Born in Yorkshire, Mike James has lived in West Sussex since 1960. He joined the army from school and later, the Merchant Navy, as a deckhand. Coming ashore, he worked for twenty-five years in civil aviation and twenty more as a train driver, before retiring. Mike James is a pseudonym.
Much has been written about aviation, nearly all of it focussed on the glamorous work of pilots. Even cabin crew have checked in their stories. However, though a hundred of us stand behind every pilot, virtually nothing has been written about groundlings, without whom there would be no flying. May...