Somewhere over Greenland John Tomlinson knew he’d made a horrible mistake.

The air flowing into his vintage Cessna was below zero, and he’d only brought a fleece jacket for the 6,000-mile journey to Bermuda.

“When I first left Bermuda to pick up the plane in Europe, it was summer and I didn’t give any thought to what it would be like to fly over the Arctic,” said Mr Tomlinson (right).

In fact, the air outside was 0°F. The cabin, not airtight, was heated by air flowing over the plane’s not very hot engine.

“In the end, I put the balaclava from my survival kit on,” said Mr Tomlinson. “There were tiny icicles forming in the air of the cabin. It was the equivalent of spending four hours at a bus stop in Vermont in a snowstorm.”

Last September, Mr Tomlinson bought a 1970s single engine Cessna 172 in Brussels, Belgium. The CEO and president of Bermuda General Agency (BGA) and Pitt & Co, wanted a plane to practice for his pilot’s licence, a long-held dream. The trick was getting his toy back to Bermuda.

He will be sharing the story of this incredible journey across nine countries tonight at the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute (BUEI).

“I hired an adventure travel company called Prepare2Go which handled all the details of the journey, such as hotel bookings and ground transportation,” said Mr Tomlinson. “There was a tracker on our plane so they always knew where we were. They provided a flight instructor to sit in the passenger seat.”

Mr Tomlinson, and his instructor, 26-year-old Gaetano Sucato, flew from Brussels to Wick, Scotland, to the Faroe Islands and then over Iceland and Greenland and into Canada, and down to Bangor, Maine. The final leg to Bermuda left from Norfolk, Virginia.

The most dangerous part was the northern route over Iceland and Greenland, and many old aviation salts warned them against it. They worried about possible Cessna engine failure, but Mr Tomlinson decided that engine failure could happen with any engine. “It was a bit disconcerting, though” Mr Tomlinson said.

The landscape along the way was often inhospitable and unpopulated without many resources for an emergency.

The plane didn’t carry much fuel so conditions had to be calculated very carefully. A strong headwind could add hours to their flight time and use up fuel reserves.

“It is all weather dependent and particularly wind dependent when you are dealing with a light aircraft with little power and little capability to climb through the atmosphere,” he said. “You can get up to about 14,000ft in a Cessna, but there is no oxygen and it gets very cold.”

Once they left Wick they quickly left the commonplace behind.

“The landscape was extraordinarily harsh and prehistoric,” he said. “Iceland was volcanic rock and ice, and a little mountainous. Greenland was extremely mountainous with sharp, jagged rocks.

“It quickly changed to an ice cap at 10,000ft. That covered most of Greenland until we got to the other side. Then it dissolved into sharp, rocky mountains, lakes and fiords.

“They had cleverly carved out strategic airports around the edge of Greenland.”

One hair-raising moment came when they found an erupting Icelandic volcano directly in their flight path. “Fortunately, the wind was southwesterly and we were coming south of the volcano so all the smoke and debris was drifting away in a different direction,” he said. “It was interesting to see.”

His instructor’s expertise was in meteorology.

“I learnt a lot from him,” said Mr Tomlinson. “He was completed committed to the field of aviation.”

The only time Mr Sucato got a little nervous was when they started out over the Atlantic from Virginia to Bermuda.

“It was over 600 miles and he’d never done this leg before,” said Mr Tomlinson. “It was nerve wracking for him. It was a singularly long distance in a one-engine aircraft with a requirement for additional fuel.”

When they finally burst through the clouds and saw Bermuda below, they were amused to hear radio chatter from other aircraft in the area.

“We are all on the same frequency,” he said. “We could hear a hospital aircraft talking with a passenger jet. They were confused by what a Cessna was doing landing in Bermuda.”

Mr Tomlinson has dreamed of flying since childhood, but didn’t have any real opportunity until a few years ago when he signed up with a flight school in Florida.

“I wouldn’t call this a midlife crisis,” he said. “I have come to the conclusion it is worthwhile having adventure experiences.” He has been on many diving and swimming excursions and plans to swim the English channel this summer with a group of friends to raise money for Bermuda charities.

Getting his pilot’s licence is a little complicated. Additional hours need to be logged including a successful solo cross-country flight involving landing at multiple airports.

“This cross-country leg cannot be done in Bermuda as we only have one airport,” said Mr Tomlinson. “I have 28 hours of official ‘registered’ flight time so far and have yet to fly solo.

“Unfortunately, the 63 hours in the journey from Europe don’t count as ‘official hours under instruction’ as the pilot instructor is a European instructor and the aircraft is American registered.”

He hopes to concentrate on that this summer. His Cessna is now lodged with Longtail Aviation in St George.

Visitors can book it for a tour of the Island through Blue Sky Flights.

• Mr Tomlinson’s speaks tonight at 7.30pm at the BUEI in the Tradewinds Auditorium. Tickets are $20 for members and $25 for non-members, and available by calling 294-0204 or visiting BUEI’s Oceans Gift Shop.

• To book a tour call Pete Wilson at Longtail Aviation at 300-0092 or see www.blueskyflights.bm