MARCUS Gayle may be still at school - but the young daredevil has just completed his first solo flight.

He took to the skies just two days after his 16th birthday the age at which a pilot is allowed to fly alone.

It's an extraordinary achievement for the youngster, who only took up gliding a year ago.

Marcus said: "It was great. It was something I had been looking forward to from the moment I started.

"It was a completely different feeling knowing I was responsible. I had a great sense of freedom."

The Stamford School pupil took up the hobby to complete his Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Award scheme.

And his progress has been so rapid that his experienced instructors have been amazed.

One day he hopes to fly jet fighters and he intends to apply to the RAF for a scholarship to fund his sixth form and university education.

He has already won a place on an RAF advanced gliding course this summer.

But for now going up, up and away is just a welcome diversion from his GCSEs.

Marcus, of Priory Gardens, Stamford, said: "It is a release.

"There is no exam pressure up there. I forget all about it because there is so much else to concentrate on. It can really relieve the stress."

Bille Baker, a member of Spalding Gliding Club, where Marcus learned to fly, said: "He has done brilliantly. He was ready to go solo well before his 16th birthday, but that is the youngest you can fly alone.

"It is very rare for someone so young to fly solo. Marcus is one of the few who has managed to achieve it in one year.

"He is now in a bizarre situation he can fly, but he cannot drive a car."

The gliding club takes four 15-year-olds each year and trains them for free in return for them doing odd jobs around the airfield.