Colin, the main man when it comes to daily flight operations will be your lead point of contact on your pilot journey. Colin gained his pilots licence in 1990, but the flying bug got him as a teenager in the Air Cadets flying gliders and Chipmunks.

After working in heavy engineering and also serving in the reserve forces in the Royal Engineers and Marine Commandos earning him the coveted Green Beret and Parachute Wings.

Colin then served a full career as a Police Officer, carrying out a variety of roles from Police Diver & Pursuit Driving Instructor to Firearms Tactical Manager and Critical Incident Manager.

After retiring from the Police in 2013 Colin started flying microlights at Balado and has been a valued member of the team ever since.

James will be another point of contact for you when he's not building hangars or on his digger! His flying bug bit when he was 17 when he was awarded a 20 hour flying scholarship from the Royal Navy.

After being handed control of his small family farm at age 30 it was clear that the small arable acreage wasn't enough to support his family alone. Flying activities at Balado had already been a small diversification project since 2007, however to make a real success of them and realise their potential along with the airfield as a whole, major investment and improvements would be required to make Balado Airfield and its flight school all it could be.

James started flying microlights in 2008 and hasn't looked back. His passion for flight and vision for the future has drawn significant EU and Scottish funding support to aid in further infrastructure and aircraft investment culminating in our STEM first flights and Young Aviator Flying Scholarships.

Sim is another member of the team you'll come across at Balado. After joining our Skyranger syndicate not long after it first formed.

His interest in all things that fly was sparked in his childhood by flying kites and later traction kites. He gained his paragliding licence at 16 and his parakart (kite buggying) instructors rating at 18 representing Scotland on the UK parakart race circuit.

Sim was a key player in bringing together traction kite and mountain boards in the late 90's and went onto become a sponsored kitesurfer competing all over the world.

After gaining his PPL in 2012 he gained experience in Scotland and South Africa he realised he wanted to focus on microlights.

Sim decided that he could do more even with his passion for flying and joined the flight school team in 2022.

Eddie started instructing with us in 2023 having obtained his own pilot's licence aged only 17, courtesy of an RAF flying scholarship. He instructs on both fixed and flex wing aircraft. He is passionate about our flying scholarship and STEM programmes and the opportunity these provide to young aspiring aviators having benefited from such an enriching experience himself. He is pictured above with his 2023 flying scholarship student - Amie.