypt, I went to do some work in the Caribbean, and I actually got head hunted to run an expedition in the Philippines as well, around about the turn of the millennium, so two thousand and I ran this expedition down there for about six months. And having done all of that diving in the first year post my journey from the sabbatical from leaving the Police, I figured that it might be quite useful to enhance my education a bit more. So I went off to university and I did a languages training program and a degree full time at university, and that's when I joined the army. So I joined a unit called Cambridge University Officer Training Corps. And it was a part time process at university where I get to go away on weekends and I get to learn all about the army and I get to run around with rifle, firing blanks and learning how it is to soldier. And then I actually loved it. And they paid me, you know, few quid to kind of sustain myself through my time at university and you know, pay the bills, you know, pay the food, et cetera. And it was a wonderful kind of incentive. So join the army at weekends, get paid for it, and learn some skills along the way. And before too long, by the end of like the first semester, I was kind of considered a trained soldier because I'd done like this military training qualification level one. I'd learned how to soldier, albeit at a basic level. I'd learned how to fire a rifle. I'd learned how to patrol within a team. I'd learned about some basic first aid and I'd learned how to kind of look after yourself in the field, you know, blah blah blah. And then from the next phase, I was kind of invited to join an infantry kind of training unit within the Cambridge OTC and I really enjoyed that as well, and that really kind of motivated me. And then I went on to do a couple of Cambrian patrols. So people may not have heard of Cambrian because it's obviously in England and Europe, but Cambrian was all about, you know, a very gritty sort of patrolling competition with eight men. You know, you're really soldiering at this point, and it's considered one of the toughest patrolling competitions in the world. Teams from all over Europe, in fact all over the world go to do Cambrian and many are successful, but many are not, and sometimes guys get injured and in some cases there's even been fatalities on Cambrian because of the risks associated with it. You know, you're doing you know, steep mountain and you're crossing rivers and again you're sleep deprived and you're pushing like fifty kilometers with eighty plus pounds of weight on your back. Again, that kind of journey with the Army and those kind of experiences taught me huge amount about character and about myself and perhaps what my limits were and perhaps how far I could push things, you know, and again the personal belief and the endeavor. And so from that, I guess I talked about stepping stones, right, you know, when I was a backpacker, not being afraid to take that next step and try that new border, that new country. I did the same thing when I was in the Army. So from the junior ranks of Cambridge OTC, I actually volunteered to take it further. It was always about volunt so you know, just like being a diver in Australia, I took that next voluntary step and with that I surprised myself and I kind of did the next level and did the next level, and you know, learned things along the way and kind of bettered myself and enhanced my qualification, et cetera. I did that with the Army and from camberin Patrol and learning really about the nitty gritty of soldiering. I then volunteered to go to selection for the parachute Regiment, which was Pea Company. I think Katrick and many people have heard about service, you know of Airborne Forces, airborne troops, and it is probably considered one of the toughest selection processes in the British Army to become a paratrooper. And you know, that really pushed me, That really tested me because they kind of thrash you within kind of what feels like an inch of your life. And it was a very very gnarly, kind of almost sadistic sort of training program followed by one week of Pea Company test week. And I didn't you know, I didn't come through it lightly. It's not a boast. I mean I came through the end of that absolutely beaten up, absolutely black and blue, and I sort of felt concussed almost from getting beaten up in the milling. But I gave as good as I got and I think I sort of fractured my opponent's rib, but he gave me like a blinding black eye and sort of concussion. And that was milling. That was that was That was one test at the end of Pea Company. You know that we went through and all of the forced marches and high speed runs and you know, high level kind of assault train asium apparatus that we had to do. It was all confidence builders and testers and and if you come through it, you're you're definitely not unscathed, but the belief that you developing yourself is incredible. So I was very fortunate. You know, I came through beaten up, black and blue, but I got a stand up pass, which meant everything. And that's what PEA Company was all about. And then once I'd done that, I got put forward for a Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst. And again this is not this is a boast, That's not why I'm telling the story. That it's a journey that I went on. And by going to Sandhurst, it was again a voluntary agreement that I would go, and I learned more about the sort of leadership aspects and what was at stake, and I learned to conduct myself as a platoon commander because they pretty much test you on the model of one man. A junior officer will lead a thirty man platoon and you rotate in positions. But that's what they're ultimately testing you on. Can you run a platoon, can you lead from the front, can you lead by example, and if you're making decisions on the ground that is going to affect the movement and the journey of the squad or the platoon. And if you make mistakes, and you will during testing and during your time at Sandhurst, but will you kind of have the integrity to own up for those mistakes, and will you learn from those mistakes, and will you be sort of on the level and be sort of true to yourself and again have that integrity. So that's what the process is all about. And I made mistakes. We all did, and you know, you don't think you're going to come through successfully necessarily. But I went through the process as a reservist, so it was pretty full on. I didn't really get much