A former RAF pilot has rekindled an old love affair by taking a trip on the world’s shortest flight on Orkney.
Peter Hicks, 92, made the trip between Westray and Papa Westray yesterday afternoon on board the Loganair operated Britten-Norman BN-2 Islander.
And while the Orkney trip lasts on average just 90 seconds, Mr Hicks has logged many thousands of air miles in the aircraft all over the world.
After ending his RAF career in 1967, he turned his flying skills to the private sector, including taking a job delivering new Islanders all over the world from the Britten-Norman company’s base at Bembridge on the Isle of Wight in the early 1970s.
This included trips to China and Japan in the Far East and a dramatic flight at 22,000ft around the slopes of Mount Everest for a delivery in Nepal.
And while yesterday’s flight in the Orkneys was just 1.7 miles from take-off to landing, Mr Hicks said he was delighted to have been offered the chance to take o the skies again.
He said: “I seem to remember that Loganair was the first customer that every bought one of the Islanders so that it makes it very special to come up here for this flight.
“I’ve been all over the world with this plane so it holds a very special place in my heart. In fact I think I’ve been pretty much everywhere except the USA with it.
“I’ve been looking forward very much to seeing it again.”
Many of Mr Hicks’ flights involved stripping out seats to fit extra fuel tanks and oil drums so the light aircraft could make the long haul journeys
The pilot retired to the Kyle of Tongue in Sutherland in 1984 after spending much of his later career working as a flight instructor and flying short-haul commercial flights around the UK.
The distance linking the two islands is shorter than the runway at Edinburgh Airport and has been confirmed by the Guinness Book of Records as being the shortest scheduled flight in the world.