The History of the Pooleys Flight Guide: Britain's Essential Pilot Reference
There are few objects in British aviation history as quietly indispensable as the Pooleys Flight Guide. For over six decades it has sat in cockpits, on briefing room tables and in flight bags across the United Kingdom. It is the book that generations of pilots have learned with, planned with and relied on. This is the story of how it came to be.
A Pilot's Eye View
Robert Pooley left the Royal Air Force in 1957 and went to work at de Havilland Field Service as an engineer. It was there that he earned his pilot's licence, and it was with a pilot's eye that he looked at the market for aviation equipment and training materials and saw the gaps that needed filling. That same year he founded Airtour International, a family business built on a straightforward ambition: to give pilots the tools and information they needed to fly well. The company would later become known as Pooleys Flight Equipment.
How the UK Flight Guide Took Shape
The first Pooleys Flight Guide was published in 1962, initially covering Europe, with the United Kingdom edition following in 1964. Producing it required real dedication. Robert would fly from airfield to airfield himself, documenting everything a VFR pilot could need to know: facilities, fuel availability, runway lengths, radio frequencies and landing fees. In the evenings, his wife Yvonne would type up his notes, turning a day's worth of first-hand observations into the raw material of Britain's most essential pilot reference.
The finished product was a straightforward UK aerodrome directory, entirely without images, practical by design. In an era before GPS, digital navigation or internet briefings, a guide of this kind was genuinely essential. It gathered aerodrome data, ATC procedures, airspace classifications and local information into one place, giving VFR pilots planning cross-country routes across the UK the most comprehensive single reference available. Produced with the support of the Civil Aviation Authority, it quickly became the standard reference for UK general aviation. For pilots, the arrival of each new edition became an annual ritual, the old copy dog-eared and annotated, the new one crisp and freshly verified.
More Than a Guide
The Flight Guide was only part of what Robert Pooley was building. In 1964, his factory at Cranfield began producing the CRP-1 flight computer, the iconic circular slide rule known affectionately as the whizz wheel, developed with CAA input and adopted by flying training organisations across the UK and around the world. The CRP-5, which followed in 1966, became the standard navigation computer for commercial and ATPL pilot training, a status it still holds today. The range grew steadily to include kneeboards, flightboards, log books, charts and technical manuals, as well as bespoke work including landing calculators for Concorde and the Boeing 747.
In 2007, Robert handed the reins to his son Sebastian, who continues to take Pooleys Flight Equipment from strength to strength. Robert's own contribution to aviation has been formally recognised with the award of both an MBE and an LVO from His Majesty the King.
The 2026 edition of the Pooleys United Kingdom Flight Guide is a far cry from the image-free directory that Robert and Yvonne produced around the kitchen table in the early 1960s. Now published annually edited by Mike Simpson it covers 982 UK aerodromes with 570 landing charts, full colour illustrated airfield plates, multi-coloured area charts and a wealth of practical information covering landing fees, fuel availability, controlled airspace, ATC procedures, meteorological services and sunrise and sunset tables. An Ireland edition is also available, extending the same standard of coverage across the Irish Sea.
The guide is updated throughout the year, with amendments sent by post and frequency changes distributed by email, ensuring the information pilots rely on remains as current as possible. For pilots who prefer a digital workflow, Pooleys iPlates brings the guide to tablet and mobile devices, with content also accessible through SkyDemon, Garmin, Airmate, Pocket FMS and Air Navigation.
For anyone learning to fly in Britain, or flying cross-country across the UK, the Pooleys Flight Guide has been the constant companion that instructors recommend, students carry on their first solos and experienced pilots return to year after year. What began as one man flying from strip to strip with a notepad has grown into the most comprehensive aeronautical directory in the United Kingdom.
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