Colin soloed on a Tiger Moth aged 17 on an RAF Flying Scholarship, then joined the RAF, moving onto Vulcan Mk1A after training. He joined 101 Sqn at Waddington, Jet Provost at Little Rissington, HS125 at Stradishall, Vulcan BMk 2 at Akrotiri. After a ground tour at OCTU Henlow, joined the Kipper Fleet as Flight Commander on 206 Sqn Nimrods, and then as RAF Ops at JMOTS, Turnhouse.
Colin voluntarily retired from the RAF in 1982 to join Pace Petroleum at Farnham, where he was responsible for a fleet of 10 vintage aircraft, but soon to be followed by 15 years with BAe, marketing military aircraft and missile systems teams in Europe and the Far East.
He became an independent marketing consultant in 2001, and now works as Appeals Director for Brooklands Museum. Colin still flies regularly a variety of older types, including Tiger Moth, Rapide, Provost, Dove. He is a Display Authorisation Evaluator on behalf of CAA, current DA in categories A to E, Display Safety Committee Chairman, and Display Director with DHMC since 1980s.
Colin was Deputy Chairman of the HAA since 1995 to 2018 before being made a Vice President.