CAPTAIN SIMON GRIGGSY GRIGGS (1958-2019) Simon Griggs was born into an aviating family, his mother and his father having both served in the air force in World War II. After a flight at the age of four, the young Griggs decided he wanted to be a pilot, too. Growing up with his siblings, Tim and Deborah, in Horsham, Simon learned glider piloting skills in the Combined Cadet Force (CCF) and went on to join the Royal Navy in 1983. He served in four squadrons, notably 846. Towards the latter stages of his 12-year service, Simon saw active service in Bosnia and Northern Ireland. Moving into civil aviation, Simon started at Channel Express, where I first met him. He was a rambunctious character, always a pleasure to fly alongside. Later, a brutal lay-off programme after 9/11 disrupted his and my time at bmi. Although his seniority eventually saved his place, Simon decided to give his position to a more junior pilot a selfless act that I have never forgotten. He returned to rotarywing instruction on the Chinook at RAF Benson, on contract. After that, Flybe gave Simon his longest single stint with an employer, from 2005-2019, with much time served as a Line Training Captain. Simon was a complex, amusing and intelligent individual, combining his love of family and his flying career with many varied outside interests. Notably, he enjoyed rebuilding classic cars as much as he enjoyed restoring a wonderful holiday home in France. Two years ago, Simon had to stop flying because of the onset of a serious pancreatic disorder but he disguised his illness brilliantly at his recent 60th party. Simon died on 25th July, leaving his wife, Adrienne, and two daughters, Victoria and Daisy. By David Keen, Log Board member SEO NORMAN CHARLES CORNELIUS WEST (1938-2019) Normans 38-year career with BOAC/BA began in 1955, at the age of 17, as an engineering apprentice. His flying career started in 1961, on the DC7C, DC7F, VC10, DC10, TriStar and, finally, Concorde for his last eight years. He retired in 1993, at the young age of 55, though he would have loved to have carried on flying and felt he had a lot more to give. With the current modern jets now being flown, however, his experience of operating such different types of aircraft must be a fairly unique achievement that only a few of his engineering apprentice contemporaries would have known. Norman and I met in New York, 53 years ago, in The Lexington Hotel coffee shop. I had been called out on standby to join Captain Jock Souters crew, and Norman was the flight engineer. We have no idea who the stewardess was who called in sick, but we were indebted to her for our chance meeting and the following extremely happy 50 years of married life, becoming a family unit in the 1970s with the arrival of our two daughters, Laura and Emma. Retirement kept Norman extremely busy. He had always loved watercolour painting, and became a qualified bookkeeper, overseeing the books of two thriving businesses. His love of flying, however, never went away and, over the past five years, he built himself a flight simulator. Its safe to say I was the only woman in our town with a variety of noisy jets thundering down a runway in our spare bedroom! Norman was diagnosed with aggressive prostate cancer nine years ago, and really fought hard to survive this long but, sadly, he finally ran out of time. For the past six weeks he was an inpatient at St Richards Hospice in Worcester. What an amazing place this is; without exception, the nurses and doctors treated him with gentleness, patience and, most importantly, respect for a man who just needed their expert help at the end of his days. Fly high, Norman! By Maggie West, Normans wife OBITUARIES Obituaries