Welcome, from sunny Australia!

So who the heck am I, and what do I do??
I'm tall, dark, & handsome, and I fly jet aircraft and drive racing cars. I also don't drink, smoke, or go out with naughty women. Gosh darn, am I an exciting guy! *

* Well, ok, the truth is that yes, I am tall - 6' 6" or nearly 2 metres, but I'm not very dark or handsome at all!  I also only fly passenger aircraft and won't ever get to fly a fighter. I do drive a racing car, but it's not a V-8, only a 1300cc Sports Car . It's pretty quick though, Honest! :)  And as for the not smoking, drinking, and going with naughty women thing, well, two out of three isn't so bad, eh?

    Hi, I'm William (Bill) Sherwood.
    I was born in the mid 60's, in Brisbane, Australia, and grew up on the Gold Coast. I went through all 12 years of school there, and since my Father was an airline pilot, flying seemed to be a good thing to do for the rest of my life. So, after I'd finished high school I went to one of the local flying schools and did all of the subjects that pilot's require to get their licences. I'm now living back in Brisbane when I'm in Australia.

    I have flown a reasonable number of types of aircraft, and have thoroughly enjoyed most of them. I've had some great times, and some pretty darn scary ones ! (And here , here , and here too)  I spent a number of years as a flying instructor, and had the pleasure of sending many people First Solo, which is one of the most amazing experiences in your life. (For both of you!) I've also flown a lot of freight, all of which was in small jet and turboprop aircraft. The hours are weird, but it's great for building up flying time and experience. You also get to meet the best and worst people on earth. 

    Flying has been good to me, and paid off at last - I had a job flying for Air Atlanta Icelandic as a Captain on their Boeing 747's.  It took about 18 years to do it, so its been a long, hard road to get there. I was actually very lucky to be flying it all, and hope to be able to help people with advice in aviation where possible. I quit that job in late 2007 and am currently back flying Metroliners on night freight.

In the early 80's, the home computer started to become practical, and since I've always been interested in technology, I got one. It was a Dick Smith System 80, which was basically a clone of the Tandy (Radio Shack in most countries outside Aus)  TRS-80. It ran a stunning 1.77mhz, and had a colossal 16k of ram. All of the program had to be loaded by means of an audio cassette, though I was saving up for an 8" floppy drive for it but never got around to it. That did me for a few years, but I lost interest.
... Until the early 90's, when the PC started to become a useful gadget, though somewhat less complex than they are today. I started my interest with computers again with a 486DX-33, which had a 120meg hard drive and 8meg of ram. I've constantly been fiddling with them ever since, and look like doing for some time to come.

    My Father was also involved in motor racing in the late 60's and early 70's, and so some of my earliest memories are of watching him running around a race track in his Mk1 Ford Cortina, which had a Ford 302 V-8 in it - It went like a blur in a straight line, but wasn't very good around corners ...   The desire to race cars was no doubt born at this time, but I had to wait until the late 80's until I could get a proper racing car. It is in fact the car that I still have now, but I've out grown it and am building a new racing car, which will be a lot faster. The 'old' car isn't too bad though, as I have run in the Australian Sport 1300 Nationals many times and often finished in the top three places, with two pole positions on the grid.

    I also like a little bit of adventure so I scuba dive, and travel around Australia.

    So what do I want to do with the rest of my life? I'd like about 50 - 100 acres of land to the west of the Gold Coast, and on that have a driveway that runs around the house for a couple of kilometres, so I can test my racing car as I feel the need. 

BTW, I got the nick-name 'Billzilla' when I was in the US, doing the training on the 747 - I kept on bumping my head on doors & things, and the name was kind of obvious ... ;)

So remember .....