A 16-YEAR-OLD girl has flown a glider solo.

Daisy Simmonds from Miles Drive, Clifton was joined by family at the Nene Valley Gliding Club, based at Upwood near Ramsey, Cambridgeshire to fly a K13 two seater glider.

Prior to the event the ex-Samuel Whitbred student had to undergo a series of mandatory check flights before she was cleared for the solo flight.

Current UK regulations state 16 is the earliest age to be permitted to take to the air solo.

Daisy has had a considerable gliding career despite her youth. With the direction of her grandfather, Roger Morrisroe Daisy’s first foray into glider flight was at the age of five, in the open cockpit T21 two seater with Roger at the helm.

Daisy’s ab-initio training began when she was 12.

Daisy said: “When I fly on my own I feel free and its a lot different on your own.” Daisy says it is important to have the right weather for flying and said it should be just warm and there should a bit of cloud in the sky.

Daisy is the the third generation in her family to have gained her ‘wings’.