Pilot, sailor, photographer, geek!<\/p>\n\n
Welcome to my home page, Hangout. My name is Chris Parker. I’m a retired pilot (long-haul) and occasional light aircraft pilot and instructor. I’ve always enjoyed travelling and usually document my travels with photography. I live in London, in the UK.<\/p>\n\n
Gained a PPL in 1972, courtesy of the RAF Flying Scholarship, started flying in the RAF (1976) – Bulldog, Jet Provost, Gnat, Hawk, Harrier. Left the RAF to join the airlines – Cathay Pacific Airways in Hong Kong (1988) – L-1011 Tristar, Boeing 747-400 and A340-200. Since 1996, back in the UK on the A330-300, A340-300, A340-600 and Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner with Virgin Atlantic. Now retired from professional aviation and sailing around the world in our Oyster 56.<\/p>\n\n
We owned a 1980 Beech A36 Bonanza until 2020 when we sold her and bought a 2001 Oyster 56 yacht. EASA\/CAA light aircraft Flying Instructor FI(A). Qualified as RYA Yachtmaster Offshore in 2010 and Yachtmaster Ocean in 2023. Gained the professional Remote Pilot Qualification – Small Unmanned Aircraft (RPQ-S) Certificate in 2015.<\/p>\n\n
Apart from links to my photo sites, you’ll find some articles on light aircraft flying around the world, a little about professional flying and some stuff on photography.<\/p>\n\n
My photographs get uploaded to various places. Most of my half-reasonable ones can be found on Flickr<\/a>. I occasionally put the best on my photo-blog, daily-photo.net<\/a>. I also have a gallery on this site which contains aircraft photos, photos of Hong Kong’s Kai Tak airport, and some sailing photos.<\/p>\n\n I hope you enjoy your visit here and find what you want.<\/p>\n\n My A36 Bonanza mini-blog is here<\/a>, my Mistral Sailing blog is here<\/a>, and my “about me” page<\/a> has some more links. Karen’s excellent travel blog is here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n To contact me please use the Contact page<\/a> on this site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n