Hugh Gibbons'
Flying-Crooked talks and presentations

for clubs, societies, schools and other audiences

Click here to join the audience at Sandhurst School on 12th November 2009 when Hugh speaks on Art and Civil War

Deeply enthralled audience for
Hugh's ex-RAF flying helmet worn for
an after-dinner talk at an AIOPI
Annual Conference

 
And here's the helmet being
modelled when Hugh talked to
primary school children about, well,
being a primary school
child in WWII.

Hugh is different from your usual bland keynote speaker, earnest amateur, introvert expert, or joke-reading after-dinner slump-inducer.

He's warm, thoughtful, ear-friendly, sensible, audience-involving, interesting and funny.   And all his presentations are built specially for your audience on that day at that time.

Packed with wit and wisdom, using dozens of pictures or unusual visual aids, with both a big voice and telling silences, these unique talks make a refreshing change.

Hugh comes complete with data projector, big tripod screen, and everything on laptop.  Well-organised, he will be with you well before time to set up - and is happy to stay on and chat to the audience.

Hugh's Flying-Crooked and other talks have been requested by such diverse audiences as:

• Primary and secondary schools, university MSc postgraduates
• University of the Third Age, NADFAS and other interest groups
• Archaeological and historical societies - and museums
• Business groups such as marketing, market research, and information scientist societies
• Aviation societies, the Air Training Corps, the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, Royal Navy and the RAF
• A leading cruise line company
• Rotary and similar social and charitable clubs
• NHS Trusts
• Hotels and their clientele
• Civil Service Retired Fellowship and other senior citizen groups
• Companies large and small
• Metropolitan, Thames Valley Police and Wiltshire Police
• Church groups - such as the WI, Mothers' Union, Catholic Women's League and Union of Catholic Mothers, and Churches Together
• Church congregations of all ages

Fees and expenses?  Nothing is asked from very small groups.  With larger ones, a reasonable donation for a humanitarian charity is now expected.  And from any group, Rioja won't be turned down.

Some of the topics are also available as business workshop sessions.

The One Man Airshow
The Flighty Women of White Waltham
Terima Kasih - the Big Tsunami Thank-You
The Best Medicine?
Ista Sista Pista - Medical Services in the Roman Army
Eye Eye! The Art of Illusions
Protecting Portillo's Privates (and other Bollocks of Body Language)
Bird's Eye View
Laughter in the Air
Speak & Sing for Fun
All Sea Roads Lead to Rome

 

Why Flying-Crooked? 
The Hugh-to-a-T
title comes from this poem
by Robert Graves

The butterfly, a cabbage-white,
(His honest idiocy of flight)
Will never now, it is too late,
Master the art of flying straight,
Yet has - who knows so well as I?-
A just sense of how not to fly.
He lurches here and here by guess
And God and hope and hopelessness.

Even the acrobatic swift
Has not his
flying-crooked gift.

THE ONE-MAN AIRSHOW
A cockpitful of lessons from the human side of flying

This mix of delightful tales of the unexpected is suitable for all sorts of audiences.  Recently these have ranged from 5 to 100 – and that’s both age and numbers.  And the audience gets to join in and act out some of the parts – often with lots of noise and body movement. 

So the show makes a very good (and unusual) core to a social occasion.  The talks come as

• full-blown 45-60 minute talks for largish audiences - packed with slides and illustrations

• a simple 15-20 minute after-lunch or after-dinner story-telling session, in which Hugh enacts his some of his tales - bringing to life some surprising characters.

The current stock of stories includes...

• Ejection Without Dejection

• The Curious Tale of the Bomb in the Night

• Happy Landings Without a Parachute

• The Tale of the Tail-heavy Spitfire

• Effing and Blinding at Heathrow

• The Flying Bride of Waterbeach

• Frank Metzner’s Unforgettable Error

• The Mathematical Psychology of The Gimli Glider

• Ray Milland at Abingdon

• Teach Yourself to Fly a Lancaster.  With One Arm.  And One Eye.

• The Most Highly Derogatory Order of the Inextractable Digit

• The story of Tee Emm and Pilot Officer Prune

• Surviving the Pacific by Eating Albatross

• The Mad Major: flying under Tower Bridge - twice...

• Icarus: an Accident Waiting to Happen?

