THE first blind person to attempt to fly a plane around the UK landed safely in the North-East on the first leg of his flight yesterday.

Steve Cunningham, 41, who landed at Newcastle Airport after setting off from Biggin Hill airport, in Kent, on the Orange Hat-Trick Challenge, was in full control of the plane - with the help of a computer and co-pilot.

Mr Cunningham has already broken records for the fastest blind man on land and water. He is also captain of the England blind football team.

He said: "The hat-trick was always set up to do land, sea and air, and I knew I could do land and I knew I could do sea, but this has been the biggest challenge."

Mr Cunningham said sighted pilots were required to be able to fly blind through clouds and at night, so his challenge was not too different from normal flying.

He said: "I initially struggled with keeping balance and my orientation, because flying by instrumentation my body is telling me I am flying straight when I could be flying right or left.

"But I have developed more of an awareness of the aircraft and am flying by my bum."

He said the software in the four-seater Piper Warrior light plane, developed by Kevin Horne, allowed him to get constant voice updates on the plane's height, position and speed.

His co-pilot Vincent Coultan said: "The equipment was a little bit oversensitive on the flight up - asking him to do things which at that moment were unnecessary.

"We will smooth that out now before we continue o Glasgow, Belfast, Cardiff and then White Waltham."

Mr Cunningham, of Banbury, Oxfordshire, developed glaucoma at the age of eight and within four years was totally blind.

In 1999, he became the fastest blind man on land when he achieved an average speed of more than 147mph driving a Chrysler Dodge Viper on a Leicestershire airfield.

In September 2000, he set a new offshore powerboat record in the English Channel off Bournemouth.

His flight is raising funds for the Royal Institute of the Blind and British Deaf Association, both partners of Orange Community Futures, a programme aimed at enabling people to parti-cipate more fully in society.