Coronavirus: Wiltshire pilot honours wife with NHS sky message

Dominic Cross spent about 40 minutes in the air on Thursday doing "tight turns"

A pilot has honoured his NHS worker wife by writing a message in the skies above Wiltshire.

Dominic Cross, from Bromham, spent about 40 minutes in the air on Thursday doing "tight turns" over the Pewsey Vale tracing out the NHS.

Mr Cross, who shares the light aircraft with other pilots, had volunteered to do the monthly maintenance flight.

He said: "Just going around in circles for an hour is boring so I decided to do something to cheer my wife up."

According to the Civil Aviation Authority, government guidance "permits essential maintenance activity to take place during the current Covid-19 restrictions" but these flights "must be kept to an absolute minimum in terms of both number and duration."

Mr Cross said the Grumman Tiger AA5B needed to be flown every four weeks for at least an hour, to stop it corroding.

When he was on his way to the airfield at Wroughton he came up with the idea of "flying the words NHS in the sky, with a little heart".

Mr Cross said the Grumman Tiger AA5B needs to be flown every four weeks for at least an hour

"Just going around in circles for an hour is quite boring because you have to stay within 10 miles of the airfield, where you're based, so I just decided to go and do something I'd never done before," he said.

"My wife works in the NHS, she's working insane hours and I just wanted to try and cheer her up."

Using navigation software on his phone, Mr Cross started his sky writing 3,500ft (1,066m) over the Pewsey Vale and ended up over Hungerford.

"I tried to draw a heart at the beginning and that was a bit rubbish, but the NHS bit is the bit that matters," he said.

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