Overton’s Own Flying Ace Russell Peart

With 21 years of military flying in three different air forces and fourteen years in civil aviation, Russell Peart has an impressive flying career.

 

Now the Overton resident has written a book about his experiences, titled “From Lightnings to MiGs: From Cold War to Air Speed Records”. CommunityAd spoke with Russell to find out more.

 

“I was first prompted to write a memoir by my daughter Carly,” Russell says. “Carly wanted it done for handing to our grandchildren when they had grown up. In the meantime, I had met and been interviewed by Rowland White, the famous author of ‘Vulcan 607’, ‘ Storm Front’ and ‘Harrier 809’. We first met because of his book ‘Storm Front’, all about the air aspects of the war in Dhofar. When I casually mentioned I was writing my story for the grandchildren he insisted I should go ahead and write a proper full-length book. He said I had plenty of ‘good content’ to do it. I had envisaged initially that I would write about twenty pages of A4 for the family only. Rowland’s infectious enthusiasm convinced me I should go ahead and write a proper book.

“Revisiting the military part of my career brought back a lot of memories. Some were positive and pleasant, but many were of sad times due to losing a number of friends in aircraft accidents and a few to enemy action.

“Myself and my family — my wife Sue and our two children – were in Bangladesh because as a weapons instructor I had volunteered to go there to train four Bangladesh Air Force pilots to also become weapons instructors. Hence my involvement in flying the Soviet Cold War fighter planes, the MiG 19 and MiG 21. Our thirteen years living in Hong Kong was due to my employment flying the big jets with Cathay Pacific Airways who are based there.

“I enjoyed mostly writing about my involvement in the war in Dhofar as it was the most exciting part of my time in aviation. It was also about a variety of flying, as it involved not only direct action against the enemy using the Strikemaster aircraft, but also navigating an Iranian helicopter on an operation near the Yemen border.”

 

Are there any other books in store for eager readers in hope of more? Russell is doubtful. “I can’t imagine writing another book,” he says. “After all, one can only really write one autobiography, and I don’t think I have enough imagination to write fiction. For me, the main aim of writing this book became, in due course, to leave a legacy which would be a small contribution to modern military history, but also hopefully be an interesting read in the meantime.”

 

You can find Russell Peart’s riveting retrospective “From Lightnings to MiGs: From Cold War to Air Speed Records” online at Amazon.

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