David H. S. Morgan
David Morgan was born in 1947, the son of a former Fleet Air Arm Seafire pilot. He attended Sr Roger Manwood's Grammer School in Sandwich and always wanted to fly. This ambition suffered a setback in 1964 when it was discovered that he had a serious heart defect. After surgery, however, he joined the Royal Navy and trained as a helicopter pilot at RNAS Culdrose before moving to the Royal Air Force in 1969 flying Wessex from RAF Odiham. After a ground tour in Germany, he converted to the Harrier GR3 and spent a further 4 years in Germany flying with No3(F) Sqn, becoming one of the RAF's first experts in Electronic Warfare.
In February 1982 he returned to UK as an exchange pilot on the Sea Harrier, based at RNAS Yeovilton and two months later found himself as one of the few RAF pilots flying Sea Harriers in the Falklands conflict. Between 1st May and 16th June 1982 he flew over 50 SHAR missions, both ground attack and Combat Air Patrol. His Sea Harrier was damaged by anti-aircraft fire over Stanley Airfield on the first raid but he managed to return safely and was later credited with the destruction of 2 Argentine helicopters and 2 A-4 Skyhawk fighters. The Skyhawks were destroyed whilst attacking landing craft to the south of Stanley. This action earned him the award of the Distinguished Service Cross, only the second such award to an RAF pilot since 1945 and made him the last RAF pilot to shoot down an enemy aircraft. In addition to these actions, he shared the credit for sinking of an Argentine ship, the Narwal and found time to fly a few sorties in a Wessex 5 helicopter!
After the Falklands David spent some time as a staff pilot on 899 NAS at Yeovilton, before transferring back to the Royal Navy and serving as the Air Warfare Instructor and later, Senior Pilot of 801 NAS. Between 1983 and leaving the Navy in 1992, he flew over 200 Sea Harrier displays including SBAC Farnborough, IAT Greenham Common and the Hanover Air Show. During his time at Yeovilton, he served on the carriers Hermes, Invincible, Illustroius and Ark Royal and on every one of the Sea Harrier squadrons, including 809 NAS which was formed purely for the Falklands conflict.
David is married with two grown children and now lives near Shaftesbury, in Dorset. He flew a total of 4700 hours in the forces (2500 on Harriers) and is now a commercial pilot flying the Boeing 747-400, with a total of nearly 16,000 hours flying. He is part owner of Yak 50 G-SVET and Tiger Moth G-ANKZ based at Compton Abbas near Shaftesbury and has been displaying the Yak for 10 years. He also flies warbirds in his spare time.
