Cornwall Air Ambulance welcomes new pilot

Cornwall Air Ambulance is pleased to welcome Captain Pete McCormick to the aircrew.

Pete has had an impressive and varied career as a helicopter pilot, first joining the Royal Navy in 1996. He was based at RNAS Culdrose within the 814 then 820 squadrons, spent three years on an exchange job in Canada, then returned to 771 Naval Air Squadron Search & Rescue. He then went onto work within airport surveillance and control, including a year in Afghanistan. In 2012 he left the Navy and went to work within both instruction and search and rescue in Trinidad.

Back in Cornwall, Pete joined British International Helicopters as their Chief Pilot in search and rescue, and went onto work at Penzance Heliport flying passengers to-and-from the Isles of Scilly. Most recently he has spent six months in Guyana teaching search and rescue, before returning back to the Duchy to start his new role with Cornwall Air Ambulance.

Pete joins the aircrew as the charity’s sixth line pilot and in his first Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS) role.

Pete said: “The reason I wanted to join the air ambulance really was I kind of fell out of love with flying, especially when it was about putting money in someone else’s pocket, search and rescue was the job I had the most satisfaction from, although challenging of course and we used to do HEMS style missions. I always hoped to get back into a job where I felt like I was contributing. I’m really excited to be part of a team who are hopefully going to help people who are having a bad time.

“It will be interesting to get back into flying in the local area and will be nice to fly around Cornwall again, and in a different aircraft type. The Lizard and the south coast, up past Kynance Cove, is my favourite place to fly over.”

Pete lives in Flushing, near Falmouth, with his wife Lucy and their dog Wally. Outside of work he enjoys sailing, dog walking, skiing, canoeing and cooking.