Our Team

Our unrivalled experience in both on and offshore operations, airspace management and air traffic control regulatory issues, combined with up to date and extensive knowledge of the latest radar mitigation techniques, means that we can provide support and expert advice to developers in any wind farm operating environment.

Our consultants have provided, and continue to provide, project management and aviation safeguarding advice, on both technical and physical safeguarding, on wind and solar projects for clients including;

and various local authorities across the UK and Ireland.

Commander Shane Savage BSc, Royal Navy (Retd)

Shane spent over 27 years in the Royal Navy specialising in Air Traffic Control (ATC) and Air Defence which culminated in leading both the ATC and Fighter Control specialisations as Head of Operations Support to the Fleet Air Arm. In his last appointment in the Service he was the Royal Navy’s Desk Officer for aviation infrastructure including airfields, radars and radio sites as well as being the RN Safeguarding Authority for aviation and the Sponsor for the Royal Navy’s offshore Danger Areas. During a tour within the Ministry of Defence as the Desk Officer responsible for Military Wind farm policy, he has represented the Royal Navy and Defence at every level of wind farm assessment and policy formulation both offshore and onshore.  He left the Royal Navy in 2011 to go into partnership with John Taylor in establishing Wind Farm Aviation Consultants Ltd, the precursor to Wind Farm Aviation Safeguarding Ltd and continues to work closely with John as an associate to WPAC Ltd.

Shane now has over 35 years’ experience in Air Traffic Control (ATC), airspace management, technical radar issues, MOD ATC procurement and civil and military regulatory requirements. He has assessed and provided input to more than 1500 wind farm proposals both onshore and offshore in the UK, Europe and in the Caribbean, and which has included giving evidence at numerous UK and Irish planning inquiries and providing expert advice to local planning authorities in the UK and Ireland. In his career he has been a contributing author to both the MoD Interim Guidelines for Wind Farm Developers, has conducted trials and workshops on behalf of The Aviation Investment Fund Company Ltd (AIFCL) to inform their guidance and has contributed to Renewable UK’s “Offshore Renewables Aviation Guidance (ORAG)”, the latter as one of the principal co-ordinating authors.

He is has been a member of the following working groups and policy bodies: 

EUR ING Mr Alan Collinson OBE, BSc, MSc, C.Eng, FIET

Alan holds a Bachelor’s degree in Control Engineering and a Master’s degree in electronic engineering. He is a Chartered Engineer and a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology. He has been a radar systems engineer for over thirty years.

Alan has specialised in providing advice on long range, multifunction, phased array radar and is recognised internationally as an expert in this area and has provided advice to the US Government on how to improve the performance of space radars. Alan also provides advice to the Royal Air Force and US Air Force on the effect of interference in radar bands. He has studied the effects of wind turbines on air traffic and air defence radar systems and has been an expert witness at a number of public inquiries into the effects of wind turbines on radar systems. Alan is a visiting lecturer at the University of Hull where he teaches radar to final year undergraduates and post-graduate students.

Alan has previously worked as the Managing Director and Principal Consultant of Collinson Systems Limited (CSL) where his clients have included: the Defence Research Agency, Defence Evaluation and Research Agency, Defence Science and Technology Laboratories, the Ministry of Defence (MOD), Defence Estates, Defence Logistics Organisation, Defence Export Services Organisation, the Royal Air Force (RAF), RAF Signals Engineering Establishment, ATDI, British Aerospace, Ecotricity, Lockheed Martin Insys, Lockheed Martin Stasys, RidgeWind, QinetiQ and Wind Prospect.

Sqn Ldr Mike Hale MBE, MSc, CFS RAF (Retd)

Mike has over 40 years piloting, instructing and examining experience around most of the globe ranging from numerous military fast jet aircraft including Lightning, Phantom and Tornado, through a range of civilian and military GA craft.   Mike’s flying experience to date includes 9000 total flying hours including Lightning, Phantom, Jet Provost, Tornado, Chipmunk, Bulldog and Tutor in addition to various Qualified Warfare Instructor (QWI), Qualified Flying Instructor (QFI) Test Pilot ( TP), qualifications. 

In parallel to his flying career/duties he has held the post of MOD Air Staff Low Level Airspace Manager & Wind-Farm Subject Matter Expert.  In this position he managed the UK low level airspace and assessed over 14,000 planning applications against low flying, weapons range, specialist airspace and aerodrome safeguarding criteria.  Mike has also managed two Air Staff Wind farm Flight Trials for the MOD, CAA, RUK and Trinity House.  He is now considered to be a national authority on aviation lighting requirements.

Throughout his career he has been a member of the following committees and working groups:

In 2012 he was awarded an MBE for generating a proactive and mutually successful working relationship between the Wind Power Industry and the MOD Low Flying Operators.

Sam Taylor BA, MSc

Sam holds an MSc in Climate Change and Government Policy at the University of Sussex and provides research and GIS support to our projects. He undertakes the majority of radar line of sight projections using our radar propagation modelling systems Rvis3 and Rview5. He has also developed the mapping capabilities of the business, adapting ARCGIS in order to provide geo-referenced aviation information for use both in our feasibility reports and in EIA Chapters and other planning documentation. Sam is our lead researcher and has over 10 years’ experience of the aviation environment in the UK, both civil and military.

Dorota Savage MSc

Dorota holds an MSc in Change Management, Project Management and a post-graduate Diploma in Management (CMI). She has over 25 years’ experience in those fields working with AGILE, Capability Maturity Model (CMM), Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) and PRINCE2 methodologies.  In her role as an IT Senior Project and QA Manager she has gained extensive experience in management, co-ordination and motivation of multi-disciplinary, geographically spread, project and test teams; she is our focus on ensuring project management and the timely delivery of high quality, business critical reports and, where possible, solutions in demanding environments in both the private and the public sectors.  She has been involved in projects for multinational clients including Birdseye Walls, CISCO, BT, Unilever, Guinness (Cameroon), Mauritius Breweries, Mars and Pepsi in the Middle East, Johnson & Johnson in Hungary. Dorota oversees our programme of work and multiple projects planning including change and documents configuration control.