Roger Searle
Director and Military Flying Training Consultant - Fast Jet
Roger is an RAF trained ground attack fighter pilot and test pilot. Following ground attack tours on Hunters he joined No 1 (F) Squadron as it equipped with Harriers to form the world’s first operational V/STOL squadron.
Roger is a graduate of the Empire Test Pilots School, flying with Experimental Flying Squadron at RAE Farnborough where he was involved with the first electro-optical night low level flying aid (LLTV), flew carrier approach trials with Harrier aboard HMS Hermes and developed Fly-by-Wire handling with RAE Farnborough’s quaduplex fly-by-wire “Green Hunter”. He was also Project Pilot for Institute of Aviation Medicine (IAM) flight trials.
He joined British Aerospace at Brough as an Experimental Test Pilot in 1980 and was subsequently Chief Test Pilot test flying Buccaneer, Phantom, Harrier, Hawk and PC-9 programmes. Having first flown Hawk in 1981, Roger moved to BAe Warton in 1992 to join the Flight Operations Hawk Development team and managed the Hawk 100 and 200 Series production, customer training and delivery flight programmes. In 1995 he founded and managed the Hawk Aircrew User Group. Roger retired from Flight Operations at the end of 2003 and joined Pilotwise, bringing with him his many years' experience in the design and implementation of modern fast-jet pilot training systems.
Roger has displayed the Harrier, Buccaneer, Phantom, Hawk and PC-9. He has 5500 hours flight time on 140 types and marks of fixed and rotary wing aircraft.
