Presenters

Flight Lieutenant Jim West

Jim joined the Royal Air Force in 2001 at the age of 19. After completing Initial Officer Training he held at RAF Goose Bay for 5 months, helping to oversee the daily aircraft movements and the UK Fast Jet exercises in the area.

On his return to the UK in 2002 he started Flying Training at RAF Church Fenton and then subsequently RAF Cranwell. This involved instruction on various aircraft types including the Firefly and Jetstream. After graduating as a pilot in 2004 he was posted to fly the Nimrod MR2 aircraft and it is on the Nimrod where Jim spent the majority of his career. During the five years he served on the front line, almost a year of this was spent flying operational tours in Iraq or Afghanistan. He also flew many Search and Rescue and Anti-Submarine Warfare operational missions as well as working with the Army on Exercises in the Czech Republic and USA. His time on the Nimrod culminated in him achieving the position of aircraft captain.

When the Nimrod MR2 was decommissioned at the start of 2010 Jim was posted to 42(R) Sqn Operational Conversion Unit as a Simulator Instructor on the Nimrod MRA4. This involved working with partners in BAE Systems and other RAF units, writing and practicing the Standard Operating Procedures that would ensure the new aircraft was flown as efficiently and safely as possible.

As part of RAF life Jim has taken part in various adventurous training expeditions of which the most memorable was completing his Freefall Skydiving ‘A’ license in California. Away from the RAF he has a keen interest in sport, specifically surfing and triathlons and in May last year he ran his first and almost certainly his last marathon. Jim, like two of his RAF Presentation Team colleagues, is also a Tottenham Hotspur fan.

To find out more about what Jim's job in the RAF can involve, click on this link RAF Pilot