Barry KIRBY writes:
‘Mike WELLS died peacefully at home surrounded by his close family in the early hours of 7 February 2012 aged 64, after a long and incredibly courageous fight against challenging illness.
After leaving Brentwood Grammar School and before joining the RN Mike had a dabble at various jobs. These included accountancy, banking, drayman for a brewery and as a salesman for PEDIGREE PETFOODs and also for AVERY Scales. Naturally, the obvious versatility of the man at such a tender age left the Admiralty Interview Board in no doubt that he was ideally suited for a commission as Supplementary List aircrew. He joined the RN in1970, gaining his pilots wings in February 1972.
During his career Mike managed to cram in all the jobs that a good SL would expect and wish to do. He had his favourite tours of course, not the least being his 2 year Exchange with the US Navy with VX-1 at NAS Patuxent River in Maryland. His mischievous good natured quick wit, allied with an enviable natural ability to immediately put at ease anyone he ever met, made him a perfect ambassador for the RN. A great example of Mike’s wonderfully self-effacing and disarming sense of humour was when he and his wife Ginny threw a fancy dress party with the theme as ‘Cowboys and Indians’. All the Americans turned up in Wild West outfits, to be greeted by Mike dressed as a snake charmer, wearing only a towel nappy, a turban and absolutely nothing else. This caused a great deal of confusion and amusement amongst the guests until Mike explained that the invitations had not specified as to which continent the ‘Indian’ part of the theme applied (a gentle and light-hearted dig at our colonial friends).
Perhaps Mike’s involvement in the world of AEW was one that he always looked back on as being most professionally rewarding. In 1985 he did a tour as Senior Pilot of 849 ‘A’ Flight on Illustrious. Later in 1992 he returned to become CO of 849 NAS., a most successful appointment which he personally enjoyed immensely.
One of Mike’s moments of fame came in 1980 whilst with 826 NAS. He ditched Sea King XV655 in Falmouth Bay at night after an engine failure in the hover. He and his crew ‘water taxied’ 6 miles managing to beach the aircraft at Swanpool, from where it was subsequently successfully recovered. For this Mike received a Flag Officers Commendation for outstanding professionalism and captaincy.
I first met him on his initial ASW operational tour with 824 NAS on the old Ark Royal. Thereafter we remained close friends, although we never served together on the same outfit again, unfortunately.
To summarize his subsequent appointments:
Following a short spell in the SEA KING Simulator Mike did the QHI course and instructed on GAZELLEs with 705 NAS. The USN Exchange tour was next. Then, because you are not supposed to enjoy yourself for too long, it was back to the grindstone with 826 NAS on Hermes and the Falklands conflict. 824 ‘D’ AEW Trails Flight followed, then 849 ‘A’ Flight Senior Pilot before his first foray into the JETSTREAM world as Senior Pilot on 750 NAS. It was then back to AEW and 849 NAS as Commanding Officer. A 2 year stint as Lieutenant Commander Flying on Invincible was next, another appointment he thoroughly enjoyed. Then it was back to 750 and JETSTREAMs until he left the RN in1997.
As a civilian Mike’s involvement with the RN and JETSTREAMs continued as the Contract Manager for FRA SERCO until 2000. Thereafter he continued flying with them, and was involved in investigations and the formulation of contract bids until he retired on health grounds in 2007.
An interesting statistic is that throughout his flying career Mike clocked up just 4hrs 45mins short of an equivalent one full calendar year in the air.
During his retirement he was involved in consultancy work for FRA SERCO and also a US company. Family property and business projects kept him busy, along with local community issues and investment clubs. He was a well known and highly respected member of the Mullion community where he and his family have lived since 1972. Always the enthusiastic golfer, Mike was the driving force in the ‘Prats with Bats’ Golfing Society. His terrific sense of humour, enthusiasm for life and fun, and misguided belief in our dubious golfing skills made our annual ‘Tours’ to France times never to be forgotten.
Mike will be sadly missed, not just by his close family and friends, but by all who knew him. He leaves behind his wife Ginny, his son Tom, daughters Alex and Sophie and his grandchildren Wilfred, Inca and ROBBEN.
