Little Owen Swift reached for the skies in a bid to raise awareness of a Teesside hospice.
The five-year-old, from Coulby Newham, caught a flight to Carlisle yesterday in a six-seater light aircraft.
His mission was to pass on a baton, which is making its way around the British Isles in a hospice awareness campaign.
The youngster was flying the flag for the Butterwick Children's Hospice, where he is a patient. Owen suffers from transverse myelitis, a rare neurological condition that affects around one in a million people. The disease means he is unable to sit down or stand unaided.
Shortly before take-off, the Pennyman School pupil sat in the cockpit and was shown the controls by the captain, Gary Oldfield.
