Dave Fielding studied Classics at Cambridge before making the perfectly logical step and becoming an airline pilot. He joined British Airways in 1993 on the Highlands and Islands Division, flying the BAe ATP. When Highlands Division closed he moved down to London on the B757 and achieved his command on the Airbus A320 in 2001. Since then he has been a captain on the B767, B777, A350 and the A380, which is his current type.
Dave has been a union rep with the British Airline Pilots Association since 1996, specialising in disciplinaries This led to an interest in alcohol and welfare cases, which in turn led to him creating a BALPA peer intervention programme. Following the Germanwings crash of 2015, he worked with British Airways to adapt and improve the programme, and in January 2017 the Pilots Assistance Network (PAN) became the first peer support programme in Europe to be launched post-Germanwings. Dave sits on the Executive Board of EPPSI, the European Pilot Peer Support Initiative, and has been instrumental in the rewrite of the recently published IFALPA Pilot Assistance Manual.
In November 2023 he became Chair of IPAAC, the International Peer Assist Aviation Coalition, a body that brings together the key stakeholders from the global aviation industry in order to advance the field of Peer Support for all safety-critical personnel in aviation.