I read this today in a local newspaper, The Yorkshire Post, and thought it was pretty amazing; you have to be at least 17 in the UK to drive a car by the way

Sky's the limit for schoolgirl who's flying helicopters solo, aged just 16


AT an age when most teenagers are beginning to dream about getting their wheels, schoolgirl Hannah Sanders is buzzing around the skies of East Yorkshire – in a helicopter.
Alexandra Wood
Hannah is thought to have become Europe's youngest solo girl flyer when she took to the air on her 16th birthday – a year before she can legally drive a car.
Now the girl with ambitions to fly the new Apache attack helicopter is on track to get her pilot's licence within the year.
Hannah, from Lelley, near Hull, started flying in January this year and took just eleven-and-a-half hours training to reach her goal – beating her father Paul, who started flying helicopters three years ago, by an hour.
The Civil Aviation Authority has put 16 as the minimum age at which a person can fly solo, and Hannah was only pipped at the post by Olivia Crowe of West Palm Beach, Florida, who completed her first solo flight, also on her 16th birthday, in August.
Hannah said: "I wasn't really interested until after Christmas, because I had my horses and it was my dad's thing.
"But after Christmas I just wanted to do something different, something challenging. I told my dad and he was quite surprised as I hadn't shown any interest.
"But I wanted to prove to myself I could do something different.''
The Hull Grammar School pupil, whose younger brother Toby also wants to fly, said: "I would have loved to have been the first but I am very proud to be the first in Europe."
She can now look forward to taking her friends on a special day out in her dad's Schweizer 300 helicopter: "Some say they wouldn't do it, but others ask me if I am going to take them to Paris. I say yes when I get my licence. I would love to take everyone out and take them places.''
Hannah, instructed by ex-Army pilot Captain Iain King, did three circuits of Beverley Linley Airfield during her first solo flight. She now has to clock up another 45 hours before she can get her pilot's licence.
Proud father Paul, who runs a recruitment agency, said: "She was just determined she wanted to do it on her 16th birthday. She is a very determined young girl and I am sure she will go on to fly fast jets or helicopters with the Army or RAF.''
30 October 2004