Interview - David McCutcheon

Name:	David McCutcheon
Age:	46
Job:	Managing Director & Chief Pilot
Date of interview:	13 Jan 2004

Do you live in Skipton?
No, I live in Rylstone.

Family here?
Yes, my mother's here, and my 2 brothers, and my wife and family of course. I was born in Bradford.

What school did you go to?
Malsis, Wrekin and Skipton Grammar.

Do you have a favourite pub in Skipton?
My favourite is the Angel, Hetton. In Skipton, I'd go to the Albion.

What changes have you seen in the town over the years?
A great influx of Charity shops.

Describe your job in 5 words
Self unemployed in poor weather.

Do you love your job?
Yes. I'm obsessed by it.

How long have you been doing it?
Since 1989 when I left the Craven Herald. I was the Advertising Sales Manager for 9 years.

How did you get into it in the first place?
When I was working at the Craven Herald I was already flying privately, so I was already operating a commercial balloon for the Post Office. I was doing competitions, and the only thing that I couldn't do legally was to fly passengers. In 1989 they altered the air navigation orders to allow people to fly passengers and it opened up a whole new market. So we thought we'd better be the first. We were actually the 18th in the country to register. For about 5 years there were only 3 of us in the North of England.

What's your typical working day like?
Up at 5:30, out to the launch site for 6:30, meet and greet the clients, get the balloon up, fly, land, pack it away, have a glass of champagne, return the clients to the launch site, return home. Then work in the office till about 5ish, then about 5:30 or 6 depending on the time of summer, return to one of the launch sites and do it all over again.

How long is an average flight?
The flight is 1 hour. The whole experience is 3 hours. You meet us at the launch site, we have the check in, pre-flight briefing, get the balloon out, put it together, inflate it, take off, fly for an hour, land, pack it away, have the champagne, offer some souvenirs, take the clients back by road to the launch site, then come back here then gas the balloon up, have something to eat, then go to bed.

Are the landings difficult?
No, you have very precise control over your height, but not necessarily over your direction. You can change your direction by climbing and descending, if the winds are there to allow you to do that. So on some flights you just go in a straight line, there's nothing you can do to influence it at all, but on other flights we've nearly landed back on the launch site having flown about 5 miles away then come back. That doesn't happen very often.

Whats the best thing about you job?
People's reaction.

What's the worst thing about your job?
The hours.

What's the most outrageous thing that's happened to you in this job?
I qualified to go to the World Championships in Japan, in 1989.

What do you see happening in the future, in your business?
We're going to do more work with companies, preferably overseas, where the weather's more stable and predictable. We're already doing 6 trips a year for one client. Extend what we do. Diversify - after Foot and Mouth we realised it wasn't a good idea to have all your eggs in one basket.

What effect does the internet have on you at the moment?
A positive one apart from spam. We have our own website.

How do you see this changing in the future?
I think it will become more expensive. In terms of maintenance and innovation on your own website, it will become more expensive, and the way that people will have access to your website will become more expensive as well. Already people are starting to charge for search engines, things like that. Pay per view system.

Do you have a favourite website?
The weather forecasting websites are really important to me.

What are your hobbies? How do you relax?
A bit of mountain biking. A nice glass of wine.

What issue is close to your heart?
Political correctness gone mad. Suing people over your own mistakes.

If we gave you £5 million right now what would you do with it?
Invest 4 and spend the other 1 on travelling.

Do you have anything you want to plug / publicise?
Our website - www.airborne.co.uk