Top trainee joins Flying Tigers

An Air Engineering Technician from Royal Navy Air Station Culdrose has won the Cornish Air Base’s “Trainee of the Term” for the spring term of 2013 after impressing instructors and his superiors with hard work and commitment. 

 AET Murray Jones (21) grew up with a Navy background, his father having served on Submarines, and is no stranger to the benefits and opportunities of a service life. Progressing steadily throughout his training after joining up at HMS Raleigh, near Plymouth, he completed Initial Naval Training before moving to HMS Sultan in Portsmouth where he was “Fast Tracked” on an Air Engineering course, which could potentially see him accelerate to Petty Officer within 5 years, opposed to the customary 9-12. 

Joining RNAS Culdrose for the latest phase of his training, Murray has work on 824 Naval Air Squadron.  Transferring theoretical knowledge learnt in the classroom at HMS Sultan into practical hands-on-experience, working on the Merlin, the Royal Navy’s Anti-Submarine helicopter. Murray has now moved to the 814 (The Flying Tigers) Naval Air Squadron, one of three front-line Merlin Squadron’s at the Fleet Air Arm Base, which can deploy with the Fleet anywhere in the world on operations. 

Murray is busy on a daily basis, servicing aircraft and carrying out safety checks on the massive Rolls Royce engines. “There’s never a day I wake up and don’t look forward to coming to work, every day has different obstacles to overcome and I’m kept on my toes at all times. I was recently on a course with under slung loads from helicopters.  The Sea King hovered just above me as I attached a load onto the cargo hook on its underbelly, it was pretty incredible.” 

Never one to rest on his laurels Murray has his sights firmly set on the future. He’s passed the selection board for a Royal Naval Officer and believes his training and knowledge can see him achieving his ultimate ambition of becoming a Royal Navy Pilot. 

“It’s a challenging and fast paced lifestyle; I’m trained to work on some of the most sophisticated engineered machines in the world with the chance to visit some pretty amazing places.”