While others spent lockdown baking banana bread, Aberdeen animal surgeon Scott Rigg had his head in the clouds learning to fly.

Now what started as a fun lockdown personal challenge could become a lifeline for pet owners in some of Scotland’s most difficult to reach places.

Having secured his licence to fly a single engine piston plane, he has focused his sights on becoming what’s believed to be the country’s first flying vet.

Scott, 43, is a regular on BBC Alba’s series Vets: Gach Creutair Beò, which follows vets across Scotland as they administer vital care to pets and farm animals.

In the programme, he is often seen in his previous role as an Advanced Practitioner in Small Animal Surgery at Aberdeen Veterinary Referrals assessing and then operating on family pets which require orthopaedic or soft tissue surgery.

Having earned his flying stripes last year, he is now planning to offer his specialist veterinarian surgical knowledge and skills to pet owners in some of Scotland’s most remote areas.

He said: “I had always wanted to fly and after graduating I chose the cheapest form of flying – paragliding. It’s great fun but you’re only flying at about 20mph.

“During lockdown I had a bit more time on my hands and decided it would be good to learn to fly something more useful.

“I started learning to fly out of Dyce with a flying school and managed to get my Provisional Pilot Licence in 2021.

“It started off as being just for fun. But I started working in Inverness and thought how much quicker it would be fly than travel by road.”

Scott, who lives in Aberdeen, says he can now commute from there to Scottish Vet Referrals in Inverness in around 30 minutes, shaving around two hours off the journey by car.

It also got him thinking about the benefits of being able to hop around the country by plane, reaching pets and their owners in some of Scotland’s most remote locations in a fraction of the time.

As a flying vet, he plans to drop in at rural airports in his single engine plane to carry out initial assessments on injured and sick cats, dogs and other pets, to see if they would be candidates for surgery.

Eventually, he hopes to be able to transport animals back to the main surgery for scans and possible surgery, saving the owners the stress and upheaval of travelling long distances with sick pets.

He added: “Some places don’t have vets at all, or the vet can only go so far and then they need to take their pet to a specialist vet for further treatment.

“The plane will cruise at over 100mph and has about five hours endurance, which opens up most of Scotland.

“Depending on what needs to be done, I would carry some equipment with me, but a lot can be done in a consultation to determine if the animal even needs surgery in the first place.

“That alone can help prevent people and animals having to make long journeys.”

Animals would still need to travel in order to undergo specialist procedures such as CT scans and surgery, but Scott hopes that eventually he will be able to load them on board the plane and take them with him.

“I’ve got to find some way of protecting their ears as it can be noisy in the plane,” he adds. “I’ve seen some dogs wearing ear protection while flying, which may be one solution.”

Flying doctors are common in places like the Australian outback, where there are vast distances between properties and medical care. And while there are known to be flying vets operating in Australia, Scott is believed to be the first to cover Scotland’s highlands and islands.

One challenge will be landing his plane on some island landing strips: An Traigh Mhor beach on Barra is regarded as one of the world’s most thrilling landings however, the runway is obscured twice a day by the incoming tide. While the gravel airstrip at Foula in Shetland can be doubly difficult due to crosswinds and fog.

He added: “Landing in some locations will definitely be a challenge and I’ll have to do some preparation before I set off so I know what to expect and that there aren’t any restrictions.

“I need to complete more examinations and training before I can fly at night and in poor conditions, both of which I will need to really make flying work.

“Plus, a lot will depend on how much demand there is for a travelling surgeon.

“But it’s great fun to buzz around in the plane, and if I can turn up at these places and see animals there, it will save their owners having to travel.”

In the new eight-part series of Vets: Gach Creutair Beò, Scott is seen operating on a French bulldog to correct a severe bend in his leg using a series of guides and templates custom made for the dog using a 3D printer, and assessing a dalmatian for surgery using a CT scanner.

The cameras also follow Highland Wildlife Park vet Jane Harley as she carries out checks on two snow leopard cubs prior to their transfer to a new home, and at Blair Drummond Safari Park, vet Ali Smith, as she anaesthetises Hope the tiger in preparation for an implant to prevent her having cubs.

Vets: Gach Creutair Beò is on BBC Alba, Tuesday 8.30pm.