Teenage aviator Lachlan Smart says he would have been scraped off the side of an Indonesian mountain had he obeyed local traffic controllers during his successful attempt to become the youngest person to fly solo around the world in a single-engine aircraft.
The Sunshine Coast 18-year-old said he ignored regional traffic controllers in Indonesia and chose his own route as he navigated the country because of misguided instructions.
He said poor radio reception and a "blase" attitude was also an issue passing through the South East Asian country
"There were no major failures of equipment ... but I did have trouble with air traffic control coming out of Indonesia," he said.
"They would have run me into a mountain if I had gone with their instructions. I stuck to my training pretty well and, when I saw what they were going to try and send me through, I thought, 'They'll be scraping me off the side of a mountain if I go that way'."