Ryan Campbell

“I will never forget my first flight, the feeling of being pushed back in the seat, the rumbling that suddenly turned into silence. It fascinated me then, it does now.”

When Ryan Campbell was six, he fell in love with aeroplanes. Inspired by his first flight, and his uncle and grandfather who were both aviators, flying was a passion that dominated his childhood. It was no surprise to his family and friends when at 15 Ryan became the youngest pilot in Australia. Then he found a challenge that spoke to him more than the rest…

In Born to Fly, Ryan recounts his remarkable journey from a boy  with a dream to becoming, at age 19, the youngest person ever to circumnavigate the globe solo in a single-engine aircraft.

Drawing on the advice of renowned aviators such as Dick Smith, Jim Hazelton (‘a man who has more hours adjusting his seat in a plane than I do total flying time’) and mentor Ken Evers, Ryan fundraised and planned with great determination, before finally setting out on his thrilling 70-day odyssey, landing 34 times in 15 countries and covering more than 24,000 nautical miles.

From his wings icing up over Greenland’s glaciers to a heart-stopping moment in the midst of Indonesian airspace; abuse from an airport official in Greece, to awe at the sight of molten lava entering the Pacific, this real-life adventure story shares with us the dry-mouthed terror and heady exhilaration of flying alone with only one engine.

Born to Fly is a fascinating view of the world from above from an inspiring young Australian.

'The most extraordinary aviation adventure of the decade. A great story in the spirit of Charles Kingsford-Smith and Bert Hinkler.’ - Dick Smith