My Life and Flying - AVM Gavin Mackay

The next meeting of the Sleaford and District Legionnaires Aviation Society will be held on Tuesday 17th October 2023 at 7-30pm in the Legionnaires Club, 6 Watergate , Sleaford, NG34 7RZ.

The Speaker will be the ex-Commandant of the Royal Air Force College Cranwell - Air Vice Marshal H Gavin Mackay CB OBE AFC BSc FRAeS RAF (rtd). He passed out of RAF Cranwell on the first of the Graduate Entry scheme in 1971.

After advanced flying training on the Gnat , he instructed on the Jet Provost before converting to the Hunter and subsequently the Harrier, serving several tour in the Fighter Ground Attack (FGA) and Reconaissance roles in Germany, Belize, the UK and the South Atlantic, and displaying the Harrier around Europe. He then attended the RN Staff College at Greenwich before a tour as the RAF's Central Tactics and Trials Organisation Harrier Specialist.

As a Group Captain he commanded RAF Gutersloh in Germany and after a number of Ground appointments became the AOC and Commandant of the RAF College Cranwell in July 2000. Following retirement he returned to his roots as a flying instructor on the Grob Tutor - as a full-time reservist Flight Lieutenant. He is currently the President of the Cranwell branch of RAFAS and a Lincoln Cathedral guide.

Doors open at 7pm. Guests welcome (there is a £2 charge for this).