Born to Fly

Jock is a New Zealand citizen who has made Scotland his adopted home. He has been involved in the helicopter sector for approximately 45 years and has considerable experience of the utility helicopter mobilisation. Jock was a founding member of Dollar Helicopters, an ex Director responsible for Forestry and lifting operations in UK and also managed Seismic exploration operations in the Middle East and South America. He has also undertaken Safety audits of helicopter operations globally for the Oil Industry, Aviation QC for Perenco on their seismic operations in Turkey, and for Statoil in Iran.

Andy has over the past 30 years built TSL Contractors Ltd into a leading West Coast Construction Business. He has had an interest in helicopters since pouring concrete for a project on the Isle of Staffa which was all batched by hand and delivered by Dollar Helicopters (managed by Jock Simpson and piloted by Steve Graham). Andy gained his pilot’s licence in 1998 and has since owned several light helicopters.

Nationality: British

Murray was our first Task specialist for Skyhook having been involved in aviation from a young age, he has crewed both for the HESLO Operations and as a mixer loader for bracken spraying. Murray holds a UK CPL(H) and gained HESLO 1 in 2019 and since then has been flying as a HESLO Line pilot, with 1200 hours total flight experience, and over 6000 lift cycles on HESLO 1 operations. Murray is a key part of the lifting team and will be moving up to HESLO Levels 2 and 4 as his experience increases. In 2022 Murray will also be taking up a role in Skyhook's Agricultural operations.

Guy started flying in 2000. Since then he has accumulated over 7000 hours of flight time. His knowledge and experience in the agricultural crop spraying sector makes him the most qualified pilot in his field in Britain. He also has HESLO 1, 2 and 4 qualifications as well as a CAA Flight instructor and Examiner Qualification.

With more than 13,000 hours of accident free flight time Steve is one of the UK’s most experienced pilots his flying career started in the Royal Navy and since then he has operated in the demanding utility market, in air ambulance (HEMS) operations and currently in the VIP environment. The experience Steve brings has been instrumental in helping to guide Skyhook through our early development towards becoming the safe, efficient operator we are today.

Nationality: British

Joining in 2016, Lewis is Skyhook's most experienced ground task specialist. Lewis is a qualified rope access technician and so has extensive knowledge and experience with rigging and lifting in both onshore and off shore envirnonments. His climbing and rigging skills are essential to skyhook's high accuracy aerial crane operations. Lewis leads the ground teams for all telecom and elevated platform lifting operations. He is also an active member of the Glen Coe mountain Rescue team. Lewis also holds a PPL(H) and is working towards his CPL(H), hoping to join Skyhook as a line pilot.

Officially joining the Skyhook team in 2021 as task specialist , Michael has a background in Forest Management and Timber Harvesting within Scotland. He has achieved his Commercial Pilots licence for Helicopters and is rated to fly the Robinson R22 and R44, as well as the Bell 206. We are aiming to have him rated to fly our AS350 B3 Squirrel aircraft in the future and build him up to be one of our HESLO pilots.

Terry has a millitary background, having served 20 years in the British Army. Afterwards, he worked in the power and transmission sectors before coming to Skyhook as a Task Specialist, for a new challenge. He is a keen outdoorsman and enjoys mountain biking and snowboarding in his spare time. In 2020 Terry completed the West Highland Way on his mountain bike.

Eamon is from New Zealand but is also part Irish. he gained his EASA CPL in 2019 successfully converting his New Zealand licence. He is a highly experienced Ag pilot and has carried out a hugely varied range of aerial application work across Europe, Australia and New Zealand. Eamon is a core part of the bracken spraying pilot team his expertise in crop treatment is second to none.