The Cotswold Airport, Kemble. It's a beautiful spring day and in a briefing room at the base of the air traffic control tower Ultimate High's latest customer is receiving final instructions from his pilot ahead of their forthcoming sortie. He's here because his wife and daughter have paid for him to experience high performance aerobatics in one of the world's most famous aircraft for performing exactly that - the Extra 300. Flight suit on, complete with name badge reading "Big Wuss" (his wife and daughter chose that too!), he's about to walk out to the aircraft and experience the ride of his life. Nervous? Maybe a little. Excited? Definitely! His pilot today is an airline captain by trade, spending much of his time hauling passengers from A to B in an Airbus A340, but that's not the whole story. Former Lightning pilot, former Harrier pilot, Hawk display pilot for two years and three years with the Red Arrows which concluded with the coveted position of Synchro Lead. This customer's pilot is Charlie McIlroy who, with some 15,500 flying hours to his name, just happens to be Ultimate High's Chief Pilot.
It's a scene played out each and every day at Ultimate High's Cotswold Airport HQ. Whether it be advanced flying training for existing pilots in aerobatics, formation or safety and emergency recovery procedures or experience flights for individuals and groups with little or no flying under their belts, ranging from the full-on aerobatic experience through to air racing and a Top Gun style air combat mission. Somehow Ultimate High also manages to squeeze in a number of airshow bookings in the UK and beyond.
"Ultimate High is hugely successful," says Marketing Director (and former wingwalker) Helen Tempest, "but it remains a very small company.
"It was set up by Mark and Jo Greenfield in 2001. Mark had left the military to go and work in the City and it was from his corporate event experiences there that he saw a niche in the market to fill the gap that exists between PPL flying and the buzz of airshow and aerobatic flying.
"Ultimate High is about giving people the confidence to put themselves in the hands of our pilots to experience things they may have never experienced before. Even if you have never flown before you can try aerobatics, try to shoot your mate down in an air combat scenario and we've also just introduced air racing."
In addition to that, Ultimate High takes PPL pilots and even experienced airline pilots to freshen up their airmanship skills and to teach aerobatics, formation flying and tailwheel conversions. From individuals through to large corporate groups - Ultimate High caters for them all.
"One of the biggest thrills is taking people who are immensely nervous about flying and taking the mystery away from it all and seeing them come down from a flight with a big grin across their face - that is extremely rewarding."
One of the cornerstones of Ultimate High's success is its roster of pilots. Take a look on the company's website and you'll see an impressive list of men and women with nearly 250,000 hours between them. So what's the attraction for an ex Red Arrow like Charlie McIlroy?
"It's quite simple really," says Charlie, "if you asked most pilots whether they wanted to come and fly an aircraft like the Extra 300 and their expenses would be covered they'd just say 'where and when!'
"Flying the Extra is a delight," he adds, while admitting that little can complete with the adrenalin rush of military flying, "but the landing is a challenge. I'm not saying that it's a difficult plane to land, but it is a difficult plane to land in a neat fashion.
"We do get a kick out of what we do, although comparing it to flying Synchro with the Reds, well, that's a tough call. Compared to my day job though, this is fantastic."
Charlie will spend approximately one month with Ultimate High across any 12 month period and, while it isn't always easy to fit in this flying with the day job and family life, the large roster of aircrew on the books means that the company is never short of available crews.
"We've got six different flight profiles that we offer along with ten courses, so scheduling can be a nightmare, which is why having something like 35 pilots available is so useful," adds Helen.
The military ethos has also been brought across to Ultimate High and this impacts on the way the company works with briefings and standard operating procedures (SOP) which most military pilots would immediately recognise.
"Our SOPs are not really very different from a frontline RAF squadron or even an airline," explains Charlie. "We send newsletters out to all our pilots with any updates and this means that even if they haven't been able to fly with us for a month or two that they can come back and they know exactly how everything works and what they should be doing.
"I like it. We try to keep everything as professional as possible and we certainly don't want anyone to think of us as being some kind of fly-by-night cowboy outfit. One of Ultimate High's great strengths is that all of the pilots are here because they want to be; it's not an hours building exercise as we've all got day jobs which pay the bills. Some people play golf or go fishing - I come here because I want to fly upside down.
"It never becomes run of the mill for the pilots as flying with Ultimate High is not our full time job. Sometimes my wife will say 'what's up with you?' and it's like 'oh you want to go and fly the Extra'…………well, it has been three weeks!"
Another unmistakeable feather in Ultimate High's cap is being based at the Cotswold Airport, for it's one of those locations that has a great feel about it. You can't always put your finger on exactly what it is that gives it this feel but Kemble (as many will continue to call it despite the recent name change) has got it in spades.
"It's perfect for us," says Helen. "Firstly because it is privately owned and Ronan (owner Ronan Harvey) has a great team of extremely passionate people here and also they are all petrol heads! There is a constant stream of contact with the local authorities and a lot of fun stuff that goes on here that we probably wouldn't be able to do at other commercial bases."
"The airfield also has a permanent display authority," adds Charlie, "which means we can fly aerobatics in the overhead; it's brilliant here and has just got better and better over the past few years."
The company has a fleet of five aircraft on its books comprising two Extra 300s, two ex Swedish Air Force Bulldogs and a venerable de Havilland Chipmunk. All are fully aerobatic and between them enable Ultimate High to offer such a broad range of training and experience packages, but naturally it is the Extras which attract much of the attention. What does a former Red Arrow make of it?
"It's right up there in its class and it was an Extra that won the World Aerobatic Championships last year of course, albeit a development of the aircraft we have here. It's a fabulous machine.
"Last year I took one of the Extras to Boscombe Down so it could be assessed by students on the Empire Test Pilots Course. I flew 17 trips in the week with guys who had flown something like 40 types including the Typhoon and Gripen - after the Typhoon all of them chose the Extra as their second favourite. They thought it was fantastic."
Is there any comparison with the Hawk I wonder - an aircraft that Charlie flew for two years as the RAF's solo display pilot as well as his time instructing and with the Red Arrows?
"There is a little bit actually. I flew the Hawk for seven years straight and the first time I flew the Extra I flew my old Hawk display and it worked - although it took up a lot less sky! You can fly all the manoeuvres in an Extra that you can fly in a Hawk, and more of course, as the Extra performs flick manoeuvres. I always wanted more roll rate when I was flying the Hawk but with the Extra, at full deflection you really know about it - it's stupendous."
As I think most of us can imagine, flying in the Extra if you've never done so before is probably a never forgotten experience. It makes for some great reactions from visitors to Ultimate High and is one of the most rewarding parts of Charlie's work for the company.
"The bloke I flew yesterday wouldn't stop shouting he was so excited! You do get some great ones, especially with the Top Gun package where we're chasing the other aircraft - wives pretend it's their husband or people pretend it's their boss they are trying to shoot down!"
That just about sums it up really. Ultimate High is fun and exciting, providing an adrenalin rush like no other. Equally though the outfit is professional and trains pilots to the very highest standards courtesy of their own roster of pilots and their modus operandi. It doesn't matter if you've never flown before, want to overcome your fear of flying or just want to experience competition aerobatics or indeed learn to fly them yourself; Ultimate High has got something for everyone.
GAR wants to interact with its readers so if you have a question for the author or a comment to make on this feature, please click on the button below. The best comments will appear right here on GAR.
If you would like to discuss using any of our imagery or feature content please contact us.