What began as a standard aircraft test soon turned into an eye-catching display, after a pilot used the flight path to create a message that could be seen on a tracking map.
On Saturday, 11 July, the light plane left Liverpool at 11.30am and remained in the air for roughly two hours, tracing a route over the Wirral, Cheshire and parts of North Wales before landing back on Merseyside at about 1.30pm.
Ravenair said the Piper Tomahawk had been taken up following the installation of a replacement part, with the flight intended to confirm the aircraft was functioning correctly.
People watching the journey on Flightradar24 soon noticed that the repeated loops and unusual direction changes looked far too deliberate to be just a routine systems check.
Anyone get on the pilot this morning writing "I'm bored" in the sky over west Kirby hahaha pic.twitter.com/mxiCuUh9sF
— ALBY LAD (@AlbyLad_) July 12, 2026
When the full pattern was viewed, as highlighted by a user on X, the route appeared to form the words: “I’m bored.”
The pilot, said to be a flying instructor in his 20s, is believed to have used the extended test flight to sketch out the message while still carrying out the required checks.
Speaking to the BBC, Ravenair operations manager Wayne Barrett said:
“I think the pilot was literally a bit bored as it was just a test flight. Mind you it was pretty skillful flying.”
Barrett explained that the part which had been replaced was thought to be a cylinder, and that the plane needed to be flown afterward to verify everything was in proper working order.
He added:
“So when this happens we take the plane up for a test run to make sure everything is OK, which it was.
“He was a bit bored but he probably had to concentrate a lot in the end to spell out the words so he was probably anything but.
“He’s not in trouble but we have had a lot of attention from it.
“The plane is now safely back in the hanger and the pilot is on his day off.”
Ravenair is based at Liverpool John Lennon Airport and operates a flying school alongside its charter and aircraft services. Its flying school offers trial lessons in two-seat Piper Tomahawk aircraft, the same type often used for training and short check flights after maintenance. Flight-tracking sites such as Flightradar24 can make those routines visible to the public in real time, which is how the message quickly caught so much attention online.
The image of the route then spread quickly online after being shared on X/Twitter, where the post had drawn more than 305,000 views at the time it was noted.
The caption read:
“Anyone get on the pilot this morning writing ‘I’m bored’ in the sky over west Kirby hahaha.”
Replying to the post, social media users offered their own takes on the unusual sky-drawn message.
One person joked:
“Think he’s just calling everyone in flint inbred.”
Another wrote:
“Funnily enough I missed that. Always a risk when you don’t spend your Sunday on flight radar uk.”
A third commenter suggested there may have been an extra design hidden in the path, adding:
“He’s definitely tried to draw a d**k here”
Although plenty of people found the route amusing, spelling out a legible phrase with an aircraft takes precise control, especially while keeping the plane within a safe area for a test flight.
By the time the aircraft returned safely to Liverpool, the replacement part had evidently done its job, and the pilot had also managed to leave behind a flight path that caught widespread attention.