When Dave Patten left the armed forces in 2002, after more than a decade of service across Northern Ireland, Africa, and Australia, he didn’t head for rest and relaxation.
Far from it.
Instead, he marched straight into the civilian construction world and brought a battalion’s worth of discipline, precision, and hard-earned field experience with him.
It’s a path many ex-servicemen and women take and Dave was no different. In fact, construction and in particular lifting, was the perfect move for him
The transition from military operations to crane operations might seem like a leap, but for Dave, the fundamentals remained the same: lives depend on getting it right the first time.
It’s a mantra that he’s carried with him during his professional career and now he’s passing that knowledge on to candidates every day.
He said: “I still remember my first lifting course. It was a cold, muddy site. Power lines overhead. Rain coming down sideways. I was being taught textbook rules – but in real life, there’s never a textbook moment. Every lift has its own challenges, its own variables you can’t predict from a manual.”
Once out of the army, Dave found himself sat in Leyland, Lancashire on the very same course he teaches. That company would eventually evolve into Ainscough Training Services. The training he received then made a lasting impression on the former serviceman. So when we say our trainers have ‘walked the walk’, Dave is the ideal case study.
A career in construction soon followed but eventually Dave found himself at a cross roads and with an itch to be a lifting operations trainer that he wanted to scratch.
A meticulous note taker in and out of the classroom, Dave realised that the gap between classroom theory and site reality was stark and he knew there had to be a better way to deliver real world training.
Years later, Dave returned to that same training ground – not as a student, but as a lead instructor with a clear mission: to make operator training feel as real as the job itself. Drawing on his military background, where preparation for real-world scenarios could mean the difference between mission success and catastrophic failure, he began to put together a plan on how crane operators were trained.
He swapped static classrooms for dynamic, site-based simulations. Gone were the days of learning lifting techniques on perfect, level ground with ideal conditions. Instead, Dave introduced full rigging set-ups, real load assessments, and live environment risk factors that operators would actually encounter on construction sites.
“In the military, we trained like we fought,” Dave said.
“The same principle applies here. You can’t expect someone to make critical decisions under pressure if they’ve only ever practiced in comfortable conditions. Operators need more than rules—they need instinct. And that only comes from doing it under pressure, making mistakes in a controlled environment, and learning from them.”
Dave’s approach transformed training from a compliance exercise into genuine skills development. His training courses became known for their intensity and authenticity. And all under the watchful eye of an instructor who’d seen what happened when training didn’t match reality.
“Every site is different,” Dave added.
“Weather changes, ground conditions vary, loads shift, equipment develops issues. You can memorise every regulation in the book, but when you’re 30 feet up in a cab with a 20-tonne load swinging in crosswinds, you need to be able to think on your feet. That’s what we teach here—not just how to operate a crane, but how to be a crane operator.”
“In the forces, we had a saying: ‘Prepare for the worst, hope for the best. That mindset serves crane operators incredibly well. Every lift should be planned like it’s the most critical one you’ll ever do, because one day, it might be.”
Today, Dave is regarded as one of the best in his game and for some – a mentor whose influence extends far beyond the training ground. His students don’t just routinely pass their certifications first time – though they do – more importantly, they leave Ainscough Training Services equipped with the confidence and competence to make the right calls when it counts.