FLYING hundreds of miles south in his microlite aircraft to sunnier climes such as Italy is an annual event for paramedic Jon Ker.

But, fuelled by pints of beer in the pub one night, Mr Ker, who works for the Great North Air Ambulance, and his friends, came up with the idea of flying north instead - to the Arctic Circle on a fundraising flight.

He said: "By the next morning, we realised it would be freezing and it was a stupid idea.

"But we had committed ourselves by then and there was no going back."

Mr Ker and his co-pilot Eddie McCallum, both from Rothbury, in Northumberland, landed at Teesside Airport yesterday after a three-week, 4,500-mile microlite flight across the northernmost parts of Europe.

Along with fellow fliers Mark Riley and Martin Moseley, they travelled to Scotland, the Shetland Islands, Norway, the Arctic Circle, Finland, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia and Russia in two tiny two-seater motorised gliders.

On the route home, they came through Poland, Germany, Denmark and Holland.

The pilots were given rapturous welcomes in each country.

Mr Ker said: "Some of them could not believe that the microlite actually flew.

"Up there, it is cloudy, bumpy and windy. Sometimes it is nice, but it is very hard work, especially when it gets windy because you are tossed around the sky."

Mr Moseley, who accidently left his passport in Finland, was refused entry into Estonia and put in a holding cell by customs officials.

Mr Ker said: "He had to arrange for his passport to be flown to Helsinki, then he flew there in the microlite to pick it up.

"But he was arrested and fined £200 for leaving the country illegally, then finally he was able to rejoin us."

The fundraisers were also held up by Polish authorities, who refused to let them fly because of horrendous weather conditions, but eventually defied the advice and took off.

In Norway, one of the engines failed, forcing an emergency landing, and a burst radiator in Germany caused the pilots to make emergency repairs with a Swiss army knife to complete the flight back.

The crews travelled at about 60mph, and covered anywhere between 200 and 500 miles a day, depending on the weather.

They wore full survival suits while in the air and when they spent the night in the Arctic Circle.

Money raised will go to the Great North Air Ambulance, which costs, on average, £500 every time it is called out.

It is hoped the four crew will have raised up to £10,000.

Yesterday, Mr Ker's mother and father, Maureen and Les Ker, from Guisborough, North Yorkshire, watched him land. Their faces were a picture of relief.

Les said: "He has always been a bit of a daredevil. We have been worried about him because they have had terrible weather and those microlites rock about the sky when its windy."