Chris Taylor – Life of a Test Pilot

Friday 5th December 2023

The Probus Club of Salisbury were delighted to welcome Chris Taylor who spoke about his life as a naval aviator and military/civilian test pilot.

Introduced by Bob Burrows (who Chris referred to as his one time ‘boss’ at RNAS Yeovilton), Chris went on to give a very entertaining talk on his career and flying exploits. Having wanted to be a pilot for as long as he could remember, Chris Taylor gained his private pilot’s license at the age of 17. He joined the Royal Navy whilst studying for a degree in Electrical Engineering and, after serving as a Navigation Officer on numerous ships, went on to operate Wasp and Lynx helicopters.

After five years instructing, he became a test pilot and flew all manner of experimental aircraft for research and development purposes before returning to the Empire Test Pilot’s School as a tutor. Having served at Boscombe Down for ten years he joined the UK Civil Aviation Authority as an aeroplane and rotorcraft test pilot. With the closure of the CAA’s Flight Test Department, he formed Dovetail Aviation Ltd and has continued to test fly a wide variety of aircraft ever since.

Chris has flown 400 different kinds of aircraft, is a Fellow of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots and is a licensed Category 1 Test Pilot and Flight Test Instructor for both aeroplanes and helicopters, which arguably makes him one of the best qualified and most widely experienced test pilots working today.

Chris explained why he wanted to become a pilot and how he achieved that through the Royal Navy and Fleet Air Arm. Following the, perhaps misleading, advice of his local careers office, Chris joined the Royal Navy on a University Cadetship which required him to serve initially as a watchkeeping and navigation officer before he could sub-specialise as a Westland Wasp and subsequently a Westland Lynx pilot. The operating environment of a small ship’s flight was graphically described, including flying in extremely poor weather conditions and high sea states in order to ‘get the job done’. His ditching of a Wasp during training and then damaging his helicopter at sea was fully related. In addition to numerous close calls as an aviator, Chris is unusual in being involved in four major collisions at sea. For one of these collisions he was the officer responsible for conning or ‘driving’ the ship and, despite his best efforts, his ship rammed a German Frigate in thick fog in the Baltic. Serving on a Hong Kong Patrol boat he had numerous encounters with armed Chinese patrol boats and soldiers; as a Fishery Protection Officer he was attacked with an acetylene blow torch and kidnapped by a French trawler; as a Wasp pilot he almost singlehandedly had to protect the Royal Yacht from the threat of Libyan gunboats; as a Lynx pilot he won the day in numerous major international exercises around the world and served for a month on detachment to a Dutch frigate.

Chris is one of only three helicopter experimental test pilots posted to the Experimental Flying Squadron (EFS). It was there that he worked with scientists from the Defence Research Agency (DRA) at Bedford and Farnborough on a number of cutting-edge technologies, specialising in ship/helicopter interface testing. In addition to flying the Westland Wessex, Lynx and Sea King, Chris was able to act as an evaluation pilot in the Hunter, Jaguar, Andover, Hawker Siddeley HS748, and the Comet. During his time as an active test pilot, EFS was merged into three platform squadrons which gave Chris the chance to play a full part in conventional ‘release to service’ activities in a wide variety of rotorcraft.

Asked to take on the role of a flight test instructor (FTI), Chris served at ETPS (Empire Test Pilots School) where he made sweeping changes to the syllabus, acquired a new helicopter type and had to deal with a number of students who could not cope with the rigours of the course. In his first year he suffered a ‘flame out’ in a Hawk jet, an engine failure during his first flight in the twin-engine Basset and crashed the school’s Westland Scout helicopter!

Following four successful years teaching helicopter flight test, Chris was recruited to manage the ETPS short course portfolio. This required the design, sale and delivery of numerous flight test courses, while also introducing innovative teaching methods and the use of civil registered aircraft. In this new, exciting and rewarding role Chris taught both fixed wing and rotary wing students.

Chris’ presentation was very funny at times, but also gave a glimpse into the military flight test career of an individual who is arguably one of the best qualified and most experienced test pilots working today anywhere in the world. What an honour to welcome him to the club and listen to his story.

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You may be interested in books that Chris has written, documenting his adventures and life story – available from various stockists, just google for details.