sleep for about a month, and again I surprised myself. I came through Royal Military Academy with the pass and the commissioning parade, and then I was a sort of a one pit wonder and a young sort of lieutenant and then I pretty much exhausted what was on offer with the original unit. So the Army journey then took me finally with an offer that I had to trial for UK Special Forces from my original commanding officer at Cambridge, and he said to me, you know, we think you'd be a good candidate. What do you think? And I said, well, I said, what's the worst that can happen? I fail miserably and I come home with my tail between my legs and listen, it goes back to what I said, if you're prepared to try at least and put your best foot forward and not be afraid to take the chances, not be afraid to take the risk, you never know, you might just surprise yourself. So I did exactly that again. I put myself forward for as a reservist. It was so it was a long road. It was a thirteen month process with a one month pre selection and then a six month sort of mountain phase followed by a six month sort of continuation or effectively weapons and tactics and patrolling to learn what it is to come together as a team and operate as a Special Forces kind of soldier. So, just to break that down, the first month was all about sort of basic awareness and map reading and navigation and a bit of sort of survival and sort of first day just so you can take care of the nitty gritty, and then you do a six month Mountain phase which goes back to Wales, and it's a lot of Brecon beacons and Black Mountain and you're very much tested as an individual the majority of that. I mean, you start off in small teams, but then before you know it, you're on your own, and if you can it as an individual, that's kind of what they're looking for. So you have to have the confidence to navigate from point A to B to C to D all those different checkpoints through the mountain, and needless to say, the distances between checkpoints increase, so the overall march distance of the day will increase, and the weight that you carry will significantly increase. And the time limit is based on pretty much an average kind of speed that you need to maintain and to get through all those checkpoints and indeed get through the days. So it's very much a case of individual survival. And obviously in order to sustain the pace and to meet the demands of what's being asked of you through the navigational kind of checkpoints and challenges along the way, you have to sustain your life to quite a high level of function as a soldier. So what I mean by that is the body doesn't just perform. You've got to help it along the way. So you have to eat really well, you have to high drake really well, and you have to take care of your feet and your body in general. So you end up with a lot of saws underfoot, blisters and saws. You end up with a lot of perhaps saws and welts on your back from the weight that you're carrying. And again you've got to take care of all that kind of business on a day to day kind of almost what feels like an hour by hour sort of review to sustain your healthy, your vitality, and your your general sort of good performance and function, because you've got to be moving like a freight train to maintain the level of performance required to get through the challenges of everything. And again, it's not so much of a boast, it's just the way that selection sort of pans out, and if you're successful on each phase, you'll sort of move forwards and again, through that personal belief and awareness, I was then sort of pushed forwards, and then finally I got myself to the kind of like the latter phase, and we're part of a team that comes together and you're bouncing off each other and you're learning, you know, more about what it is to soldier as a team and to then be part of the patrols. And they then sort of start to introduce kind of different environments and so on and so forth. And then I was successful with the journey and I came through. There were times when I did not believe and I thought, maybe I'm going to need to hang my boots up here because I don't think I'm going to be able to sort of keep going. But there was always something in me that never allowed me to do that, and I was like a glutton for punishment and I'd kind of go back for more. And by holding on, that was what I wanted to really mention, was that by holding on, I was able to surprise myself and do exactly that and just hold on. And sometimes you just need to hold on at all costs, no matter what the price, no matter what you're up against. You just really really need to have that self belief and hold on. And as difficult as it was at times, because I remember, you know, just a quick sort of example, but you know, I'd be feeling black and blue once again, I'd be feeling so beaten up sort of sleep deprived, so malnourished that you just don't feel like you can go on. You know, you lose like a good chunk of your body weight because your body's always moving at such a high tempo and you're carrying ridiculous weight over kind of silly distances, and you get so run down in the process. You feel like giving up. You don't feel like you can you can do it, You don't feel like you want to go on, and mentally you feel so degraded. But if you have that inner sort of sentiment that in a will and that in a belief to to just keep going, to just keep putting one foot in front of the other, to just keep up this sort of what feels like the pretense of breathing and consuming, you know, eating, hydrating, you can sustain a level of performance that's going to come good and get you through what's being asked of you. And yeah, that was the essence of what it was through the journey of my early years of Special Forces. And then what I would like to sort of think that I took forward from that little did I know, was that level of belief, that level of will and the hunger, and that was what I carried forwards that individual personal hunger, so it's probably worth mentioning. And it goes without saying that I sustained a life changing accident in the summer of two thousand and seven. So all together, by that stage, i'd been on an eight year military journey with the two units that I described, and I had a personal ambition to learn to fly a light aircraft. And for the record, this wasn't a military duty. This was a personal endeavor. And I took myself off to Florida and I was interested to learn to fly a light aircraft.

