Welcome to Inzpire, James!
05 Oct 22
New Joiners
05 Oct 22
New Joiners
It is our pleasure to welcome James Hall to Inzpire. He joins our Intelligence, Surveillance & Reconnaissance Division as chief uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS) pilot and brings a wealth of experience to the role.
James joined the British Army straight after his A-levels at 19 years old and had a busy 14-year military career within the Royal Artillery (RA). Within those years he belonged to 22 Regiment RA “Welsh Gunners” as a FSB2 Rapier operator before they disbanded and he moved to 32 Regiment RA “Wessex Gunners” as a UAS operator, conducting operational training and tours from peacekeeping in Cyprus to multiple deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. Within that time James developed from a launcher recovery number 2 to a full-fledged medium altitude long endurance (MALE) remotely piloted aircraft system (RPAS) pilot and subject matter expert.
James finished his military career in 2014 having flown and instructed operators on several British Army UAS types including Phoenix, Buster, Desert Hawk and Hermes 450 systems. He has over 21 years’ experience in UAS ranging from personal to professional application, varying in size from 100g to 1.5T.
Whilst operating the Hermes, James completed five operational tours within Afghanistan (Operation Herrick 5,8,10,12 and 16), plus one on Telic and a Cyprus United Nations tour. He conducted over 1000 operational flights, gaining more than 2500 operational, incident free, flying hours and was awarded the GOC Certificate of Commendation for Distinguished Service in the support of Operation Herrick.
James also conducted a 14-month period in Israel acting as an Elbit Systems instructional mentor, delivering live flying capabilities, lesson plans and general subject matter experience to the newly qualified British Army UAS operators.
On leaving the British Army, James first worked as an RPAS instructor/flight assessor for Resource Group (now RUAS), who specialise as a major Recognised Assessment Entity. He is both rotary and fixed wing qualified for the Civil Aviation Authority, presenting, delivering, instructing, and teaching UAS regulatory frameworks and safety cases.
James then moved to Thales (U-TACS) as the project lead pilot and field service representative for their Hermes 900 deployments in support of the United Nations in Africa and Federal Services in Mexico. Following this he conducted a short stint as a specialist UAS pilot with Nordic Unmanned, delivering bespoke UAS managed services to clients and European countries. Here, he was part of the introduction and certification of maritime drone operations and assisted with integrating safety procedures into Nordic Unmanned’s operational manuals. He also conducted UAS operations in support of maritime fisheries protection from vessels, oil spill analysis and service delivery to the Port of Antwerp UAS integration project. Alongside specialist consultation for Nordic’s European Fisheries Control Agency and European Maritime Safety Agency contracts utilising the Lockheed Martin Indago 3, Intel Falcon 8+ and other generalised platforms.
James moved from Nordic Unmanned to Intrepid Minds as their air operations lead, where he supported the Royal Air Force’s Rapid Capabilities Office (RCO) Project MOSQUITO, assisting with UAS concept of operations, trials planning, UAS integration and operational knowledge. Within that time, he also supported the British Army as a civilian UAS operator and advisor for multiple training exercises.
James later joined Network Rail Ltd as the national drone manager in air operations, where he became the accountable manager for UAS in the business, supporting over 120 operators and the safety compliance for all Network Rail UAS operations. With a key focus on safety, he offered specialist enhanced services to promote ‘boots off ballast’ by utilising different UAS applications and a variety of platform enhanced training methods to great success.
Throughout his career James has conducted exercises and operations within arduous and hazardous environments worldwide, including Mali (UN MINUSMA) on an 8-week-on 4-week-off rotational deployment, Mexico City, Afghanistan, Norway, Belgium, Iraq, Cyprus, Israel and the British Army Training Unit Suffield plains of Canada.
He is married to his lovely wife Helen, and they have a one-month-old first child called Hugo.
Find out more about careers at Inzpire and view our current vacancies here.
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