A tiny proportion of the British population build their own aircraft; an even smaller proportion manage to build two, but in the world of homebuilding Duds is known as a serial offender: in all he’s built and flown five microlights and four permit to fly machines and is already whittling away at another. All this might suggest a recluse who spends his time tucked away from the outside world but he is a founder member of the Wiltshire Fliers. Moreover, he finds time to run a highly successful course on the techniques of the traditional art of wooden aircraft construction. As if that wasn’t enough, at the LAA’s annual Rally, he organises the immensely popular homebuilders’ tent where every method of building is demonstrated by a team of volunteers who have been charmed – or press-ganged - into service by Duds.