GUY LEITCH
YOUNGEST SOLO
AROUND-THE-WORLD Travis Ludlow, the youngest pilot to fly solo around the world, has strong South African roots. However, his epic around the world flight in a Cessna C172 almost skipped Africa completely.
Travis's final route had to incorporate zigzags to cover the required distance.
EVERY BOY HAS a passion for planes or trains, then computer games, and then maybe girls – or whatever. But for Travis, it was always planes. Travis’s love of flying started when he was four years old; never going to sleep without reading something from his stack of aeroplane magazines by his bed. Since then, he watched every TV programme and YouTube video to do with flying and can tell you the cause of every accident on every episode of ‘Air Crash Investigation’.
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August 2021
He had his first gliding lesson at the age of 12 and was reckoned to be a ‘natural pilot’. Travis flew his power aircraft solo the day after his 16th birthday and went on to his PPL at 17, before he could legally drive. He had to wait until the morning of his 17th birthday to pick up his licence from the CAA. He then flew to the US the next day to do his Instrument Rating. He is a young man with passion and talents to spare: he became a junior kickboxing champion and went on to do the Henley Triathlon – on a unicycle.
