 Steve Cunningham set off from Biggin Hill airport on Monday |
A father-of-two who lost his sight at the age of 12 has completed the first leg of his bid to fly a plane around the UK. Steve Cunningham, 41, of Banbury, Oxfordshire, took off on the five-day trip at 0910 BST on Monday from Biggin Hill airport in Kent.
He has a co-pilot but is in full control of the plane.
A spokeswoman said he was "a little bit apprehensive" before the first leg to Newcastle, which took four hours.
His arrival followed an impromptu 30-minute stop at Sheffield to check computer software and to refuel.
He said: "It's going very well considering I have never flown in commercial traffic.
"Over London the cloud was low and visibility was not the best but it was still better than mine."
There was a slight wind at Biggin Hill as he set off on his daring challenge, but conditions were described as good.
 |  Losing my sight at the age of 12 was not fun - I had to change, but I can prove that change can be healthy  |
A spokeswoman told BBC News Online: "Steve has been working towards this challenge and training for seven years and is very much looking forward to it."
Mr Cunningham has broken records for the fastest blind man on land and water and is also captain of the England Blind Football Team.
The software in the four-seater Piper Warrior light plane will allow Mr Cunningham to receive constant updates on the plane's height, position and speed at the touch of a button.
His co-pilot will act as a look-out and check that the information from the computer is correct.
The pair went up in last week's storms to make sure they were up to the challenge.
Mr Cunningham said that sighted pilots needed to be able to fly "blind" through clouds and at night so his challenge was not too different from normal flying.
He explained: "You don't fly an aircraft on what you can see, you fly an aircraft on the information that you are getting back from the control panel."
Mr Cunningham developed glaucoma at the age of eight and within four years he was totally blind.
He said: "Losing my sight at the age of 12 was not fun. I had to change but I can prove that change can be healthy.
Latest record
"I am far more successful now than I would have been."
In 1999, he became the fastest blind man on land when he achieved an average speed of more than 147mph driving a Chrysler Dodge Viper on a Leicestershire airfield.
In September 2000, he set a new offshore powerboat record in the English Channel off Bournemouth.
Mr Cunningham is the latest blind pilot to attempt a record this year.
In May, Miles Hilton-Barber and his co-pilot set a new British microlight altitude record when they soared 20,020 feet above Northumberland
Mr Cunningham and his co-pilot are due to leave Newcastle for Glasgow on the second leg of the trip on Tuesday morning.
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