Squadron Leader Swatton joined the Royal Air Force in 1952. He qualified as an instructor in 1961 and taught, among other subjects, the then new subject of Scheduled Performance for Group “A” aeroplanes at the Argosy Operational Conversion Unit (OCU) as one of his duties. He was posted to the Andover OCU in 1964 as the senior navigation instructor and examiner, where he continued teaching and examining aircrew in scheduled performance until 1975.

Subsequently he completed tours at the Royal Aircraft Establishment, Farnborough and at the Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment, Boscombe Down. His last tour of duty, before retiring from the Royal Air Force in 1988 was at the Empire Test Pilots School where he taught scheduled performance to trainee test pilots. In 36 years of service he amassed 7500 flying hours

On retirement from the RAF he joined the instructional staff at the Professional Pilot Study Centre where one of his duties was to teach scheduled performance to the trainee pilots. Subsequently he and two of his fellow instructors started their own ground school, Ground Training Services (GTS), for private, commercial and airline pilots where he currently teaches aeroplane performance to the JAA syllabus. He is the aeroplane performance consultant for the CAA and updated the CAP 698 at the request of the CAA.