TOM Pearson is a man who likes to aim high. Which is why - despite the fact that he is a wheelchair user - he is prepared to hang out of a light aircraft to get the best aerial shots of his beloved Masham.

Other parts of North Yorkshire have also been snapped by an airborne Mr Pearson and now the 75-year-old is thinking about publishing the best of his photographs, as well as his memoirs, chronicled in daily diaries he has kept all his life.

He says he wants to put Masham - where he was born - on the map. "I don't want it to be forgotten," he says.

Even though he suffers from chronic arthritis and has been in a wheelchair since the Seventies, Mr Pearson only stopped working earlier this year.

A serious infection put him in hospital for several weeks. When he eventually came home, his one concession was to close the engineering workshop which adjoined his bungalow in Aiskew, where he has lived for the past 27 years.

He has had many operations, infections and setbacks due to the arthritis. In 1975, he had to give up farming on the Swinton Estate at Masham where he had been a tenant for 16 happy years.

"The consultant said he could not do any more for me while I continued farming as the work was undoing any good which came from the treatment," he said.

So he moved to Aiskew and opened an engineering workshop. He had worked in a garage in Masham and later struck out on his own, dealing with reconditioned engines and working from his wheelchair or on crutches.

He has always had an inclination towards aircraft and is a regular visitor to Bagby airfield. A friend who has a pilot's licence helps him.

"I had flying lessons in 1984 and got as far as taking my solo, but I did not go any further as I was on crutches," said Mr Pearson.

"It was a bit of a scramble but I enjoyed it and now when I go up I know what is happening and could take over if need be. And I do.

"I have made some good friends through going to Bagby and been to the States three times with my friends to big air shows."

His friend, former airline pilot Peter Bates, hires the plane and away they go. "I do this half a dozen times a year or as often as I can afford," said Mr Pearson.

"I have taken hundreds of pictures from the air. I don't just go for the sake of it. I always have my camera. I hang out the door to take some of the shots so I get a clear view. But it is not as dangerous as it sounds."

He has kept daily diaries since he was a lad and decided to look through them to see how things were in years gone by.

Then he began writing his memoirs, talking about Masham during the war and how the community was involved in operating search lights.

"We were the third line of inner defences from late in 1937 to 1943," said Mr Pearson. "It was a busy place and I got embroiled with it. I could use a machine gun as a teenager."

He keeps his diary to this day. "My dad used to keep one and I thought: why not? I find it useful when it comes to doing jobs of work," he said, adding that his diaries also helped with a book on the history of Masham by Susan Cunliffe-Lister.

"I have compiled a very good record over the years and there is a lot of information stored there."

He had his first operation in 1965 and, while he was in a chair or on crutches, he set to work on an old typewriter. "I have had about 16 operations in all but I have never let it stop me doing anything," said Mr Pearson.

But he admits "this business of getting in the air" is quite a challenge. "There is no seat adjustment, I have to make it the best way I can," he said. "I am so keen to go up there I will scramble in anyhow, helped by my friend.

"I will continue going up as long as I can. My reward is being able to do something I enjoy.

"Masham is home and I have been gazing at it from the air for the past 50 years.

"Nostalgia takes me back to do shots of the area where I used to work and live, but I would take aerial pictures of anywhere if I was asked."

It has now been suggested that he should publish some of his work.

Mr Pearson had been 1,100ft above Masham just a few days before and said: "It was brilliant. We had a 15-knot cross-wind and a ground speed of 60mph to 100mph."

He wants to publish the photos along with his memoirs but says he has a lot of work to do on the latter. "But now I have started it has got me," he said. "There are endless things I had forgotten and they come flooding back as I go through the diaries. It brings it all back.

"I don't feel like taking things easy, even though it is hard work. I have always been used to long hours and activity. As long as I keep my mental faculties I will put up with the rest."

He and his wife Doris have two children - David and Linda - and four grandchildren who all live locally.

One spin-off from his enforced retirement has been the purchase of a new camera. "Now that I am not working I can go up in a plane when I like," he said. "I like to do my bit for the community. I want to put Masham on the map.