The 35-year-old father of two from Queanbeyan slipped a small camera into the leg pouch of his flight suit when he first signed up for army pilot training more than a decade ago and it has been there ever since.

Mr England began taking pictures from the cabin of the SnowyHydro Southcare chopper as a personal record and to show his wife, Rachel, and their daughters, Charlotte and Sophie. But about a year ago he started tweeting some of his better efforts and now has a following that is growing by the day.

Spectacular shots of the Snowy Mountains in all their changing glory, and amazing sunrises and sunsets send daily glimpses of a magnificent world across the Twitterverse.

A classically trained musician who has toured Britain with a clarinet quartet in 2000, Mr England was born at Forbes and grew up on the family farm at Grenfell where his father was also an agricultural pilot.

''I'd always wanted to learn to fly,'' he said. ''I flew a lot with Dad as a kid but I thought it would be a long time before I could save up enough to pay for the training.''

This all changed when, in 2002, he realised being a classical musician was not the life he wanted.

''I was talking to the recruiting sergeant [at the centre in Civic] and we were running through my interests. When I said aviation was a passion he said 'the army can train you to fly helicopters'.

''Before I knew it, I was flying Blackhawks for a living.''

Mr England eventually became a senior instructor. For him the downside of being that good was he was not able to be deployed to the Middle East.

''I have done three tours in East Timor and multiple trips to Papua New Guinea for mountain flying training,'' he said.

PNG, regarded as the toughest aviation environment in the world, was a real test of skill and character.

''When I started going there I was doing courses,'' Mr England said, ''at the end, I was running them.''

He uses the lessons learnt there almost every day and says while the Australian alpine environment appears gentler and kinder, it is still challenging and potentially lethal.

Asked why so many of his photos show near perfect weather, Mr England says he is busiest when the outside conditions are at their most spectacular.

The tweeting pilot does not rely on sophisticated and expensive camera

equipment. ''A lot of my best shots have been stills on a handheld GoPro,'' he said. ''I also have a Panasonic Lumix digital compact that I use a lot. I have taken my big DSLR with me and the results are good. I think I have an eye for framing a shot but but most of what I do is point and shoot.''

The photograph can become a factor when it is time to set down however. ''I remember landing on top of a waterfall on the Tuross River - there was nowhere else to set down - and the result was an awesome photo.''

But the pictures are incidental to the task at hand and Mr England is always conscious of the risks. ''There was a big cold snap in October 2012,'' he said.

''The morning after, we were called out to two beacon rescues. One was from a group of Duke of Edinburgh Awards hikers in the national park. All we knew [from the beacon] was where they were and that it was a school group.

''As we flew down the valley to get to them the weather was still marginal and it was snowing. Conditions in the mountains can change very quickly.''

Follow Bryce on Twitter: @BryceEngland15