Captain Martyn Kemp 1957–2022
Martyn joined Air UK in 1988 as a newly qualified First Officer, having trained for his CPL at Oxford Air Training School. He had originally obtained his PPL at White Waltham airfield near Maidenhead and went on to become a Flying Instructor there and thence followed the ‘self improver’ route into commercial aviation.
He was based at Norwich as a First Officer on the F27 flying the Scottish & North Sea routes. In the summer of 1989 he converted to the B737-400 as First Officer flying out of Manchester for Air UK Leisure and he then went out to Malaysia Airlines on the wet lease winter contract of 1990/91. On his return to the UK he undertook his ATPL training in Bournemouth and in early 1993 got his first command on the F27, and then in 1994 converted to the F50 again at Norwich.
In 1995 he converted to command the BAE146 which he flew until 2002. He subsequently converted back onto the B737 and then flew the Buzz routes, mainly into France, where he ended his career with Air UK. Following the Ryanair takeover of parts of the Buzz operation, he continued to fly for them but it became increasingly acrimonious culminating in several of the ex-Air UK pilots forcing an out of court settlement over employment legislation.
He continued his career with FlyGlobespan in Glasgow on the B737-800 on the Canadian routes and was then a Base Capt at STN for them until their demise, whereupon he worked for TUI in Brussels and finally for Turkish Airlines based in Istanbul flying east as far as Tibet and down to Nairobi. The flying was very entertaining but ultimately he didn’t see enough of home and he decided to hang up his commercial wings and returned home to run a franchise business until a major illness in 2016, from which he recovered, forced his retirement. Subsequently, he learnt to fly gyrocopters (trickier than you think) and owned a Calidus Autogyro which provided his aviation fix in retirement. Whilst flying was his enduring passion, he also was a steam train enthusiast and became a proficient modeller of live steam locomotives and also volunteered at Bressingham Steam Museum. Other hobbies included small bore rifle shooting and playing the guitar.
Martyn died peacefully on 3rd August 2022 aged 65 and leaves behind his wife, Vivien, of 44 years who will miss him enormously.