United Kingdom

Richie was literally my first ever friend I met off this network in 2008 when we were both just 13. The magic thing about VATSIM is how it brings like minded people together and the friendships you make on here. For 13 years we both grew up, coming online after school, sitting on skype, doing flights, playing games.

For the guys who joined us all at VATSIM UK Live! in 2018, you'll know how much of a party animal he was. He was the life and soul of the party, especially in Popworld Birmingham and I'll never forget the mad dancing at 4am sweating while shotting jagerbombs to ABBA in Nightingale's. I'm so thankful for the last couple of London seshs we had, fillet steaks in the Hippodrome, Premier Inn seshs until 5am.

Last year, even when he was doing his ATPL theory, he'd set up a long haul and start studying. It was pretty much standard to hear his voice on the ILS into Heathrow after a 10 hour long haul for the 14th time that week. Then last year we both embarked on the start of our careers, always remembering that when we were kids we always said that one day he’ll be flying and I’ll be controlling him. I'll make you proud Richie ❤️

He will be a huge miss.  I'll have MANY Baby Guinness' for you next sesh ❤️❤️❤️

Edited August 12, 2021 by Tom Bewick

If there's one thing that's been made very obvious over these last few days, it's that Richie will be sorely missed by everyone who had the pleasure of knowing him. I've never seen so many funny stories and videos shared by so many friends on Facebook, and I think this speaks volumes about the kind of person Richie was; extremely easy to get along with, naturally funny, and never took himself too seriously.

On VATSIM, he was always the first person you went to if you had an issue with your sim, or wanted to know the correct way to do something (By correct, I mean the BA way of course!). Whenever you saw him pop up on the ILS at Heathrow you always took a second to check FlightRadar to find the real world stand from that day or, if you felt daring, you'd enter 'NEW PILOT' into his flightplan remarks and see how long it took for him to notice😂He was always extremely generous in sharing his knowledge with others and I owe him a lot for the help he's given me over the years.

My first and only Live! experience was in 2019 and, like Tom, it's no exaggeration to say that most of my memories from that weekend involve Richie in some way or another! I remember on the last Sunday we were sat in the Aston bar at 4am, getting absolutely legless with Loui and Lewis. For someone who I had only met in person 2 days before, he was remarkably easy to talk to and would always have the room in stitches. I was told that 2019 was a fairly mild year for Richie as his only injuries/losses were a black eye from his bedside cabinet and a chocolate bar which was stolen off his desk - thankfully no off duty police officers were present that year to (unsuccessfully) try and restrain him, the thought of which still makes me laugh!

Fast forward a year and I found myself spending many nights flying with Richie for FNO's on VATSIM, staying up to the early hours of the morning and getting very drunk in the process. Dale and Benny would be queuing up bangers on the music bot, Ryan would drop his cheesy chips on his keyboard, and Matt would inevitably crash his plane in a drunken stupor. Richie was always present and always making us laugh, he no doubt played a role in helping us all get through an extremely lonely and isolated lockdown world and I am extremely grateful. Although we couldn't have these moments in person, I'm glad we had them nonetheless.

It's a huge shame he passed at such a young age, especially before he could see his dream of being a commercial pilot become reality - I take small comfort in the fact he managed to go solo before he left us all. I have no doubt that he and his family would have been immensely proud on that day, not that Richie would admit it of course!

The next time I raise my Guinni I'll be thinking of you Richie, see you soon❤

My best mate, doppelgänger troublemaker, and doric baaldie-heidit. 

Always his favourite London pub landlord introduction, resulting in delay and explanation…

“Foos yer erse fur crackin pan drops”

The rest is non-shareable memories that many of us will remember forever. 

The life and soul of the party. 
A cracking guy who I had the pleasure to meet several times. 
Someone who had a true passion for aviation and was making his dreams of being a pilot come true. 
 

RIP mate. Will be missed by many. 

Truely shocking news! - I have so many fond memories of being up until god knows what time on Skype or teamspeak with the little group we had going all those years ago! RIP dude 

So sad to hear of Richie's passing, he was such a nice lad who was always willing to help me and share his PC knowledge with me to help me fix PC issues. I found myself chatting to him more over the last year and was hoping to meet up again when he came back from the states. He will be sorely missed. A young person with such ambition and drive to succeed taken far too soon.

Rest tight Richie lad. 💗

This is dreadfully sad.

It was always a good laugh any time I ever met Richie.  I have good memories of him at Live and TAS. Its so sad to see him taken from us like this.

RIP Richie 💙

 

I can still hear his booming rendition of Flower of Scotland echoing through the Birmingham Streets in the wee hours.

RIP Richie 💜