 |
| Hours Flown |
2,600+ |
| Qualifications |
ETPS Test Pilot and ATPL with DA |
| Position |
Yak 2, 3 and 4 |
| Favourite Display |
Shoreham |
| Interests |
Looking after Ben, Sophia and Lucy.. as well as flying |
|
Jim Schofield, 34, is an RAF fighter pilot currently working on the introduction of the new F-35 Lightning II to RAF service.
He grew up on the airshow circuit and was lucky enough to fly in the back of several warbirds with his father at airshows before legislation precluded such activities. Highlights included the back seat of a P-40E Kittyhawk flying from Biggin Hill to Turin, including low-level through the Alps (due to weather). Jim learned to fly on Super Cubs before he could drive and spent his meagre earnings touring in a Citabria from his father’s farm strip.
Jim started his flying career after joining the University of Wales Air Squadron, where he began flying RAF-style on the Bulldog. After leaving university in 1995, he joined the Royal Air Force where he flew the Tucano and Hawk before being posted in 2000 to the Harrier Operational Conversion Unit at RAF Wittering. In 2001 he was posted to No 3 (Fighter) Squadron at RAF Cottesmore. During this tour he operated the Harrier from a wide variety of environments including woods, aircraft carriers, sheet ice runways and deserts. Jim flew more than 70 hours of combat missions over Iraq during the Gulf War in 2003 in support of allied Special Forces.
He was selected to attend the Empire Test Pilot School (ETPS) in 2004, where he won the prestigious McKenna trophy for best all-round pilot. On completion of the course he was posted to the Fast Jet Test Squadron at MOD Boscombe Down, where he was the project pilot for Harrier GR9 and was responsible for the introduction of this aircraft to RAF service. He also survived 100 hours in the Jaguar more by luck than judgement, and doesn’t miss it. In 2007 he was selected to return to ETPS as a Tutor, teaching top multi-national pilots and flight test engineers on Gripen, Hawk, Alpha Jet, BAC 1-11 and Basset. For 2008 he ran the ETPS Fixed Wing course as Principal Tutor, to which he attributes his thinning hair. Jim now has more than 2,700 hours on over 65 types.
Jim married the very understanding Lucy in 2001 after a whirlwind eight-year romance. He has two children; a train-mad son Ben, aged five, and a three-year-old budding actress daughter Sophia.
He has been flying with the Yakovlevs since 2005, and has performed in more than 40 shows, alternating his position between Yak 2, 3 or 4. Jim is currently 'between aircraft', having sold his RV-3 homebuilt aeroplane. Jim is also a keen guitar player although sadly lacking in talent, and enjoys performing and playing Russian hard-core rock music.