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Cranfield Flying School

Building 187 Cranfield Airport, Wharley End, Cranfield, Bedfordshire, MK43 0JR, United Kingdom (UK)

Cranfield Flying School is the largest & longest established flying school at Cranfield Airport. The airport has a worldwide reputation for flying training & aviation education & is one of the best equipped in the UK, with the facilities to handle training to the highest level with full instrument landing capabilities (ILS, DME, ADF & GNS approaches) & a long, well maintained, tarmac runway. Our team of passionate flying instructors are among the best in the UK & our fleet is tailored to training pilots from first Pilots Licence (EASA PPL or LAPL) through to Airline Transport Pilots Licence (ATPL).
The airfield & school is a situated on the same site as Cranfield University, famous around the world for its teaching of Aeronautical science & technologies.
Cranfield is ideally located for access from all parts of the county with easy road access (10 minutes for j13 of the M1) & 20 minutes taxi ride from Milton Keynes or Bedford railway stations.
The school occupies the lower floors of the building next to the control tower at Cranfield airfield so we are very easy to find. Just google ‘Cranfield Flying School’ & google maps will bring you to our front door.
It is specifically designed to operate as a flying school with two large classrooms for ground school teaching in classes up to 20. flight planning, two flight simulators & several smaller briefing rooms for one on one teaching between instructor & student.

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Piper PA 44 Seminole For Hire with Cranfield Flying School at Cranfield Airport The Piper Seminole is a twin engine aircraft used for the final stage for students wanting to obtain their commercial… VIEW DETAILS
Piper PA28 Arrow For Hire with Cranfield Flying School at Cranfield Airport The Piper PA 28R Arrow is used for the next level up in flying. It is a complex aircraft with… VIEW DETAILS
PA 28 Warrior G-RIZZ For Hire at Cranfield Airport G-RIZZ has returned from a full bare metal respray and looks wonderful. It has also had 2 Garmin G5 units… VIEW DETAILS
Grumman AA5 Cheetah G-PING For Hire at Cranfield Airport A new addition to our fleet is G-PING a Grumman AA5 Cheetah. It flies very much like a warrior with… VIEW DETAILS
Piper PA28 Warrior For Hire with Cranfield Flying School at Cranfield Airport The Piper PA 28 is the workhorse of flying training at PPL level around the world. It comes in many… VIEW DETAILS

Our Team

Jim Busby
Operations Director
Jim has been in & around Cranfield Flying School for a number or years advising & helping the school to modernise. He worked for most of his career in large corporations but always had a love of flying having learned to fly in the University Air Squadron in his late teens. Jim has a PPL with an Instrument rating & loves to fly on long trips around Europe. He has purchased & owned a number of different aircraft in his time & presently owns a half share in a Cessna 210 so once you have obtained your licence he can advise you on the ins & outs of owning your own aircraft.

Jim is also a director of the European Instrument rated pilots (PPLIR/E) organisation looking mainly after events management & can advise more advanced pilots on all aspects of touring around Europe & the latest advances in Weather Management & GPS/RNAV usage.

Donald Putnam
Head of Training
Donald is our Head of Training & Chief Flying Instructor. Donald has been instructing for 10 years & is qualified to teach all flying disciplines from basic PPL & Multi-Engine through to Commercial flying, FIC courses, Instrument Flying & Aerobatics.

Donald is a passionate flyer & has been flying since he was 13 & lives to pass on his passion to everyone else. He has prodigious knowledge both about the practice of flying in the real world & all the theoretical background to it all in order to help both students & qualified pilots through the technical exams needed to obtain or revalidate the different licences.

Graham McFarland
Deputy Head of Training
Graham has been flying for over 40 years. He has a huge wealth of experience in all areas of aviation, including General Aviation, Commercial Flying & Instructing.
After a successful career in Civil Engineering & hot air balloons, Graham flew commercially on aircraft including the Short 360 & A320. His love for aircraft extends to smaller aeroplanes too, having flown & instructed on just about every single & multi-engine piston. He has also owned many aircraft over the years, & taught at an array of flight schools, including at MCC level.
Graham instructs many levels of training with us, from PPL up through Instrument Ratings. We are honoured that he has chosen to come & instruct with us.

Ian Leech
Instructor
Ian has been flying for over 20 years & has been an instructor for more than 10 years. Ian is also an accomplished commercial pilot with many hours on executive jets amongst other aircraft. He is passionate about flying & enjoys the process of trying to pass on that enthusiasm through teaching & flying training

Tom Russell
Instructor
Tom has grown up around flying, as his parents met through gliding at Dunstable. HIs instructing career began in 2019 at Fairoaks airport, by Woking, & he now instructs at Cranfield part time, while also flying for a large commercial carrier in Luton. He has found his time instructing extremely rewarding so far, & is excited to join the team at Cranfield.

Giles Barr
Instructor
After a successful career within the music industry, Giles qualified as a commercial pilot with a Frozen ATPL in 2019. When the global pandemic unfortunately cut short his airline journey after completing his A320 type rating with a large UK carrier, he turned to a Flight Instructor course here at Cranfield Flying School. Now recently qualified, he is looking forward to helping others achieve their pilot dream.

Steve Short
Instructor
Steve is a part time instructor with Cranfield when he’s not working for London Underground as a Line Service Control Manager. Steve is originally from Edinburgh & has very fond memories of watching concords maiden voyage over Scotland.
Steve’s passion for flying started when he was serving in the British Military & undertook Army initial flight training on fixed & rotor wing aircraft whilst serving.
After retirement, Steve continued to develop his passion for flying by successfully passing commercial, multi engine, instrument ratings & flight instructors courses.
Steve is qualified to teach students in LAPL & PPL. Steve can also assist students with their Theory Exams & any ground school preparations or practice sessions.

Zohaib Mahmood
Senior Instructor
Zohaib has been at the school for over 5 years. He started as a student & has progressed all the way through his training to acheive his ATPL & his flight instructor rating. He is now one of our most experienced instructors & is very popular amongst students.

Scott Camber
Instructor
Scott is a part time instructor & examiner with worldwide experience on various business jet aircraft types & holds a degree in Air Transport Management. Scott has been instructing locally for fourteen years.
Scott gained his love & passion for aviation in his early years from his father’s inspiration. He keeps his hand in giving something back to grass roots flying by regularly teaching ab initio pilots.

Hannah Cresswell
Instructor
Hannah has recently joined us as an instructor. She has flown with Ryan Air as a captain & Virgin Atlantic. We have to thank the p&emic for the fact that she is not flying for a big commercial airline & can be part of our team of instructor

Suzie McKee
Operations Manager
Suzie has recently graduated from a flight school in Spain with a Frozen ATPL after converting her license from an airline-sponsored MPL after the carrier went bust. She has worked a number of years in administration & operations, & has a degree in languages. Working as long-haul Cabin Crew fuelled her love for aviation, & gave her the flight-deck insight & experience she needed to pursue her Commercial Pilot’s License.