SkyTech Helicopters Limited

Martin is the Managing Director and Maintenance Manager for SkyTech Helicopters. He remains as passionate today as he always has been about helicopters and the aviation industry.

Following completion of his apprenticeship, considerable knowledge and experience at all levels was gained on the Hughes / MD / Schweizer products and latterly the Bell 206. With this knowledge and experience he obtained the necessary CAA qualifications to enable SkyTech to be formed in 2003. He works with a great team who support and promote the SkyTech ethos which the company was formed upon. Martin can often be found talking to engineers and pilots, passing on the knowledge and experience he has been lucky enough to have obtained and also expressing the dedication & passion he has for helicopters & the aviation industry.

Martin’s passion for flying originally started when he won a scholarship to fly fixed wing aircraft. Maintaining helicopters, he realised the versatility of being able to fly from ‘A to B’ and gained his helicopter pilot licence in 1989. He has flown over 1500 hours with most of this gained with post maintenance air tests, aircraft positioning, main rotor track / balance purposes and pre-purchase air tests.

He has over 1200 hrs on the MD 500 series alone. Other types rated and flown being the Hughes / Schweizer 300, Bell 206 and MD520 / MD600 Notar. Flying in the USA and most European countries have regularly occurred, with ferry flights following customer aircraft purchases from Latvia (13 hrs), Lapland (11 hrs) and Austria (5.5 hrs) when bad weather was experienced on all trips!

When not maintaining or flying helicopters (quite a rare occasion), it is likely that he will be following any of his other favourite pastimes, hot air ballooning (he also has a pilot licence), supporting Northampton Saints rugby team or watching all forms of motor sport.

Martin has a helicopter display licence and the aircraft shown below (G-BRTL) was flown at the Sywell Airshow 2010 where all raised funds (over £31k) were donated to the Warwickshire & Northamptonshire Air Ambulance .