ABOUT
Andy Wyatt: Pilot and Motivational Speaker
Andy joined the RAF aged 18 and after completion of flying training was selected to fly the iconic English Electric Lightning where his duties included intercepting Russian aircraft during the height of the Cold War. Following a tour of duty as a Qualified Flying Instructor, including a season as the solo Hawk Display Pilot in 1988, he was selected to join the Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team, The Red Arrows.
The Red Arrows is made up of exceptionally talented, dedicated and motivated pilots, engineers and support staff. It exists to showcase, both in the UK and overseas, the values and excellence of Royal Air Force personnel and equipment and to promote the interests of British industry. The Red Arrows have represented the Royal Air Force and the United Kingdom since 1965 and have flown in the region of 4,500 displays in 54 countries worldwide.
Andy completed over 300 displays during his 3 years with the Team and was a member of the elite synchro pair. He was awarded the Queens Commendation for Valuable Services in the Air in 1992 and was promoted to Squadron Leader before taking command of No 92 Squadron at RAF Chivenor where he continued to fly the Hawk as a Qualified Weapons Instructor.
Andy has flown numerous types of aircraft and has a wealth of experience in military, general and commercial aviation. He has being flying commercially as a long-haul airline pilot with British Airways since he left the RAF in 1998 and until recently was Chief Pilot for Longtail Aviation, a cargo airline based in Bermuda, where he flew the Boeing 747 'Jumbo Jet'.
Lectures and talks
Andy has given motivational talks, keynote speeches and insight lectures to many businesses and organisations and is a regular speaker on board the Cunard fleet of Ocean Liners.
Insight lectures
- The Red Arrows (Includes in-cockpit footage)
- Transatlantic crossing – by Boeing 747
- Flying the Queen and other stories
- London to Cape Town by flying boat
- Concorde - The icon
- The bombing of Hiroshima
- The world's most dangerous airports
- How safe is flying?
Motivational talks
- Teamwork - Self-belief and trust
- The importance of planning, preparation and debriefing
- Leadership
- Aviation in the digital age
Testimonials
“Andy – very many thanks for your insight lectures on your recent voyage and well done for scoring so highly, you are going to be in great demand!”
Peter Rushton
Director
The P&R Agency
“Thank you for your absolutely brilliant presentation on The Red Arrows, it was one of the most enjoyable evenings we have had in a long time – and we have had some very good speakers! Your success was demonstrated by the lengthy question session at the end.”
Capt Phil Jones
Chairman 41 Club and Round Table (Chippenham)
“Andy - a huge thank you for coming to talk to our team of executives last night, we really got a buzz from hearing about your anecdotes and career. Truly fantastic! I look forward to working with you in the future.”
Ed Alford
Vice President Enterprise Systems
BP Group
“Andy, thank you for being our speaker on Wednesday evening - we have had lots of plaudits from Club members and would be grateful if you could return to do another talk for us in the New Year.”
Simon Wright-Cooper
Club Secretary
Royal Naval Club and Royal Albert Yacht Club
“Andy, your talks were a fire risk. We rarely have people standing at the back of the theatre and sitting on the stairs unable to get a seat! Well done for filling us to capacity.”
Johnny
Theatre manager
Queen Mary 2
“Andy gave us a fabulous motivational talk on team skills. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed it and he linked it to our team working theme perfectly.”
Caroline Davies
Director of Property Services
Orbit Group
“Recently, Gloucestershire Constabulary had the pleasure of welcoming Andy to a meeting of our senior leadership team. For some time now, the Constabulary has been developing our Supportive Leadership and Wellbeing initiatives amongst our senior leaders and Andy's input on high performing teams and conflict management in The Red Arrows was both thought provoking and informative.
Andy has a very engaging style of delivery - aided by his unique insight into the life of a Red Arrows pilot. We thoroughly enjoyed his informative input.”
Gary Thomson
Chief of Staff
Gloucestershire Constabulary
“Hi Andy, Thanks again for a really fantastic talk today. Please feel free to include this testimonial on your website. Andy attended our company kick-off day, and completely enthralled the room. Accompanied with terrific video and visual aids, his talk was fascinating and inspiring, powerfully told, and extremely insightful. We were looking to learn about teamship and specifically the importance of debriefing, and Andy could not have delivered more or responded better to our brief.
