Before his retirement, Brian worked as a pilot for a company called (9)______ for a long time. Brian feels like a bird when fl

Interviewer: Now, today I have with me Brian Cole ford and he’s someone who spends a lot of time up in the air in that smallest of aircraft, the micro light. Hallo Brian.
Brian:  Hallo.
Interviewer:   But it’s more than just a hobby, isn’t it?
Brian:  Oh yes, I learned to fly when I was at university and I worked as a British Airways pilot for many years until my retirement. These days I spend a lot of my time helping people who want to learn how to fly a micro light, as well as other types of aircraft, at a local flying club.
Interviewer:  Tell us about the micro light
Brian:  Well, it’s like a very small aircraft, which is powered by an engine. The thing with micro light flying is that it’s the closest you can get to actually feeling like a bird because you’re out in the open air, there’s no cabin or anything around you.
Interviewer:  Oh I see ...
Brian:  And although it’s powered, the way it’s controlled is by moving your own weight, you steer it by moving your body one way or another.
Interviewer:  So you have to lean over like you would on a motorbike?
Brian:  You don’t lean really, you actually have to push. So you have to be quite fit especially for a long flight.
Interviewer:  Which brings us on to the other thing which I know about you and that is that you’ve recently broken a world record. Tell us about that.
Brian:  Well, it involved flying over four continents because I left from London and flew over Europe, Africa and Asia on the way to Australia. No one had ever done that before in a micro light.
Interviewer:  The organisation for a long flight must be very difficult indeed, Brian. Surely you didn’t do it all on your own?
Brian:  Yes, I had no helpers. It was a matter of planning my route in advance and finding out where I’d be able to get fuel en route and knowing how far I could plan to travel safely each day.
Interviewer:  So how far can you travel on one tank of fuel?
Brian:  Well, I had a special fuel tank fitted -- that was the only way in which my micro light was modified for the flight. So that meant I had enough fuel to be able to do about eight hours. The actual distance I covered depended on the winds, of course, but the still-air distance was round about 500 miles a day. It took nine months to plan the 49-day flight, and for each leg I filed a flight plan so that each airport I would land at knew that I was on the way, and if I didn’t arrive within half an hour of the time I’d stated, then they’d have started looking for me.
Interviewer:  Yes I’m sure that’s very necessary. What radio, if any, did you have?
Brian:  Yes; I had a two-way VHF radio, but the range of that was only 70 miles, so there was a lot of time when I was out of radio contact with anybody. I crossed thousands of miles of desert and mountain which is quite dangerous, of course, should anything go wrong, and 5,000 miles of the trip was over the sea, which is even more so.
Interviewer:  So how did you find your way?
Brian:  Well, I had a navigation system which uses satellite signals. It was really easy to use and, I must say, very accurate. I couldn’t say I had any problems in knowing where I was or which way I was going.
Interviewer:  And what sort of protection did you have? I mean, you weren’t just dangling in the cold air, were you?
Brian:  Yeah, I just wear a warm flying suit and warm clothes underneath. The coldest was going over the Alps, it was minus 28 degrees there, because I was quite high up. But actually feeling tired was my real problem because it was often dark by the time I landed and I was leaving again at first light. I was never hungry because I was met by such great hospitality everywhere I went. Although sadly i didn’t get to see much of the places I visited.
Interviewer:  Well, Brian, many congratulations. It’s a wonderful achievement and thank you very much for coming in today and talking about ...