A FAMILY has paid tribute to a well-known and inspiring pilot who pushed life to its limits.

Toon Ghose was a flying instructor at Shoreham Airport for more than 30 years. He clocked up an astonishing 100,000 hours of flying and was known throughout the county and beyond for his inspirational teaching methods.

Toon, whose real name was Probhat, was born in Calcutta, now Kolkata, India, on August 19, 1927. He arrived in the UK in 1955 after an epic six-month journey from Kolkata on a Vespa scooter.

His passion for flying started when he was a boy. However, his parents forbade him from doing so as they believed being a pilot would be bad luck due to his horoscope. His flying career started at Lasham Gliding Club in Hampshire and he moved to Sompting, with his wife Daphne Wall and their children Sumi, Nanda and Katie. In 1965, Toon became a flying instructor at Shoreham Airport.

In the Seventies, he founded Toon Ghose Aviation, which at its height, operated 21 aircraft out of Shoreham, including the latest Cessna aircraft that Toon imported from America. However, the business went bankrupt due to a recession.

Toon finally gave up his commercial pilot’s licence at 80 as his eyesight began to fail. By that time he was one of the oldest instructors in the country.

His son, Sumi, said: “To fly with him was a joy, and you spent as much time looking out of the window as at the controls, marvelling at this beautiful world.”

He inspired hundreds to fly, including dozens of airline pilots, but for him real flying was to be in light aircraft.

Toon loved the Sussex Downs and the sea, and in later life lived on a farm in Edburton, taking long walks every day on Truleigh Hill and the surrounding countryside.

He continued to teach and examine RT (radio-telephony) at his flat, and students were often delighted to be offered one of his excellent curries and a lesson.

At 75, he took up paragliding and did his lessons on the South Downs and in Nepal, where he spent winters for more than 20 years. Toon was also a talented table tennis player, as he was the all-India under 21s champion, and a phenomenal cook.

His daughter Katie said: “He was a wonderful friend, whose joy for life rubbed off on everyone he met. Even as he lost his sight, he kept his positive outlook, grateful for an ‘amazing life’ and lived with ‘no regrets’.

“We loved to holiday together, and from Bolivian salt flats to Nepali peaks, each trip was all the more memorable for his ability to lose hats, plane tickets or frequently his way. He was an incredible person, who pushed life to its limits, and a very special dad.”

His spent his last years in Henfield and at Ladymead Care Home in Hurstpierpoint.

He died on February 20 from natural causes. His funeral will take place on March 22, in Woodvale Crematorium in Brighton at 2pm, followed by a reception at Shoreham Airport at 3.30pm.

Family flowers only please. To confirm attendance and for further information, including about charitable donations, email katiesghose@gmail.com