{"id":6709,"date":"2026-02-27T18:11:19","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T18:11:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/?p=6709"},"modified":"2026-02-27T18:11:19","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T18:11:19","slug":"this-man-built-a-plane-for-his-family-in-his-garden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/?p=6709","title":{"rendered":"This man built a plane for his family in his garden"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\n CNN<\/span>
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\n It wasn\u2019t until he moved near to an airfield in the UK over a decade ago that mechanical engineer Ashok Aliseril Thamarakshan began to seriously consider learning to fly a plane.\n <\/p>\n

\n He got his first taste of flying a few years later, when his wife Abhilasha bought him a 30-minute flight experience for his birthday.\n <\/p>\n

\n Aliseril, who is based in Essex, England, booked in some flying lessons at a local airfield and flew to the Isle of Wight, an island off the English south coast, during his first session.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThat was quite an eye-opener into how (flying) gives you the freedom to just go places if you have that ability, and access to an aircraft,\u201d he tells CNN Travel. \u201cSo that really got me hooked.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Aliseril got his private pilot\u2019s license in 2019 and soon began hiring planes for short flights.\n <\/p>\n

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\n But as his family grew \u2013 he and Abhilasha now have two daughters \u2013 the two-seater planes typically available for private hire became even less suitable, and he began to mull over the idea of buying his own plane.\n <\/p>\n

\n Aliseril briefly considered buying an older aircraft, and looked at some that had been built in the 1960s and 1970s.\n <\/p>\n

\n However, he says he felt uneasy about the prospect of flying his family in an older aircraft that he wasn\u2019t familiar with, and didn\u2019t think it would be a \u201ccomfortable journey.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Aliseril began to look into the possibility of building a plane himself, reasoning that this would allow him to gain a better understanding of the aircraft so that it would be easier to maintain in the long term.\n <\/p>\n

\n After researching self-assembly aircraft kits, he came across a four-seater plane manufactured by South African company Sling Aircraft that ticked all the right boxes.\n <\/p>\n

\n In January 2020, Aliseril flew to the Sling Aircraft factory facility in Johannesburg for the weekend in order to take the\u00a0Sling TSi aircraft\u00a0<\/a>on a test flight and was so impressed that he decided to purchase it.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThis was pre-Covid, where travel was still very easy at the time,\u201d he explains. \u201cI ordered the first kit when I got back. And by the time it arrived, the UK was in full lockdown.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Aliseril says his colleagues, some of whom had experience with building aircraft, initially offered to help with the build. But the restrictions brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic, which had spread across the world by this point, meant that this wasn\u2019t possible.\n <\/p>\n

\n Undeterred, he constructed a small shed in his back garden and planned out the different stages of the project, which would be monitored by the\u00a0Light Aircraft Association<\/a>, a UK representative body that oversees the construction and maintenance of home-built aircraft, under an approval from the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).\n <\/p>\n

\n The rules for amateur built aircraft differ slightly from country to country. In the US, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has an\u00a0experimental airworthiness category<\/a>\u00a0where special airworthiness certificates can be issued to kit-built aircraft.\n <\/p>\n

\n Amateur-built airplanes in the UK are investigated by the CAA, who will issue a \u201cPermit to Fly\u201d once satisfied that the aircraft is fit to fly.\n <\/p>\n

\n Although the start of the build was delayed slightly due to the Covid-19 restrictions in place in the UK at the time \u2013 the Light Aircraft Association inspector assigned to the project was required to visit his working space beforehand \u2013 Aliseril was able to begin in April 2020.\n <\/p>\n

\n While he notes that his engineering background helped in some ways, he believes that it was actually his home improvement experience that proved most useful while constructing the aircraft, which has a length of 7.175 meters and a height of 2.45 meters.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThese aircraft kits are designed for any amateur to build, provided you\u2019re a bit hands-on and you\u2019ve got experience working with some specialist tools,\u201d he adds, describing the detailed \u201cIkea furniture type instructions\u201d with drawings that came with the kit.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI would say generally, anyone can get involved in these sorts of builds.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

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\n Aliseril completed the work himself, drafting in Abhilasha to assist with some of the sections that required more than one pair of hands. Their eldest daughter Tara, now nine, was on hand for tasks such as removing the plastic from each of the components.\n <\/p>\n

\n By the end of summer 2020, Aliseril had built the tail and the wings. He began constructing the fuselage section in October, when the next part of the kit arrived.\n <\/p>\n

\n Although he\u2019d initially planned to hire a workshop to construct the aircraft, Aliseril feels that creating a workspace at his home was the better choice.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI could just step into the shed and work on it,\u201d he says. \u201cSo having everything just in the back garden really helped, even though space was tight.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Each stage of the project had to be signed off by an inspector before he could move onto the next task \u2013 the Light Aircraft Association completed around 12 inspections in total.\n <\/p>\n

\n Once the majority of the components were constructed, and it was time to put the aircraft together, Aliseril moved everything from his home to a hangar near Cambridge for the final assembly and engine fit. The aircraft passed its final inspection a few months later.\n <\/p>\n

\n It was one of the first Sling TSi homebuilt aircraft constructed in the UK. G-Diya, named after his youngest daughter, was signed off for its first flight in January 2022.\n <\/p>\n

\n Aliseril recalls waiting on the ground anxiously as a test pilot took the plane he\u2019d spent 18 months building up into the air.\n <\/p>\n

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\n \u201cHe took it up for about 20 minutes, and then he came back,\u201d he says. \u201cIt was a big relief. I couldn\u2019t lift my head up to see what was happening (during the test flight).\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n That first flight was hugely significant in many ways.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWith these build projects, everyone calls it a project until it\u2019s first flown,\u201d he explains. \u201cOnce it\u2019s flown, it\u2019s always called an aircraft. You never call it a project anymore. That\u2019s psychologically a big step.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n When it was time to fly the aircraft for the first time himself, Aliseril was accompanied by another experienced test pilot.\n <\/p>\n

\n While he admits to being decidedly cautious, the test pilot was \u201cthrowing the aircraft about as if it was a racing car.\u201d\n <\/p>\n