High-flying teenager Oliver Carley has learned to pilot a plane - before he can drive a car.

The Ilkley Grammar School pupil feels more at home with a bird's eye view of distant traffic jams as he sits at the controls of an aeroplane thousands of feet up in the air.

Oliver has become one of less than a dozen 17-year-olds in the country to have gained a private pilot's licence.

He has been a member of the 1224 (Wharfedale) Squadron Air Cadets since he was 13 and obsessed with flying, said his mum, Jill, 43. "He lives and breathes aeroplanes and flying," she said.

People have to wait until they are 16 before they are allowed to take flying lessons - and Oliver could not fly solo until he turned 17 in October.

Because he was so determined to fly, Oliver and his parents paid half each for the lessons. Oliver has worked part-time as a waiter at the Cow and Calf public house, Hangingstone Road, to earn extra money. As part of his test he had to fly from Leeds-Bradford Airport to Newcastle Airport, then Teeside Airport and then back to Leeds-Bradford, navigating all the way and liaising with air traffic control.

Mrs Carley, of Burley Woodhead, admits to being a little nervous when Oliver goes up on his own in the single-engine Robin plane.

She said: "I can't bear the thought of watching - he flies right above us and I think it's just amazing he can do that."

Oliver said: "I don't feel nervous at all - you are in control because you are flying it. If the engine stops you can just glide down and do an emergency landing in a field."

Oliver is not the only member of the family to have a pilot's licence. Four years ago his grandfather Peter Wilson, now 65, of Eldwick, also qualified using the same flying school - Multiflight Ltd.