29 June 2021
The irrepressible boss of Take Flight Aviation, Mike Roberts, has been out setting another world record with fellow pilot, Nick Rogers.
The pair set a new record for most UK counties visited in 24 hours earlier this month. The record has yet to be confirmed by Guinness World Records.
Mike Roberts said, “Nick, who is a commercial pilot, has had plenty of time on his hands during lockdown so he enjoyed planning the challenge while furloughed. I just showed up for the fun bit!”
The pair also hold the world record for the most countries visited in a day by aircraft, set in 2019 when they landed at 16 European destinations.
This time, they started at Perth Airport, Scotland at 3.55am and made their way south. They eventually stopped at Newquay, Cornwall 18 hours later at 9.50pm making a total of 50 full stop landings in 50 different UK counties.
Poor weather and low cloud in southern Scotland and northern England meant they were forced to drop two airfields and another in Wales was missed due to time constraints.
Airfields visited ranged from international airports like Birmingham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Prestwick and Liverpool down to farm strips and everything in between. The plane landed with only minutes to spare as the airfield had to be clear for 10pm – it was closing the following day for G7 arrivals.
Nick Rogers said, “Most of the people we contacted were incredibly supportive and it’s a shame we couldn’t stop and chat for more than a few seconds on the ground. We even had an enthusiastic chap turn out at 4am in the morning to greet us at one of our first landing sites.”
Many of the airfields waived their normal landing fees and the pair are donating the equivalent amount to various air ambulance charities across the UK, hoping to raise around £1,000.
The aircraft used was a Cessna 172 Skyhawk operated by Take Flight Aviation which is now based at Enstone Airfield.
The company allows members to hire aircraft with no minimum daily hours requirement which means club members can explore new destinations cost effectively and take the aircraft away for a day, weekend or week and only pay the hours they fly.
