Simon Gough, 41, has swapped Army missions in the Arctic, Middle East, jungle and desert for a new role as the air ambulance's pilot.

He has found the transition very smooth because the type of flying is similar.

"I am not flying in such bad weather as I would do in the military but otherwise the job is very similar," he said.

His army role saw Simon flying around the world in the last 10 years, including the Arctic, Norway, jungle, the Far East and the Middle East, including Iraq or exercises in Oman.

""In 12 months I would have flown in every type of theatre and they all present different problems because of the weather. So flying in the West Country is easy in comparison."

In his last two years in the Army, Simon was working in a search and rescue role, before returning to the UK to find fresh challenges.

He said that when the air ambulance crew attend missions everyone has their own role to play.

"I have to think about where we are going, whether it is dark and where are we going to land, and that is when I can say I don't think we can do this. The CAA allows me to land in an area pretty much twice the length of the aircraft, but I need to know whether we are attending a life-threatening incident or a broken leg.

"When we have landed the others take over again and I sit back, until it gets to the point where they know whether we are going to carry the patient. That is when I might prepare the aircraft and the lead comes back to me."