You would think that it would be easy to teach student pilots to fly and fight when you had been a fighter pilot yourself? Not so fast! Follow Tug Wilson as he became an instructor, mentor, coach and father-figure to his young and enthusiastic charges at the RAF Valley fighter school during the 1990s. After surviving three years flying the RAF’s greatest and scariest fighter – the mighty McDonnell Douglas Phantom – Wilson tried his hand at teaching his flying skills, which he learned when stationed on the Cold War frontline. Despite being more mature and responsible for teaching trainee pilots and navigators in the cockpit of a BAE Systems Hawk, he almost killed himself and at least one of his students.

Confessions of a Flying Instructor: Teaching the RAF’s Fighter Pilots builds on the insecurities and pure unadulterated joy that Wilson experienced while flying. It is an open and honest account of his professional and personal life, much in the style of Confessions of a Phantom Pilot: Memories of Flying the Phantom FGR2, his first book for Fonthill Media. Ever wondered what a fast-jet pilot goes through while learning the intricacies of air-defence and low-level flying? Or how to cheat in air combat? All is revealed in Confessions of a Flying Instructor.

• Experience first-hand what it was like to train as a fighter pilot in the RAF

• Takes you right inside the RAF’s fast-jet pilot training stream in the 1990s

• Beautifully illustrated with many rare and unpublished photographs from Tug Wilson’s private collection

• Of interest to aviation and military historians, modellers, gamers and flight simulator enthusiasts (War Thunder, DCS, etc.)

This the second book by Tug Wilson. Confessions of a Phantom Pilot: Memories of Flying the Phantom FGR2 his first was published in 2021 [ISBN 9781781558508].

Confessions of a Flying Instructor: Teaching the RAF’s Fighter Pilots

Author: Tug Wilson

Publication: 7 February 2023

Price: £28.00/$35.00

ISBN: 978-1-78155-907-9

Size: 234 x 156 mm

Binding: Hardback

Extent: 240 pages

Illustrations: 25 colour

Rights: World, all languages

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