Teenager Elijah Ball has become the latest young Bermudian to earn his pilot’s licence.

He qualified on February 27, 13 days after he turned 17.

His examiner, Thomas Taylor, had never taught someone so young.

“He said most people he taught were in their twenties,” Elijah said.

His father, Vic Ball, believes Elijah could be the youngest Bermudian to gain his wings.

The teenager fell in love with planes at the age of 10 on a family holiday to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.

“We took a pretty big plane,” he said. “I wanted to fly a plane like this one day. Ever since then, I was interested in planes.”

After the trip to Dubai, becoming a pilot was all Elijah talked about.

“He was researching stuff on his own,” his father said. “Then when he was 13, I introduced him to Bermudian pilot Tariq Lynch-Wade. He asked Elijah a few questions. When Elijah didn’t know the answer, Tariq sent Elijah away to research.”

When Elijah was 14, his father and mother, Katrina Ball, took him to a camp in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

“They had a little flying school there,” Elijah said. “I went to one of the instructors and did some one-on-one flying with them. I eventually got my student’s licence.”

For the next two years he went back and forth between Bermuda and Pennsylvania doing solo flight training out of a small executive airport in northeast Philadelphia.

His first flight instructor was Erica Carter. Later, he had a coach in Miami, Florida, called Christian Iriarte. A few months out from the test, he also took classes with the examiner, Thomas Taylor.

“For my first solo flight, as soon as my instructor left the plane I felt extremely nervous,” Elijah remembered. “I just flew up once and then landed again. I was finally flying by myself. Then I felt more comfortable.”

It has not always been easy pursuing a passion for planes on a small island such as Bermuda. Elijah has not met many people here who like planes as much as he does.

It also means that he cannot practise flying every day.

“I had to go up to the United States every few months, do a little bit of flying and come back,” he said.

When he did get to take lessons, he loved them.

“The view was great,” he said. “In the evening it is good to see the sunset when you are flying. You get to see aerial views of the city and the skyline.”

Piloting at night he would use GPS or his iPad to navigate.

The hardest thing about learning to fly was perfecting landings. “Once you learn to do it then it is fine,” Elijah said.

For his test flight, he flew from Miami to Naples, Florida. He had a ten to 15 knot crosswind on his final landing.

“I had to crab the plane into the wind and then land sideways to the runway,” he said.

His father said many people have asked him if he cried when his son qualified for his pilot’s licence.

“I did not,” he said. “But I was very, very proud of him.”

He also felt a little sad that his late father, Vic Ball Sr, was not able to witness Elijah’s achievement.

Part of getting his licence involved an oral test.

“I was extremely nervous going into it,” he said. “The examiner was asking me questions. I was trying to answer him. I got one or two questions wrong. I saw my examiner’s face and I thought I had failed. I was like ‘uh oh’, but afterwards he just explained it and we moved on.”

Later, with his pilot’s licence finally in hand he felt accomplished. “All those years I had put in since the age of 14 paid off,” he said.

His next step is to log in more flying hours doing instrument training. After that he will be looking at flight school or university. He does not know which one yet.

The path to this point has not been cheap. Lessons cost between $160 and $200 each, as well as the cost to fly back and forth to the US, hotel stays and food.

“It is also about the time it took for us to do this,” Mr Ball said.

Elijah’s dream is to fly big planes such as the Airbus A350 or the 777 300 he flew on to Dubai all those years ago.

“I like wide-body aircraft, but not the double-decker ones,” he said.

Although he is licensed to fly the friendly skies, he is not yet able to ride a motorcycle.

He is working on that.

“Most Bermudians at 16 are riding a bike,” Mr Ball said. “He was flying planes on his 16th birthday.”

Elijah thinks he is probably safer in the air than on the road.

“At least when you are flying there you have control tower telling you what to do,” he said.

He thanked everyone who had supported him on his journey including his parents, brother, Enoch, and other family and friends.