AN amateur pilot has now travelled halfway round the world in a plane he built in a Lower Wield chicken shed 20 years ago.

Colin Hales, 46, was working as an aircraft engineer at Lasham Gliding Society when he built the Rans KR-2, which is only 14 feet long. In 2001, he flew it to Australia and his dream of flying around the world was born.

Colin is currently in Blagoveshchensk, Russia, on the border with China, trying to obtain the visas necessary for him to continue his round-the-world flight in the diminutive two-seater aircraft.

The only equipment he has on board are spare fuel tanks in the passenger seat, and a folding bicycle which he uses to explore some of the countries he lands in.

When he set off on his journey in 2014 Colin, who now lives in Staffordshire, initially crossed the Atlantic via Iceland and Greenland before reaching Alaska in September last year.

He obtained permission to enter Russian airspace this month – the first amateur-built aircraft ever to do so.

If he gets permission to fly over China he plans to go on to Thailand and parts of Asia before making his way back across Europe to reach the UK next summer to be re-united with his “long-suffering” girlfriend.

His friend, Afandi Darlington, who lives in Shalden, said he is in constant touch with Colin, who built the plane for £8,000 from a set of plans and is funding the trip himself.

“He doesn’t have any sponsors,” said Afandi. “He learned to fly at a flying school in Oxford, so he was ready to take off once the plane was finished.

“He did have a bit of trouble getting permission to fly over Russia but somehow he did it and so far things are going well.

“I think the really dangerous moment on the trip was when he was flying from the Faroe Islands to Iceland and got trapped in cloud.

“As it is such a small plane he isn’t allowed to fly in clouds or after dark so he had to come down really low to keep flying and it was lucky he didn’t touch the sea.”

Mr Darlington said he wasn’t sure if Colin would come back to the Alton area to live but that he would “certainly call in at Lasham to give a talk to the gliding club”.