National Volunteer Week – Roger Smith – Profile

Volunteering at EHAAT – Roger Smith

“I have been volunteering for EHAAT for 10 years and am proud to wear my bronze, silver and gold recognition badges. As a former college lecturer who taught production and mechanical engineering, I am particularly keen to share my knowledge by talking about the helicopters. As a charity speaker I give lots of talks in the community and co-host tours at our Earls Colne Visitor Centre. I also enjoy hosting Medical Student Inductions. I am asked to return to many local groups; it is always good to see familiar faces. I am a regular visitor at our Earls Colne office and help at numerous events through the year. With a huge interest in all forms of aviation, I have accumulated many hundreds of hours flying worldwide. One of my most memorable flights came in 2003 when I realised a dream and flew supersonic on board a British Airways Concorde.

Apart from EHAAT I love working on my 1/16th scale Tamar class lifeboat, painstakingly cutting, gluing and painting numerous fabrications and tiny brass components. I also enjoy reading and writing and flying my radio control model helicopters! Twelve years ago, I built a sports car from scratch which I keep at home. Not a kit, and christened “The Essex Flyer”, I was proud that my meticulous attention to engineering detail and quality earned it the Car of the Year award at the Newark Sports Car show.

There are many reasons why I enjoy being a volunteer for EHAAT, not least to help raise funds for this most worthy charity. I particularly like representing EHAAT, meeting the general public and the camaraderie of the volunteers.”