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Hello. I’m Flying Officer Tasha Nicholson.

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And I’m a flight operations officer here on the Red Arrows.

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My day to day job is I have to look after the effective

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training and delivery of the Red Arrows throughout the season.

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And also the delivery of air shows.

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I’m originally from Lancaster.

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I went to a secondary school in Lancaster.

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I took all the standard English, maths, science.

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But I think my favourite two subjects at school were dance

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and systems and control, which is like engineering.

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I absolutely loved engineering.

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I did really well in my GCSEs so I ended up going on sixth form.

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At sixth form I did sociology, psychology, systems and control and mathematics.

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I really enjoyed sixth form and continued it on, and

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I think systems and control again was my favourite thing.

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I think like hobbies and stuff,

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I still carried on dance, but I didn’t continue it on to A-level.

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But at the same

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time as doing my A-levels, I worked at Vue cinemas in Lancaster

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just to earn a bit of pocket money and piece until I finished and took a year out

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and I carried on working at Vue until I applied for the RAF.

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I think a real turning point for me was when I applied

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initially to be in the RAF and I applied to be a flight ops officer.

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Unfortunately, at the time I didn’t get that.

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I was quite young at the time.

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I was 19 years old when I applied, but I really knew I wanted to be in the RAF.

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So I applied to be in the RAF and I put my application in still

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and I joined at the time as a flight ops assistant, but now ASOS.

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I think that was – it was a bit disheartening at the time.

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However, I look back on the experience and the knowledge

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and skill and experience that I gained for the role now that I have

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It’s unparable.

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So that for me it was a difficult point and I thought –

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do I just wait and try again or do I just not bother?

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But I stuck at it and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed all the experiences that I have.

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I did three years in Cranwell air traffic.

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I went on an overseas trip to Malta

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and we got to go round Malta, which was absolutely amazing.

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I’ve played basketball for the RAF

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and the amount of things that I’ve done has just been absolutely amazing.

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I think any advice I’d have to give to my younger self

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would be try not to be as nervous for things that you can’t control.

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So try not to worry as much for stuff that you’ve done.

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And it’s just waiting in the hands of others.

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Not only that, there’s always time to prepare. So

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definitely prepare for everything.

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I think sometimes I felt like I was a little bit

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underprepared for situations and it showed.

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So if you can use all the time that you can to prepare for stuff

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and have fun with it, try

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not to take things too seriously and actually have fun.