MILLIONS of TV viewers watched a young Furness pilot taking on his first flight when he starred in a new ITV documentary last night.

The nation saw Ryan Clyde, of Askam, take off and land an £80m EasyJet Airbus for the first time during EasyJet: Inside The Cockpit.

The fresh-faced pilot, now 21, was seen in a training flight test without passengers. He received a round of applause from his fellow rookies when the executed a smooth landing.

The show was filmed at the start of the year when the former Chetwynde School head boy and Boots store assistant joined EasyJet.

The first officer, who is based at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, tweeted today: "A huge thank you for all the tweets, messages, texts etc. I really enjoyed #InsideTheCockpit and it seems most people did too @easyJet @ITV."

During the programme, Mr Clyde said he was "very impressed" with the show.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">A huge thank you for all the tweets, messages, texts etc. I really enjoyed <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/InsideTheCockpit?src=hash">#InsideTheCockpit</a> and it seems most people did too <a href="https://twitter.com/easyJet">@easyJet</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/ITV">@ITV</a></p>— Ryan Clyde (@rycly) <a href="https://twitter.com/rycly/status/897364666707566593">August 15, 2017</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Wow!😲 thank you! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/InsideTheCockpit?src=hash">#InsideTheCockpit</a> <a href="https://t.co/9pfrh4SGwx">https://t.co/9pfrh4SGwx</a></p>— Ryan Clyde (@rycly) <a href="https://twitter.com/rycly/status/897372503554895873">August 15, 2017</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Furness pilot <a href="https://twitter.com/rycly">@rycly</a> on ITV <a href="https://twitter.com/easyJet">@easyJet</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Insidethecockpit?src=hash">#Insidethecockpit</a> - nailed his landing & got a good in-flight sandwich, result! <a href="https://t.co/pVKz7RPnho">pic.twitter.com/pVKz7RPnho</a></p>— Natalie Chapples (@nchapplesNWEM) <a href="https://twitter.com/nchapplesNWEM/status/897200537095086084">August 14, 2017</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

The pilot is starting out in his dream career. When he was a sixth former, Mr Cylde won a Barrow and District Association of Engineers bursary prize of £250 and was inspired by Graham Sturgeon, a British Airways pilot from Barrow.

Charles Rowntree, of BDAE, said: "BDAE is delighted to have supported Ryan in achieving his ambition of becoming a pilot. In 2013 Ryan won a BDAE bursary. At the 2014 awards evening he met and talked with the speaker, Graham Sturgeon, another Barrow lad, who had become a BA pilot. This encouraged him to follow his dream of becoming an airline pilot and this he has done with great success.

"He well represents our slogan ‘Helping Tomorrow’s Engineers Today’. The BDAE bursary scheme, now in its 20 year, is being expanded to encourage more local young people to consider engineering as a career opportunity.”

• The next episode of EasyJet: Inside The Cockpit airs at 9pm on Monday August 21.

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