A VETERAN flight engineer from Calne, who served 70 years in the Royal Air Force Association, has been presented with a certificate of appreciation for his service.

Squadron leader Gordon Sweetlove, 90, MBE joined the RAF in 1943 as a Halton Apprentice and in November of 1945 joined the RAFA Bath branch.

He became a life member on January 1, 1961 and transferred to the Calne branch in the early 2000s where he became the deputy chairman for ten years.

Mr Sweetlove, of Hungerford Road, who retired from the RAF in 1976, said: “I am lucky to have lived so long and the certificate is very appreciated.

“What can you say, I definitely was not expecting it. I always enjoyed the flying and it was great fun to have been involved for that long.”

The RAF veteran, affectionately known as Buster, married his wife Peggy Sweetlove, 88, in 1948 and during their married life have had over 25 addresses.

“I suppose I have had quite an interesting life flying planes. I joined the RAF when I was 16 and survived 33 years before I retired and did 10,000 hours flying on ten different types of aircrafts," added Mr Sweetlove.

“I really just enjoyed the flying whether it was long haul or short, 20 minutes or 20 hours, it was the challenge of it all.

“I was a flight engineer so my job was to check the aircraft before take-off, keep it running while airborne and then check it again on landing.”