Jon Harrowing
Founder of Fighter Control/Forum Admin

Jon was born in the sun drenched east coast town of Cleethorpes back in 1970, but actually lived in Great Grimsby. His interest in military aviation began at a very early age when he realised that the approach to runway 21 at RAF Binbrook went straight past his bedroom window! During his teenage years Jon spent most of his spare time at Crash Gate 3, RAF Binbrook. Here he met loads of terrific people, idiots and outright characters all of which were dispersed far and wide when Binbrook closed in the late 1980’s. His interest in military airband radio got underway when he was bought an AOR AR-2002 Communications Receiver for his birthday – one that he still has today!!

Throughout the 1990’s Jon spent most of his spare time with his family, wife Linda and his two small children Chloe and Charlotte. He made the odd trip to Waddington, Donna Nook and Coningsby but with no serious ‘spotting’ intentions. During this time he got to grips with computers and the ‘new fangled’ phenomenon called ‘The Internet’. One of Jon’s computing achievements was the fact that he was one of the crew that helped with the running of the Grimsby Town Football Club website, including commentating for matches using Live Audio Streaming.

Jon’s interest in military aviation was re-ignited towards the end of the 90’s when e-mail groups and list servers started to pop up everywhere which brought enthusiasts closer together. It had always been his aspiration to create and manage a website for Military Aviation Enthusiast’s in the United Kingdom but was always restricted by the fact that it would almost be impossible to do it on his own!

FIGHTER CONTROL was born in 2002 but was restricted in content due to lack of time and help. All this changed last year when Rick Sleight decided to join and since then they’ve never looked back!! The whole FIGHTER CONTROL phenomenon could not operate without you; it’s readers, forum members and friends.

Rick Sleight
Owner and Editor of Fighter Control/Forum Admin

Born in 1969, Rick became an aviation enthusiast in 1979, having watched Lightnings at the former RAF base at Binbrook, near his home town of Grimsby. He now resides very near to RAF Waddington and works as an accountant in Lincoln. He has written and photographed for many aviation journals over the years, including many national magazines like Aircraft Illustrated, Air Forces Monthly, Air Forces Research, Air Pictorial, Defensa (a Spanish military magazine) and Flypast.

He has also provided work for many of the privately run enthusiasts magazines including, Air Britain, British Aviation Review, Humberside Air Review, Military Aviation Review (where he was part of the editorial team), NAGMAG (magazine of the Norfolk Aviation Group), Scramble, SWAGMAG and Air.
Rick was also founder member, chairman and chief magazine editor of his own venture, The Hornets Aviation Society, which ran in the mid 1990s.

He has worked for several aviation web sites, such as Air Scene UK, Scramble, Warplane and obviously is now a major part of this website, being the major contributor on the forum!
He is well known not only at Waddington but has also travelled around the globe, spotting extensively in the 1980s/1990s and has a vast experience of all matters relating to military aviation, having worked on an RAF station for 2 years, so his name is usually well known around the spotting scene.

Since Rick and Kirsty’s first son Joshua was born in January 2002 and second son Daniel was born in November 2006, he has travelled less extensively in pursuit of his hobby and now enjoys reporting, writing and photographing aircraft as often as possible, using exclusively Nikon digital SLR cameras and lenses.

Kirsty Dowling
Trips Administrator

Kirsty is Rick’s other (she says better) half and wonderful full time mother to their son's Joshua and Daniel.

Rick and Kirsty met in 2001, when she was working as a Legal Executive in Lincoln and they have been together since.

Although Kirsty does not share Rick’s passion for all things military aviation (YET!), she has travelled on some occasions to bases and actually seen a lot of aircraft that some enthusiasts would love to see! Having attended the Waddington Airshow in June 2001, although she found the hobby unusual, she did enjoy seeing all those young aircrew in their flying suits! Two notable aviation excursions were made in 2001, not long after the couple met. The first was to the Army Air Corps base at Netheravon, where some 80 or so French Army helicopters had gathered for an exercise. Only a week later, the two were again on their travels South, this time to Stokes Bay, to see CVN65, USS Enterprise, which was laden with F-14 Tomcats, F-18 Hornets and many other US Navy aircraft. What had the poor girl let herself in for?

After some four years of enduring being without Rick, whilst he spent endless hours watching and photographing aircraft, being away from her, upstairs in the study, writing aircraft movement reports, emails and processing aviation images, enough was enough! With the advent of the Fighter Control website and forum, which Rick was a huge part of, it was time to join forces too! Originally Rick had offered his services to ‘FC’ as a base visit organiser but as usual had taken too much on, so Kirsty stepped into the breach and within two days, the visits database was completely sorted out!

Having an organised mind and previous administrative skills from previous employments, she is the ideal person for the role of Fighter Control Trips Administrator. Being a full time mother, allows her the chance to run things from home, for all of us and so far she has done a wonderful job in a short space of time, as I’m certain those who have joined our tour group will agree.

We look forward to more from Kirsty in the coming months, as she plans trips for the group both at home and abroad!