That's exactly it. Yeah, I mean, you know, and you could perhaps hide a lot more in those days. I mean it was pre internet, you know, pre mobile phone. If you wanted to sort of you know, be a bit more cunning and hidden as it were, you could get away with it. And I was exactly that as a young teen, you know. But what I realized, maybe quite young, also was that I would utilize that cunning and that sort of daring do to more positive effect and used the mindset and use the will to sort of benefit myself and better myself rather than just being sort of on the criminal side of things, you know. And so just to turn it around, I only did I sort of pay attention in school and sort of do a bit better, but I also started to work. So I took on little jobs and I started to graft for a living. And I didn't necessarily get much support at home, because you know, financially we weren't particularly well off. But I learned from a young age that if I go out and work for it in my free time, in my spare moments, then I can earn a few pounds, you know, a few dollars here and there, and then that would add up, and then I could do stuff with the money, and I could buy myself new clothing and put it towards say a car when I got my license, and that kind of stuff. And I just kept working and I realized the power of going out and the power of grafting for yourself to sort of make an honest living. And then when I got to about eighteen nineteen, I think I made the concerted decision that I wanted to do something big and sort of brave, at least that's what it felt like at the time. And I'd put my money where my mouth was, and I went to an agent in London and I bought a around the world ticket to travel, and I did exactly that. So I carried on working and I saved up a shed load of money, and it was around about six thousand pounds, so probably about twelve thousand Australian dollars back in the day. We're talking thirty years ago. And I took the plunge and my first stop was from London to Johannesburg in South Africa, and I traveled all around the whole of Southern Africa. I even got a job working in Cape Town on the markets there because I'd worked on markets in the UK, because this is a small market town where I'd come from. So I developed that experience, managed to leverage that down in Cape Town, and I was suddenly found myself selling like ten foot high wooden giraffes and big sort of wooden hippopotamus and that kind of stuff that had been carved out in places like Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Botswana. And it was a great experience. You know. I ended up traveling from South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia, cross the border into Angola, even when there was a little civil war going on, I went up to Malawi. I mean this was before I'd done anything in life. You know, I was just a young backpacker and I put my best foot forwards. I used this so I was street smart and I used my best kind of judgment on the ground to try to keep myself on the straight and narrow to keep myself safe. But I took sort of calculated risks to step here and to step there, and to take various stepping stones to make it a really exciting young journey that I took in my own life. And it really was that. And I mean I had so many adventures along the road. You know, I was crossing borders in countries where you know, you get turned over by immigration officials and police at various borders and checkpoints. In this is in African countries, like thirty years ago, so you literally get turned over, and you'd soon realize, well, if I have a little stash of US dollars in my back pocket, I can kind of smooth this out avoid getting effectively my gear turned over and stuff stolen off me. I can kind of preserve what I've got by you know, cutting them ten dollars fifteen bucks here and there, you know, and I could keep myself on the straight and narrow and survive and get from A to B, t C to D and have my little African adventure. And that's how it was. I realized that, you know, Africa, you know, was a little bit corrupt certainly in those days, but you could could survive if you used your wit and you use your kind of intelligence to kind of navigate your path and your journey. So that taught me a lot from a young age. With the journey and the sort of the forward thinking and the planning that went into that. And then so from South Africa I bundled over to Australia and ended up in Perth as part of this around the world thing that I had going on, and I went across, spent some time in the West, and then it went across. To correct me if I'm wrong, but I think it was forty hours of greyhound bus across the nullaboard plane. Quite an adventure in itself, and I can remember the bus driver would come on the microphone, so we're going to be stopping here for a couple of hours. You just need to get yourself into the gas station and fill your boots and take your time, and it will have a sandwich and maybe a hot drink, and then we'll be back on the bus for so and so and then you can get your hit down once again. And that's how it was. And we had all these various stops across the nullbore. Before I knew it, I was in Adelaide and I went to see the final Grand Prix. In Adelaide. I managed to just about get one of the last romaining tickets that were going before that moved across to Melbourne the older Formula one. So I was in Adelaide at the time, and it was a wonderful sort of experienced, great adventure, and I got to take in all of that kind of environment down towards where the Murray River is and all of those big plantations with the big wineries and stuff. So that was pretty cool. And then I went across to Sydney and I sort of fell on my feet. I end up as a black dicky bow tie sort of cocktail barman in the Bourbon the Bourbon and beefsteak. It was in King's Cross in Sydney, and it was a great adventure and I'm sort of learning the cocktails and trying to sort of memorize the menu and you know, take care of the monies and everything so that the house always wins on that front. And I did pretty well out of it as well as what felt like a glamorous bar kind of barman type role in Sydney. So I was pretty well rewarded and I enjoyed that, and it allowed me to save up some pennies and consider what I was, you know, some of the other things that I was going to do while I was out there. I went up to the North and I was really really interested and also passionate about getting into the sport of recreational scuba diving. And I loved it so much that I volunteered, having done some basic courses, and I volunteered as a deckhand up in Cairns. So I ran out of Cairns with a small operation, and it was a fifty foot schooner like a yacht called Ocean Free, and it spoke around for fifteen nautical miles offshore from Cairns out to Green Island every single day. And I was a volunteer on the boat. So I used to shadow the dive masters and the instructors, and I learned the trade. And I was there making tea for the customers, you know, you know, scrubbing out at the bathroom and everything at the end of the day on board and the toilets. But I learned the trade, and I learned everything there was to know about the scuba diving industry, and before too long, I was actually, you know, through the voluntary process that I'd embarked upon, I was actually a qualified dive master myself. And then I switched company. I went to work for a bigger commercial outfit called pro Dive, and I was then going further out every day, you know, some thirty miles offshore or more. So we would go to not just the inner reef, but to the middle reef. In some cases we got out to the outer reef on some of those bigger liver board operations that I was working on. And so it was a magic adventure I was doing. I remember thirty years ago on the Barrier Reef. I was diving like the very best of what the Great Barrier Reef had to offer, you know, massive sort of pelagic species of shark. We'd see dolphin, and massive great sea turtle, green turtle, hawks, bill turtle, and giant hump head maori rass as well. You know, in the water, it was a wonderful underwater environment, That's what I'm trying to describe to you. And the visibility was crystal clear, you know, you could see for thirty meters or more, and the water was perhaps twenty eight twenty nine degrees celsius, like comfortable tropical water. The life down there was incredible, absolutely incredible in those days. And I think it's been hit with environmental factors now and coral bleaching and so on. But from what I experienced thirty years ago as a diver down there was absolutely magic. So I was hooked and as such that the dreams of diving stayed with me even to this day, even to this day, and I'm still an active diver now and I still enjoy it immenseally. And that