CHAMPION pilot Tony Hughes says he is proud of one of his students who managed a perfect emergency landing when he suffered engine problems near Beckhampton on Saturday.

Peter Reading, 47, from Chippenham, was flying solo in final preparation for his pilot's licence when he got into trouble close to Wiltshire Microlight Centre at Yatesbury run by Mr Hughes.

He managed to land the 2005 Ikarus C-42 FB80 two seater aircraft in a field and walk away unscathed. Emergency vehicles were not called but two passing off-duty police officers saw what happened and gave Mr Reading, who works for Airbus, a lift back to Yatesbury.

Yesterday Mr Reading, a former RAF engineer at Lyneham, said that his training kicked in as soon as he heard a loud buzzing sound coming from the engine.

He said: "I hadn't long taken off when I heard a noise and then it became worse. I had turned back to Yatesbury but then I realised I was going to have to make an emergency landing. It isn't something you expect to happen but you train for all the time.

"I managed to stay calm and focused and luckily I knew the field as Tony and I had trained over it a few days before. I turned the engine off and glided in. Actually it was one of the best landings I have ever done.

"When I stopped the adrenalin just kicked in and I realised what might have been."

He decided to wait to tell his wife Tara and 10-year-old daughter about his lucky escape until he got home. He said: "I thought it best to wait so she could see I was safe."

Ironically the only injury he sustained was when he and Mr Hughes went back to inspect the aircraft and he cut his leg on barbed wire surrounding the field.

Former RAF pilot Mr Hughes, who in the 1980s won the European and World open hang gliding championships, said: "He had a slight issue with the engine but carried out an emergency landing perfectly.

"I like to think it was down to our good training methods. It is the first time in 7,000 hours of training flights we have had an incident that has shut an engine down.

"I am very proud of the way he reacted. He should have no problem with that section of his test when it comes along. He has been learning with us for a couple of years and is quite a cool cookie.

"It was only a couple of miles from where he landed to our airfield and he arrived back accompanied by two off-duty police officers who had stopped to make sure he was alright."

Mr Reading says the scare has not put him off doing his pilot's licence and hopes to take the test within the next few weeks.