After an 18 month full time Airline pilots course at Oxford, I started flying with Jersey European, who became British European, and then Flybe. I was based at Exeter, Birmingham, Toulouse (yes, France), and Southampton. I flew the Shorts 360, Dash 8 - 200, -300 and -400, and the BAe 146 4 engined 'whisper jet' .  This year I got a job with Monarch Airlines, based in Luton (hurray, at last a base near home !). I now fly the Airbus A320 and A321; Monarch have about 8 of each type. These carry 180 and 220 passengers respectively, and can reach the Eastern Med; Turkey, Cyprus etc, and places such as Tenerife in the Canaries. Monarch also have Airbus A330's, which are super long range, long haul 'planes. They do charters all over; e.g. Cuba, Mombassa, Florida, Maldives etc. All three Airbus types can be flown with the same licence, so we will get to do a mixture of short and long haul.  Flying is great: Sitting watching 6 flight computer TV screens for hours on end while drinking lots of cups of tea.... Hmm what does that remind me of?   Landings are good fun...if you get them right !!  The family are fine. Sam is nearly 9 and very tall already. His head is level with my chin almost. Well, better go now and continue fixing the Central Heating. Some things never change !  Stu Swift (Swifty)