Grateful to the Rector

My life at school was not good. I got into all sorts of trouble. I failed my eleven-plus and ended up at Tayport Secondary School. That was supposed to be the pits. But I actually had quite a good time. I came second in my class. But the discovery in primary school I couldn’t see, and wearing glasses as a result, helped me write everything down correctly.

Tayport School shut after a year and I went to Bell Baxter in Cupar. I did okay, but not great. Dr Maclaren called for a meeting with me and my parents at the end of the third year. I was told in no uncertain words that I was useless and would make nothing of my life. Out of school at fifteen.

I never realised that this would make such an enormous change to my life. I joined the Royal Air Force as an apprentice 219 entry at RAF Halton. Four hundred arrived on 18th October. By 19th October, we were less than two hundred. I survived two years of marching, educated in electricity and electronics, well valve technology, workshops, learning how aircraft's electrical systems worked. Then let loose on real aircraft. Passed my final exams, and I became an Aircraft Fitter Electrical. Posted to RAF Binbrook on lightnings.

I enjoyed myself in the Royal Air Force. Lightnings were wonderful aircraft very fast. They could climb to amazing altitudes. They shook so much that every plug and socket was wire locked. I always ended up with blood and cuts on my hands, but the worst issue arose when the reheat failed to work. You put your hands into this dark place behind two panels and they always caught the wire locking on the way out.

I volunteered to go onto Jaguars and ended up at RAF Lossiemouth on Jaguars. 9 months later found myself in Germany on 31 Squadron. That was great fun. They sent me back to Lossiemouth after four years of experiencing the German lifestyle. This time working on an uninstalled engine test facility in the middle of the airfield and inflight refuelling.

I had three years to go in the RAF. I had a flight commander who did not like me and I had signed up for twelve years. Decided to go back to college to do an ONC in Electricity and Electronics in Elgin Technical College. The RAF gave me day release, and I started. With age comes wisdom, and I worked hard this time. In fact, I came out on top of the class with As in every subject.

The second year, I worked even harder and became more knowledgeable. Upset my Flight Commander even more when I started designing test equipment to make our job easier. Then I got a huge award. There is a detector that is in the engine's front that was supposedly broken. To change it meant stripping the engine, changing the detector, and rebuilding the engine. A lot of hours and expensive. Worked out a way of proving whether it worked or not. That saved hundreds of man hours and pounds.

I went to Dundee Institute of Technology with my mid term report. My aim was to get onto the OND course. I walked out on the Honours Degree Course in Electricity and Electronics. After completing the course with a 2:1 in Electricity and Electronics.

Went back to the rector to thank him for throwing me out of school.

My life, with my degree, went from strength to strength. Started with Rediffusion Simulation in Glenrothes. But found that they were losing every order to a rival. Left there and went to Brough designing Hawks aircraft. Having worked in avionics for a few months, they discovered I knew what an aircraft looked like. Immediately moved to the shop floor assembling Hawk aircraft. That did not last long and ended up on Configuration Management managing change on Hawk. That was an experience. I had a manager nicknamed lurch because of the way he walked. After about a year, I started with requirements management. We won an order for a lot of Hawks. The customer wanted everything done properly. That started my journey in requirements.

Wanted more and harder work moved to a Systems Engineering tool manufacturer. That required me to think on my feet, using systems engineering to find solutions for different problems. Plus, giving tuition on how to manage requirements.

But the lure of aircraft did not die, went to Air Traffic Control. Watching controllers guide aircraft to land at Heathrow and Gatwick is amazing. But then you have to provide solutions for the problems that they are having and make their lives simpler. The most interesting part was getting a new Air Traffic Control Centre installed in Albania.

Then came the task of getting a baggage Xray machine tested and installed at an airport. This was an amazing place. The machine was incredible, but the team had only run it for 72 hours. They expected to install the baggage Xray machine in an airport and have it run 24 hours a day. I set up a chain of bags so that the machine was x raying bags constantly. This ran 24 hours a day. Within a week, I had burnt out every circuit board on every X-ray unit. The company was so grateful that I had found these problems during test and not when the machine was in operation.

There were lots of problems found, but by working with the designer gradually, the problems disappeared. There was one requirement that required the complete machine to be dismantled and rebuilt. The marketing department became very interested in this test. I set up the test and organised everything. The marketing department bought in a video and recorded the entire event. The time taken to dismantle and rebuild the machine was a great deal faster than the competitors. They were delighted with the demonstration and used at plenty of shows to sell the X-Ray machine. 

I am now a Chartered Engineer, not bad for a high school failure. I have surpassed everyone in my class in Bell Baxter.