Covid in Scotland: How a pilot ended up producing PPE

Douglas Jones was fulfilling a lifelong dream when he became a pilot

The aviation industry has been among those hardest hit by the Covid pandemic.

Pilot Douglas Jones was working for Aegean Airlines, flying out of Athens, when it began.

It cost him his job and also prompted him to return to the small Scottish town where he grew up.

Now he is now turning his hand to a very different line of work producing PPE, in a sector which is enjoying something of a boom.

Mr Jones saw much of Europe in his work with Easyjet and Aegean Airlines

The 27-year-old, who was born in Haywards Heath in Sussex but raised in Moffat in Dumfries and Galloway, was enjoying his dream job at the start of 2020.

Having gained a commercial pilot's licence, he was based in Berlin with Easyjet before landing a position in Greece.

"It is definitely what I have always wanted to do," he said.

"With Aegean I have flown a good way across all the major airports of Europe."

However, life changed "very quickly" as coronavirus spread across the continent.

"I flew to Copenhagen and I flew back from Copenhagen and I was on unpaid leave when I landed back in Athens," he explained.

Fearing being stranded in Greece, he booked a flight home to Scotland and within a couple of weeks he received confirmation that his job was gone.

Mr Jones returned to Moffat amid fears of being stranded in Greece

Mr Jones said it took some time for him to fully appreciate that he would not be returning to the skies any time soon.

"Half of my stuff is still in Greece because we came back to our home countries thinking this will only be three to six months and that will be that," he said.

"We had just no concept of how bad this was ever going to be."

It meant he was back home in a region where he admits there are "not a huge amount of options career-wise in normal times".

"When you have been used to living in Berlin and Athens and you move back to Moffat, living with your dad, it is a bit of slowdown," he said.

"I was just desperate to do something, to have work."

Alpha Solway is producing millions of masks for NHS Scotland

It was a relative of a friend who spotted south of Scotland firm Alpha Solway was hiring new workers to meet demand for personal protective equipment (PPE).

After interview, he was offered a job in June which proved to be something of a change of pace from day one.

"I came in and I sat and cut elastic for visors for most of the day - I think I cut like something like 3km worth of elastic because one of the machines had a fault," he said.

Since then he has helped make filter units for masks, developed standard work procedures and become a "jack of all trades" for the business.

Mr Jones said of his abilities as a pilot were useful at the PPE factory

He said he had been "surprised" by what parts of his old job he could bring to his new post.

"A lot in commercial aviation is about awareness - situational awareness - and a lot of that can be built into manufacturing as well," he said.

"When you are talking health and safety around large automated machinery you have to be aware of what things are doing and when and who is doing what.

"As a pilot - as you might like to think - we have quite a logical way of looking at things. The way we are trained to look at problems is very applicable to manufacturing."

An "incredible" summer helped ease the transition from Greece to Moffat

So how has the transition back to rural Scotland gone?

"We are so lucky that the summer we had here was quite incredible," said Mr Jones.

"To be out in Moffat, even during lockdown, you can access the hills, you don't have to drive outside a five-mile radius.

"You can just go out and walk and you will never see a soul."

Some things, however, take more getting used to, like his more conventional nine to five day.

"I think that has probably been the biggest shock to my system, getting into that working routine," he said.

Alpha Solway is taking in large numbers of new staff to cope with demand

Alpha Solway secured a major contract to supply the NHS in Scotland earlier this year which has helped to keep Mr Jones "extremely busy".

However, flying gets "into your blood" and he hopes to get back into a plane at some time in the future.

"My goal is when the jobs start to come - which they will - I will return to the sky in some capacity," he said.

"But it will be a double-edged sword in that I have learned a huge amount here and I have met a lot of very good people.

"I'm working with a really good team of people here - there are good people here doing a good job and I am helping at least with that."