was all thanks to my early journey down under on the Great Barrier Reef. So yeah, just quickly. But my journey then took me around the rest of Australia and I went to the for example, Kakadu National Park in the North, and I'm looking at you know, saltwater crocodiles that were twenty five thirty feet long on the muddy riverbanks of Kakkadoo National Park along that big river system. There frightening prehistoric and I remember these sites and wonders that Australia sort of threw at me. And I spent time in the North and time down through you know Airs Rock and Kings Canyon, back down to Kooper Pedi and those open mines, et cetera. And I came round all the way around Australia and back to Sydney, back down to Melbourne, Victoria, even went across tops across to Tasmania and did a lot of hiking over there, and then the Blue Mountains in Sydney from them, and then finally across to New Zealand. I went South Island to the Alps, and North Island up to Auckland, then across the Fiji a bunch of Fiji islands, then up to Hawaii a load of Hawaiian islands, then North America, and then I ended up driving a car across the whole of America with a load of adventures there and end up in Miami, Paris, London. So I was on the road for about a year and a half and it was a life changer for me really in terms of what I experienced and the confidence that I developed and the memory. And then I figured what am I going to do? And you asked me at the beginning, you said about the question, so why did you join the army? Well that actually came a little bit later. So my first move was to join a service, and I did consider, you know, the military first off, but I ended up going into the police service. That was my initial career and I joined an organization called Thames Valley Police in the UK, which is sort of west of London, the counties of Buckinghamshire in the north, Oxfordshire and Berkshire which covers you know, Windsor and the Castle, et cetera. So three big counties the west of London. And I was working at Milton Keynes, buckingham Oxford, Aylesbury, those kind of areas in the north as a young police officer, and it was nine nine nine. It was kind of rapid sort of response that I was involved in chasing the nines and chasing my tail going from job to job, and ironically I'm dealing with those young criminals and their dolls much like myself back in the day, and I'm picking guys up, you know, for kind of offenses that you know, I'd sort of been there, done that, so I guess I was quite a useful asset. And I was able to turn around and say to these young guys, look, I've been in your shoes and trust me, you can do better. You can kind of look, this was me, and this is how I turned it around and kind of tried to give them a little bit of inspiration. It didn't always work, of course, but you tried to make a small difference cliche as it sounds. So I did that for a few years and I enjoyed it a lot. And again I developed myself as an individual, as a character, and I not just developed the skill set, I guess, but I ultimately was learning to believe much more in myself and what the capabilities could be with the mindset and ambition as well, ambition to carry you forwards and again put your best foot forwards always, and not be afraid to try new ventures and to step forward into sort of new horizon, new territory. So again coming back to what you asked about the army, I joined originally from that move of actually leaving the police on sabbatical. That's how it happened. So I took an official career break and they said to me, okay, so what are you going to do. And I said, well, I'm going to probably maybe go out there in the world and do some more diving again, because by now I was a certified, qualified instructor with experience. And I landed a job in Egypt in the Red Sea, and I loved that. I worked for probably one of the biggest operators down there, called Emperor Divers, and I worked in the Weber Charmel Shaikh her Gada and Elaguna, and I worked all around the Red Sea with the big centers for the company, and I worked on liver boards and day operations. Again it was world class diving, similar to what I described on the Barrier reef. It was like great visibility, warm water, amazing marine life. And again I was hooked with the journey. But as wonderful as it was, the industry probably wasn't enough to kind of keep me. And I always felt that I was destined to somehow a bigger kind of global adventure. So I actually became enamored with the prospect of the forces. And I came back from that journey with my diving and I'd done work in Egypt, I went to do some work in the Caribbean, and I actually got head hunted to run an expedition in the Philippines as well, around about the turn of the millennium, so two thousand and I ran this expedition down there for about six months. And having done all of that diving in the first year post my journey from the sabbatical from leaving the Police, I figured that it might be quite useful to enhance my education a bit more. So I went off to university and I did a languages training program and a degree full time at university, and that's when I joined the army. So I joined a unit called Cambridge University Officer Training Corps. And it was a part time process at university where I get to go away on weekends and I get to learn all about the army and I get to run around with rifle, firing blanks and learning how it is to soldier. And then I actually loved it. And they paid me, you know, few quid to kind of sustain myself through my time at university and you know, pay the bills, you know, pay the food, et cetera. And it was a wonderful kind of incentive. So join the army at weekends, get paid for it, and learn some skills along the way. And before too long, by the end of like the first semester, I was kind of considered a trained soldier because I'd done like this military training qualification level one. I'd learned how to soldier, albeit at a basic level. I'd learned how to fire a rifle. I'd learned how to patrol within a team. I'd learned about some basic first aid and I'd learned how to kind of look after yourself in the field, you know, blah blah blah. And then from the next phase, I was kind of invited to join an infantry kind of training unit within the Cambridge OTC and I really enjoyed that as well, and that really kind of motivated me. And then I went on to do a couple of Cambrian patrols. So people may not have heard of Cambrian because it's obviously in England and Europe, but Cambrian was all about, you know, a very gritty sort of patrolling competition with eight men. You know, you're really soldiering at this point, and it's considered one of the toughest patrolling competitions in the world. Teams from all over Europe, in fact all over the world go to do Cambrian and many are successful, but many are not, and sometimes guys get injured and in some cases there's even been fatalities on Cambrian because of the risks associated with it. You know, you're doing you know, steep mountain and you're crossing rivers and again you're sleep deprived and you're pushing like fifty kilometers with eighty plus pounds of weight on your back. Again, that kind of journey with the Army and those kind of experiences taught me huge amount about character and about myself and perhaps what my limits were and perhaps how far I could push things, you know, and again the personal belief and the endeavor. And so from that, I guess I talked about stepping stones, right, you know, when I was a backpacker, not being afraid to take that next step and try that new border, that new country. I did the same thing when I was in the Army. So from the junior ranks of Cambridge OTC, I actually volunteered to take it further. It was always about volunt so you know, just like being a diver in Australia, I took that next voluntary step and with that I surprised myself and I kind of did the next level and did the next level, and you know, learned things along the way and kind of bettered myself and enhanced my qualification, et cetera. I did that with the Army and from camberin Patrol and learning really about the nitty gritty of soldiering. I then volunteered to go to selection for the parachute Regiment, which was Pea Company. I think Katrick and many people have heard about service, you know of Airborne Forces, airborne troops, and it is probably considered one of the toughest selection processes in the British Army to become a paratrooper. And you know, that really pushed me, That really tested me because they kind of thrash you within kind of what feels like an inch of your life. And it was a very very gnarly, kind of almost sadistic sort of training program followed by one week of Pea Company test week. And I didn't you know, I didn't come through it