I've had such a "man crush" on this guy for years. Fronting one of the greatest rock bands of all time (Iron Maiden), AND flying them on world tours in their chartered B757 ("Ed Force One")... not to mention all of the other stuff he's into.

Anyways... I was reading the current Wiki entry for him and didn't realize that he's been flying a Fokker Triplane in WWI re-enactments. Damn... what a cool SOB!

From Wikipedia:

"Dickinson learned to fly recreationally in Florida in the 1990s[111] and now holds an airline transport pilot's licence. He regularly flew Boeing 757s in his role as captain for the now-defunct UK charter airline Astraeus,[112] which, from 16 September 2010, employed him as Marketing Director.[113] One of his key roles in that position was to promote Astraeus' services by increasing their number of videos,[114] leading to the UK Civil Aviation Authority releasing a video featuring Dickinson on aircraft loading safety in June 2011.[115]

Following Astraeus' closure on 21 November 2011, Dickinson branched into entrepreneurship when he launched Cardiff Aviation Ltd on 1 May 2012, an aircraft maintenance business based at the Twin Peaks Hangar in St Athan, Vale of Glamorgan, Wales.[116] According to The Wall Street Journal, in January 2013 Cardiff Aviation had created 40 jobs and hoped to have over a hundred personnel by the summer of 2013.[117] In June 2013, The Daily Telegraph reported that the business had expanded to between 60 and 70 employees and are in discussions to set up their own airline.[118]

His role as a pilot has led to some high-profile flights, which include returning a group of British RAF pilots from Afghanistan in 2008,[119] 200 UK citizens from Lebanon during the Israel/Hezbollah conflict in 2006,[120] and 180 stranded holiday makers from Egypt following the collapse of XL Airways UK in September 2008.[121] In addition, he flew Rangers F.C. and Liverpool F.C. to away matches in Israel and Italy in 2007 and 2010 respectively.[122] For the 2008–2009 "Somewhere Back in Time World Tour," he piloted Iron Maiden's chartered Boeing 757, dubbed "Ed Force One", specially converted to carry the band's equipment between continents,[66] which subsequently led to a documentary film, Iron Maiden: Flight 666.[123] Dickinson flew "Ed Force One" again for "The Final Frontier World Tour" in 2011.[124]

In 2014, Dickinson purchased a Fokker Dr.I triplane replica G-CDXR and joined the Great War Display Team, which re-enacts First World War air battles at airshows across the UK.[125]"


Long live Cap'n Bruce and UP THE IRONS!!!

That Flight 666 documentary was great.  I think it used to be on netflix, but isn't anymore.

Get the man more cowbell!

That skit always cracks me up. I always love it when Walken uses Bruce's name in that one. Btw... I like Walken almost as much as the real Dickinson. How cool (and weird) would it be to be Chris' neighbor?

BTW... I saw Bruce on some talk show run by Bill Mahr years ago. I had no idea of his politics at the time, but it was clear from his opinions on the show that he was conservative. You could tell that he was irritated with all of the mindless twit females and Mahr on that show. Talk about throwing your pearls to swine!!!

I've got it on DVD. I enjoy the segments showing him up front in the business end of the B757 more than the concert footage. The '57 has been my favorite airliner for years. I've been in the cockpits of them (used to load freight on them for UPS), but never touched the controls. I should pay to go fly a level-D simulator of one sometime.

I found another funny little nugget from Bruce. The guy is full of one-liners. Being a member of various bands for the past 30 years myself, I find his jab at drummers particularly amusing!

"Aviation's been kicking around my family for as long as I can remember; my uncle was in the RAF," says Dickinson. "But I always thought I was too stupid. I was useless at maths and majored in history at university, so I thought history majors don't become pilots, let alone rock stars. And then our drummer learned to fly so I said if a drummer can learn to fly then anyone can."

Dickinson left Iron Maiden in 1993 when they were still considered the mainstays of the heavy metal scene, to pursue a solo career and to broaden his already wide horizons -- five years earlier he highlighted a passion for the sport of fencing when he founded sports equipment company Duellist.

It was also during this period that he began training to become a pilot. "I turned up to a flight school in Florida, jumped in and did a trial lesson, and that was it. 15,000 feet over Florida, I was just severely bitten," he says.

Years later he hasn't been able to shake the addiction, in fact he has taken it one step further, and made it his job.

"I never dreamed I would end up flying an airliner," he continues. "I ended up flying Iron Maiden around on tour in a little eight-seat, pressurized, twin-engine plane. Basically we were flying round all the world's major airports, flew across the Atlantic and back, which was quite an adventure. At the end I thought I really want to fly something bigger, but I can't afford it -- I can't buy my own 707. If I'm going to do that I have to get a job."

So he made the transition from recreational pilot to captain of a commercial airliner. Today, if you board an Astraeus flight you may be welcomed aboard and soothed into your seat by the voice of one of the legends of hard rock.

And how does the thrill of piloting a 757 compare to taking to the stage with Maiden? "It's a different kind of buzz. Obviously you aren't leaping around the flight deck yelling and screaming, but you have to manage situations... Flying at 35,000 feet is an internal thing, really. Whereas 35,000 people, that's just showing off."

So the rocker has mellowed out. Does this mean he will be hanging up his leopard-skin spandex for ever? "I could never contemplate giving up music. I have to say I've always been interested in planes, the only difference is I started to fly the darn things 15 years ago. I don't see why I should give up either of them. People say 'Why do you need a second job?' I say 'Why do you need to breathe?'"

So, for the foreseeable future at least, Bruce Dickinson will continue his double life, bringing the power of rock to fans around the world and then, potentially, flying them home. "Like my dad always used to say, always have a backstop, you never know when it's all going to go belly up." E-

Sorry to fill-up my own thread here, but for the aviation-lovers, there's a Maiden tune called "Coming Home" that obviously comes from the international touring pilot's perspective. LOVE this tune!!!

Still on VH-1 Classic now and then.

Dude is living the life.