Hailing from Austalia, he joined the Australian Army after high school and completed a Mechanical Engineering degree before being selected for pilot training. He initially flew the OH-58 and later the UH-1H, S-70 and Tiger helicopters. He was fortunate to have the opportunity to do both Instructor Pilot and Experimental Test Pilot courses during his time in the Army. In 2008 he retired and moved to the USA to work as a rotary wing test pilot instructor at the National Test Pilot School, in Mojave CA. In 2019 he joined Leonardo Helicopters in Philadelphia to work as a test pilot on the AW609 civil tiltrotor program. Currently engaged in Type Inspection Authorization flights in the AW609 demonstrating compliance with the applicable certification regulations to FAA pilots and engineers. In 2024 Nigel joined the USHST Steering Committee as the Leonardo company representative. Involvement with USHST allows industry wide lessons to be fed back to the company in a timely manner to allow improvements in both products and training.