Flying Blind to Australia: The Astounding Story of the Microlight Flight of a Blind Man and Sighted Pilots from the UK to Sydney

At 23.00 hours on a wintry Sunday evening in March 2007, a blind man called Miles Hilton Barber telephoned Brian Milton and asked: ‘Would you be my “sighted” pilot on a microlight flight to Australia, starting at 9 o’clock tomorrow morning?’

Miles, known as MHB, was the son of a wartime Rhodesian fighter pilot. He had been blind for twenty—five years, but made his living taking on improbable adventures, funded by giving inspirational talks to corporate sponsors. The original ‘sighted’ pilot,...