Jerry Grayson

Jerry Grayson's Biography

Jerry Grayson’s story of an extraordinary career in helicopters, disrupted entirely by the advent of drones, will resonate with any audience. He's an unforgettable speaker on topics such as risk management, teamwork, resilience and leadership and is certain to leave audiences inspired and motivated.

From Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait to the infamous Fastnet Yacht Race, on stage with The Rolling Stones, on location filming Black Hawk Down, filming the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and broadcasting the Soccer World Cup from South Africa, Jerry Grayson, has a personal story to tell about each one.

As a Search and Rescue Pilot Jerry was just 17 years old when he joined the Fleet Air Arm, the youngest helicopter pilot to ever serve in the Royal Navy. By the age of 25 he was the most decorated peacetime naval pilot in history and was awarded the Air Force Cross (AFC) by the Queen for outstanding gallantry in search and rescue.

‘RESCUE PILOT: Cheating the Sea’ details Jerry Grayson AFC's story, offering an inside view of his heroic service. It is an inspirational and celebratory account, excitingly told, frequently funny and highly poignant. The significance and quality of this work is underlined by the foreword, which was written by Prince Andrew.

The work of a search and rescue pilot is vital, dangerous, thrilling and on the edge. Hear how Jerry saved fighter pilots who had ditched at sea, rescued desperate sailors from sinking yachts during the infamous Fastnet Race - in which only 85 out of 303 yachts made it back to harbour- and picked up a grievously ill crewman from the deck of a nuclear-armed submarine that was playing a cat-and-mouse game with the Soviet navy.

In 2500 hours of flying with the Royal Navy, Jerry and his crewmates saved more than 70 lives on 120 rescue missions. His story is not an account of one man's deeds, but a salute to all the men and women he worked with who were able to turn tragedies into triumphs.

As a Film Pilot and Director Jerry's adventure didn't stop when he left the navy. He then set up a production company specialising in footage shot from helicopters and went on to contribute to the likes of Planet Earth, An Inconvenient Truth and the James Bond film A View to A Kill, filming above six continents.

In the world of sport, Jerry’s first world broadcast came from the Sarajevo Winter Olympics in 1984. He went on to command the entire airspace over Melbourne for the Commonwealth Games and over Doha for the Asian Games, in addition to his flying and aerial directing roles using ten helicopters at the Athens Olympics and seven at the South Africa Soccer World Cup.

Jerry also flew as part of the Melbourne, Brazil and South Korea F1 Motor Racing Grand Prix, and supplied the aerial filming unit for the worldwide broadcast at all motor races, from 2010-2013.

Just a few months into 2015, Jerry’s three decades of flying experiences almost entirely vanished into thin air. The DRONES had arrived and taken over. Jerry had to deal with the most extreme form of disruption; when the career he’d so successfully built simply ceased to exist. To enable him and his team to move forward positively, Jerry had to recognize the disruption, address it and learn a whole new way of doing his job.

Jerry has authored two books, Rescue Pilot (2015) and Film Pilot: from James Bond to Hurricane Katrina (2017), which were released by Bloomsbury Publishing internationally.

Embrace change or perish

I sometimes think that I must be living somebody else’s life. I joined the Royal Navy, flew helicopters, rescued people, started a helicopter company, flew on movies (my first was James Bond!), shot and directed an IMAX movie, ran Melbourne airspace for the Commonwealth Games and loved almost every minute of it all.

Then came drones; an innovative name that defines disruption.

That single word influences everything I now do; my keynote speaking, my film work, and my books. Five years ago I wouldn’t have believed that disruption could simultaneously be the worst and the best thing that could happen to me.