16 - Alumni Spotlight: Jason Davenhill
Jason Davenhill Class of 1988 In answer to your question, I’m where I am now almost entirely because of the CCF.
Dad moved the office back to the UK, so I returned to Trinity. That year abroad gave me a real boost of confidence. I was open to all sorts of new ideas.
I was at Trinity from 1980 to 1983, then my family moved to just outside Paris. We were only there for a year before
At first, I’d assumed I wouldn’t join the CCF, mostly because it would give me Monday afternoons off. But by a
Where did your journey into flying begin?
Jason at the rededication of Class 50 diesel ‘Furious’ on the 85th anniversary of HMS Furious’s sinking.
series of flukes, I ended up in a different English class, and the kid sitting behind me persuaded me to join the Navy section. Did you take to it straight away? I quite enjoyed it, yes. I started going on lots of camps, including the RN powerboat coxswain and sailing courses down at Jupiter Point in Plymouth. On the back of that sailing course, I offered ‘sailing instructor’ to an American kids’ camp and spent the summer of my first year at university teaching sailing in Massachusetts. I also did several outdoor pursuits camps, which gave me the confidence to go for my Duke of Edinburgh’s Gold Award. Mel Thompson used to take a group of us to the Guards’ adventure training camp in Fremington in Devon. I loved how he ran those camps. He was a real inspiration to me. Was the Navy section at Trinity quite popular at the time? There weren’t many of us. When I joined we only had four in our year. The others all drifted away and I was the only Navy cadet in my year by the time I finished at Trinity. It did mean I got to be Cadet Cox’n by default. During my time, one of my colleagues mentioned that the Royal Navy were offering flying scholarships. I remember thinking, “What’s one of them?”, not a hint of grammar in sight. Turned out, the Navy would actually pay for you to learn to fly. So, I applied. The first time I went to RAF Biggin Hill for