Phil Howarth writes:
‘I first met Mike when I was the Senior Observer of 824 D Flight at Culdrose. We were trialling entirely in-house the cobbled together Airborne Early Warning version of the Sea King. He arrived with a big grin on his face, stuck his hand out and said,
“Hello, I’m Mike Wells, I’m the new Senior Pilot and the Boss said you’d put me in the picture”.
Well, I did and I took an instant liking to him which was unusual. Gnarly old ex-Gannet observers like me didn’t normally warm to any sort of pilot until ample free beer and praise had been provided. But we hit it off straight away, became good friends and remained so for the next 28 years.
It was February 1984 when Mike took the desk opposite me. At the time he was a QHI with 3,500 hours in the Sea King HAS 1, 2 and 5 and had also completed a USN exchange tour on VX 1 at NAS Patuxent River where he was involved in flying SH-3 equipment trials. He was ideally suited to run the cockpit end of the remaining trials programme and our move to single pilot manning – one observer in the co-pilot’s seat for take-off, landing and emergencies. He was also responsible for the conversion to type of the Commando and ASW pilots we received then easing them into the crazy world of the concurrent and always conflicting requirements of conducting AEW trials, observer instructor and student training, CVS deployments, VIP demos and other odds and sods with two half modified airframes with fatigue problems. What joy! Amongst the hierarchy Mike seemed to be the only one not pulling his hair out but that was his way – always good humoured, pragmatic and relaxed, ever the competent professional, always the supportive chum.
Mike and I continued in the same roles into 849 NAS on recommissioning and thence to the front line with 849 A Flight under my command and he the SP/XO. Later that year when I ditched in XV672 in the Atlantic I was fortunate to have him provide SAR top cover. Exactly 5 years previously Mike had ditched his Sea King Mk 2 at night following an engine failure then taxied it to the beach 6 miles away for which he was awarded a well deserved Commendation. His experienced and calm provision of advice to me prior to and during my crew’s water landing was invaluable. Both his aircraft and mine were recovered post the respective waterborne incidents and returned to front line service.
Mike was widely popular with our aircrew and troops and indeed the ship’s company on Illustrious. I recall that in 1986 whilst deployed to the Far East he programmed regular flying famils during slack operational periods for non aircrew, mostly ratings. There were numerous volunteers to be passengers for flying tours along the Great Barrier Reef and volunteers for dry winching on to deserted Australian Islands which kept the smiles on faces during the long transits and scored a lot of brownie points for the Flight. He always believed in fair shares for all. For instance when, for our ‘ship open to visitors’ event on a Saturday in Brisbane, I suggested that we (meaning he) run a Flight gizzit stall to separate some Oz dollars from our Australian friends he promptly agreed, made the necessary arrangements then programmed himself and me to cover all of the unpopular afternoon pitch so the boys could make the most of the available shore time. He then detailed me to talk to the grown-ups and sign prints whilst he talked to the kids which, as he predicted, was where the real sales were to be made. And I felt entirely happy about being tactfully manoeuvred into manning a stall on a hot flight deck on a Saturday afternoon in foreign climes. That was his gift. And we sold out.
Shortly after I left A Flight to command 849 Squadron in 1987, Mike also left for fixed wing conversion and to join 750 NAS as Senior Pilot and began his long association with the Jetstream. He returned to the AEW role to command 849 Squadron from 92-94, an appointment in which I am told he excelled and one I know he viewed as a highlight in his career. During his six years in the AEW world Mike found a host of new friends. He was a pleasure to know and will be much missed.’
From records:
72-74 824 NAS:
74-75 737 NAS:
75-76 SK simulator:
76-78 705 QHI:
78-80 USN exchange:
80-83 826 QHI:
AEW trials flight in 1983 prior to 849 re-commissioning in in 1984:
84-87 849 A Flt SP:
87-91 750 SP:
CO 849 5 Jun 1992 to 21 Oct 1994 – Sea King AEW2/2a.