Simon Tilling
An enthusiastic and experienced private pilot, Simon Tilling has been flying for 10 years. In his words, “my wife bought me a trial flying lesson for my birthday. I went for the flight which was at Old Sarum, and that was it. I was hooked and it was ‘love at first flight’ you might say.”
He has owned a wide variety of light aircraft in the years since, including a number of LAA types. A keen air-racer, Simon is also a former British Air Racing champion and from 2020 to 2022, was the chairman of the Royal Aero Club ‘3Rs’ committee for Races, Records and Rallies, during which time he regenerated the appeal of airracing to new participants. He currently enjoys flying his 1942 Taylorcraft Plus D/AOP 1, and a North American Navion.
Simon also enjoys restoring 1970’s motorcycles and collects Airfix kits from his childhood.
Simon began his career working in the telecoms industry, before eventually moving to a role as a services manager for Dell Computers, where he eventually became VP for services for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Upon leaving Dell, Simon helped run an outsourcing company before then becoming a contractor.
In this role, he spent 10 years being parachuted in to companies to fix customer service issues, working on transformation projects, and rolling out new software implementation.
Simon took over as the Light Aircraft Association’s Chief Executive in April 2023.
April 2023
