12 Year Old TV Star Phillip Flies at Redhill Aviation!

Today we were visited by 12 year old aviation addict Phillip, plus his family, for Phillip’s first air experience flight in a Cessna 152.

Young Phillip is fascinated by the RAF and the history of WWII and already has an impressive collection of model aircraft which he has painstakingly built and painted in his free time. Phillip hopes to become an historic aircraft engineer when he is older.

The eagle-eyed amongst you might recognise Phillip and his family from their recent appearance on CBBC’s “The Dengineers”, where Phillip was lucky enough to have a “Plane Den” built in the family’s back garden. We are all hugely jealous – Phillip’s den is modelled to look like a WWII Nissen Hut from the outside with a cylindrical roof. Inside, the den feels like a Spitfire from a special “cockpit” where Phillip can sit looking out over the garden and imagine he is flying over the British countryside. However, anyone looking inside the hut will also see the fuselage “ribs” imitating the inside of a Lancaster bomber. Two aircraft in one!

For anyone who hasn’t yet seen this programme, it is available on iPlayer until Monday 20 February, where you will also spot our favourite aerodrome café, "The Pilot’s Hub"!The iPlayer link can be found here.

Today, Phillip flew with our Chief Flying Instructor Laurance in C152, G-BMUO. Laurance and Phillip had much in common and plenty to talk about, as Laurance was also keen on building model aircraft as a young child!

As Phillip lives locally to Redhill, during his lesson he was able to fly right over the top of his house so that he could see his lovely den from the air (towards the top right of the picture below).

Not surprisingly, Phillip was a natural pilot and his lesson included:

• Climbing and descending
• Straight and level flight
• Turning left and right
• Trimming

Phillip took the controls from 1,200 feet after departure and continued flying until re-joining the circuit to land. The smile on his face afterwards says it all!

Very well done Phillip and we hope to see you again soon!