Teenager Ben Bowker passed his pilot's licence on his 17th birthday
He said: “I have always felt confident in the pilot seat and more excited than nervous, but the studying was a lot of hard work given that all my friends where chilling out after our GCSEs.
“I’ve spent thousands of pounds of my savings on learning to fly and after finishing my A-Levels hope I can join the RAF as a fighter pilot.”
But there is little time for celebration as Ben is working towards taking his car driving test in the coming weeks – which he thinks will be as hard as flying a plane.
His flying instructor at Merseyflight, based at Liverpool’s John Lennon Airport, said he had never known of anyone so young getting a licence.
Neil Hazelhurst said: “It’s very rare to get a licence at 17 and in my 20 years of flying and 10 years as an instructor I’ve never known it. Ben was very confident from the start and he flew really well. He’s a great pilot and that’s why he got his licence. I hope he reaches his RAF dream.”
