Former Royal Air Force fighter pilot Douglas Cairns poses with his
Beech Baron twin engine plane at Bangpra airfield, east of Bangkok, on
December 8, 2002. High above the Indian Ocean, Douglas Cairns takes a
device from his flight bag, pricks his finger and squeezes out a drop
of blood onto the test strip of his battery-powered glucose meter. Even
at 3,350 metres (11,000 feet) and 17,820 km (11,000 miles) into a bid
to become the first pilot with type 1 diabetes to fly around the world,
it is not a difficult manoeuvre for a former British air force pilot.
Picture taken December 8, 2002. TO ACCOMPANY FEATURE STORY
LIFE-PILOT-DIABETES REUTERS/Sukree Sukplang

DEA/CP/JD