From The Flightdeck - more stories from the sharp end

James McBride has enjoyed a flying career more varied and exciting than most airline pilots. His road to an airlinecareer started with the military, learning to fly fast jets and helicopters. He then moved into the civilian world flying light twins on air taxi and charter work, before his first airliner position.

As chief pilot for easyJet in its very earliest years, James was a star of the ‘Airline’ TV series. Since then he has gone on to fly as Captain, Instructor and Examiner on many Airbus and Boeing types, as well as helping to start at least one airline and flying in the high-end corporate aviation world. Somewhere along the road he also enjoyed a part-time career as an air display pilot and today he is based in Southern Europe, flying for a major European airline.

With such a store of experience to draw on, it is no surprise that James is a renowned writer for Flight Training News, bringing the realities of life ‘at the sharp end’ of professional flying to readers of his ‘From The Flight Deck’ column for over 10 years.

Some of these stories, and many more besides, are to be found in James’ latest book about the thrills (and occasional spills) of an airline flying career. Whether it is dealing with the petty annoyances and issues of an average day ‘on the line’, or training new first officers and captains, or witnessing a major incident unfold in front of him, James writes with candour and authority about the real world experience behind the dream of being an airline pilot.