Byron Waller, accompanied by instructor but doing all the flying, stops off in England on way round back to Australia
At 15 years and 10 months of age, Byron Waller can’t order a pint and has never driven a car, but on Wednesday afternoon he landed his small plane at an airport in Brighton, on England’s south coast. It was the 16th or so stop (he can’t quite remember) of a remarkable airborne odyssey that he hopes will make him the youngest supported pilot to fly around the world.
The adventure began at his home in Brisbane, Australia, four weeks ago and has taken the teenager across the Indian Ocean and through the Middle East to Europe, from where he will venture around the other half of the globe back home. Though he is accompanied by an instructor – global aviation rules not easily permitting children to fly around the world on their own – Byron does all the flying of their tiny single-engined Sling TSi aircraft.
They spend the flights – the longest of which so far was a 10-hour stretch from Singapore to Sri Lanka – chatting, calling family or occasionally listening to music, if he can get it to work, the teenager told the Guardian.
What’s on the playlist? “Normally a good bit of Top Gun towards the start of the cruise, and then go into something else. I like to have it quiet for takeoff and landing, just so you can hear air traffic control and stuff.”
