McNish flying high with the RAF.

Former Toyota driver, Allan McNish has been a busy bee since the end of the 2002 Formula One season, here the Scot reveals all...

"I've been keeping busy since the end of the season and I was recently behind the wheel of a go-kart in Vienna, Austria battling it out with some well-known names. The annual karting event is a favourite of mine, it's always lots of fun and there's normally a good selection of stars in attendance. At the same event last year I met one of my all time heroes, Giacomo Agostini!

"This year there was another good turn out with a variety of drivers including Rene Arnoux, Marc Surer, Alex Wurz, Andrea Piccinni, Christian Danner and a couple of young hot-shots, Ryan Connor, an up and coming Scottish karter who won a Knockhill Racing Circuit competition to be there and Colin Brown, ex-Karting World Champion - and it showed!!!

"We all had a great time with lots of bumping on the circuit, only for fun you understand! The final race of the day was action packed, with myself and Ryan Connor flying the Scottish flag on the podium alongside Alex Wurz!

"Following that I had a couple of days in London at the start of December, attending the Autosport Awards in the process. I presented the Club Driver of the Year Award to Danny Watts. As ever it was a great night out with lots of stars, the leading names included Emerson Fittipaldi, Keke Rosberg, and many more drivers from around the world alongside the management personnel from Ferrari and Peugeot representing Formula One and the World Rally Championship. I was re-united with my Toyota team-mate Mika Salo at the ceremony and we enjoyed a good post-season catch up!

"After that I headed back to Monte Carlo briefly before returning once again to London for a meeting. Straight after that I headed north to Inverness for an experience of a lifetime! A friend of mine from my school days, Simon Feetam, is now a weapons engineer at RAF Lossiemouth and he very kindly arranged for me to go up in a Tornado jet!

"I went through the usual medical screening and was kitted out with the right equipment before we had a quick run through all the aspects of the flight, where, when, the weather, where my mum lives so I can wave, all the usual stuff about safety! When I was seated in the Tornado and looking at all the instruments I was a little nervous. It was a totally alien environment but at the same time I felt like I was in Top Gun. I tried to take in as much as I could and look at everything I would need in case of an emergency but most importantly I located where my sick bag was!

"We roared down the runway side by side with another Tornado and were soon flying low level over the sea to Coldstream on the Scottish Border then down past the valleys to Moffat, again at low level and at one hell of a speed! We flew over my cousin's farm and over my mum's house with a quick wiggle of the wings before passing Stranraer. From there we continued up the west coast of Scotland, which has some of the most beautiful coastline in Britain. It's quite weird seeing much of it at such a speed and upside down, I'm not a great swimmer and seeing all that sea was a little scary! We then went up to the Isle of Jura and through some valleys before heading back to base at RAF Lossiemouth. It's was an amazing way to see Scotland and it took just over an hour, by far the best tour of the country I've ever had!

"In addition to the view I found it fascinating to see how many similarities there are between the RAF pilots and their ground crews and the world of F1. A lot of the attributes you have to have as a pilot are those that F1 drivers prize - the ability to deal with a variety of complex scenarios at once, the sheer speed and physical buffeting you subject your body and mind to, and the meticulous attention to planning and debriefing after every sortie.

"All in all it was a fantastic experience and I must thank everyone at RAF Lossiemouth, especially Dambuster Squadron, Kev my pilot for the day and of course Simon. I'll never forget the day, which I was also happy to combine with helping the Grampian and Highland Police forces launch their Christmas anti drink-drive campaigns!

"Speak to you soon."

Allan McNish.

For more on Allan McNish go to his official website - www.allanmcnish.com