Jake Brattle

Director - BGA Inspector + composite repair + ARC Signatory
Jake started gliding after a trial flight at the age of 13 with the Kent Gliding Club and has never looked back. He moved to Nympsfield when he started his Aerospace Engineering Degree at the University of Bristol. This is where he caught the bug for racing in gliders. Jake has flown over 40 competitions and represented the British Team four times, winning the Junior World Gliding Championships in 2019.

Jake started to build his workshop experience at Targett Aviation. Since moving to Navboys, Jake has built up his experience specialising in avionic installations and panel rebuilds. He is well known as being a 'go-to' person on the grid and is often seen with his head inside someone else's cockpit troubleshooting at weekends and competitions alike. He's a BGA Inspector with ratings for self-sustainers, TMG + composite repair + ARC Signatory.

Douggie Vance

Sales and Support Manager
Douggie started flying at the age of 14 at Nympsfield, joining the cadet scheme there and meeting Jake and Dorian. In no time at all, he was addicted to gliding and spent countless hours flying or working on gliders, and helping out at the club.

Unlike most pilots, Douggie focused his efforts on the backend of gliding and supporting the sport through organisation efforts, rather than focusing on flying. Having worked on various competitions over the years, he brings a wealth of knowledge and connections to Navboys, with a goal to help support the fantastic relations between Navboys and our brilliant customers. From his extensive working background, he'll join the team as the Sales & Support Manager, leading the day to day and running a variety of improvement projects.

Dorian Bury

Marketing Manager and Sales Assistant
Dorian started flying at the age of 15 at Nympsfield, where he met another junior (at the time) called Jake Brattle. Jake took Dorian to his first-ever Junior Winter Series, where he discovered he really enjoyed experiencing the flying that different clubs have to offer - whether that's soaring the cooling towers at Burn or the mountain wave of Feshie - Dorian has been lucky enough to explore clubs all over the UK.

When not in a farmer's field or an airfield, you can usually find Dorian behind a camera. Dorian is a professional videographer and over the years he has created many Junior Gliding videos, supported the British Team during the World Gliding Championships in 2018 and the Junior World Championships in 2022, most recently he did some filming with Aerosparx in Jeddah. Dorian joins Navboys as part of the customer facing team, he will assist with processing orders, answering your enquiries as well as overseeing our marketing.

Colin Whitfield

Workshop Engineer
Colin joins our workshop team and brings a wealth of experience ‘on the tools’ through his varied career including working for the 75th Royal Engineer Regiment as well as through work in testing laboratories and workshops. Colin also comes from a gliding background through his time as part of 631 RAF cadet squadron in the early 2000s. Colin’s duties will consist of carrying out Annual inspections, repairs and avionic upgrades under Jake's supervision. He's working towards gaining his inspectors ticket and hopes to return to flying soon!