#6 - Creating, running, flying STOL competitions and Air Trophies in Europe and beyond with Sam Rutherford

The STOL Collective

In today´s episode, It is our pleasure to welcome Sam Rutherford from the UK and Belgium.

For those who may not know about him, his flying career started at age 13 and pushed him to be commissioned officer at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in 1991. Born a pilot, Sam qualified as an Army helicopter pilot and left the British Army as a Flight Commander after eight years of service. Later, he became an FAA/EASA commercial helicopter and airplane pilot. He logged more than 3500+ hours Total time, delivering aircrafts worldwide since 2008 as a ferry pilot and organizing Air Trophies and Air Rallies.
But Sam is more than a pilot. At ease in all societies and cultures, he is proven ability to work in international environments using more than five languages. Managing Director of Prepare2go, he led multiple trips with groups of light aircrafts (Cape Town and return five times, Trans-Atlantic 15 times, Libya, Algeria, Turkey, North Pole, Niger, Russia etc. etc.). More recently, he created and ran the first ever beach STOL competition in Belgium: the “Zoute Air Trophy” as well as the first “Greenland Air Trophy” where two teams, Europe and North-America, meet in south Greenland for a STOL competition. He also created and ran the first ever event “Vintage Air Rally”, 22 teams from 17 countries – traversing Africa with vintage biplanes from Crete to Cape Town.
A certified Rescue Diver, Alpine Ski Instructor, Royal Yachting Association Skipper and also Chairman of the Royal Geographical Society “Vehicle Dependent Expeditions” Panel; Sam Rutherford is for sure different! The kind of person making the impossible, possible.
If you want to learn more about Sam´s projects like the coming Greenland Air Trophy 2021 and VintageAirRally Crete2Cape 2022, need a ferry pilot, a film crew, organize a team event in a wilderness area, or more simply put, move people and equipment in, out and through difficult places.
Go to https://www.prepare2go.com/

This episode´s book tip is: Flying the Knife Edge: New Guinea Bush Pilot, Matt McLaughlin - 2016 - ISBN 988140360X, 9789881403605
https://books.google.de/books/about/Flying_the_Knife_Edge.html?id=yIRejwEACAAJ&source=kp_book_description&redir_esc=y

Music credits: “Slowly”, Amon Tobin – Supermodified, 2000

Cover photography: Thibault De Schepper - https://tibods.com/