He spoke with clarity and also with humour, and provided a detailed insight into the debriefing and team selection process, and left us with a lot of lessons that we can directly apply to what we do. He also responded very attentively to the vast array of questions from our audience afterwards.
Feedback from attendees has been fantastic - thank you Andy for a really uplifting end to a very busy day. I would have no hesitation in recommending Andy to anyone looking for an inspiring speaker, or to learn about teamship - you will not be disappointed!”
Rachel Kirton
Director of UX and Innovation
Doctors.net.uk
“The atmosphere was already highly convivial at the Rotary Club of Swindon's Presidents night, but when Andy Wyatt took to the floor for his presentation it turned electric! From the rigours of controlling the Lightning to the precision of flying as a pilot with The Red Arrows, Andy's performance was everything we expected - properly planned and executed. But in typical Andy fashion - with a high degree of passion and humour thrown in. As President hosting the night, I took the credit for Andy's polished performance - just as he expected!”
Peter Barefoot
President
Swindon Rotary Club.
“If you are looking for a charismatic, entertaining, knowledgeable speaker then look no further; Andy fits that description perfectly. His presentation on The Red Arrows brought in our first full house at our annual fund-raising talk on behalf of the RNLI and kept everyone captivated all evening. Andy is a great communicator with an obvious depth of knowledge of his subject, and is able to pitch the topic perfectly for his audience. He comes with my full recommendation.”
Andrew Harpe
Vice Chairman
Wotton-under-Edge RNLI.
“Our charity which operates the Tall Ship training vessel 'Pelican of London', was delighted to have Andy from Plane Speaking Ltd on board as our lecturer / commentator for the Bournemouth Air Festival (August 2015). We had a mixed audience on board from people who knew very little about flying to commercial pilots. I can honestly say that everybody thoroughly enjoyed Andy's presentation which was informative, educational and at times, hilarious. Andy explained the structure of The Red Arrows and their history, the recruitment process, the training and manoeuvres, in a really engaging way that was thoroughly enjoyable. He is an incredibly gifted speaker and we all felt really privileged to have this experience. Andy's skill at explaining technical detail very simply was, quite frankly, awe inspiring and I would recommend him as a motivational speaker without hesitation. Thank you, Andy, for your time, good humor, patience and interest in our charity.”
Kate Graeme-Coo
Marketing & Business Development Manager
Adventure Under Sail
“Andy spoke at the Britain's Energy Coast Business Cluster Nuclear Energy Business Opportunities Conference (NEBOC '15), to an audience of 250 Nuclear professionals. To a person they were captivated by his experiences, easy manner of presenting and the synergies to both human performance and safety, although some of use felt that 500mph at 250ft above the ground whilst banking and pulling 5g would be unlikely to be accepted by the Nuclear regulators! An amazing presentation by a fabulous presenter.”
Sean Balmer
Projects Director – Aecom, Nuclear & Environment International, Management Services Group.
“Andy - we would like to thank you for attending the n-eboc 15 dinner and for delivering your excellent after dinner talk. We have received really positive feedback about your appearance which everyone found very interesting.....though some felt a little queasy just watching the low level flying! n-eboc 15 has been hailed as a huge success, with very positive feedback, and it raised awareness of the opportunities in the nuclear sector for the future with the supply chain. We are grateful for your support, which helped us deliver such a high-level event in West Cumbria. We hope to see you at the BECBC again in the future.”
Ivan Baldwin
n-eboc 15 Event Chair and BECBC Director.
“Andy gave a great after-dinner speech to our Annual Awards Dinner at the Revolution Gallery in Manchester. In addition to a fascinating and entertaining half hour, he kept the audience of around 150 guests listening in total silence throughout. Not only that, he included a customised section to link his talk to some of the key priorities of our industry, and indeed to the categories of our awards.
Feedback from everyone I spoke to was that he was an excellent choice of speaker for the event. He was also very helpful and flexible in the run-up to the dinner - a real pleasure to work with. Highly recommended.”
Adrian Bull
Director of External Relations
National Nuclear Laboratory.
“We were delighted that Andy was able to speak at our event for young professionals. During his presentation Andy shared his career history including some impressive stories and breathtaking video clips. Throughout his presentation he managed to portray things in a way that made it easy for the delegates to relate certain key messages to their own lives lives such as the power of teamwork and communication. If you are looking for an entertaining, informative and inspirational speaker I would strongly recommend that you consider booking Andy.”
James Lambert
President JCI UK
Southampton.
