A FORMER RAF radar operator, now living in Ledbury, has achieved his dream of flying a Spitfire, at the tender age of 81.

Bryan Withers, of the Deer Park estate, was living the dream last weekend at Duxford, when he was taken up in a vintage dual control MK IX Spitfire and allowed to take control for a while.

Mr Withers said: "It was the first time with me holding the stick!"

Afterwards, with pilot Barry Hughes taking over again, Mr Withers experienced the thrill of a victory roll and a low level run at speed.

Mr Withers said: "The victory roll frightened me to death!"

But he wouldn't have missed it for the world.

He said: "This was just my dream. I was going to do it last year, for my 80th birthday, but I chickened out."

Mr Withers said that under the pilot's instruction, he could not do anything wrong, and he said that while the Spitfire exuded a sense of power, it was very positive at the controls.

Mr Withers decided to get into the cockpit because he lost his wife four years ago and wanted to achieve his dream while he was still able to do so.

But the Ledbury pensioner is no stranger to aircraft, having served with the RAF on ground radar for 22 years, with postings to Aden, Malta, Germany, Scotland and Malvern, until he retired from active service in 1980.

When he retired from the RAF, Lightings and Phantom jets were still the front line fighters, at the height of the Cold War, when Soviet "Bear" bombers were regular, sinister visitors, flying over the North Sea.

Mr Withers said: It was very exciting. On a lot of occasions we were chasing the Russians round."

But in all that time, the dream remained of flying an aircraft from an earlier time: the World War Two Supermarine Spitfire, and now that is one tick on Mr Withers' bucket list.

The cost was £2750, which Mr Withers said was "worth every penny".