On March 31st 1903, almost 9 months before the Wright brothers took to the air, it is believed that Pearse got his plane airborne with no assistance and flew for a distance somewhere between 45 and 400 metres. He obtained a height of over 3 metres, lost control and crashed into a gorse hedge. This required a trip to the hospital to check he had not broken his collarbone, and he was cleared of injury.