UK pilot spells I'm bored in sky during test flight

A pilot in the United Kingdom used a routine test flight on Saturday, July 11, 2026, to spell out the words "I'm bored" in the sky above the Dee estuary. The message was created by the flight path of a Ravenair Piper Tomahawk light aircraft and was captured by the online flight-tracking service Flightradar24.

The aircraft took off from Liverpool Airport at approximately 11:30 a.m. local time for a planned two-hour flight. The purpose was to test the engine following maintenance, specifically the replacement of a cylinder. The flight traveled over areas including the Wirral peninsula, Cheshire, and north Wales before the pilot spent roughly 20 minutes meticulously tracing the two-word message in a series of loops over the water between Talacre and Greenfield. The plane flew at an altitude of about 335 meters (1,100 feet) and at speeds just under 100 knots before landing back on Merseyside around 1:30 p.m.

Ravenair confirmed that the pilot was a flying instructor in his 20s who had been assigned the post-maintenance test run. The airline's operations manager, Wayne Barrett, told the BBC that the pilot would not face any punishment for the unsanctioned route. "I think the pilot was...