lightly. It's not a boast. I mean I came through the end of that absolutely beaten up, absolutely black and blue, and I sort of felt concussed almost from getting beaten up in the milling. But I gave as good as I got and I think I sort of fractured my opponent's rib, but he gave me like a blinding black eye and sort of concussion. And that was milling. That was that was That was one test at the end of Pea Company. You know that we went through and all of the forced marches and high speed runs and you know, high level kind of assault train asium apparatus that we had to do. It was all confidence builders and testers and and if you come through it, you're you're definitely not unscathed, but the belief that you developing yourself is incredible. So I was very fortunate. You know, I came through beaten up, black and blue, but I got a stand up pass, which meant everything. And that's what PEA Company was all about. And then once I'd done that, I got put forward for a Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst. And again this is not this is a boast, That's not why I'm telling the story. That it's a journey that I went on. And by going to Sandhurst, it was again a voluntary agreement that I would go, and I learned more about the sort of leadership aspects and what was at stake, and I learned to conduct myself as a platoon commander because they pretty much test you on the model of one man. A junior officer will lead a thirty man platoon and you rotate in positions. But that's what they're ultimately testing you on. Can you run a platoon, can you lead from the front, can you lead by example, and if you're making decisions on the ground that is going to affect the movement and the journey of the squad or the platoon. And if you make mistakes, and you will during testing and during your time at Sandhurst, but will you kind of have the integrity to own up for those mistakes, and will you learn from those mistakes, and will you be sort of on the level and be sort of true to yourself and again have that integrity. So that's what the process is all about. And I made mistakes. We all did, and you know, you don't think you're going to come through successfully necessarily. But I went through the process as a reservist, so it was pretty full on. I didn't really get much sleep for about a month, and again I surprised myself. I came through Royal Military Academy with the pass and the commissioning parade, and then I was a sort of a one pit wonder and a young sort of lieutenant and then I pretty much exhausted what was on offer with the original unit. So the Army journey then took me finally with an offer that I had to trial for UK Special Forces from my original commanding officer at Cambridge, and he said to me, you know, we think you'd be a good candidate. What do you think? And I said, well, I said, what's the worst that can happen? I fail miserably and I come home with my tail between my legs and listen, it goes back to what I said, if you're prepared to try at least and put your best foot forward and not be afraid to take the chances, not be afraid to take the risk, you never know, you might just surprise yourself. So I did exactly that again. I put myself forward for as a reservist. It was so it was a long road. It was a thirteen month process with a one month pre selection and then a six month sort of mountain phase followed by a six month sort of continuation or effectively weapons and tactics and patrolling to learn what it is to come together as a team and operate as a Special Forces kind of soldier. So, just to break that down, the first month was all about sort of basic awareness and map reading and navigation and a bit of sort of survival and sort of first day just so you can take care of the nitty gritty, and then you do a six month Mountain phase which goes back to Wales, and it's a lot of Brecon beacons and Black Mountain and you're very much tested as an individual the majority of that. I mean, you start off in small teams, but then before you know it, you're on your own, and if you can it as an individual, that's kind of what they're looking for. So you have to have the confidence to navigate from point A to B to C to D all those different checkpoints through the mountain, and needless to say, the distances between checkpoints increase, so the overall march distance of the day will increase, and the weight that you carry will significantly increase. And the time limit is based on pretty much an average kind of speed that you need to maintain and to get through all those checkpoints and indeed get through the days. So it's very much a case of individual survival. And obviously in order to sustain the pace and to meet the demands of what's being asked of you through the navigational kind of checkpoints and challenges along the way, you have to sustain your life to quite a high level of function as a soldier. So what I mean by that is the body doesn't just perform. You've got to help it along the way. So you have to eat really well, you have to high drake really well, and you have to take care of your feet and your body in general. So you end up with a lot of saws underfoot, blisters and saws. You end up with a lot of perhaps saws and welts on your back from the weight that you're carrying. And again you've got to take care of all that kind of business on a day to day kind of almost what feels like an hour by hour sort of review to sustain your healthy, your vitality, and your your general sort of good performance and function, because you've got to be moving like a freight train to maintain the level of performance required to get through the challenges of everything. And again, it's not so much of a boast, it's just the way that selection sort of pans out, and if you're successful on each phase, you'll sort of move forwards and again, through that personal belief and awareness, I was then sort of pushed forwards, and then finally I got myself to the kind of like the latter phase, and we're part of a team that comes together and you're bouncing off each other and you're learning, you know, more about what it is to soldier as a team and to then be part of the patrols. And they then sort of start to introduce kind of different environments and so on and so forth. And then I was successful with the journey and I came through. There were times when I did not believe and I thought, maybe I'm going to need to hang my boots up here because I don't think I'm going to be able to sort of keep going. But there was always something in me that never allowed me to do that, and I was like a glutton for punishment and I'd kind of go back for more. And by holding on, that was what I wanted to really mention, was that by holding on, I was able to surprise myself and do exactly that and just hold on. And sometimes you just need to hold on at all costs, no matter what the price, no matter what you're up against. You just really really need to have that self belief and hold on. And as difficult as it was at times, because I remember, you know, just a quick sort of example, but you know, I'd be feeling black and blue once again, I'd be feeling so beaten up sort of sleep deprived, so malnourished that you just don't feel like you can go on. You know, you lose like a good chunk of your body weight because your body's always moving at such a high tempo and you're carrying ridiculous weight over kind of silly distances, and you get so run down in the process. You feel like giving up. You don't feel like you can you can do it, You don't feel like you want to go on, and mentally you feel so degraded. But if you have that inner sort of sentiment that in a will and that in a belief to to just keep going, to just keep putting one foot in front of the other, to just keep up this sort of what feels like the pretense of breathing and consuming, you know, eating, hydrating, you can sustain a level of performance that's going to come good and get you through what's being asked of you. And yeah, that was the essence of what it was through the journey of my early years of Special Forces. And then what I would like to sort of think that I took forward from that little did I know, was that level of belief, that level of will and the hunger, and that was what I carried forwards that individual personal hunger, so it's probably worth mentioning. And it goes without saying that I sustained a life changing accident in the summer of two thousand and seven. So all together, by that stage, i'd been on an eight year military journey with the two units that I described, and I had a personal ambition to learn to fly a light aircraft. And for the record, this wasn't a military duty. This was a personal endeavor. And I took myself off to Florida and I was interested to learn to fly a light aircraft.

