Choosing a glamorous lifestyle over fast jets, he was selected by British Airways to train as an airline pilot at the elite College of Air Training, Hamble.
Upon graduating in 1975, he was told there was surplus of pilots in the industry, and would have to wait to be employed.
Taking work as a flying instructor at Liverpool Airport for £18 per week and 80 pence per flying hour, living in a bedsit, Philip learnt about flying in the world of ‘general aviation’, leading him to the job of Chief Pilot of an air-taxi company based in Newtownards, Northern Ireland.
From there Philip worked in Belfast and the Isle of Man, flying six-seat twin-engine Aztecs, before moving back to the mainland, to fly a Cessna 401A for BOC Medishield. He then went freelance, delivering newspapers to Switzerland, flying the Piper Navajo.
Finally called up for an airliner conversion course in 1979, Philip joined British Airways with an Airline Transport Pilot’s Licence, and 2,500 hours in command. After two years as a co-pilot on the Viscount turboprop, and the Tridents 1 and 2 jets, he retired from flying on medical grounds.
After reading his first ‘Biggles’ book at the age of eleven, Philip Appleton knew he wanted to be a pilot.
As senior cadet of his school’s Combined Cadet Force, he was awarded a Flying Scholarship by The Royal Air Force, and learnt to fly at White Waltham before he could drive.
Since then, he has been a technical advisor, and actor on TV & Film productions:
2013 as Captain David Cronin in ‘747 - THE JUMBO REVOLUTION,’ BBC2
2011 as Captain Peter Germano in ‘AIRCRASH CONFIDENTIAL USAir 427,’ Discovery Channel
2010 as Captain Donald Cameron in ‘AIRCRASH CONFIDENTIAL AC797,’ Discovery Channel
2005 as Captain Appleton in ‘MID-AIR COLLISION,’ Granada Factual
1999 as The Aviation Consultant in ‘HARD NEWS, SOFT MONEY,’ Bolt-on Media
1998 as Wing Commander Appleton in ‘999, A WHIRLWIND AFFAIR,’ BBC Bristol
