Dim Jones
Dim Jones, our MS&T Magazine Europe Editor, is a former RAF Group Captain with 44 years’ experience in defence aviation, having flown more than 7,700 hours in a wide variety of aircraft, the vast majority fast- jet. Dim served as an Instructor Pilot and Flight Examiner with the USAF, and as a Qualified Tactics Instructor, Squadron Commander, Station Commander and Deputy Inspector of Flight Safety. Dim spent the last six years as a Qualified Pilot Nav Instructor on the Hawk.
Dim Jones Articles & News
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The parlous state of the UK’s military pilot training system has been much in the news of late. Although the RAF and the MoD have been at pains to downplay any suggestion of a crisis, there is little doubt that the situation is serious, and that the problems are both chronic and acute. 5 April 2023
Outsourcing of aircrew training within the UK Armed Forces has been a long-running saga. The concept of what eventually became the Military Flight Training System (MFTS) was widely discussed in the MoD during the 1990s, but it was not until 2008 that the first contract was signed between the MoD and Ascent Flight Training. MS&T’s Dim Jones visited Ascent in their Bristol HQ to get their take on past achievements and future plans. 5 April 2023
It is some 50 years since the UK aerospace industry produced a new training aircraft. All that may be about to change with the development of a new family of modular aircraft by a company called Aeralis. 15 November 2022
This year, MS&T's Dim Jones is happy to report, Covid constraints had been lifted, and the Omega conference attracted over 150 delegates from 14 nations. 2 November 2022
Some 56 years on, MS&T’s Martin ‘Dim’ Jones revisited RAF Cranwell, the scene of some of the earliest of his many crimes to find that the hallowed portals remain outwardly pretty much the same. 30 August 2022
The return to London’s ExCel Centre and lifting of Covid restrictions helped resurrect the long-delayed 31st iteration of IT2EC. MS&T’s Andy Fawkes and Dim Jones took in the conference and exhibition and came away with a range of reactions. 14 June 2022
The much-delayed 31st iteration of the ITEC exhibition and conference will take place at the ExCel in London 26-28 April. MS&T’s Dim Jones and Andy Fawkes discussed the aspirations of the organisers, Clarion Defence and Security, with their Chairman, Air Vice-Marshal (Ret’d) Gary Waterfall. 25 April 2022
MS&T's Europe Editor Dim Jones talked with Hans Lindgren, Saab Training and Simulation’s Head of Business Development. 20 April 2022
In January, the last of nine Poseidon MRA1 airframes was delivered to the RAF at Lossiemouth in Scotland and on 7 March the first UK-based Operational Conversion course commenced. 20 April 2022
Ukraine and pilot training took centre stage at the Defence IQ Military Flight Training Conference. 19 April 2022
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