AN airline pilot living in the Cotswolds has captured his experiences of flying a Tornado over Germany during the Cold War and also in operations over Iraq after the Gulf War.

Michael Napier, who lives in Chipping Norton, has penned his fast-paced memoir, Tornado over the Tigris, chronicling his service history as a fast jet pilot.

The elder son of an army officer, Mr Napier was educated at Ellesmere College and learned to fly in 1977. He joined the RAF the following year and after qualifying as a fast jet pilot, he flew Tornados from RAF Bruggen and Hawks from RAF Chivenor. His military flying career encompassed both the Cold War and operations over Iraq after the Gulf War.

His latest release has been heavily inspired by his own career. After achieving a boyhood ambition to qualify as an RAF pilot, he was posted to RAF Bruggen in Germany where he spent five years flying the Tornado GR1 strike/attack aircraft. Always exhilarating, sometimes amusing and often dangerous, his Tornado flying ranged from 'routine' low-flying in continental Europe and the UK to air combat manoeuvring in Sardinia and the ultra-realistic Red Flag exercises in the USA.

Mr Napier said: “From the age of six I knew I wanted to be an RAF fighter pilot. After passing through the demanding apprenticeship of the RAF’s fast jet flying training schools, I achieved that ambition and flew Tornados in the front line of the last days of the Cold War and later over Iraq. I wanted to record those memories and experiences to share them with others - and to write something that could be a permanent tribute to the friends of my youth who paid the ultimate price and never made it into middle age.”

The book is written from a unique perspective of a fast jet cockpit and captures the essence of what it was really like to fly a Tornado at the front-line.

Progressing from struggling first-tourist to respected four-ship leader, he then became an instructor at the Tactical Weapons Unit at RAF Chivenor. This tour, during which he flew the Hawk, provided yet more exciting and challenging flying. He returned to the Tornado at Bruggen as a Flight Commander shortly after the Gulf War and subsequently flew a number of operational sorties over Iraq, which included leading air-strikes against Iraqi air defence installations as part of major Coalition operations.

The book is his story, told with ease and great style and sure to inspire a fresh generation of fast jet pilots as they strive to make their own marks in this field.

Mr Napier was appointed as honorary secretary of the 14 Squadron Association in 2003 and since then has carried out extensive research

into the squadron’s heritage. Today he is an airline pilot and lives in the Cotswolds with his wife and two children.

The book is published through Pen and Sword Aviation, it is available in hardback and has 256 pages and is illustrated throughout.