A PARAPLEGIC pilot has been forced to postpone his solo flight to the North Pole.

Dave Sykes, 47, lost the use of his legs in a motorbike accident in 1993, and had hoped to fly his specially-adapted microlight - which attaches to his wheelchair - to the North Pole this month, four years after he flew solo to Australia.

Dave, who is a member of York Flying Club, set off from Rufforth at the end of March, and had planned to fly up the coast of Europe, and reach a Russian ice station on the Polar icecap before it closed next week.

But this year's attempt was hampered by delays from the start, due to the weather, bureaucratic problems, but most seriously by a broken hand which severely affected his flying capabilities, leaving him at Kellenhusen in Germany.

Posting on Facebook yesterday, Dave said his hand was not healing as quickly as he had hoped, and he was hugely disappointed to have to make the decision.

He said: "After some long thinking and weighing up my trip, it is with great disappointment that due to weather, the ice melting, and the runway closing on the 24th of April, and other things .

"I am calling the trip off for this year, but I don't give in so I will be returning for another go in 2016. Now I am just sorting out my return to the UK."