“Andy - I managed to catch your extremely well presented and informative presentation to our management team yesterday. Brilliant. Keep up the good work and your continued support to the HSE and Health Community.
I have also received the following comments:
I enjoyed Andy's whole presentation but the item that most appealed to me was the effectiveness of a daily debrief - open and honest conversation to learn lessons and the behavioural commitment not to let what is said during the debrief affect relationships at work.
It was a fascinating talk, well received and Andy was able to identify with our theme of Collaboration and Cooperation in a very meaningful way.
Everyone here at Crossrail, who attended your Collaboration and Cooperation talk on 4th May was rewarded with a highly informative, interesting, relevant and captivating presentation.
As a career pilot, whose experience includes The Red Arrows, it gave everyone present an engaging topic that they could easily relate to. We felt that your style was one of passion; clear, concise, enlightening and engaging. We appreciated your explanations of a pilot's ability to rapidly and accurately process information, to make decisions based on fact, and to remain calm in demanding situations.
There can be no better way to illustrate planning, preparation and debriefing (analysis of the execution) than in an aerobatic team where no detail, error or improvement measure can be ignored. It was also interesting to see how you personally take some of these elements forward in to your current role as an airline Captain. i.e. flight deck debriefs.
In summary, an excellent highly informative presentation that was undoubtedly one of the highlights of our "Stepping Up" campaign.”
Steve Hall
Operations and Facilities Management Executive
Crossrail.
“I recently attended the Severn Trent Water Team Building event in Leicester and was intrigued to see that the agenda included a "guest speaker". The speaker turned out to be Andy Wyatt.
The presentations prior to his arrival had been the usual mix of corporate messages from senior management about the new team of Capital Delivery and Commercial, but the content was less than inspirational to say the least.
A video of aerobatic flying introduced us to Andy. He uses his experience as a former Red Arrows pilot to deliver some key messages about teamwork and everything that goes on behind the scenes to make the Red Arrows succeed, adapting some scenarios to align with our Capital Delivery and Commercial strap lines.
Throughout his time on stage, the audience was captivated and Andy's presentation was the best of the day, not only in my opinion, but also several of my colleagues who I spoke to afterwards.
It is clear that Andy is a first-class orator and delivers a message that is indeed inspirational. If anyone is looking for someone to provide a motivational message, then I can thoroughly recommend Andy as the man to do it!”
Ralph Topping
Severn Trent Water.
“Firstly, very many thanks for your time and effort in coming to Southampton and giving your talk last night. The presentation was absolutely first class and at least a dozen people bothered to come up to me afterwards to say how much they enjoyed it - the general consensus being that it was the best talk we have had for a very long time. the video clips were so well woven into the story with personal aspects making for a totally fascinating and enjoyable evening - well done!
The great thing about giving you a short review is that there is no element of over-statement, it is all absolutely true - it really was an excellent presentation.
Andy Wyatt, former Red Arrows pilot and now a Captain flying 747 Jumbos on long haul, gave a riveting talk beautifully illustrated with video and photographs of life in the Red Arrows, the selection, training and displays. This made for a fascinating account of life at a speed that most of us can only imagine.
This was the best presentation we have had in many years, and of equal interest to both men and women.”
John Kernan
New Forest Rotary Club in support of Sailability.
“Always a fan of the Red Arrows from a young age and loving air travel in general, I was thrilled when I found out that you be be the guest speaker at our Finance Director's conference at Haydock Park. Your talk not only gave us an amazing insight into such a wonderful area of our armed forces and what I would consider to be a national treasure, it also gave inspiration for us as a company, for me personally as a manager and for the teams we are part of and manage.
It was an absolute privilege to listen to you and I would like to personally thank you for your time and for the messages you gave - my team have talked of nothing else since! Thank you again for your inspiration and motivation.”
Joanne Cleghorn
Head of Estates
Electricity North West
Andy - thank you so much for returning home to North Wales to talk to family, friends, former schoolmates and others about your amazing flying career. It was a really excellent presentation, enthralling the audience with fascinating stories delivered in a relaxed manner with excellent visual aids and lots of humour thrown in! Not only were we thoroughly entertained but we were able to raise much needed funds for the village hall and local hospice. Everyone really enjoyed the evening and they continue to talk enthusiastically about it, especially those who wondered how their schoolmate who gained his pilot's licence before his driving licence, continued his career!
Mark Pendlebury
Schoolmate