'I'm a pilot for Jet2 at Leeds Bradford Airport - I could fly before driving'

Pilot Earl Kingston can remember the registration number of his first car, a golf Ford Fiesta.

It had a velour plush trim and a rev counter.

The choke wouldn’t stay out by itself, so using his engineering skills, he used one of his mother’s washing line pegs to keep it out.

If it was a wet morning, he would go out early, take the distributor cap off, and spray with WD40. Then it would start an hour later. He says it worked every time.

He got his pilot’s licence at the age of 16.

He remembers his parents, Nanette and Peter taking him in their Vauxhall Cavalier to Sherburn-In-Elmet airfield near Leeds, where he would take them up in a single engine plane, have a fly-around Yorkshire.

Then after they would get back in the Cavalier, he was a passenger again as he was not old enough to drive.

Earl got his first car while at Manchester University studying Aeronautical Engineering. It was a Ford Fiesta 1.1 Ghia, registration Number A74 TTG.

He flew at University for the Fleet Air Arm. Then after graduating joined the Royal Navy and flew Merlin Helicopters all over the world, and became the Navy’s Display Pilot.

He was mainly based in Cornwall. He said he had a very interesting and varied career and sometimes had some scary moments in the helicopter. He moved back up home to Huddersfield and joined Jet2 as a commercial pilot in 2008, after studying to fly the Boeing 737, he now flies the 300 and 800 series versions.

Earl says some mornings he has to be up at 3am for an early shift, or home at 4am on a late shift. He says it is hardly the glamorous life that many people think.

His dream car would be a DeLorean, as seen in Back to the Future. He says he is pretty sure they are not very good to drive, but thinks they look brilliant, such an eye-catcher.