YOUNGEST SOLO

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.

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’.

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.

His dream though had always been to fly solo around the world. It was delayed by Covid-19, but that allowed him to get more hours and more flying experience under his belt.

He finally took off on 29 May and landed back in the UK 44 days later, on 12 July. In doing so, aged just 18 years and 149 days, he set a new Guinness World Record with his 24,900-mile (40,072km) solo flight. He beat the previous record-holder – Mason Andrews, from Louisiana – who was 18 years and 163 days old when he completed his journey in October 2018.

His route, in his diesel engined 2001 Cessna 172R, took him across Europe, through Russia and America, before returning via Canada, Greenland and Iceland. There were 60 stops across nine countries. His route was entirely in the northern hemisphere, necessitating a number of large zig zags to cover the required 40,000 km distance.

He minimised overwater legs by traversing Russia from west to east and then into north America via Alaska. He had intended to go to South America, but Covid restrictions stopped that, so he flew zig-zag sectors in the southern USA to keep his distance up. He crossed into Europe on the northern route via Greenland and Iceland.

On completing his epic 'THIS IS SO COOL' journey he said, “For the first time in weeks I - THAT WAS don’t have to worry about getting up early, going to AWESOME bed late, difficult terrain and thunder storms.”

The BBC reports that the previous record-holder, Mason Andrews, said: "It's really the most dangerous and difficult thing you could do in a single-engine airplane. World records are made to be broken. I had the record. I don't get anything by continuing to hold the record so I'm more than willing to pass the torch on to the next generation."

Asked about his favourite moment, he said it was landing on a gravel track at Manley Hot Springs in Alaska. "I landed at 3am but it was still light," he said. One of the best things has been meeting the people who have been following the trip via his social media channels. "In Russia, everyone would come up to me and say, 'This is so cool' - that was awesome."

With his record having been verified and a Guinness Record certificate to prove it, he said his next ambition was to break the record for flying solo around the world in an electric aircraft.

Travis in the diesel engined Cessna C172.

His father Nick Ludlow said, “He had some difficult flights. He's had ice on the plane, he's had to turn around and there have been areas where he hasn't been able to land. You can plan... to the smallest detail - and then there will be weather - which everything changes in a very short space of time."

His South African mother, Loryn Ludlow, said for now she was just happy to have her son home. It was unbelievable, what he had achieved, she said, and the family was "so very, very proud."