People involved in historic aviation come from all sorts of backgrounds. Even so, it's doubtful that too many started out as a policeman and later enjoyed success with a business making hair extensions. Such was the course of Peter Holloway's professional life, during which he took up flying and became interested in vintage aircraft. Now he has a small fleet of his own and is privileged to be a fully-fledged Shuttleworth Collection display pilot, current on some of its First World War fighters and inter-war combat types. Appropriately enough, we met for lunch on a delightful early summer afternoon at Old Warden, where Peter spends a good deal of his time. The genteel surroundings are a far cry from his beginnings in the Kent Constabulary. "I joined the police force at 19, in 1972", he says. "I learned to fly in 1975, on Rollason Condors at Rochester, and I was a member of a syndicate operating a Condor - I think we paid ￡4 an hour, or something like that. I built up enough hours to do an instructor's rating while I was a serving police officer. The Chief Constable was happy and gave me official sanction to earn money as an instructor."
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