Was that just to be a hobby? Was it just to be a hobby that you want to leave?

Was that just to be a hobby? Was it just to be a hobby that you want to leave?

It kind of was, But I was considering, you know, the process of becoming a pilot, not just a private pilot, but a commercial pilot as well. I'd also considered that, and that was in as part of the game plan. Obviously there are steps to take accordingly. So again i'd sort of mapped out that journey in my mind and what the ambition was and how that might present. You know, you probably picked up on the fact that I wasn't a guy that was just going to talk the talk. I was a guy that liked to sort of walk the walk in my own mindset, and everything I did exactly that. I took myself off to Florida. I got the visa from the US Embassy and off I went. And I chose Florida because of great weather system, good meteorological weather conditions, obviously the warmth of the chances that I was going to fulfill the flying training within a relatively limited time frame that I had. Whereas I considered doing the training in Europe, obviously the weather was a bit more hit and miss, especially in the UK. And it worked out, and I went to Florida. I was like one month into a full time flying training program. Everything was going very well, and I was now pilot in command, so flying solo without the instructors. Now I've been solo for a run to eight days, and this one particular day had an engine fire at altitude and the fire that I noticed externally flared up from the engine sort of compartment. It was billowing out. It then entered the cockpit internally over one thousand feet indicated, and it started to build up within the lower regions of the cockpit.

