My older best mates roamed and, whilst in tow, I got involved for a few years, getting into the things they discovered and explored . Adrian was into football and so was I and, as the years went by and we became teens, we found ourselves still on the same team more than a decade later. He used to fascinate me as a little kid, because from early in my memory other boys would shout,

“Bloody hell, pass the ball!”

He was a good footballer, better goalkeeper, and nuts about Brazil but his true passion would make him park everything in the middle of a game. Adrian would stop, ball in hands or at his feet, look upwards, and call out the livery of a passing plane. “Laker… British Airways… British Caledonian… Qantas…TWA… Pan-Am.”

It really didn’t matter what you were doing; if he heard a jet engine, that was it. He’d stop, he’d look up, he’d identify it. “DC10…, DC11… 747…”. He quite literally knew every aircraft in Wembley’s airspace.

Easy… Don’t click on the video just yet - you need a little context. (https://youtu.be/vjjuFHaJjkE)

So Adrian had a passion for flying, to be a Pilot, and all the way through childhoood and into his teens he never lost that passion. He moved from primary school and when I joined the same high school, Adrian was still on the same tip; “I’m going to be a Pilot”. And by the time he got to 16 or 17 he was learning how to fly.

It was no surprise a few years after leaving school to hear then, that Adrian was now a Pilot; a Commercial Pilot. So we’re talking late 80’s early 90’s… a black Commercial Pilot; a black Commercial Pilot from Chalkhill Estate; a little black kid who’d followed his passion before most of his mates had any idea what they were going to do in this life.

Captain Adrian Broome has spent the last 30 years flying the largest and most advanced passenger and cargo aircraft to destinations worlwide. His Passion.

Slenky recently reached out to Adrian, and asked if he would do us the favour of a conversation, a video chat where a young woman, Amelia, with the same passion and aspirations might listen in and pose any questions. Modest as ever, he’d also bring a younger Pilot, First Officer Aaron Black, to join the convo, “he’s much younger and his experiences are more current and perhaps more helpful to her in todays’ landscape.”

Incredibly generous to coordinate their separate international flight schedules, and make the time to share their knowledge and insights to help Amelia work out her flight path (you see what i did there?).

So Amelia’s network has grown to include 2 pilots who’ve trod the path to success, who knows how valuable these new contacts will be over the course of her career?

Ok, now you can scroll back up and click the video.