SUPPORT - Key Persons
Dave Puleston has maintained a life-long interest in aeroplanes and seizes every opportunity to immerse himself in the world of vintage and sport aviation. With his enthusiasm fuelled by a first flight at the age of eight and aerobatics in a Chipmunk a few years later, he began flying gliders at RAF Marham as a member of the Air Training Corps. He craved more powered flying and began working part-time at the Norfolk and Norwich Aero Club, Swanton Morley. This led to a management position with the club on completion of A-Level exams and the issue of a Private Pilot's Licence in 1993, at the age of 17. Dave also gained extensive practical experience maintaining and inspecting the Club's aeroplanes.
Keen to increase his engineering knowledge and flying experience, Dave has worked subsequently at busy M3 maintenance organisations, inspecting, repairing and rebuilding a variety of aeroplane types. He has also volunteered for The Fighter Collection at Duxford. Dave joined de Havilland Support Ltd in 2004 following several years working for VT Aerospace at RAF Wyton, a JAR 145 organisation contracted to supply flying training for the RAF. He has flown more than 60 types of light aeroplane and holds a CAA Display Authorisation in numerous categories. Not content with engaging in aviation activities for a day job, Dave is co-owner of a Pitts S-1D as part of the Trig Aerobatic Team, and is also now flying and displaying one of the Duxford-based Spitfires.
Dave Puleston has maintained a life-long interest in aeroplanes and seizes every opportunity to immerse himself in the world of vintage and sport aviation. With his enthusiasm fuelled by a first flight at the age of eight and aerobatics in a Chipmunk a few years later, he began flying gliders at RAF Marham as a member of the Air Training Corps. He craved more powered flying and began working part-time at the Norfolk and Norwich Aero Club, Swanton Morley. This led to a management position with the club on completion of A-Level exams and the issue of a Private Pilot's Licence in 1993, at the age of 17. Dave also gained extensive practical experience maintaining and inspecting the Club's aeroplanes.
Keen to increase his engineering knowledge and flying experience, Dave has worked subsequently at busy M3 maintenance organisations, inspecting, repairing and rebuilding a variety of aeroplane types. He has also volunteered for The Fighter Collection at Duxford. Dave joined de Havilland Support Ltd in 2004 following several years working for VT Aerospace at RAF Wyton, a JAR 145 organisation contracted to supply flying training for the RAF. He has flown more than 60 types of light aeroplane and holds a CAA Display Authorisation in numerous categories. Not content with engaging in aviation activities for a day job, Dave is co-owner of a Pitts S-1D as part of the Trig Aerobatic Team, and is also now flying and displaying one of the Duxford-based Spitfires.
From a flying family, John Tempest's first flight was at the age of three and he has been surrounded by aircraft ever since. His employment in the aircraft industry began as an undergraduate trainee with British Aerospace at Woodford, following which he completed an Aeronautical Engineering degree at Loughborough University. There then followed a four-year BAe-sponsored research project at Cranfield University, experimenting with the use of carbon composites in highly loaded airliner wing structures.
Job Titles:
- Chief Engineer & Accountable Manager
Mark Miller (pictured) flew model aircraft on the disused Duxford airfield in the early 1970s and later joined the Duxford Aviation Society. He traces a long-held enthusiasm for British pre-war civil light aircraft to childhood sightings of a beautiful Gipsy Moth on a Cambridge garage forecourt. This interest led directly to participation in the long-term restoration of a Dragon Rapide, owned jointly by Mark and his father for over 25 years and first flown from Duxford in 2004. Mark learned to fly entirely on vintage aeroplanes, going solo on a Tiger Moth at Cambridge in 1981 and completing his PPL in the relative comfort of an Auster Autocrat. After ‘A' Levels, Mark studied for a degree in Mechanical Engineering at University College London. He followed this up with postgraduate research on automotive spark ignition engines for a PhD, and worked thereafter on contract to the Ford Motor Co. and others. Eventually the lure of aviation overcame all financial logic when in 1996 Mark went to work as a civilian for the RAF at Wyton. Specialising in aircraft structures, Ageing Aircraft issues and Reliability Centred Maintenance, he was a member of the Structural Integrity Working Groups for Canberra, Jetstream, Nimrod, RAF Gliders, and (fortuitously) the Scottish Aviation Bulldog.
Mark was for many years partner in a small M3 maintenance organisation, is an Inspector of Vintage types for the Light Aircraft Association (LAA) and the holder of CAA engineering licences in categories A, B, C and X. He has flown over 1,500 hours on Gipsy and Cirrus-powered types, owns his own DH87B Hornet Moth (depicted above), also DH85 Leopard Moth and DHC-1 Chipmunk projects, and regularly displays light aeroplanes at the Duxford events. Mark's involvement in DHSL has been a happy - if arduous - progression of his long-term interests and later RAF experience.