It kind of was, But I was considering, you know, the process of becoming a pilot, not just a private pilot, but a commercial pilot as well. I'd also considered that, and that was in as part of the game plan. Obviously there are steps to take accordingly. So again i'd sort of mapped out that journey in my mind and what the ambition was and how that might present. You know, you probably picked up on the fact that I wasn't a guy that was just going to talk the talk. I was a guy that liked to sort of walk the walk in my own mindset, and everything I did exactly that. I took myself off to Florida. I got the visa from the US Embassy and off I went. And I chose Florida because of great weather system, good meteorological weather conditions, obviously the warmth of the chances that I was going to fulfill the flying training within a relatively limited time frame that I had. Whereas I considered doing the training in Europe, obviously the weather was a bit more hit and miss, especially in the UK. And it worked out, and I went to Florida. I was like one month into a full time flying training program. Everything was going very well, and I was now pilot in command, so flying solo without the instructors. Now I've been solo for a run to eight days, and this one particular day had an engine fire at altitude and the fire that I noticed externally flared up from the engine sort of compartment. It was billowing out. It then entered the cockpit internally over one thousand feet indicated, and it started to build up within the lower regions of the cockpit.

Do you know how it started?

Do you know how it started?

My suspicion that it was It was oil something within the engine manifold system, but I can't be sure, but I suspect that it was oil. And it was a slow progressive build up within the cockpit now, and it was building up from where my feet were operating on the rodder pedals. It was building up around me. And as I was gliding in, I was thinking to myself initially, am I going to go for a runway and land it in the conventional sense or what are my alternatives? And I actually came up with a decision to veer away from the concrete runway in the distance below, because the fire was building up so rapidly. It was around about mid chest height. As I dropped half the height, so I'm now about five hundred feet, the fire was about belly height within the chamber of the cockpit, and I had to make a decision. So I actually chose to steer the aircraft a few degrees to my left, aiming towards a stretch of grass in the near distance. And the reason I did that to set myself up for an earlier escape from the cockpit of the aircraft. So in doing so, in steering away, I then followed emergency protocol. I turned the key to the ignition off. I turned the control so the red switches, Magneto's alphon, Bravo off, master switch, lights, strobes, and fuel pump everything off in sequence quite a low level. I removed my headset. Communications with air traffic control was futile, so I sort of bins the communication aspects and I was no longer communicating. Removed the headset, unbuckled my three point harness over the waist and across the shoulders, and opened my left hand canopy door, and in the glide, I visually assessed it looking forward, looking through the left and right window canopy and from fifty feet forty feet, thirty feet and approximately twenty feet, judging it purely by eye, I managed to clamber onto the seat. I'd already opened the left hand door to the vertical position, so clambered from the seat out onto the left wing, approximately twenty feet above the ground, and I managed to get myself into a sort of a good old fashioned sort of exit position on the wing, so hands above my head in prayer position, feet in these together as I leapt and took a giant stride leap from the trailing edge of the back of the left wing of the aircraft. So I estimate that she was still dropping out. And I estimate that I jumped from a height of about fifteen feet above the ground, and I was probably still running in at about thirty knots, so probably thirty three thirty four miles an hour, fifteen feet above the ground. When I took that jump, I landed feet in these together hands above my head in the long grass. I landed like a sacris buds. I thrust forwards, and having landed on my feet, I thrust forward face planted my head and my face against the grass. Soft ground, but relatively sharp grass because it was Florida, it was tropical grass. I had a bilateral nasal fracture, superorbital eye socket fractures. I tore through the right side of my nose, through the ala of my lip, all the way through here. My left index finger, you can just see there on camera, hyper extended and fractured two ribs, collar bone fractured internally in the torso area. I ruptured my large intestine, my colon, and I lacerated my liver internally from that jump. I also had not just the fractures that I described for the internal injuries, but I also was sixty three percent third and fourth degree burn over sixty three percent of total body surface area. So I was a massive burn. And that in itself was the life changing aspect.

