A High-Flying Photographer

Is it a helicopter? Is it a plane? It’s neither. Or maybe both. Paul Mackenzie meets a man offering a unique bird’s eye view of the Lake District

ROGER Savage grew up with exciting tales of his father’s wartime flights over the Atlantic, hunting for German U boats in a Wellington bomber. The stories gave young Roger a yearning to experience the thrill of the flight but while he’s notched up thousands of hours in a cockpit, his favourite aircraft is a far cry from the Wellington.

Although Roger has flown all manner of planes and helicopters in the 46 years since he first took off, he says nothing comes close to the experience of flying a gyroplane, a small, one or two seater, open cockpit vehicle, with rotor blades.

‘It’s probably the most fun I’ve ever had in a cockpit in about 10,000 flying hours,’ he said. ‘It’s exciting, you can feel the wind in your face and from a pilot’s point of view that adds an extra dimension. I think not being cocooned in a cockpit gives you a greater empathy with the landscape.’

Roger has taken his dad, George who now lives in Burnley, for a spin in a gyroplane but said: ‘The Wellingtons are still his favourite. He was a pilot with Coastal Command in World War Two, flying Wellingtons and Halifax bombers over the Atlantic looking for U boats. After the war he went back to his job as a policeman in Great Harwood but he would tell me about flying and I wanted to try it.