• The Glider Pilot’s Outlandish Mistake

• Falling for Psychology

• Eclairs at RAF Brize Norton

• The Blind Parachutist

• What the Wrights Got Wrong

• In preparation: Ancient Aviators ("Icarus should have gone at night")

Some of these tales can be bundled into programmes for aviation societies and other audiences - eg 60 Years of Hughman Flight

There are also some short self-running and cheeky programmes that can be used to amuse an audience as it gathers - including Teach Yourself to Fly a Jaguar, Ranks of the RAF, and Predictions in the Air...

LATEST NEWS: LAUGHTER ON THE WING is now available, after being premiered for the Royal Berkshire Aviation Society and Gosport Aviation Society.  This talk includes the full story of Tee Emm and PO Prune, plus the hilarious (though not at the time) stories of Frank Metnzer Winging It in Korea, and Down and Out with the Magnesium Overcast at Boscombe Down.

THE FLIGHTY WOMEN OF WHITE WALTHAM
The uplifting story of the Air Transport Auxiliary

an enriching view of good citizenship in times of stress
 

In WWII, a major - but unsung - contribution to success was the work of the civilian pilots of the Air Transport Auxiliary. Their job was to take a burden off the RAF by ferrying planes from anywhere to anywhere - 400,000 flights in all, often in severely testing conditions.  The pilots were an amazingly mixed bunch - some as young as 20, some as old as 60 - and with a range of matching physiques and health. (Could and would you fly a Spitfire with only arm arm - and eye?). It's an uplifting story - especially good for showing that age is no barrier when the spirit is there.

This 30-minute or hour-long presentation by Hugh uses dozens of photos to tell their story - sometimes with smiles, sometimes with tears.  He explores their personalities and character in depth.  And he draws on a vast range of sources, including his own correspondence with survivors and families - looking at what happened to these unsung heroines and heroes after the war.  NB Hankies are recommended.

A recent variation is The Flighty Catholic Women of the ATA.  This threads together the stories of four women of very different backgrounds but Catholic upbringing who served with the ATA.  This focus makes a good focus for a lesson in good citizenship, diversity, adaptability and dedication - suitable not only for Catholic women's groups such as the UCM and CWL, but for schools as well.

ISTA SISTA PISTA

Life at the, ouch, Cutting Edge of the Medical Services in The Roman Army

Dux: Hugus Romanus Honorius Gibbones

ISTA SISTA PISTA is a sideways-looking talk and take on the people, methods and skills for healthcare in the Roman army.

It mixes lots of unexpected facts and ideas with more than a few laughs.  Topics include the tools of Forensic Archaeology, the Psychology of Leadership, Healthy Minds and Healthy Bodies, the activities of medical orderlies in battle and hospital, and whether the troops suffered PTSD.

You’ll get to see doctors, patients, blunt and sharp weapon wounds, medical orderlies on Trajan’s Column, surgical instruments, physical examinations for new recruits, trephination (“like I need a hole in the head”), herbal medicines and, ahem, sanitation.  You’ll hear something of catering for the army and cooking for consuls and the common people. 

There’s a ruggedised version for military units such as bands, which includes a crash course in Latin using regimental and corps mottoes, and a spot-the-leader competition.  And for them as likes music, you’ll get to see the earliest form of sousaphone.

Presenter Hugh Gibbons has given this highly popular presentation to such different audiences as archaeological and historical societies, schools, rotary clubs, business groups, U3As – and the War Studies team at RMA Sandhurst.  It’s one of his Flying Crooked talks.  He comes with a laptop packed with pictures – specially shaped to your audience. 

The talk is free for military units and civilian clubs and associations (unless there’s some exceptional travel involved).  It makes a good core to a social occasion.

ALL SEA ROADS LEAD TO ROME

How the Romans got their silk from China and spices from South India

This surprising take on history has been a very popular addition to Hugh's Roman representations.  It's very broad-ranging, examining ancient maritime exploits in the Med and round Africa, DNA testing to see if legionaries lived in Western China, the make-up and operations of the Roman Navy, and how trading made use of monsoon winds.  There's also a starling coda on AD1421 - and why this lecture might have been given in Chinese if their seafarers had been allowed to keep on the same course.
 

EYE EYE! THE ART OF ILLUSION

exploring the influence of the eye on perception,
style and content in the visual arts - in galleries, buildings, war, and fraud!

This lively slideshow talk is seriously eye-opening - and full of surprises.

It was originally prepared for NADFAS on the Costa del Sol - but has been much in demand by other audiences.