My suspicion that it was It was oil something within the engine manifold system, but I can't be sure, but I suspect that it was oil. And it was a slow progressive build up within the cockpit now, and it was building up from where my feet were operating on the rodder pedals. It was building up around me. And as I was gliding in, I was thinking to myself initially, am I going to go for a runway and land it in the conventional sense or what are my alternatives? And I actually came up with a decision to veer away from the concrete runway in the distance below, because the fire was building up so rapidly. It was around about mid chest height. As I dropped half the height, so I'm now about five hundred feet, the fire was about belly height within the chamber of the cockpit, and I had to make a decision. So I actually chose to steer the aircraft a few degrees to my left, aiming towards a stretch of grass in the near distance. And the reason I did that to set myself up for an earlier escape from the cockpit of the aircraft. So in doing so, in steering away, I then followed emergency protocol. I turned the key to the ignition off. I turned the control so the red switches, Magneto's alphon, Bravo off, master switch, lights, strobes, and fuel pump everything off in sequence quite a low level. I removed my headset. Communications with air traffic control was futile, so I sort of bins the communication aspects and I was no longer communicating. Removed the headset, unbuckled my three point harness over the waist and across the shoulders, and opened my left hand canopy door, and in the glide, I visually assessed it looking forward, looking through the left and right window canopy and from fifty feet forty feet, thirty feet and approximately twenty feet, judging it purely by eye, I managed to clamber onto the seat. I'd already opened the left hand door to the vertical position, so clambered from the seat out onto the left wing, approximately twenty feet above the ground, and I managed to get myself into a sort of a good old fashioned sort of exit position on the wing, so hands above my head in prayer position, feet in these together as I leapt and took a giant stride leap from the trailing edge of the back of the left wing of the aircraft. So I estimate that she was still dropping out. And I estimate that I jumped from a height of about fifteen feet above the ground, and I was probably still running in at about thirty knots, so probably thirty three thirty four miles an hour, fifteen feet above the ground. When I took that jump, I landed feet in these together hands above my head in the long grass. I landed like a sacris buds. I thrust forwards, and having landed on my feet, I thrust forward face planted my head and my face against the grass. Soft ground, but relatively sharp grass because it was Florida, it was tropical grass. I had a bilateral nasal fracture, superorbital eye socket fractures. I tore through the right side of my nose, through the ala of my lip, all the way through here. My left index finger, you can just see there on camera, hyper extended and fractured two ribs, collar bone fractured internally in the torso area. I ruptured my large intestine, my colon, and I lacerated my liver internally from that jump. I also had not just the fractures that I described for the internal injuries, but I also was sixty three percent third and fourth degree burn over sixty three percent of total body surface area. So I was a massive burn. And that in itself was the life changing aspect.

When you said, you're in the cockpit of the plane and it's now up to your what waist? The fires up to your waist? Yeah, yeah, how are you actually controlling the plane from that calor heat?

When you said, you're in the cockpit of the plane and it's now up to your what waist? The fires up to your waist? Yeah, yeah, how are you actually controlling the plane from that calor heat?

How the hell are you doing that?

How the hell are you doing that?

Because there was some there was a level of through draft through the cockpit, so there was ventilation ducts that were open on the dashboard, and so there was some positive through draft being put air being pulled in in other words, yeah, and air being drawn from the cockpit. Now that was good because it kept me somewhat cool even though I was on fire from the lower reaches. But the burn started relatively superficially for me, and it was being drawn, like I said, because of the slight through draft and the slight air coming through the cockpit. That was good from the cooling, but bad because it was feeding the flame within the cockpit. If you can sort of picture that, if you can understand that.

Because there was some there was a level of through draft through the cockpit, so there was ventilation ducts that were open on the dashboard, and so there was some positive through draft being put air being pulled in in other words, yeah, and air being drawn from the cockpit. Now that was good because it kept me somewhat cool even though I was on fire from the lower reaches. But the burn started relatively superficially for me, and it was being drawn, like I said, because of the slight through draft and the slight air coming through the cockpit. That was good from the cooling, but bad because it was feeding the flame within the cockpit. If you can sort of picture that, if you can understand that.

I can understand that, But I'm trying to fathom the pain that you're going through.

I can understand that, But I'm trying to fathom the pain that you're going through.

Yeah, I didn't actually feel too much pain within the cockpit because I was probably literally pumped on adrenaline having to deal with the situation, having to think on my feet. So i sat there in the left hand seat of the two seater cockpit of the light aircraft, and I've got my left handle the control stick between my knees and my right hand on the throttle in the center column to control the actual control and the power of the aircraft. And like I say, I was on fire, but I wasn't really feeling it too badly. Adrenaline was probably numbing that down, no doubt about it. That one thing is worth mentioning that when I got on the wing, momentarily stood on the left hand wing, turned my body to the left, and was presented by the backwash of the propeller all the way down. My right hand side was fanning of the flames. Now that wasn't good because if you look on the right hand side, I lost obviously significant hair and scarring. That was how it happened. So I turned to the left and I got the backwash of the prop which fanned me. So this was windward side, and on the leeward side it's somewhat protected. Bizarrely, I still kind of kept the hair on that sort of side of my scalp. So the right side of my body was absolutely mullard and very much devastated by the fire. And it wasn't until I jumped, landed in the long grass, rolled around and smothered the flame was when the pain actually hit me like a sledgehammer at that point, and it was like a giant tsunami of pain that rushed over me. And I waited in the long grass, and I was dying basically in a in a nutshell, there's no other way that I can describe it to you. I actually took my shoes and socks off, and I tucked my socks and my laces with into the shoes, all neatly, because I figured that, look, this is one journey that I'm not going to need shoes and socks for, so they were placed neatly by the side of me. I guess that's the one element of control that I had left. And I was a man on the edge. I was a man on a thread, and I was about to die, and somehow I hung on. I don't know how the hell I did it, but I hung on and I just kept holding on the grim life that I had left, and I was blinded by the fire because it burns to my cornea my eyes at the time, So I had that going on, and the massive burns that I described over sixty three percent of total body surface area, and I, you know, I was hurt in so many ways, like I mentioned, the internal injuries, the multiple fractures from the jump, and the total body surface area burns over sixty three percent. The pain was off the charts, indescribable, and as I said, I just kept holding on, and luckily for me, I had an ambulance on scene, probably within about ten to fifteen minutes.