Neil Ritchie (Cardinal Europe Operations Manager, EGKK London Gatwick ). Born in 1963 in Aberdeen, Scotland. First ever flight was in a British European Airways Vickers Viscount 800 in 1970 - fell in love with aviation, despite a brief flirtation with trains. Joined the Air Force Cadets in school & attended camps at RAF Coltishall, Norfolk UK & RAF Laarbruch, Germany. (First ever jet flight was on a Britannia Airways B737-200 (G-AVRO I think) between London Luton & RAF Wildenrath).

Ordained a Roman Catholic priest for the Archdiocese of Liverpool in 1992 after studying in Spain & England, and worked for 6 yrs as an assistant priest in 3 parishes. For the past 3 yrs I have been working on post graduate studies in Counselling Psychology, also working as a high school chaplain.

On my days off I took up RC model flying & had many a happy hour out on the flying field, and putting them back together again in the evening. In 1997 I joined a local gliding club, and spent a year working toward solo, but I have not been able to attend regularly since then, hence my decision last year to invest more in "virtual" flying...which is when I came across Cardinal. It was the review of Cardinal last year in "PC Pilot" that convinced me this was the VA to be in...and I've never looked back!