Adventurous flyer Nick Staunton is solo flying over Africa in an open cockpit gyrocopter for charity.

The 54 year old chartered surveyor and farmer from Stanton St Bernard, near Marlborough has taken to skies above Africa and intends to fly across 10 countries over the next 6 weeks.

Mr Staunton has already encountered hungry tyre eating cheetahs and serious mechanical malfunctions but is back on track to cover 6,000 miles in the air.

It is a genuine solo voyage with neither air nor ground support, and no autopilot in the autogyro.

Mr Staunton said: “People have been incredibly kind and welcoming. A stranger at the airport even met me and allowed me to stay with him overnight.

“You are travelling on top of the world there is nobody in the sky no people on the ground, you have the space all to yourself. The majesty of the area is really enormous. The air is so clear you can see for 50 miles. Flying over Namibia was a definite highlight.”

Sharing stories with his children whenever he has an internet connection, Mr Staunton said William 11, Henry, 8 and Guy 18 months have all loved hearing tales about the African animals he has encountered which included spotting a crocodile on a runway.

The trip nearly came to a dramatic end when the chartered serveyor had to attempt to prevent a windshield from ripping off and falling into the gyro’s propellers. The windshield became detached in three places and as it flapped against the force of the air, he began to notice it ripping.

If the windshield had snapped off as he flew over Namibia’s rocky terrain, Mr Staunton said it would be “disastrous”.

He added: “Fortunately I could slow the gyro right down until I could land and get it fixed. It was concerning but we have encountered much worse mechanical problems, however now we have had five days with no problems.”

The chartered surveyor has been planning this trip for over two years and will be travelling for another 6 weeks.

One aspect of the trip he didn’t bank on was the taste for plane tyres that local cheetahs and honey badgers had and Mr Staunton even had to use barbed wire and thick bushes to protect his vehicle overnight. Chicken wire and sand was used in Botswana to stop the animals from ripping through his tyres during the night.

The planned route will take him over some of Africa's most beautiful scenery including the Namib Desert, Skeleton Coast, Okavango Delta, Victoria Falls, Zambezi River, Serengeti, Mount Kilimanjaro, Masai Mara, the River Nile and the Great Pyramids.

Mr Staunton is covering all the expedition costs himself and has currently raised £8,000 for Railway Children, an international charity working with street children in East Africa, India and the UK.

Read the blog and donate to the charity by visiting: https://www.gyroafrica.org/