Lee James
Webmaster/Forum Admin

Born in Nottingham in 1975. Lee’s first airshow was the RAF Finningley, Battle of Britain at Home Day airshow in 1980. Of which Lee was four years old. His first airshow memory was walking through the mighty Lockheed C-5 Galaxy and the Avro Vulcan scrambles.

From then on, Lee and his father have been attending annual airshows, which have included some of the nostalgic airshows at Tollerton Airport, RAF Coningsby and the farewell of the Lightning at the 1988 airshow at RAF Binbrook.

After a break from his interest in aviation, and due to the sudden death of his wife, Lee joined Fighter Control in 2006 as a forum member, so he could recapture his interest.

As Lee and his father are interested in the military aviation scene, they decided in the early hours of one Saturday morning that they would drive to the 2006 airshow at RAF Leuchars in Fife, and then after the airshow, drive down to Kemble in Gloucestershire for the Delta Jets airshow as well as a few hours spotting at Brize Norton on the Sunday. The total mileage was 935 miles in under 36 hours.

Lee’s interests are :

Listening to airband radio, on his Realistic Pro 2042 scanner combined with UHF and VHF antennas. Photography, as he has now gone digital, he uses two Canon 350D’s and a 20D with a selection of lenses for static and flying. Military History and listening to Rock Music, of which Lee has jetted around Europe to see his favourite band, Iron Maiden.

Lee is a freelance IT contractor and has worked in many private and public sectors including the Ministry of Defence. Lee’s IT experience is a huge asset for Fighter Control.

Lee’s role was to analyse the old website and develop a plan and structure for a new user friendly website, and combined with the skills of Jon Harrowing, Chris Branston and Matthew Hearne have assisted with the website layout you now see today.

Jason Grant
Photo Editor/Forum Moderator

Born in Tamworth in 1968. Jason's first air show was the International Air Tattoo at Fairford, 1985 which he attended with his best friend and fellow Fighter Control Photographic Editor, Mark Forest.

Before 1985, Jason's passion was photographing mainline locomotives with his 35mm Practica MTL 50, but soon after Fairford, his allegiance switched from trains to planes although he never really had the camera equipment to fulfill his ambitions.

In 1998, Jason purchased his first digital camera, the Olympus Camedia, a very basic digital camera. This was to be the start of Jason's interest in digital photography combined with military aircraft. In 2004, Jason purchased his first Digital SLR, the mighty Canon EOS 300D and soon moved on to the Canon EOS 20D. He still uses the 20D along with a Canon EOS 40D and various Canon L lenses.

Jason also has a casual interest in airband and owns a Realistic Pro 2045 and a Yupiteru MVT-7100. Jason works for Network Rail as a Maintenance Manager, he has been with the company for 21 years.

In 2005, Jason had to take 14 months off work due to a serious motorbike accident. Today, Jason lives with his better half, Debbie in Tamworth, where they have lived together for 20 years. They have one daughter, Stephanie.

Mark Forest
Photo Editor/Forum Moderator

Born in Birmingham in 1969, before moving to Tamworth in 1980. Mark's interest in aviation started in 1983 when he began visiting his local airports at Birmingham & East Midlands along with the occassional trip to Heathrow. In july of 1985 Mark and his friend Jason Grant visited the International Air Tattoo at RAF Fairford for their first time. It was this airshow that gave Mark an interest into Miltary Aviation.

His weekends were then spending time at RAF Mildenhall taking upon his new found interest. It was at RAF Mildenhall where he met Rick, and ever since then they have remained long time friends. During the late 1980's to mid 1990's Mark would spend most weekends during the summers at airshows around the UK and Europe. He also accompanied Rick to the USA in 1993 & 1996. When he looks back at the 80s & 90s he does so with a big smile on his face and remembers his very special day in 1993 at Miramar Air Base which is home to "TOPGUN". Of which he had his photo taken under this very famous base sign.

In late 2005 Mark became interested in digital photography and purchased his Canon 20D, he has never looked back since. Since then he has purchased the 30D and recently the 40D. Marks photos can be found on the Fighter Control forum photos threads.

Paul Newbold
Movements Section/Forum Moderator

Born in Nottingham in 1972, Pauls love of military aviation started after two camping holidays with a friend to Anderby Creek near Ingoldmels in 1984/85. With brief visits to RAF Coningsby on the way to watch the Phantoms of 29 Squadron. Coupled with the excitement of fighters low level over the campsite he became hooked for life.

Pauls first airshow was at the Leicester Air Show in 1986. In 1989 Paul brought his first car, which allowed him to travel to various airbases and airshows including the Mildenhall Air Fetes, partaking in photography followed by numbercrunching. Paul uses a Canon 350D with a 75-300mm lens for his photography, and has submitted his photos to Fighter Control and various other websites for others to view.

Paul became a member of Fighter Control in 2004 and is now a forum moderator. He works for a large Freight Forwarding company at Castle Donington and is married to Trisha and have a daughter called Lauren.