Flight Lieutenant Andy Preece MBE
Andy joined the RAF in 1991 as a navigator before re-training as a pilot . His first posting was to the Tornado GR1 where , following a successful operational and weapons conversion , he served at RAF Brüggen in Germany with No . 17 ( F ) Sqn . His next tour was as an instructor at RAF Cottesmore where he taught Italian , German and RAF Pilots and Navigators . During his time on the Tornado , Andy flew numerous missions over Iraq as part of Operations Jural , Warden and Bolton .
During his RAF career Andy has flown the Tornado GR1 , Hawk , Tucano , Harrier GR7 / T10 , Dominie and the Grob Tutor . He is a Qualified Flying Instructor ( QFI ) and a Qualified Pilot Navigator Instructor ( QPNI ). He was the RAF Tutor Solo Aerobatic Display Pilot in 2007 , 2008 , 2014 and 2015 , during which time he performed at more than 200 public displays .
Andy has over 4000 hours on 13 different aircraft types . His first season with BBMF was in 2016 as a volunteer whilst teaching new military pilots to fly the Grob Tutor as part of No 3FTS at RAF Cranwell .
In 2017 he joined the BBMF full time as Operations Officer , and despite leaving the team in 2022 , he never really left having returned in the envious position of a part-time reservist pilot , and now back in a fulltime role as the Deputy Operations Officer .
In his spare time Andy enjoys hill walking , cycling and photography .