Berkshire-based teenager close to setting aviation world record
18-year-old Travis Ludlow will shortly become the youngest person to fly solo around the world
Last updated 12th Jul 2021
A teenage pilot - based in Berkshire - is coming to the end of a record-breaking solo round the world flight.
18-year-old Travis Ludlow will become the youngest pilot to ever achieve the feat when he arrives back in Berkshire at the weekend.
He spoke to us at 11,000 ft - midway between Iceland and Scotland - and described the precautions he was taking in case he had to ditch in the North Atlantic:
"Right now I'm wearing a bright orange immersion suit it's watertight and keeps me warm if I ever have to ditch in the sea as well as that I'm wearing a life jacket and next to me I've got an inflatable raft and it's all set up so I can punch it out the door and jump into it and avoid getting wet"
Along the way Travis has caught up with friends and supporters, and has even taken a detour to visit fans in Donegal after he was forced to change his planned route at the last moment!
Travis took off from White Waltham near Maidenhead at the end of May and will have flown around 24,000 miles by the end of his adventure.
He says flying across Russia was his highlight but he also enjoyed a few circuits of a well known monument in New York!
"I couldn't see anything out of the window so I wasn't sure if I'd hit terrain or not"
But he says there have been scary moments including a night flight over mountains in the United States when his plane was hit by freak winds:
"I just start drooping out of the sky, I dropped 2000ft below the minimum safe altitude I couldn't see anything out of the window so I wasn't sure if I'd hit terrain or not so I instantly turned around without even asking permission from air traffic control and luckily air traffic control got me out of the situation and were a huge help, that was definitely very frightening"
Travis now has a few legs to complete in Europe before landing at White Waltham to be greeted by his father Nick who has helped co-ordinate and organise the record-breaking flight.
You can follow Travis on Twitter and find out more on his website