Graham's Story

Experience the extraordinary journey:
Red Arrows pilot and Mountaineer

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1991-1995

Graham grew up climbing mountains with his father in The Lake District, whilst spending the summer holidays watching the Royal Air Force jets fly low overhead. His ambition was always to be a pilot and he joined the Air Training Corps as early as possible on his 13th birthday. Graham's flying career started by building, flying and crashing remote control aeroplanes with his step-father.

He gained his Hang-Glider Licence at 16 years old as 17 years was the minimum age to fly aeroplanes. Whilst finishing school the RAF sponsored him to obtain his private pilot's licence several months before his driving licence.

He went on to study Aeronautical Engineering at Bristol University where he was a member of the University's Air Squadron, the RAF's university club.

1996-2003

Graham joined the Royal Air Force as a trainee pilot in 1996 and after Officer Training he qualified as a member of the Royal Air Force Mountain Rescue Team, where he worked for 18 months whilst waiting to begin flying training, during that time he had his second visit to Nepal on expedition.

Graham graduated top of his flying class and went on to operationally fly the ground-attack Jaguar GR3A, which is a single seat fast jet fighter-bomber aircraft, and he gained extensive experience defending the No Fly Zone in Northern Iraq. He also took part in exercises in the USA, Europe and the Middle East.

During OP TELIC, Graham spent four months in a ground post, working with UK Special Forces, before, during and after the start of Gulf War 2 in 2003.

2004-2010

After a tour as a Qualified Flying Instructor on the Hawk jet aircraft, teaching both students and instructors, for the Central Flying School, Graham was posted to the Empire Test Pilots' School at MoD Boscombe Down. Whilst there he instructed on the Alpha Jet, Hawk and Tucano aircraft. He flew over 30 types of different aircraft, including multi-engine aeroplanes and helicopters.

Graham then completed a 3 year tour (the maximum possible) with the Red Arrows in 2010, as a display pilot, before deploying to Afghanistan again with UK Special Forces for a 4 month ground tour.

Throughout his career...

Graham continued, when postings allowed, to work with the RAF Mountain Rescue Team. With the Mountain Rescue Service, Graham built up 5 years of experience rescuing and training in some very hostile mountainous conditions.

Graham has climbed the highest mountain in North America, Mount McKinley (the coldest place on Earth). He has also climbed to the top of Europe, South America and Africa.

In May 2011 he reached the summit of Mount Everest, after a 2 and a half month expedition, where he had an epic experience and lost 2 and a half stones.

2011-2018

Graham left the RAF in 2011, he worked as a commodities broker in a London City Financial institution and set about building a software company based on photo sharing with time and location but after three years as an entrepreneur, found he missed the camaraderie and motivation and re-joined the RAF in August 2014.

He became a front line Typhoon pilot, defending the UK on Quick Reaction Alert and deploying overseas in many places including Syria and Iraq.

2019-Now

He has left the RAF for the final time, initially working as a member of the Senior Leadership Team at DEA Aviation, an Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance company, where he led Capability and Development.
At DEA, he realised there was a gap in the market for Specialised Flight Simulators and is now runs his flourishing Flight Simulator company, TG Simulation.

In his spare time, Graham is very happy outdoors with his family and border collie, keeps bees and continues to be busy inventing, designing and being inquisitive everywhere.

"I would have no hesitation in recommending Graham as an after dinner speaker. He was great to work with; very accommodating which always makes it easier from an organiser’s view point. Beyond that his talk was informative and really held the attention of our guests even after a long day of listening to commercial presentations. To be honest their only complaint was that we didn’t have him on for longer so I’m sure he would be a popular choice for someone looking for a day time speaker slot too! Graham shared a fascinating insight that our audience really appreciated and never thought they would receive first hand, it was a refreshing change from the standard motivational speaker which was thoroughly enjoyed by us all."

―Sharron Cutler,
Handicare International

"From feedback I have had, everyone thought your talk was amazing, on both topics….Red Arrows and Everest. They are both sort of glamorous subjects, so it went down well and you were amazing! Loved you."

―Margaret Cooper,
Red Route Agency

Graham shared his inspirational stories, experiences and anecdotes with our UK cross functional teams and there was something for everyone. I had a lot of positive feedback, “takeaway actions” and thanks for a fascinating insight into a world few get to see. Most important was Graham’s ability to take our brief and shape his presentation around some key corporate themes as well as giving some practical tips for translating and implementing this into the corporate world.

―Ben Hobkinson, Manager UK&I Hi-Tech Team, Forrester Research Ltd

Your involvement certainly helped attract a wide audience and the entire day was very well attended, even though we had to run it as a virtual event. Your keynote presentation was very well received and certainly hit the mark in helping deliver the key messages that my team wanted to get across to our people. I very much valued your contribution to this event as your personal perspective on your own experience generated a lot of interest and has got people discussing the subject, which was the intent.

―Ministry of Defence: DE&S Director Engineering and Safety, Stephen Wilcock

Graham really rocked our Partner Kick-off 2020 in Frankfurt – his speech was mind-blowing, garnished with highly-interesting real-life stories and gave a clear message to the participants. By the way Graham´s speech was best-rated in the Event by the participants. It was a real pleasure!

―Michael Reiserer,
MD Sales, Easy Software:

Graham was the perfect speaker for our event. His tone and manner came across superbly, a calmness when speaking about events in his life that would have most people terrified! In particular his description of how, in the Red Arrows, their desire for improvement was paramount even after the ‘perfect’ display. It was a great inspiration and motivation for the team. His storytelling, laced with his humour of events across so many exciting activities held the audience totally and their reaction was great. I would definitely recommend Graham.

―Kevin Gaughan,
Director of Resourcing, Learning and Development for BT openreach

I wish to thank you personally for presenting a most interesting and informative after dinner speech at Nasmyth Group’s recent Pre-Budget Conference. My team was impressed with your photographic and video material. I liked your cool, reaction during your climb of Mount Everest and the spectacular and gruesome sights that you saw there. You came across as a Man’s man with a spirit of adventure, entrepreneurism and discipline. A model citizen who gives many pointers and motivates people such as my engineering teams’, to work hard and succeed. Thank you again on behalf of the Nasmyth management team for an exciting and involving speech suitable for male and female guests and providing an hour of maximised pleasure and thank you also for the other personal hours of involvement following your speech. I have taken the liberty of passing your contact details to [...] with my recommendation that you be considered for that organisation's next speaker slot.

―Dr Peter Smith,
Chairman and CEO, Nasmyth Group Ltd

Graham Duff was a superb addition to our event agenda. His light-hearted tone and excellent speech content were the prefect way to round off the day, and provided many interesting insights for our eager audience. The speech was thoroughly enjoyed by all, and proved to be the ideal combination of humour and interest. Thanks again Graham, and I do sincerely hope that our paths cross again in the near future.

―Event organiser,
Ironmongers Hall, London