The talk is based on Hugh's wide reading and studies, research and personal contacts with experts, authors and authorities. He has a particular interest in psychographic pictures, having created and distributed over a thousand of his own across the world.  The talk is lavishly illustrated with dozens of examples and - as you'd expect from a popular presenter - plenty of wit, good humour, and audience engagement.

The main topics are:

• A Gallery of Illusions - a quick refresher on optics, eye-dominance, and the new field of Visual Intelligence; popular illusions; ambiguity; impossible figures; Rorschach and Thematic Apperception Tests; Op Art; motion illusions; studies in visual awareness

• Illusions at Work: a review of trompe l'oeil techniques and other illusions in art and architecture (see Lesue's clever work on left); anamorphic images on football pitches and pavements.

• Illusions for Defence - a review of some techniques of nature used to camouflage military units, create false airfields and armies, and the story of Dazzle Ships created by marine artists.

• Illusions for Fraud - a short review of some scientific and personal techniques available to detect fraud in art, including the tales of the Getty Kouros, Hans Van Meegeren, and the Hitler Diaries.

• The Influence of Visual Defects - such as colour blindness, myopia, astigmatism - on artists

TERIMA KASIH
Thank-you stories from the Tsunami

In December 2005, Hugh Gibbons visited homes, schools, tents, families, barracks, boats, offices, cafes, beaches, villages and other locations in Banda Aceh in Indonesia – the city raked by the tsunami just after 8am on Boxing Day 2004.  His task?  To report on some of the humanitarian recovery projects funded by the people of the UK. He met many survivors – and saw at first-hand the work of international and local NGOs.
 

Hugh has since written, broadcast and spoken face-to-face to several thousand people in the UK. He has also had close contact with many others involved - in Indonesia, Thailand and Sri Lanka – including the police, the RAF, and the Royal Navy.  His audiences include churches, primary and secondary, schools, Churches Together, Rotary, U3A, business groups, senior citizens communities, ands the public services.
 

His follow-up studies have let him build up some thoughtful lessons about leadership issues to help people in business reflect on your own styles and actions. His focus is on the issues and mindsets of several leaders - civilian and military - in different settings of the tsunami.

This highly pictorial talk also explores many aspects of disaster relief, including emotion, resilience, stress, communication and courage.

PROTECTING PORTILLO'S PRIVATES...
Myths and Mistakes in Body Language

TV reality shows love their experts on Non-Verbal Communication.  But how much is just personal conjecture, and how much based on common sense?  This talk looks at some fact and fiction about body language – liberally illustrated by the audience!
 

The title of the talk?  It comes from the telling discrepancy between reality and what an "expert" was reading into the body language of candidates at the 1997 and 2005 elections.
 

THE BEST MEDICINE?

The Psychology of Smiles & Laughter

This talk examines the nature, causes, and benefits of laughter in our daily lives.  Well-illustrated with many good stories, scientific data and audience involvement, it’s good fun in showing how to increase laughter in our daily lives.  And no dubious material.

LAUGHTER IN THE AIR

Humour with Its Sleeves Rolled Up

To help aircrews learn better, the RAF had one of the most remarkable WW2 inventions: Pilot Officer Prune.  This talk looks at how humour helps get attention, make points, and ease learning – using many examples.

BIRD’S EYE VIEW
Googling Geography Quiz

Created for primary schools (but ideal for any age of audience) this talk uses satellite pictures of many well-known places and sites as a way to draw lessons in geography, history, communities and environment.  Changes according to the location and profile of the audience! (eg that’s a Pyramid on the left).  Great fun with a lot of learning!

SPEAK & SING FOR FUN

Giving Your Lungs a Good Airing

On your feet or seat, in committee or party, being able to speak up or read out loud is a valuable asset.  This talk coaches everyone by using simple breathing exercises, tongue-twisting, voice projection, reading aloud – and singing some well-known songs, in small groups and large! 

Also available

GOOD SORTS AND GREAT SPORTS
Leadership on the Run
Most people get to support or sponsor someone taking part in a marathon, walk or similar event.  This presentation looks at unsung heroes involved - families, marshals, logistics teams - as well as many surprising entrants.  It's based on Hugh's experience in coming very late to athletics in his three times Great South Run round Portsmouth.

A WHOLLY DIFFERENT HOLY WEEK
Many people have a vague impression of Semana Santa in Seville and other parts of Spain.  This talk examines the nature of the famous processions - both in the city and in a little country town.  It's a first-hand account by Hugh, using many pictures and stories.

Ahaa Website www.ahaa.org.uk